TRAVELLING HAT RECIPE

THAI ROAST DUCK CURRY

½ Chinese-style roast duck, chopped and with loose bones removed

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely sliced

1 teaspoon of turmeric, ½ teaspoon curry powder

2 cubes crushed garlic

1 tablespoon crushed fresh ginger root

1 stick bruised lemon grass

2 sliced and seeded small red chillies

50 m chicken stock

100 m coconut milk

5 tablespoons of grated coconut block

Juice of half a fresh lime

Dash of nom-pla (Thai fish sauce)

Fresh coriander leaves

Preparation

Heat oil in a pan and fry onion, garlic and raw chilli until soft. Stir in all the spices and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the lemon grass and pour in the hot chicken stock. Add the coconut milk and the cream of coconut, the lime-juice and finally the pieces of chopped duck. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes on a low heat. Remove when hot and garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve with steamed Thai rice.

Serves 3-4 persons

Images: www.copix.co.uk

THAI SPICY PRAWNS from the Travelling Hat Recipe Book

Serves 2-3

16-18 medium-size green prawns, shelled but leaving tails

3 medium cubes garlic

1 tps sambal paste

Black pepper and salt to taste

Coconut milk

Lemon

Thai fish oil/Nom pla

½ tin of chopped tomatoes

Butter

Cup Basmati rice

Place the crushed garlic, pepper and sambal in a tablespoon of

butter and cook for one minute, shaking the skillet all the time.

Cool slightly, then throw in the prawns and cook quickly

until pink on both sides. Do not overcook them. Remove to cool.

To the skillet, add a tea-cup of coconut milk, a tea-cup of tinned tomatoes, a

splash of fish oil, and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Stir and heat, but do not boil.

Add the prawns and stir until hot enough to serve.

Serve with boiled rice.

Garnish: chopped coriander leaves.

EDIBLE BUSH TOURS IN AUSTRALIA'S RED HOT CENTRE

Witchetty grubs were on the breakfast menu at Kings Canyon, a rugged gash in the George Gill ranges near Alice Springs, in central Australia. It was not my ideal way to start the day, but I managed to swallow one by pretending it was scrambled egg.

Jacinta, my aboriginal guide, next offered me a green plum (reputed to be the world's richest source of vitamin C) and as we continued our morning walk, she plucked other edibles in what appeared to be inhospitable bush. She found desert raisins and rock figs and pointed out the tracks in a dry creek bed made by a goanna, another aboriginal delicacy. Then suddenly she bent down and scrabbled in the sand.

‘Charlie Quink-Quink,’ she showed me a tiny termite in her hand. 'We put him on our breasts to make them bigger.' Was it ground into a paste like a quandong kernel, or crushed and painted on like milkwood, I wanted to know? ‘He bites your nipple and makes it grow,’ she giggled.

The Northern Territory Conservation Commission grades Outback walks as easy (Emu), moderate (Sand Goanna) and tough (Rock Wallaby).

The walk up Kings Canyon, a height of nearly a thousand feet was all Rock Wallaby, I decided on the hot climb, but my efforts were rewarded on reaching the top to find a great view and an oasis of exotic plants, including pre-historic cycad palms. Two backpackers who had also made it to the canyon rim had stripped off and lay stark naked beside a rock pool.

Sneaking away, I missed the track and spent a frightening hour walking round in circles. It’s easy to become lost in the Outback. Rangers advise you carry a litre of water to drink for every hour you walk, and to leave a note on the car windscreen saying where you’ve gone.

It is three hour’s drive from Kings Canyon to Uluru, the huge monolith which sits on the horizon like a giant cow pat. Climbing it is an equal challenge, but its Anangu custodians would prefer you didn‘t. More than 600 millions years old, it is a sacred site and every nook and cranny has a significance in their Dreamtime.

I felt to climb the rock would be like wearing shoes inside a mosque. But another reason was the gusts of hot wind. As I stood at the base, a variety of headgear came whizzing down from tourists climbing above me: Terry-towelling hats and Akubras landed in the bushes. Even a white canvas hat embroidered Wimbledon 2010 floated down like a lob by Venus Williams.

Sightseeing alternatives to scaling Uluru include peddling slowly round it on a bicycle, flying across it by light aircraft, or drifting over it in a hot air balloon. There are also guided walks lead by softly spoken aboriginal guides who point out bush edibles such as those I sampled at Kings Canyon.

The best time to visit Central Australia is between April and September which corresponds with the local winter. $25 entrance fee to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Free access to Kings Canyon.

Images from www.copix.co.uk

MIDDLE EAST COOKING: lamb baked with lemon-juice & yoghurt

I met many interesting people when I was running my photo agencies - divers, pilots, diplomats, doctors, aid workers of whom some were jolly good photographers. Several who became friends used to pass by if they came to London. I cooked dinner for one recently who enjoyed the meal so much he wanted the recipe ---- it was shoulder of lamb baked with lemon-juice and yoghurt, from my book Middle Eastern Cooking which was first published in 1984.

Quite delicious and so easy to prepare I’ve decided to post it here for anyone else who may like to try it. I prefer to use a shoulder as the meat is usually more tender than a leg.

1 shoulder of lamb about 1 kg (2.20 lbs)

ground rock salt and black pepper

4 large cloves garlic

6 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons lemon juice

6 tablespoons Greek-style yoghurt

Lightly slice the skin of the shoulder. Rub with olive oil, salt and pepper. Insert crushed garlic and pour 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon-juice over it. Refrigerate 3-4 hours. Remove to warm up prior to cooking in a pre-heated oven 230C/450F.

Heat oil in a roasting pan until it sizzles, then sear lamb on both sides. Turn garlic side up and cook for 30 minutes. Remove, pour over remaining lemon-juice and return to cook at about 200C/392F.

Cook a further 30 minutes, then smear with yoghurt and continue cooking until it forms a golden crust. Baste with juices from the pan and remove when tender. Depending on your own oven, total cooking time should be about 2 hours, or so.

I serve the lamb with boiled new potatoes and a green bean salad with vinaigrette sauce.

Serves 4.

Images: www.copix.co.uk

THE PROBLEM OF BUSH MEAT

I recently read a post by a photographer who boasted of eating bush-meat in central Africa.

When challenged on this (he`d included it in his biography as being something special) he responded saying what could he do - he was served it by a family in the Congo.

Herein lies the problem.

It is reported that animals in some central African game parks are 60% down due largely to this wretched and unfortunate trade in what is known locally as `bush meat`.

Game wardens are available to patrol in many reserves, but what of animals outside the area being hunted, killed and sold? If people are hungry and poor and alternative protein is not available, what is the solution?

I`ve seen people on the roads in Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania holding tiny deer, monkeys, pythons and other wildlife for sale. In Gambia I once bought an antelope to save its life. With what result? The men were waiting outside the house next morning with another antelope.

The above photos illustrate my point, but they do not provide an answer except to ask the good fathers in Africa to resist supporting the slaughter of God`s creatures.

Thank you.

Images source: www.copix.co.uk

BORN AGAIN VEGEMITE

Ruddymite, Wow Chow and 2ritemite were some of the 48,000 suggestions for a new version of Australian VEGEMITE before Kraft Foods settled on the less than mouth-watering name iSnack.2.0.

Like most (all) Australians, I went onto Vegemite as soon as I came off the breast.

We ate it on toast for breakfast. Vegemite sandwiches were taken to school. Either neat or with slices of cheese. And `Fairy Fingers`-Vegemite on thinly sliced white bread - were served at children`s birthday parties.

It is understood that the new hybrid VEG is mixed with cream cheese to make it spread more easily, but as far as I`m concerned, it was always easy to spread. And it was one of the first items I threw in when packing for a trip. As important as my toothbrush. Or my typewriter.

Vegemite was impossible to find in London when I arrived in the sixties along with Germaine Greer, Clive James, Richard Neville & Co. We had to depend on friends bringing it over by sea when it was valued no less than the recent Roman hoard found in Shrewsbury.

I would decanter it into something small to ensure I had it for breakfast wherever I happened to be. And if it was to be a long research trip, I took an entire jar with me.

Racing to catch a flight in Kenya on one occasion, I left the precious black spread in a taxi and have wondered since what the driver made of it. (Did he taste it, or grease the axles with it?)

Sainsbury`s , the mega UK supermarket chain now stocks Vegemite so expats no longer feel deprived, although I recently had to take a jar out to a friend in Zanzibar.

I wait patiently to try iSnack 2.0 which is being marketed with such hype you`d think it was a newly discovered species of Australian marsupial.

Dean Robbins, a 27 year old web designer from Perth who chose the new product name is quoted as saying: `To think I will go down in history is overwhelming.`

C.Christine Osborne

Image: www.copix.co.uk

SPICY PRAWNS

EASY-PEASY COOKING

Serves 2-3

18-20 medium-size green prawns

3 large cubes garlic

1 tps sambal paste

Black pepper and salt

Coconut milk

Lemon

Thai fish oil

Chopped tinned tomatoes

Butter

2 teacups Basmati rice

Place the crushed garlic, pepper and sambal in a tablespoon of

butter in a skillet and cook for one minute, shaking all the time.

Throw in the prawns and cook quickly until pink on both sides.

Do not overcook them. Remove to cool.

To the skillet, add a cup of coconut milk, a cup of tinned tomatoes, a splash of fish oil, and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Stir and heat, but do not boil. Add the prawns and stir until hot enough to serve.

Serve with boiled rice.

Garnish: finely chopped coriander leaves.

c.Christine Osborne

Image: The Big Prawn, Ballina, New South Wales

Source: www.copix.co.uk

Delicious lamb dish from an Arab kitchen

Levantine Lamb

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
small piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
900 g lamb, cubed
2 medium onions, sliced
½ large lemon cut into four
pinch of saffron or turmeric
salt and pepper, to taste
75g green olives stoned
100g laban/thick yoghurt (optional)

Heat the oil in a flame-proof pot and add the garlic, coriander, ginger and mix together. Add onions and lamb, stir well until the meat is seared. Add the lemon, saffron or tumeric, salt and pepper and water to cover.

Bring to the boil, reduce immediately and simmer gently until cooked, about 2 hours. Keep the casserole covered during this time, but stir the contents occasionally.

To thicken the sauce, remove the meat and allow the contents to simmer without a lid, as desired. Strain, then stir in the olives. Stir further then return the meat, warm and serve.

The addition of yoghurt makes this dish even more delicious. Just before serving, stir in the yoghurt and simmer, but do not allow to boil.

Serves 4

Christine Osborne: author of Middle East Cooking (Prion)

Image: Levantine Lamb dish with olives

Source: www.copix.co.uk