Celebrating NAIDOC Week

It has been a pretty busy week here in the Rivermint Dining kitchen with catering and tasting events taking place throughout Perth. Today marks the end of NAIDOC week, an exceptional celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, arts, dance, food and history.

For those who are unfamiliar with NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Week, now is a great time to learn more. It is held during the first week of July and celebrated in aboriginal communities as well as government organisations, schools and numerous work places. The first Sunday in July, the beginning of NAIDOC week, is a day of remembrance for the hardship experienced by the aboriginal and islander people followed by a full week of cultural celebration and recognition of aboriginal achievements.

As part of their NAIDOC week celebrations, Westfield Whitford City invited RiverMint Dining to chat with customers about some lesser known native Australian ingredients and to introduce them to new flavours. Over the course of the week we prepared tastings for upwards of 600 people, focusing on various ingredients in keeping with the season of Makuru including Geraldton Wax, Fingerlime, Kangaroo, Illawarra Plum and Old Man Saltbush. Our mini tasters were appreciated by all and met with lots of questions. Tastings such as Davidson Plum meringues and seared tiger prawns with fingerlime proved popular and it was great to see members of the general public exploring and discovering the real food of Australia and learning more about the importance of NAIDOC week.

We were also especially honoured and privileged to work alongside the Mark and Kerri-Ann and their team at Binjareb Park in Pinjarra, as we shared in their NAIDOC day celebrations on Saturday 1st July. RiverMint Dining prepared a simple three-course family style dinner for 18 guests featuring truffled emu egg, quick seared crocodile and braised kangaroo. It was lovely to meet new people and to further develop relationships within the aboriginal community as well as to see some of the artwork that makes the artists of Pinjarra so well-known throughout Australia. 

Throughout the week we catered and delivered platters of native inspired nibbles, canapés parties and gourmet grazing tables to many businesses and corporate bodies celebrating NAIDOC week. It was a privilege to be able to share such special foods with new clients and we look forward to working with them all in the future. Thank you to all our suppliers and wild harvesting communities, without whom we wouldn't have such amazing ingredients to work with during busy and exciting weeks such as NAIDOC week.

Winter Events with RiverMint Dining

The weather is getting chilly here in Western Australia and that means there is no better time to immerse ourselves in cooking, red wine, cosy dinners and winter fruits.

RiverMint Dining has a number of events coming up over the winter months. To kick off NAIDOC week we will be catering a 30-seat ticketed dinner called the Mungah Festival Dinner as part of the Binjareb Park NAIDOC celebrations on Saturday the 1st July. There will be tours, an outdoor cinema experience and some great live music throughout the day culminating in the dinner. Join the Pinjarra community in celebrating this special occasion. To find out more about Binjareb Park and the event visit the Binjareb Park Facebook page. Tickets can be purchased directly through trybooking.com here

We are excited to be collaborating with Westfield Whitford City in Hillarys as part their NAIDOC week celebrations. Customers will get the opportunity to try various tastings featuring native Australian ingredients and to chat with RiverMint Dining about using these ingredients in your own home. We will be located in the fresh food market section from 11am - 2pm on Monday 3rd July - Saturday 8th July. So pop on down when you are doing your shopping and try some delicious morsels.

We are also gearing up for the second of our pop up events to celebrate the season of Makuru. Local produce, north coast seafood and indigenous game will be featured on the menu and guests will be treated to a 5-course tasting menu with canapés and drink on arrival. Held at Riki Kaspi's The Cooking Professor, in Mt Hawthorn, the cosy location will provide an intimate and warm experience complete with drinks menu featuring some of the best Swan Valley beers, ciders and wines. We are very privileged to have Noongar Elder Auntie Neta from Urban Indigenous attending who will open the evening with a unique Welcome to Country. Local children's illustrator Jodie Davidson will also be showcasing some of her work highlighting the Australian landscape. Tickets available on eventbrite or click here.

Winter is looking busy for RiverMint Dining with some exciting collaborations, tastings and corporate catering functions in the works. Be sure to keep your eye on the Rivermint Dining Facebook page for updates on dinners and events or sign up to our newsletter to stay in the know.

We look forward to seeing you all and to enjoying a chilly but beautiful Makuru season.

Piney Illawarra Plums : Daalgaal

Known also as the Plum Pine and botanically as Podcarpus Elatus, the grape-like burgundy coloured fruit of the Illawarra Plum is a popular choice for bush tucker enthusiasts.

Native to the semi-tropical coastlines of Queensland and New South Wales, these fruit actually grow on the blue-black stalk that is connected to the dark seed cones of this large evergreen tree.

It is said that Illawarra Plums contain seven times the antioxidant levels of blueberries and are known to calm stomach cramps and encourage a healthy gastro-intestinal tract. What better reason to feast on these little gems? Though they are available frozen year round, the freezing process, we have found, tends to extract some of the subtle piney flavour of the plum. Consuming Illawarra Plums when they are in fruiting season over Autumn and Winter is therefore highly recommended.

There are many ways to use Illawarra Plums in cooking. They can be incorporated into fruit salads, smoothies and also used to make a gorgeous jam. We often poached them in a port reduction to accompany Emu fillet and turn them into a jelly to be rolled in chocolate as an after dinner petit four. They are fabulous lightly roasted with a touch of brown sugar also and served as a garnish to a chocolate dessert. Try them today!

Fingerlimes are here

Otherwise known as 'Citrus Caviar', the pearly caviar-like pulp of Australian native finger limes is fast becoming one of Australia's most sought after native ingredients. It is ever popular with chefs, bush tucker enthusiasts, nutritionists and, lately, beer and vodka companies and can now be seen popping up in IGAs and specialty food markets around WA and other Australian states. 

There are over 75 species of finger limes, most of them native to the tropical rainforest under storeys of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. Only about 30 species are cultivated for the domestic and international markets with frozen finger limes being exported to countries including Japan, Singapore and Italy. This is no surprise really. The limes, with their oily skins, come in a variety of colours ranging from dark green, to pink and a deep red. One of our favourites is the Purple Viola variety, which is aged on the tree longer, its skin turning a deep purple brown and the pulp a deep red. Essentially, the longer the finger limes are left to age, the more intense the pulp becomes. 

The finger lime season is relatively short, running from January to around May or June (sometimes only from February to May), depending on climate and location. In WA they are mostly cultivated in the south in Pemberton. In the context of the Noongar six seasons, this places finger limes in the season of Bunuru and Djeran, just touching on Makuru.

Loaded with vitamin C, potassium and anti-inflammatory properties, a spoon full of fingerlime pearls will certainly keep the doctor at bay. Add to this the pop-in-your-mouth texture and tart zingy flavour of finger lime caviar and the possibilities are endless. 

When catering functions and private dinners, finger limes are used both as the main ingredient and as a perfect pretty garnish in the RiverMint kitchen. The pulp is used to top fresh Albany oysters, crushed into butter and melted over prawns, place on kingfish ceviche with crushed bush tomato and used in granitas and palate cleansers. The pulp can be used in emulsions and sauces or even as a morning Vitamin C dose over yoghurt and berries.

If you have your own special recipe for finger limes, such as a salsa or chutney or even a tart, do not hesitate to share it with our readers in the comments section below. And keep your eye out for finger limes in IGAs and markets near you.

Celebrating Djeran - An Urban Pop up

It was with gusto that we all readied the beautiful space at Salt and Company Cooking school in West Perth for the very first RiverMint Dining pop up.  The menu and the evening were inspired by the Noongar season of Djeran, and the images presented by Salty Wings complimented the colours of the orange berries and banksias in season which were displayed around the room. The season of Djeran is also known as the Season of Adulthood and falls in what the western world regards as Autumn. A change in the wind can be felt, and hot nights are replaced with cool evenings and dewy mornings. Here we see the Marri blossom in full flower and Banksia flowers line areas such as the Roe highway and Herdsman Lake in abundance.

Djeran is also the time when the emus are fat, so an emu flat rump was featured on the menu. This cut was marinated for 48 hours, cooked sous vide and then seared for service and served with a warrigal greens dumpling, fresh charred corn, rosella flower, pink berries and a game jus. Djeran is also the season of the salmon run, so it seemed only fitting to serve herring, after which the salmon run, as part of the canapés service. Combined with a native spice mix and potato, the herring potato bites were served with black garlic and ruby salt bush. We also featured crocodile which was served at room temperature with a spiced rhubarb puree and gwarl berries from the Kimberley region (also known as White Berry Bush).

Many greens were foraged for this pop up and included succulent pig face leaves, WA Samphire, dune spinach (also known as Crystal Ice plant) and sea rocket. These paired well with the seafood dish of smoked Kingfish, seared bush grapes and pepper berry and the zing of a favourite ingredient from Marvick Native Farms, fingerlime, cut through the smokiness.

It was with pleasure that the River mint from our garden became a sorbet in between courses. The evening ended with a bavarois made using Pandanus nut, with Davidson Plum and Northcliffe Blood Plum. This was paired with Garbin Estate's Muscat. A tea made using Marri blossom flowers and Southern Forests Honey alongside WA Sandalwood nut bites completed the evening.

We received plenty of feedback with regards to our first pop up and will endeavour to take all comments onboard when preparing for our Makuru pop up. Most importantly we learned a ton about the ins and outs of running a pop up restaurant and had fun in the process. If anything I would have liked to have spent more time outside of the kitchen and inside the dining room chatting about the ingredients that we should be celebrating as Australians.

Thank you to all our suppliers for some great produce and to those that attended. We look forward to cooking for you all again soon and will announce our next pop up in the weeks ahead.

Not so Native Warrigal Greens

Look closely and you will see this plant everywhere! Warrigal greens, Tetragonia Tetragonoides, otherwise known as Botany Bay Spinach or New Zealand spinach, though considered a 'native' ingredient, is technically not. Warrigal is a word used on the east coast to mean 'wild' harvested as opposed to farmed and Warrigal greens were often eaten by settlers in Botany Bay as a green leaf vegetable. It is believed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people very rarely ate this plant.

However, with a high level of Vitamin C, this plant which is native to New Zealand and adopted as native to Australia, was eaten by Captain Cook's crew to fight off scurvy. Younger smaller leaves are less bitter than the larger older leaves. Due to the high levels of oxalic acid in this plant, it is advisable to eat Warrigal greens in moderation. After washing the leaves in the RiverMint Kitchen, we bash the plant with a rolling pin to release the acid, then cook in boiling water for two minutes. After immersing in iced water, the leaves are squeezed out and frozen for later use or chopped immediately for use in canapés and other dishes. 

For a quick and easy canapé dish using warrigal greens that many can find for free in their back garden or through Tuckerbush, click here. This recipe uses the green in conjunction with Native Lemongrass which adds a unique and delicate flavour to chicken and coconut.

Bunuru and Banksia

Take a drive towards Esperance during summer and you will notice the distinct spreading shrub that is Bull Banksia.  Made up of cones containing hundreds of tiny flowers all grouped together in pairs, yellows, oranges and rusty red heads compliment the light green toothy leaves. The small flowers of the cones actually fall off early and make a lovely sweet drink when steeped in hot water.

One of many plants that colour the landscape with  'sunburnt'  hues, Bull Banksia, also known as pulgarla by Nyoongar people, is an instantly recognisable part of the West Australian landscape. With the season of Bunuru  and the second summer, we also see the flowers of the Red Gum and Ghost gums throughout the Marri and Jarrah forests emerging. 

This is the perfect time to be eating fish such as Tailor, Mullet and Marron. Steamed mussels are also great, especially when the flowers of the Bull Banksia are used to impart a sweet but savoury flavour to the broth. For those not so keen on seafood, now is the time to enjoy rich and satisfying duck meat or duck egg omelette. Confit duck leg salad with a wild berry vinaigrette perhaps?

Collaboration Dinner and Cooking classes at The Mantle

RiverMint Dining are excited to announce our participation in Indigenous month in collaboration with Stuart Laws of Don Tapa and The Mantle, Fremantle. The month kicks off with a long table six-course dinner on the 7th March 2017, with courses featuring produce from the Kimberley region and specialised native ingredients.  Each course will be prepared by some awesome WA chefs including Kiren Mainwaring (Co-Op Dining), Sam Ward (Mas), Melissa Palinkas (Young George) Stuart Laws (Don Tapa) and Sue Lewis (Sue Lewis Chocolatier). Tickets are limited to 25, so get your ticket quick on Eventbrite. There will also be art exhibitions by local aboriginal artists including Naomi Grant and Philip Narkle and a cultural talk with Dale Tilbrook of Maalinup gallery. 

Robyne will also be holding a cooking class and demonstration on Sunday the 12th March featuring native ingredients from the season of Bunuru. If you fancy learning more about native ingredients and how you can use them in your kitchen, visit our recently posted event on Eventbrite for tickets or click here.

We here at Rivermint Dining would like to recognise the traditional owners of our land, elders past and present, and would in particular like to pay our respects to members of the Kimberley communities whose ingredients, including Kakadu Plum and Boab, will be featured at the long table dinner.

Embracing a Food Photography Shoot

In the making of this website, I was lucky enough to be able to work alongside the very kind and professional Craig Kinder and his assistant Kelly. It is rather nerve-racking for a chef doing a first time food photo shoot. However, once into the swing of things and with gentle encouragement, the nervousness dissipates.

Being involved in a food photography shoot is certainly exhilerating. I learned about black holes in food shots and lighting angles such as bird's eye and oblique. Viewing my food in a different way, via an iPad screen hooked up to a camera, was most certainly a new experience. Add to that the power of colour saturation and photoshop, where knife skills and the art of a perfectly straight line are scrutinised under the detailed lens of a food photographer.  It was one hell of a learning experience.

But best of all was the fact that I cooked the food and plated it pretty much how I would serve it. No preservation gels, no 'fake' icecream made from potato, no oiling of old meat to make it look 'fresh'. Just well positioned lighting, the correct equipment, top quality fresh food and a very good photographer with a wealth of knowledge. All the photos taken by Craig Kinder are featured on this website and we hope to work with Craig again in the future to bring more amazing plates of food to life. To see more of Craig Kinder's food photography work including photos from recent cookbooks such as Sophie Zalokar's book Food of the Southern Forests, check out his website or visit his Facebook page.

Pretty Pigface

With a common name like Pig face, it doesn't sound very appetising does it?! And it most definitely does not taste like pork.  Pigface (Carpobrotus Virescens), can be spotted all along the WA coast and inland cliff dunes.

The succulent banana shaped leaves of Pigface taste similar to salted zucchini and cucumber and are delicious steamed, roasted or sautéed served alongside fish or meat dishes. It was eaten for centuries by the traditional owners of this land who have a deep spiritual connection to these foods. Later, European settlers adopted it to starve off scurvy. It is also good for easing constipation and stomach cramps due to its laxative properties. 

The beautiful pink flowers first start appearing in the season of Djilba and are a perfect garnish to brighten up any dish.Following flowering comes the ever-popular fruit, squeezed out of its bulbous skin and eaten. The white pulp tastes similar to sweet but salty kiwi fruit and has a texture not dissimilar to dragonfruit. There is also a non-native Pigface dotted around Perth,introduced from South Africa, with larger succulent leaves and yellow flowers. This too is edible.

Many people wander the paths leading through the dunes to the beach not even noticing the edible plants around them. It is important to remember however, that removal of plants from protected areas and private land is strictly prohibited. All foraging requires a license and should always be done with respect for the season and the land that it is on. Also, be mindful of any possible contaminants, such as dog deposits and insecticides, as well as ensuring that the plant has been correctly identified. Popular in the RiverMint kitchen, all parts of the Pigface plant are utilised and sustainable collection practices are paramount.