Bananas are not only tasty and healthy, but during hard times they can also have another function. The banana skin is apparently great for polishing shoes. By rubbing the inside of the skin over your shoes you get a nice glossy shine. The banana skin contains oil and potassium which also protects your shoes against wear and weathering. Just rub with the banana skin and then with a soft cloth, done!
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Available Now until the end of January
“NATURES NATURAL CHOCOLATE”
Other names: Diospyros digyna
, Chocolate Pudding Fruit, BlackPersimmon.
Intro: Not a fresh fruit to be eaten off the tree.
History: Native to Mexico
Shape: The fruit is about the size of a very large apple and tomato-shaped.
Weight/size: Typically weighing 700g to 900g and ranging between 60 -120mm in diameter.
Colour: The fruit has a bright green and shiny skin when unripe. When it ripens, the skin turns dark brown. The flesh is black when ripe.
Taste: The flesh tastes like chocolate, but only when perfectly ripe. The taste is otherwise slightly bitter.
Buying/storage: The crown on top of the fruit should be raised, which indicates the fruit is mature. During ripening, changes of the fruit are dramatic: overnight it turns dark green and later brown-black, and goes from rock hard to soft and mushy. Do not refrigerate until ripe. Ripe fruit or pulp may be refrigerated for a few days, however, freezing is better. Frozen whole fruit or pulp retains its subtle flavour for more than six months, and frozen pulp is suitable for use in any recipe.
Preparing/serving: Only eaten when very soft. Simply cut the fruit in half around the centre and scoop out the flesh and remove the seeds. Very soft fruit has a delicate skin, which may disintegrate when cut. Flavour is enhanced by the addition of a little rum, vanilla, cream or coffee liqueur (Kahlua or Tia Maria). It makes a delicious ice cream and is also great in mousses, cakes, cheesecakes, muffins, bread and preserves.
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THIS SUNDAY
When: Sunday, 18 October 2009
Time: 10am - 5pm
Where: Chinese Temple Grounds, Herberton Road, Atherton
The Tastes of the Tableland Festival in Atherton on the 18th October 2009 will be an event not to be missed. This event will showcase the best wines, coffees, cheeses, chocolates and other local produce that this wonderful region produces.
This festival will also be a great opportunity to sample and purchase some of the varied and unique products that are produced on the Tablelands.
If you want to while away a few hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon come and enjoy the entertainment provided for the day.
Enjoy lunch (which you can purchase from the varied menus provided from our local eateries and clubs) and sit at a table under the marquees or relax on a hay bale under the shady trees with a glass or two of our local wine. The site is licensed.
As well as fashions on the stage we will be hoping to see wonderful fashions on those that attend as there will be prizes for best fashions of the day. There will also be activities for the children so it will be great day for the whole family.
So we hope to see you there !
NSW has a way to deal with restaurants and food outlets who don’t abide by the Food Safe rules. Food outlets are added to the NSW Name and Shame list, with a total number of premises on the list at 813. For a full list of premises on the Food Authority Name and Shame list is at www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices
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It was Heston Blumenthal who recently was responsible for food poisoning at his molecular gastronomic restaurant The Fat Duck, but now when Jörg Zipprick, a German food writer dined at Ferran Adria’s acclaimed $600 a meal E Bulli restaurant near Barcelona in Spain, he was unimpressed with this high temple of “molecular gastronomy” and says menus should carry health warnings informing diners of the additives in the dishes.
“These colorants, gelling agents, emulsifiers, acidifiers and taste enhancers that Adria has introduced massively into his dishes to obtain extraordinary textures, tastes and sensations do not have a neutral impact on health,” says Zipprick, adding that some have a laxative effect.
Molecular cooks also use polysaccharides from seaweed, which Zipprick says are suspected of causing intestinal cancer. Adria’s response is that the chemicals he uses have been part of haute cuisine for years and he denies his dishes pose any risk to health.
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It used to be regarded as “poor man’s food” but now rabbit has been reborn as a gourmet meat. Popular in Australia through the Depression rabbit farmers has made a resurgence in popularity.
Farmed Rabbit Industries of Australia director Doug Horridge said farmers in Tasmanian could not meet demand and there was a desperate need for more growers. `Restaurants and butchers are crying out for rabbit, but need a consistent supply. He says the demand is so great he has to buy in rabbits from Victoria to supplement the 50 he produces each week
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Where do your semi-dried tomatoes come from? 
An outbreak of hepatitis A has been linked to contaminated semi-dried tomatoes in Victoria with about a dozen Victorians diagnosed with hepatitis A this week.
Experts from the Department of Health fear a rerun of May’s spike in the disease in Victoria and South Australia that was associated with the consumption of semi-dried tomatoes. The virus is spread when traces of faecal matter contaminate hands, objects, water or food and are then taken in by mouth. Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Dr John Carnie, said that while the new outbreak was being investigated people should avoid eating “raw” semi-dried tomatoes. “People who may have semi-dried tomatoes at home should not eat them unless they are thoroughly cooked” such as in pizza and quiche,” he said. “Restaurants and cafes should also follow this advice.”
Take a look at the recently launched local food blog by Clare Richards www.tropicalcuisine.com.au/
Clare is currently creating her cookbook ‘Tropical Cuisine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen’ and the blog tracks Clare’s recipe development, research, visits to producers and overall process of bringing her cookbook together.
General contact information for Clare’s Kitchen and the brief overview of her business is also available at www.clareskitchen.com
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Blogging gets a Grip
The proliferation of food blogs has put the magazine world in a spin! Recipes are now at your fingertips , culinary adventure experiences are now virtual and kitchen gossip is spread at a lightning pace on the world wide web. This has been all too much for the Conde Nast Magazine ‘Gourmet’ that recently stopped print after 68 years. They don’t need to pay journalists, food stylists, photographers and production, not to mention the carbon footprint left by the tonnes of paper. It’s now all done virtually by blogging.
Some of Australia’s most popular blogs are…
http://www.notquitenigella.com/
http://www.tomatom.com
http://www.cookingismypassion.blogspot.com/
http://chezpim.typepad.com/
http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/
Visitors to Cairns Airport will get a typical taste of the tropics now Skybury Coffee has become the exclusive coffee served by HMSHost at its first new airport cafe in the redeveloped Cairns Airport Domestic Terminal.
General Manager of HMSHost, Stephen Hackshall, said the company had invited Skybury Coffee to tender for the coffee contract for the first cafe because the attributes of the Skybury brand suited the theme of a local concept cafe.
“HMSHost wanted to offer a local themed cafe concept as part of the terminal redevelopment and for us there was no better choice than to partner with Australia’s premier coffee producer and leading global exporter. We chose to serve Skybury coffee exclusively in the first of our new airport cafes, which is called Skybury Coffee and features themed visual branding of the Mareeba plantation,” said Mr Hackshall.
For more information skybury-coffee