1996.04.01 This Morning - Aussie Tucker

All right, time now for the pudding from Susan and her guest today, Australian cook Ian Parmenter, who she pipped to the post in last year's World's Best TV Cook competition held in France. But there is no bitterness in our kitchen, is there, Sue?

Well, no, it's actually a very nice Australian Chardonnay, isn't it?

Yes, in fact, what I was going to suggest is with that fish dish that we had an Australian Chardonnay. This one's from Cape Mentell in the west of the country where I live, so it's a pretty good place to come from.

I'm enjoying that today. You're a very nice guest.

I thought you might bring some wine.

Well, let's do a dessert. An Australian pud. I've got some butter and sugar in here as instructed. Yeah, nice and hot.

Very hot.

And we put in some of your lovely exotic Australian fruits and they'll almost caramelize in that, won't they?

That's what they have to do. Just stirred around and they really shouldn't cook. They should just, just really be coated with that mixture.

Right. So this is Australian food. Light, fresh, good taste.

Okay, I'll, I'll let you do that and I'll—

Talking of lighting.

Yes.

Oh right, hang on.

This is rum because we're a rum lot and we make our own rum.

Wow! I've just discovered that's why your moustache isn't very long.

Indeed.

Because when you do all this flombeing, it does take it down a bit, doesn't it?

Yes.

Now, final addition to that will be some of this. If we were lucky enough to be in Australia and be able to get hold of this, this is lemon myrtle. Smell that.

Oh wow, it's a bit like lemongrass, isn't it?

See, look at that. Isn't that interesting?

Oh! I'm very impressed with Australian food. The tastes, the alcohol, the fruit. I love it all.

Now come over here and we can just let that bubble away. That's ready to serve, in fact, like that. I'd probably just add a little mint.

It does look beautiful and caramelly. Gorgeous.

And that will be served probably with some yogurt and a little honey mixed in there, and possibly even a little more lemon myrtle. Because you couldn't until recently get lemon myrtle in this country, I'd use grated lemon rind or great zest of some sort.

Yeah, you're patronising me, aren't you?

Yes, I am. But bush tucker is now available in supermarkets in Britain. And so we get—

What is bush tucker?

Well, things like this. This is paperbark, and this is the replacement for aluminium foil. And what we do is we wrap fish, or whatever we want to cook, in this. We wet it first, wrap the fish up, scales included, in this. We can barbecue the fish, and the beauty of it is when you actually unwrap it, the scales come off the fish, revealing the beautifully cooked fish underneath.

I can see that it works on it. I thought we'd be into a barbie soon. Does that bark give any particular flavour to the fish?

It does, it does. Slightly peppery, slightly aniseedy. It's a sort of unison.

Fascinating.

Also things like bush tucker fettuccine, which—

Well, that's just an ordinary pasta, but it's got a little fleck in it, hasn't it? What is that?

The little fleck is a mixture of wild herbs.

Oh, it smells almost minty.

Yes.

Oh, fascinating.

Now, some of the latest discoveries, and this, this is really very new to me as well as, as to the Australian consumer, um, cane toads.

I've heard they were a bit of a problem in the Northern Territory, so they were brought in.

They were brought in to eat the beetles on, on sugarcane.

Yeah, yeah.

And they did such a good job that they finished off the beetles and then said, okay, what do we eat next? And so they started they're frightened, going around eating everything else.

The same thing that happened in Australia with the rabbits, isn't it?

Exactly. Now, this is a baby one, but they actually grow to the size of a chicken. So what the Australians are currently doing is developing an industry where we can export cane toad legs to the French market.

Are we going to take some to France?

I think we should. I think we should.

Would they be big and juicy?

Big and juicy, but also you'll notice that the breasts are big. Yeah, so there's nothing wasted really, apart from the head.

So cane toad could become a new food?

I think it's going to take over entirely from the frog. frog leg industry in France, and I look forward to that happening.

Big enough to export. Now, this is some form of snake.

Yes, this is the hula bang snake, which I've only just discovered in the Gibson Desert. And it's a snake that hunts its prey by putting its tail in its mouth and then spinning around the countryside. And it chases after its, you know, mice or whatever. It does this. But unfortunately, it's not terribly accurate, and as you can get— you can imagine, it gathers momentum, flies past its prey.

Yeah.

And then bumps into things, hence the name hula bang snake.

Hula bang snake. Yeah, yeah.

We've just started eating these. What happens if they miss their prey and bang into things, they get very depressed and tend to go into a form of binge eating, which is sort of autocannibalism.

Yeah.

And the way they do that is to put the tail in the mouth again and just keep eating.

And, and you eat the snake?

Yes, but you have to stop them before they've gone too far. And when they're about the size of a bagel, yeah, you, you trap them.

Oh, it's a bagel snake? Yeah, bagel snake.

You trap them and you, you kill them as painlessly as possible by playing old Rolf Harris records. And I mean, I know it's not actually a painless death, but it is an Australian death. And then you deep fry them.

Look, I think this pudding is ready to be served. What are we going to drink with this? Are we carrying on with the Chardonnay?

No, we're not. Actually, it's most unusual, but I have here An Australian wine that was voted by Wine Spectator the best wine in the world. It's a Penfold Grange, and it is rather special. It's not normally consumed with a dessert like that, but I think on this occasion, because the two of us are here together, it is a special occasion. Let's celebrate with this.

The two of us are here together?

All of us are here together now.

Richard's come in to taste the cane toads.

Totally disgusting.

I think it's an April Fool wind-up. You're winding us up, aren't you? You don't need to tell us.

Certainly not.

Cane toads, haven't you heard of them? They did import them into the Northern Territories. And then they're really a pest on the roads.

Right, this one.

They just get squashed.

Wine?

Well, if you say so. Um, and they grow to the size of chickens, don't they?

Yes. So they fit on those little rotisserie mat things.

Of course.

Makes it very convenient.

There you go. And this is the best wine in the world.

The best wine in the world.

Best wine in the world, right?

Especially for you, dear.

Probably a good thing to have it with would be a sort of kangaroo prosciutto.

Hmm, that's got names here.

Kangaroo prosciutto?

Yes, delightful. So cheers.

Cheers. Cheers.

Happy to be in Australia.

We can't wish you luck because you're up against Brian Turner. Yes, I know. But never mind. Have a good time.

Thank you very much indeed. It's been a pleasure.

Lose to him gracefully.

Brian Turner's never given me a wine as good as this.

You know, you said that obviously you grow your own coconuts in Australia. Where is the coconut line? I mean, where do they start growing?

Oh, the tropics.

Right up to that bit that sticks up into the—

Ian comes from Fremantle, which is near Perth, which is subtropical really, isn't it?

Well, it's more Mediterranean.

Mediterranean? Lucky you. I'm being terribly nice to him in the hope of being asked to stay.

Asked back, right. Well, there is a fact sheet that we've got together which features all today's recipes, so you can send a stamped addressed envelope To— and you can say this because I can't say that. See, go on, Susan.

Susan and Ian's Aussie Tucker, PO Box 300, Liverpool, L69 3NR.

Or telephone 0897 188 156 and leave your name and address.

That's like the adverts. That was very good. Thank you very much indeed.