A BBQ breakthrough - Heat Beads® Chimney Booster

Gastrology bloggers BBQ'd courtesy of Heat Beads®.

We come with news of a BBQ breakthrough *drum rolls* … the new Heat Beads® Chimney Booster.

Heat Beads®, Australia’s leading BBQ fuel and equipment specialists have recently launched a revolutionary product which heralds the arrival of the very latest in BBQ convenience, cutting BBQ lighting time for cooking over coals down to a record 12 minutes (the days of heating coals for up to an hour to get that authentic BBQ flavour are no longer!).

Heat Beads® is proudly Australian owned and operated and has been satisfying Aussie BBQ needs for over forty years. 

We’re a nation of BBQ’ers, and BBQ season is certainly not over just because summer has finished. In fact, March is actually the driest month of the year, so now is the time to be BBQing most! 

We recently indulged in some real, authentic BBQing with Heat Beads® Chimney Booster and were excited to receive our shiny new Weber kettle BBQ, premium meats and a Heat Beads® accessories pack (including the new Chimney Booster) to make our BBQ cooking experience super quick, easy and fun. 

What you need:

Heat Beads® Firelighters

Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes

Heat Beads® BBQ Starter Chimney

Heat Beads® Chimney Booster

We lit the Heat Beads® Chimney Booster with firelighters, filled the BBQ Chimney with briquettes and placed the BBQ Chimney on top of the Chimney Booster. 12 minutes after turning the Chimney Booster on, the briquettes were hot and ready to BBQ with (yes, it’s *that* quick!)

We used the 12 minutes to whip up a salad and do a little marinating of our meats and veg…

Soon it was time to pop on some oven mitts and transfer the briquettes to the BBQ!

And it was  time to get cookin'!

Recipe: Smoky rib eye fillets

Ingredients

Handful of Hickory woodchips for smoking

Rib eye fillets

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Steps

1. Soak the hickory woodchips in water for around 30 minutes before cooking


2. Marinate the Rib eye fillets with salt, pepper and olive oil.


3. Sprinkle the soaked woodchips directly over the briquettes.


4. Start cooking! It took us approximately 4 minutes on each side for the beef to come out medium.


5. Enjoy!

We loved the results. It was such a quick and easy way to enjoy authentic smoky BBQ tasting meats.

The Heat Beads® Chimney Booster is an exciting addition to Heat Beads® existing range, cutting the time needed to fire up the BBQ to a mere 12 minutes - this made it so easy and convenient to BBQ the real way!

Where to buy: Heat Beads® products are available from all major grocery and hardware retailers. Contact 1800 333 283 to find your nearest stockist or visit www.heatbeads.com.au/bbq-products/. 

Find out more about Heat Beads® at https://www.facebook.com/Heat.Beads.BBQ.Briquettes and https://shop.heatbeads.com.au/

The Hundred-Foot Journey | Recipe: Spicy Superior Gold Hot Smoked Salmon

Gastrology bloggers received the product courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.

Surround yourself with picturesque and elegant views and indulge in a range of cuisines without leaving your home as The Hundred-Foot Journey has just been released on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital. 

Join Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) a culinary sensation with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch, as he and his family leave their home in India to settle in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. 

Filled with charm, the village is both picturesque and elegant proving to be the ideal place to settle down and open an Indian restaurant - the Maison Mumbai. 

It’s not long until Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) the chef proprietress of Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin starred, classical French restaurant gets wind of the Maison Mumbai, located a hundred feet from her own restaurant and escalates an all out war between the two establishments. 

The conflict is subsided when Hassan combines his culinary talent with his passions for French haute cuisine and Madame Mallory’s enchanting sous chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), instilling Saint-Antonin with the flavours of life that even Madame Mallory cannot ignore. Beginning as culinary rivals, Madame Mallory eventually recognizes Hassan's gift as a chef and takes him under her wing, weaving magic between their two cultures. 

The Hundred-Foot Journey is a delightful escape produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, destined to bring out the chef and creative spirit in all of us.

Recipe inspired by The Hundred-Foot Journey: Spicy Smoked Salmon

Gastrology bloggers received the salmon courtesy of Superior Gold.

After watching the movie, we were encouraged to do a little experimenting. We drew inspiration from the recipe pictured below from Le Creuset.

Ingredients

1 packet Superior Gold Hot Smoked Salmon, Peppercorn and Garlic Aioli 

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1 pinch of cumin

Method

1. Combine the chilli powder and dash of cumin.


2. Coat the Superior Gold Hot Smoked Salmon, Peppercorn (which comes with a sachet of Garlic Aioli which we omitted for the purposes of this recipe) with the chilli and cumin mix.


3. Heat rice bran oil in a not stick pan.


4. Fry/heat the salmon quickly for no more than 1 minute.


5. Enjoy!

Note: For this recipe, 1 packet of Superior Gold Hot Smoked Salmon serves 2 people

Although the salmon is beautiful to eat as is, the addition of chilli and cumin added an interesting spicy kick to the salmon which complemented its smokiness. We served the salmon with a cheesy polenta, organic tomatoes for freshness and a white wine, butter and parsley sauce which tied the elements together. 

It was an incredibly easy thing to cook and was thoroughly enjoyed by our guests.

Recipe: Yam Duck

This post was sponsored by MATRADE's Malaysian Kitchen Program.

One of our favourite Malaysian dishes to enjoy at home is a stew made from yam and duck which is called (creatively!) yam duck.

This dish is an old school favourite in Malaysia and can be cooked easily at home with readily available Malaysian ingredients.



Here's what you will need:

2 kg duck, cleaned and cut into 8 pieces

1 ½ kg yam, cut into large wedges

100g young ginger, sliced

1 tbsp chopped garlic

¼ cup canola oil

1 packet bean curd

400ml water

2 tbsp Ayam brand Oyster sauce

1 tbsp Yeo's sesame oil (available from Oriental Merchant)

1 tsp Ayam brand palm sugar 

½ tsp pepper

1 pc cinnamon stick, about 5 cm long

2 Dragon Phoenix star anise

2 cloves

And here's how to make it:

Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry off the ginger and garlic until soft. Add in cinnamon, star anise and cloves as well as the duck and stir fry until the duck is sealed and well coated with spices. Add the 400ml of water and allow to cook on low heat till meat tender. Then add the yam and all remaining ingredients and simmer until the yam is soft. Garnish with spring onions and sliced chilli to taste and enjoy!

Recipe: Twice Cooked Pressed Belly of Murray Valley Pork with parsnip puree

Gastrology bloggers tried the pork belly courtesy of Murray Valley Pork.

Nothing is more festive than a juicy piece of pork belly with the perfect crackling. To ring in the new year and celebrate what has passed and all that is to come, we decided to have a go at Gordon Ramsay's Pressed Pork Belly recipe.

Ingredients

1 kilo of Murray Valley Pork pork belly,

2 bulbs of garlic, sliced in half horizontally

a few sprigs of thyme

White wine (enough so that it covers the roasting pan during the cooking process plus a little more to deglaze the pan when done)

500 ml chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160c (fan forced, add 20c if the oven is not fan forced)


2. Score the pork belly.


3. Season the pork belly generously with salt, pepper and olive oil.


4. Place the garlic in a roasting pan and the thyme on top of the garlic. Place the pork belly on top of the thyme.


5. Cook the pork belly for 2 hours. 


6. When done, remove and set aside to rest.


7. Place the roasting pan over the stove top (be careful as the pan will still be hot. 


8. Deglaze the roasting pan with a generous splash of white wine and allow to reduce by for around 2 to 3 minutes. 


9. Add the chicken stock and allow to reduce the liquid by half. Sieve the sauce into a pan, making sure to press the garlic through the sieve as much as you can so the sauce is infused with the garlic. Set aside


10. Place the pork on a tray and place another tray on top of the pork belly. 


11. Press down on the top tray and place some weights (i.e. some cans from your pantry) on top of the tray to weigh it down. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.


12. When the pork is ready, pre-heat the oven to 240c (fan forced). 


13. Slice the belly of pork into 4 to 6 portions of smaller squares and cook for around 15 minutes until the skin crisps. 


14. While the pork is cooking, heat the gravy. To serve, place the pork on a bed of mash (we used parsnip puree instead to make it a little interesting) and pour the gravy around the pork.

The pork came out of the oven looking absolutely perfect. Fragrant, sweet and succulent, this roast pork was winter comfort food at its best. Golden brown, blistered and crunchy, the pork crackling had us fighting for the last piece.

Get your hands on some Murray Valley Pork -> Find your nearest stockist here!



Or if you would like to find other porky recipe ideas, check out our posts about Murray Valley Pork's Topside mole here and Murray Valley Pork's Half Netted Shoulder Roast here.

Recipe: Murray Valley Pork Mole

Gastrology bloggers received the product courtesy of Murray Valley Pork.

Mole is a popular spicy Mexican sauce which has a decadent taste from being made with chocolate.

The pulled pork mole is one of our favourite Mexican dishes. Here is our super easy cheat's pulled pork mole recipe using Murray Valley Pork Topside. 

Ingredients

1.4 kg Murray Valley Pork Topside, rindless (cap-off)

450g Mayordomo Black Mole

Instructions

1. Prepare the mole according to instructions in a saucepan. 


2. Brown the pork in a separate saucepan.


3. Slow cook the pork in a slow cooker for 8 hours on the "low" setting.


4. Using a slotted spoon, remove the meat from the slow cooker to a board, leave to cool a little, then use forks or your fingers to tear into shreds.


5. Serve!

We served our pulled pork mole with some brown rice and a fresh rocket salad.

Holy Mole(y)! This dish was simply delicious. The pulled Murray Valley Pork meat was tender and delicious with the perfect hint of heat. We loved the taste of the rich mole chilli-chocolate sauce which had developed a delicious depth of flavour from being cooked with the pork. The hint of sweetness from the moles was cut beautifully by the fresh salad, and the brown rice brought the whole dish together.

Get your hands on some Murray Valley Pork -> Find your nearest stockist here!