Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Any general items, polls
Captain Cook
Posts: 3968
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 11:49 am
Location: Melbourne

Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by Captain Cook »

Read first then post your entry here for this online BBQ Contest. This post is reserved for entries only, do not post any comments in this post

Entries may be added to this post from 1700 26th Jan. Entries close 0900 hrs 28 Jan.

The Australia Day Outdoor Cooking Contest is an open event. It is open to all members of the Aussie BBQ Forum

This contest is also recognized as an ABBQA Grand Master heat. (if you are not a member and want to join PM Captain Cook or Urbangriller for details.
Separate win and place points 1st – 5th will awarded to ABBQA members and will count towards the ABBQA Annual Grand Master Competition.

The rules are simple:
The competition is run on Australia day, however to allow for family commitments it has been decreed that entries shall be cooked on 25th , 26th or 27th of January.
• The theme is Lamb and Aussie beer
• There is no restriction on what the lamb dish is
• There is no restriction to the outdoor cooking method used
• Remember this is Australia Day so Australian dishes would probably be judged more favourably, but that will be up to you when you vote on the best dishes.
• Lamb must be the main ingredient in the dish.
• Aussie beer must be a component of the dish such as part of the marinade/brine/sauce etc.
• 1 entry per forum member
• Each entry shall have the following format:
o Description of the dish,
o Ingredients including beer type
o Recipe,
o Cooking Method, - (including smoke wood if used)
o Entry must contain 3 photos:
o Photo 1 shall be photo of ingredients including the beer used
o Photo 2 shall be photo of the meat during or after it is cooked, and
o Photo 3 shall be a photo of the meat carved and plated (the meat shall be the main component of the meal and not dwarfed by the side dishes). Preferably the photo should contain a plate with the meat carved and one portion plated up.

Entries may be added to this post from 1700 26th Jan. Entries close 0900 hrs 28 Jan. Entries that are added before that time will be deemed as invalid and will be deleted - you will be able to add them again during the official entry period.

The entry will be edited by the Captain to allocate each entry a specific entry number, which will be the entry number in the voting poll.
A poll will be posted allowing all forum members to vote on the best 3 of their choice based on what looks and sounds good to them. The entry with the highest votes will be declared the winner.
Voting commences 0900 hrs 28th Jan and closes 2100 hrs 31st Jan in a separate post containing a poll.

We have been specific about entry and voting times to ensure that it is administratively possible, and to ensure that everyone gets a fair crack of the whip.

The most important rule for this competition is that all participants and forum readers have fun.

This post is for entries only, if you have any comments regarding the contest please post them in a separate post.

Good Luck to you all !

Cheers
Spode
Posts: 406
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:04 am
Location: Brisbane

Spode's Rich Brown Lamb Shanks

Post by Spode »

Rich Brown Lamb Shanks

Entry # 01

To me Australia is about ready access to lamb, my favourite meat, but it's also about an under appreciation for lamb shanks. Lamb shanks were on every menu where I grew up, so I wanted to bring shanks to life for a group of friends here. Thus we hosted an Australia Day BBQ and had a great feed too!

I have gone for a combination of american style BBQ, with smoke and a tomato influence to the sauce, with classic Australian lamb. All together the idea is to make for a rich brown winter type food, which speaks to me of the family together in the kitchen eating. It turned out to be a 33deg day with blue skies but there were three families there and they had a great time!

The outcome was fall apart lamb, deep in colour with an inch thick smoke ring. These were the best and juiciest shanks I have ever eaten. There was no fat left on them and any tissue in them was long gone by the time they were done. These would outdo anything I have had in a restuarant.
The Finished Product
The Finished Product
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There are three flavour profiles in these shanks.

The first is the marinade, which is aimed at adding a background flavour while infusing moisture into the meat. Shanks can be dry.

The second is a sweet dry rub,

and a third is a beer based sauce which builds on the sweetness and gives the dark rich sauce needed to drip right off these shanks as they get picked up and munched on.

I kept the marinade simple, using beer and a little vinegar and oil only. I wanted the richness of the beer to compliment the
deep purple of the shanks when they are cooked, but not to clash with the sauce.

As a lamb shank has a lot of connective tissue in it, but is actually quite lean meat, I wanted to smoke it but also couldn't leave it open through the whole cooking time or it would be too dry. Therefore I used a rub to try to give another level of flavour, but also to shield the meat from the dry heat while allowing smoke to stick to the rougher surface of the rub.

The sauce is based on my signature tomato and vinegar based sauce, but I've left out the vingegar and used beer so that I get some sourness from the tomato sauce, but mainly just a sweetness from the beer. The sauce is meant to look and taste brown and warm you up on a cold day.

The Beer
It's Coopers Stout. My start in Australia was in South Australia, and I had to be loyal to a great Australian company, owned by
an Australian family, not some offshore conglomorate, and also to a beer that I knew would be as rich as Australian lamb is.

The Rub
  • 4 tablespoons brown sugar
    2 tablespoons paprika
    1 tablespoon salt
    Teaspoon onion powder
    Teaspoon garlic powder
Mix it all together and sprinkle it on. Leave it for half an hour while you prepare the fire and the sugar will melt onto the meat, giving a wet stickly look. This is what you want. It will caramalise into a bark.
Shanks with the Rub Ready for the BBQ
Shanks with the Rub Ready for the BBQ
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The Sauce

The sauce is added as a side, but also a few spoons are added to the shanks when they get foiled, to give them something to braise in.
The Make Up of the Sauce
The Make Up of the Sauce
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  • 400gram tin chopped tomatoes. This gives a chunky rustic feel and look to the sauce.
    3 tablespoons brown sugar. You may need more, taste it, as the tomato sauce can be quite vinegary.
    1 tablespoon honey
    250ml dark beer, I used a stout
    Few drops Tabasco, just for a way to cut the sweetness
    About a tablespoon of paprika, to thicken it and it helps with the colour, but this was pretty thick by itself
    250ml tomato sauce, but start with a third and add it until you are happy as it can be vinegary.
    1 Teaspoon soy sauce but watch out with the salt as you arn't too far off Vegemite as it is!
    2 Tablespoons mollassas. This compliments the beer nicely, and gives a darker colour as well as sweetness without the direct hit of sugar.
    2 teaspoons of corriander, it goes with anything especially beer.
Mix it together and boil slowly, until you have the beer smell out of it, which takes about 20 minutes. Then leave overnight if you can, it someohow made it much nicer and milder the next day reheated. Any trace of vinegar was gone.

The Marinade
  • 1.5lt stout or dark beer
    1 cup olive oil
    1 cup apple cider vinegar
Mix them together and submerge the shanks. The marinade will change their colour so when you leave it overnight you may need to rotate them if they are not all covered.

The BBQ
I used a Weber Smokey Mountain, and found that 8 shanks fitted well on the bottom shelf.

I prepared the BBQ using the Minion method, and set it up for an 8 hour cook. I knew I only wanted 4 hours but it's best to have a decent size fire and know it will last.

I added in 2 chunks of hickory. I only wanted smoke for 1 to 2 hours, so did not need too much wood. Hickory goes well with lamb.

Put water in the water bowl, mainly so that the dripping fat can be caught and is easier to wash out.

Putting it All Together

Make the marinade the night before, so the shanks soak overnight. Also make the sauce if you can, it changes a lot in the fridge overnight and is best when reheated the next day. The rub is easy to make any time.

Start by making the fire. While that gets started, take the shanks from the marindade and sprinkle the rub on them. Give them a good coating.

Place them in the BBQ and smoke on low heat, about 200deg F, for 1.5 hours. This will give you the flavour but not be enough to dry them.

After about 1.5 hours wrap the shanks, two at a time depending on the size of your foil, in foil, but put a tablespoon of the sauce in with each parcel, to give them something to steam in.

At this point you want the BBQ to have come up to 250 deg F, and to cook at 250 deg F onwards. No more smoke is needed as the meat is wrapped in foil.

Leave them to cook away for another 1 to 2 hours. I had them cooking for a total of 4 hours and would consider them overdone but also the way I like them, which is fall off the bone!

The Sides

Chop up a pumpkin and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, and place in a baking tray. Put in another BBQ, I used a Weber Kettle set up for indirect normal fire. I drizzled the pumpkin with olive oil. All together if gave a nice sweet and slightly sticky effect, which adds to the finger licking BBQ good time you want!

For the potatoes I used olive oil, salt and pepper. This gave me rustic traditional roast potatoes.

Cook them for about an hour to an hour and a half, by which time they should be done.

The Eating

I started with a knife and fork but my guests soon picked them up cave man style and got in there! All were finished!
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sosman
Posts: 1337
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 9:31 am
Location: Melbourne - east

Sosman's Hopping Mad Lamb

Post by sosman »

Entry #2


I've always wondered whether there is a place for hops in cooking. The 2011 Australia day comp gave me the chance to have a crack at it. I'm cooking for my missus and 3 young kids which don't fancy anything too spicy. So I cooked up two racks, one with the hopping mad marinade and another one with directly injected James Squire Pilsner. Also made some fresh mint sauce.

I'll only post the lamb dish here, on the day we also had beef ribeye, rye bread and pizza, all cooked in the kamado over lunch and dinner. Anyway, I have a bit to learn on presentation (love your work Spode) never mind, here's what I did.

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Sos' Oz Hopping Mad Marinade

Ingredients

500 ml wort 8 brix (see grain bill)
3 tbsp cider vinegar
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 g Pride of Ringwood hop pellets
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp clove
1 tsp white pepper
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp coriander crushed seed
1 tsp rosemary
3 drops Tabasco sauce

Method

1. First give yourself a hernia trying to open the wort you bottled for beer starters ages ago. Then waste an hour trying to warm it up enough to finally get the cap off.
2. Then bring wort to a rolling boil (and as any brewer knows, don't turn your back on it for a second). Also be prepared for the female occupants of the household to scream bloody murder – they seem to have extreme aversion for any smells related to beer production.
3. Add all the ingredients and keep boiling. Now early hopping in a boil creates bitterness which isn't what I was really aiming for, later hops add flavour then final additions preserve some of the most volatile components to create aroma. My primary goal was for flavour so I aimed initially for a 15 minute boil but was going by taste (the vinegar reduces the pH and I didn't know if this would speed up the isomerisation (bittering) of the hops). Not to mention that this has quite a few additions not found in your typical wort.
4. Turns out after 6 minutes I decided to finish the boil, some hop bitterness was noticeable but not overpowering. To balance the pepper warming in the middle of the palate and the slight bite of hops and clove at the back I added a few drops of Tabasco to give an end to end spice experience.
5. Now I'm not really concerned about a good cold break here, but I do want to get to bed so I crash cooled the marinade in the freezer.
6. Then seal rack of lamb and marinade into the trusty ziplock back and into the fridge overnight.

I wanted to create an aromatic marinade and I was flying seat of pants with this recipe, I have always wanted to find out first hand why no one uses hops in cooking :). I was tasting as I went to come up with the quantities.

The wort was home brewed with Aussie barley and malted locally (Powell's Malts). Pride of Ringwood was the first high alpha acid hop available in the world and was developed right here in Victoria (Ringwood would you believe?) and while Cascade's citrus notes would probably go nicely with lamb I opted for the true-blue variety.

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Given time I would boil the wort right down and there would be no need for the brown sugar. Alternative buy a kit of beer gloop from the home brew section of your supermarket (keeping in mind they have hop, hop extract already added).

I had just cooked a ribeye roast in the kamado and the plan was to cook the lamb at 150 C while the beef was resting. Based on my last rack of lamb, that should be around 45 minutes to get to 63 C.

Cooking method was indirect over water, hickory chips added to the mangrove root lump charcoal. In hindsight the layer of fat probably hindered smoke penetration.

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The other rack was juiced up with beer and topped with fresh mint sauce:
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magste
Posts: 600
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 5:53 pm
Location: Perth, WA
Contact:

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by magste »

Entry #3

Lamb Leg Roast, 2.5kg

Marinade:
U -Brew-IT own made Beer, Weissbier style.
Chicken stock
Olive Oil
Rosemary,
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
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Marinated (incl injection) for 16 hours

Rubbed w olive oil & garlic, rosemary, pepper & paprika. Seared on direct heat for 5min on each side.

Then BBQ 130C indirect, smoked with AUSSIE BEER FLAVOUR SMOKE PELLETS for 2.5hours until 65C inside.
Rested in foil for 2 hours
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Served with potato bake, gravy & sallad
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Magnus
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A Q, a Keg & a Kettle
Dan
Posts: 34
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:37 pm

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by Dan »


Captains Note: Sorry Dan not classed as an entry - couldn't stretch the rules that far.


Aw... I just roasted/smoked a rolled shoulder for five hours, was just rubbed w/ some spices... really tasty. Knocked back a couple of homebrews while cooking and a Little Creatures Pale while eating.

My GF did a broadbean, green bean, bacon, almond and pistachio salad to go with.

I should have used beer and taken photos.
5. Now I'm not really concerned about a good cold break here, but I do want to get to bed so I crash cooled the marinade in the freezer.
Haha, I am interested how yours tasted there sosman.
Commander Cody
Posts: 2474
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:39 pm
Location: lost in the ozone

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by Commander Cody »

Entry #4

ok,

stinking hot up here on the belt, so i decided to have a play with your heads...... :twisted: :twisted:

Vietnamese LAMB roll ups.

used the 200 with brekky plate. beer was matilda bay "bohemian pilsner" used to marinate the lamb with birds eye chilies...also to consume with meal. the dish was served up with vemicelli with a dash of rice wine vinegar, tomatoes mixed with chilies, sliced cucumber; carrot; fresh coriander; vietnamese mint; and just because it is lamb.....fresh rosemary, crushed kingaroy peanuts, smallish prawns. and the dipping sauce was a commercial one "poonsin" sadley it is called a vietnamese dipping sauce, but it is made in thailand. and of course the rice paper roll ups.

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kevin
....up in smoke.....that's where my money goes.....
MrBrown
Posts: 585
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 7:13 pm
Location: canberra

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by MrBrown »

OK, here’s my little effort, it was a late one last night so I’m a little shakey. My intention was to have some aussie favourites but with a nod to the world we live in.

Entry #5


The menu was
Kofta Sliders – charcoal grilled lamb kofta with bush herbs served on a mini roll with mint yogurt sauce, Fat Yak Pale Ale and hot mustard sauce with and avocado dressing – Beer - Grand Ridge Natural Blonde
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Lamb Sausage and Pumpkin Risotto – home made lamb and lager sausage in a pumpkin and India Pale Ale risotto cooked on charcoal – Beer - Mountain Goat India Pale Ale
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Black and Tan Lamb – a Traeger roasted (Beer pellets first then Mesquite) boned leg of lamb, seasoned with bush herbs and served with roast potatoes with a Black and Tan sauce – Beer – started with Black and Tan of course but switched to Redoak Honey Ale
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Chocolate Ganach Pizza and Sheep Yogurt Pannacotta – a spectacular finisher, pizza base used lamb lard rendered using Redoak Honey Ale and baked in the Traeger (pecan pellets) – Beer – Redoak Christmas Cheer - The beer food match was phenomenal, a real hit.

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The day was complicated a little by a dear friend who won’t eat mammal but loves food so she got Charcoal Grilled scallops with Spicy Avocado SalsaPumpkin Risotto sans sausage Bush Dukkah Blackened SalmonPannacotta and Bali Coconut pancakesRecipes

And here's how it was done
Lamb KoftaI was intending to use normal lamb mince for these but when I was quoted $30 per kilo I went and bought lamb and cheese patties from Woollies. These were deconstructed then I added minced garlic, rainforest bush herb mix and parsley. Cooked over charcoal and served with a Beer Mustard sauce, a mint yogurt sauce and sprinkled with an avocado salsa. This sounds like too much but it melded beautifully.
Beer Mustard Sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• 1 cup lamb stock
• 1 bottle Fat Yak Pale Ale
• 1 tbl golden syrup
• 1 tbl Hot Whiskey grain mustard
• 1 tbl Dijon Grain mustard
• 2 tsp cornflour
Heat lamb stock and 1 cup beer, stir in syrup and garlic. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Add mustards. Combine cornflour and 2 tablespoons beer, drink rest. Add to the sauce in the pan and whisk until thickened. Season to taste.

Mint Yogurt Sauce• 1 cup natural sheep yogurt
• ½ cup mint leaves
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 tbl lemon juice
• Salt & pepper
Whisk together an hour or so before you need it. Refrigerate until ready

Spicy Avocado Salsa• 1 avocado diced
• Juice of 1 lime
• 3 Roma tomatoes seeded & diced
• ¼ cup coriander chopped
• 1 Thai chilli, seeded & fine chopped
• Salt & Pepper
Mix & refrigerate


Lamb Sausage and Pumpkin Risotto
I made the sausages a couple of weeks before. I loath using sheep casings but it had to be done. The Mountain Goat India Pale Ale was fantastic, a truly excellent and world class IPA.

Lamb Sausages
• 4 slices brown or rye bread, crusts removed
• 300 ml Grand Ridge Natural Blonde wheat beer
• 1.2 kg Lamb shank meat
• Marrow from the shank bones
• 1 brown onion, peeled and quartered
• 7 anchovies
• ¼ cup chopped fresh rosemary
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Sheep casings
Soak the bread in the beer for a few minutes then squeeze out most of the liquid and discard.
Mince lamb and reserve the bones. Take the bones and place in a lined baking tray and cook in Traeger at 350f using hickory for15 minutes to soften the marrow
Blend remaining ingredient then combine all with a couple of tablespoons of salt and pepper, add more than you think!
Test a little pattie until the flavours are right
Stuff into the casings

Risotto
• 2 Italian lamb sausage
• 1 small butternut pumpkin diced
• 1 bottle Mountain Goat IPA
• 1 cup arborio rice
• Chicken Stock, hot
• 1 minced shallot
• 6 sprigs rosemary
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1tbsp butter
This is standard risotto technique, on the charcoal grill, nothing difficult and went down a treat.
Brown butternut pumpkin, reduce the heat and add a minced shallot. Don’t be too rough because the pumpkin will break down.
Mix in Arborio and allow to glaze for as couple of minutes. At this point I separated out some of the mix and cooked a vego version at the same time.
Squeeze nubs of lamb sausage into the pan.
Deglaze the pans with 1/2 the bottle and drink the rest.
From here on out it's back to the regular risotto routine. Add chopped the rosemary, grated parmesan and butter. Season to taste and serve immediately. This is quite a rich dish and so the servings were quite small.
Obviously, it was washed down with more IPA.

Black and Tan Leg of lamb
• leg of lamb, boned, butterflied, (reserve bone and trimmings for sauce)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3/4 cup chopped peeled carrots
• 1 1/2 cups lamb stock broth
• 1 cup Grand Ridge Black and Tan
• 2 tablespoons honey mustard
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 3 tablespoons Lemon myrtle bush herb mix
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tbl honey

Roast lamb bone, trimmings, onion, and carrots in Traeger at 350°F using pecan until browned, about 1 hour.
add stock and deglaze pan, bring to boil, strain into medium saucepan and discard solids Add Black and Tan and mustard; reduce to 3/4 cup
rub balsamic over lamb and rub in seasonings.
Roast in Traeger using pecan at 350F to 125F at thickest point. Foil and place in esky till ready but at least 20 minutes
At the same time roast potatoes in duck fat on rimmed baking sheet.
Reheat sauce with butter and honey (I used leatherwood)


Chocolate Ganashe Dessert Pizza
The base is basically a biscuit dough made with a mix of lamb and pork lard and butter. I rendered the lard and used Redoak Honey Ale instead of water. I was dubious about this and only did it for the sake of using the ingredients but yeastiness and sweetness of the ale made the lamb lard smell quite biscuity.

• ½ cup lard (mix of lamb, pork and butter but any of these would work)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 cups plain flour
• ½ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
cream together the lard, sugar and eggs. Add the milk and vanilla essence and mix thoroughly.
Gradually sift in the baking powder and flour and then mix until thoroughly blended.

I used a biscuit sheet and a vented pizza tray sprayed with oil.

Press dough onto cooking sheet evenly and then bake in Traeger unsing pecan at 350F for approximately 25 minutes swapping the round at halfway (the right is hotter than the left) or until the crust is golden brown in color. Remove from heat.
When cool top with Ganache, strawberries and sour cherries, grated white chocolate and toasted hazelnuts
Chocolate Ganache
• 8 ounces 80% cocoa bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup pouring cream
• 3 tbl white sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

Place chocolate and butter in a medium bowl
Heat cream, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves and liquid is just at a simmer
Pour cream mixture over chocolate and butter and fold until melted and combined
Cool then spread on pizza base, allow the girls to lick the spoon

cherry-vodka sauce
• A bottle of sour cherries pipped
• A punnet of strawberries cut in half
• 1/2 cup passionfruit vodka
• 6 tbl sugar

Place strawberries cherries, vodka, sugar, and reserved vanilla bean from the crust in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until cherries start to break down and syrup thickens
Top the pizza, I used the sauce and some of the strawberries in the pannacotta

Sheep Milk Yogurt Pannacotta• 300 ml pouring cream
• 250ml sheep milk yogurt
• 2 tbl honey (I used leatherwood again)
• 3 gelatine leaves softened in cold water
Heat honey and gelatine together until gelatine dissolves, Whisk cream and yogurt together, fold in honey mixture, pour into espresso cups and refrigerate for about 5 hours. Top with a strawberry and the vodka sauce from the pizza mix
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Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by Narmnaleg »

Roasted Leg of lamb - unplugged

Entry #6

I’ll start my entry by saying that I had a lot of fun trying to do this and congratulations to all for the magnificent cookups already posted. Due to having guests and not sure of my lamb experiment or their palate preferences, I also cooked a pork belly and a beer-butt chook to be on the safe side and obviously they are not shown here.
I was happy about the fact that I used all three of my main BBQs (Chicken and potatoes on Genesis, tomatoes and pork belly in gas smoker (genesis to finish the crackling), lamb on performer).
Sorry for not having an ingredient line-up photo. Hopefully you can see them all in the photos.
And sorry for the 6 photos. I struggled with the logistics of it all. Had too many things going on at once if you know what I mean :)
Ok so here goes my lamb effort.

Ingredients:
1 Leg of lamb
400g of cherry and grape tomatoes
10 Tablespoons (Fini - picual) olive oil
2/3 tablespoon of cumin seeds
2/3 tablespoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of crushed Australian garlic
1.5 tablespoons of Capilano Honey and Ginger
3 long sprigs of Rosemary
1 bottle of Bluetongue premium lager

Recipe:
I started the preparation on the 25th by smoking the cherry and grape tomatoes in a gas smoker. I also de-boned and butterflied the leg of lamb and removed a large part of the fat.
On OZ day:
Mixed the marinade (Olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, cumin seeds, rosemary) and marinaded the lamb in it for 2 hours.
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Laid out the lamb flat and placed half the smoked tomatoes on it, then rolled and tied it up.
Cooked indirect on Weber performer using Mallee charcoal (no smoking wood was used) at 180c for roughly 1.5 hours. I used a trivet, on top of a baking tray to catch the drippings.
While the lamb was cooking, I created a basting sauce by mixing a bottle of bluetongue beer with the remaining marinade, to which I also added the remaining smoked tomatoes and the capilano honey&ginger.
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I basted the lamb 6 times during the cook turning it first each time.
Internal temp measured at 66c when I called it done. I had to use a regular meat thermometer as my Weber talky probe died on Sunday (Weber have confirmed they will replace it).
Once the lamb was removed from the heat, I poured the remaining basting sauce in the baking tray, repositioned the baking tray so that it was over the coals and brought it to a simmer and deglazed for 5 minutes.
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Potatoes:
Par boiled potatoes, then mixed with oil and salt and roasted on the genesis BBQ for half an hour.

Served the first dish as you see in the photo, but I tried it and found the sauce to have a slightly bitter aftertaste, which meant I had not balanced the beer. Due to having guests and needing to eat, I left the sauce off the table and ate the lamb. I did fix the sauce for dinner by adding some organic raw sugar, but I guess that doesn’t count

The verdict from my guests was very positive. They loved the lamb. I was quite happy with it. It was tender and juicy and the amount of fat was just right for me. The spices and flavours were balanced and the lambiness (is that a word?) was right. The smoked tomatoes complemented the lamb well and themselves picked up flavour in the process.
I was annoyed at not getting the sauce right first time. I wanted to avoid making it too sweet, but left it too far on the scale toward bitter. It was much better for dinner though after I fixed it :)
Last edited by Narmnaleg on Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:21 am, edited 4 times in total.
Bentley
Posts: 2549
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:18 pm
Location: Culpeper, Virginia USA
Contact:

Traditional Australian Lamb Stuffie

Post by Bentley »

Entry #7

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Home made Feta & Kalmata Olive and Rosemary & Merlo sausage. Onion, parsnip, carrot, potato, mixed veggies & Fosters...Forgive me as I am a Cheap Bastard!

Recipe:

Rough cut Potato, Parsnip, & Carrot and parboil. Place on pit and roast with Black Walnut & Peach wood for 1 hour at 175°C. Brown Bermuda Onion in EVOO & Butter, then add .71 liters Fostes and 1/2 cup white sugar. Reduce until all beer is gone and you ruin your Onion Jam. Then add 1/2 cup water to burnt mess, 1/4 cup Merlo & 1/4 cup half n half to try and save your Arse.

Next perpare Stuffie. Mix both Sausage together, spread on Seran Wrap, forming about a 20 X 20 Cm rectangle. Chop the Roasted veggies and place in center, roll up.

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Chill in Saran Wrap for 2 hours. Set pit at 95°C and cook for 2 hours, internal temperature of meat should be about 65°C after 2 hours. Cooked with Black Walnut & Peach Wood. Let rest for 5 minutes.

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Dump remaining Roasted Veggies & frozen Mix Veggies in Onion Jam disaster hoping anything you do will save it...Plate and hope your guests (and judges) are blind and Bon Appetit!

My mates, thank you for allowing me to join in this Most Historic Event, I am Blessed and Honored and it was a great distraction from my current Life situation...Salute from California...Northren Oz!

I hope my humor has not offended anyone, but Farken A I was Pissed when I blew the Jam! :evil:

BTW: Thanks to my Mate Urbangriller for the help & insperation!
Burnt By The Best
Competition BBQ Team

Fresno State University
Go Dogs!

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bodgy
Posts: 827
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:53 am
Location: Lake Macquarie

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by bodgy »

Entry #8

Tip my hat to you blokes for the effort you've put preping,cooking and posting the results.

Here's my half a---d effort, I only used beer to keep one hand busy while it cooked, alas no pics plated.

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Bodgy

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titch
Posts: 5868
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 12:51 pm
Location: Sth East Melbourne

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by titch »

Congratulations to the Quality you members have set the bar at,it all looks noice.
I grew up eating Over cooked 3 veges and Old meat so forget tradition ,I like something nice. :P

Entry #9


Butterflied Stuffed Leg of Lamb with Fetta,mint and Orange zest.
Beer battered onion rings.
Home grown Spuds and corn cooked in the jacket.
Beer Damper .
Peas.
Gravey.
Damper,Lamb and Jacket Potatoes, cooked in the wood fired Hark oven.
Beer was VB.
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Due to a last minute change of mind, soy Tomatoe and Vinegar was not used.

I leg, double butterflied and smoothed out with a meat tenderiser.
Garlic.
Pepper.Then More pepper.
Salt.
Canola oil.
Mint leaves.
Zest of one Orange.
250 grams of Greek Feta.

Marinated the Lamb in Oil, Lots of garlic, salt and pepper for about 4 hours.
Made a paste up out of the Feta,mint and Orange Zest and pasted it over the non skin side of the lamb.
Rolled the lamb up and tied it in a rustic sort of way :lol:
Browned for 10 minutes in the firebox.
Then Over a rack in the Hark for around 1 hour.


Spuds and corn washed and in foil ,cooked in the hark on a rack

Beer Damper.
2 1/2 cups of self raising flour.
Salt.
2 teaspoons of sugar.
60 g butter.
1 stubbie of VB.
Mixed to a scone style dough.onto a tray and cooked in the hark.

Dusted onions in flour in in a bag.

Beer Batter.
Half a stubbie,plain flour untill a pancake type of consistancy was reached.
Stand at room temp for an hour.
cooked in a deep fryer.

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In hindsite I will use Fresh basil insted of mint.
The damper can be cooked in a camp oven and is fantastic with gravey or soups.
Cheers
Titch
Smokey
Posts: 5958
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:47 pm
Location: Terranora- Tweed

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by Smokey »

Entry #10

WOW :shock:
Good job to all I'm hungry and I just ate.

Here is my entry.

BEER BRINED BUTTERFLIED LEG O LAMB
With smashed jaceted potatoes with cheese and yogurt,
pis first then an explanation


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Most of the ingredients for the brine. Brined for 24 hours. That's super butcher lamb there so lets see if I can make a purse out of a pigs ear?
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The beer of choice
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After 24 hours I placed it into a marinade of ;
EVOO, Australian garlic, white balsamic vinegar,Lemon juice, rosemary, Sumac, Pepper, Chili powder, Paprika, and some other stuff?
This sat for eight hours
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On the Weber kettle using mainly Coco chef briquettes with a few handfuls of last used heat beads.
I used a few chunks of AUSTRALIAN BUSH NUT TREE (Macadamia) for the smoke flavour.
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Plated up
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Interesting thing in doing lamb this way is that it really brings out the game flavour. If I didn't know, someone could tell me its venison and I would believe it!
Good luck to all.
If trees screamed when we cut them down, We wouldn't. If they screamed all the time we would.
http://www.aussiecue.com.au
urbangriller
Posts: 9453
Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 8:46 pm
Location: Perth WA

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by urbangriller »

Entry #11

Jumbuck Rack.

First the beer: Redback Wheat Beer
1 full Lamb rack
3 Lamb Fillets

I added a 1/4 teaspoon of salt to a bottle of Redback to brine the lamb in for a day.

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I opened up the rack before brining, crushed some toasted pine nuts and pistachio and packed it with the nut mix and extra fillets (it is really poor genetic design only having one fillet in a rack). Then tied the bugger up! Technically, this is stuffing the Jumbuck!

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Now of course to cook it, what better than a Beer Keg?

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And a recipe shoot wouldn’t be right without a shot of Managements plate (If you expect me to eat that, I’m only having salad with it!).

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Served with Apricot mint compote, made by stewing Apricots, mint, a little sugar and more Redback.

Cheers
Chris
Last edited by urbangriller on Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Common Sense is so rare these days it should be a Super Power!
BBQ Princess
Posts: 80
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 5:24 pm

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by BBQ Princess »

Wow - looking good people! Congrats to everyone who has submitted an entry so far!

Entry #12

Here's mine - Aussie lamb rissoles :D

Ingredients

I had some good lamb mince, so just kept it simple to allow the flavours to work. To the lamb mince I added garlic, onion, lemon juice, fresh rosemary from our garden, dried oregano, salt and pepper - and yes, that's a KB! My dad used to drink this in the 70s, and it was the very first beer I ever tasted when I was little (well, probably the only beer I ever tasted when I was a child). I didn't know it was still around, and then when I saw it, it reminded me of a time when my sister and I snuck a few sips and thought it was great fun. Ah, happy days!

Method

I mixed the ingredients together and chilled for a few hours. I made rissoles and then cooked them directly on the Weber Q for a couple of minutes each side, then finished them off indirectly (foil and trivet) for about 15 minutes. The I caramelised some red onions on a breakfast plate on the Weber Q, cooking them in oil to start with and then adding KB mixed with about a teaspoon or so of brown sugar. Then I did bacon and eggs, also on the breakfast hotplate.

The result

The lamb rissoles were absolutely delicious! For me, this competition was about having a laugh and trying to create a dish that embodied a good old Aussie burger with the lot - the ones you can still get at best-kept secret little take-away places in the country. That meant doing things like frying onions with beer and adding beetroot to a burger. So to accompany the lamb rissole, I added avocado, lettuce, tomato, caramelised onions, cheese, bacon, egg and beetroot (on hubby's). And plain wholemeal rolls. Putting the two halves together was fun. Oh, and because the KB got used up with the cooking, we had to settle for a Pepperjack ale and a Knappstein reserve larger :D
Attachments
Ingredients
Ingredients
Image0569.jpg (122.07 KiB) Viewed 4263 times
Good old Aussie lamb burger
Good old Aussie lamb burger
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rissoles cooking...Mmmmmm
rissoles cooking...Mmmmmm
Image0572.jpg (183.83 KiB) Viewed 4263 times
Last edited by BBQ Princess on Thu Jan 27, 2011 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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beachbums
Posts: 1278
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 5:51 pm
Location: Smokefireandfood.com

Re: Australia Day Cooking Contest Details Rules and Entries

Post by beachbums »

Great stuff everybody :D Lots of FOOD for thought haha :) Well ideas we want to try out soon anyway.


Entry #13

Here's our attempt......
First up our meats and the beers to go in the recipes with them


Emu Bitter to try to cut through the fattiness of the Lamb Flap and Cascade Premium Light to go in the brine for the Lamb Leg

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The Lamb Flap
We thought we'd heve a go at something different for the first course and came up with a Lamb Flap. Not a choice cut of meat by far but one our forebears would be well aquainted with. To give it a newish sorta twist we opted for an aisiany fusion sort of dish. We wrapped the flap around a bit of garlic and rosemary sprigs before it went in the Weber. Not really asian but we've got it growing in the garden. We boned out the flap and trimmed as much fat as we could off it. It was in the marinade for 24 hours before going into the Weber.

Ingredients for the Marinade

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Basting with a Plum Sauce and Emu Bitter mop while cooking. We tried to keep the temp down around 100-120 degrees to get as much fat to render out as we could

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After 6 hours it looked like this....

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We plated it up as an entree on an Asian Slaw and dressed with a dribble more Plum Sauce

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Main course was a trusty old family favourite. We Tunnel-boned leg of lamb and stuffed it with spinach, carrot, celery and spring onion. We brined this for 24 hours in a brine of salt, brown sugar, garlic, rosemary and Cacade Premium Light.

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We popped it in the Weber at around 200ish degrees until the internal temp hit 71gegrees then wrapped it to rest for a bit.

Ready to start carving

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Plated up with BabyQ wedges and a Pumpkin, Fetta and Spinach Salad

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Ooops, almost forgot our Caramelised Onions withBalsamic vinagar and a pinch of Star Anise.

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Dessert was a good old Chocolate cake made with Coopers Extra Stout ( we did cut it up with the same knife we sliced the roast up with but I don't think the judges will allow that it has enough Lamb content to be included :)


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Pretty tasty though

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Cheers Guys and Girls,
Team Beachbums, Wayne and Jan
Last edited by beachbums on Fri Jan 28, 2011 12:48 am, edited 2 times in total.
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