bush tomato marinade

Bush tomato is not really tomato, it is more closely related to eggplants but it looks a bit tomato-y in its fruit form and colonialism and English, ugh, yo. They're found in various species and forms across Australia and are super delicious but also occasionally poisonous! Which is a great punchline for a joke about Australia, I guess. Because it's so widely spread it has a lot of indigenous names, commonly akudjura (when crushed or powdered) or kutjera.

Anyway in my quest to use more indigenous spices that have been pushed aside by racism and the euro-centricity of Australian cooking, I am currently playing with bush tomato, and at the recent vegmel 4th birthday picnic I made a bush tomato salad where I marinated basically everything in bush tomato. This is the GREATEST MARINADE ever. If I ate meat I would put it on all of them, but I don't so TOFU and maybe I have yet to try tempeh with it but I'm sure it'll work.

Bush tomato tastes smokey and kind of like amazingness.

BUSH TOMATO MARINADE

2 tbl ground bush tomato (I get mine from Gewurzhaus on Lygon Street where they love me)
2 tbl sunflower or macadamia oil
2 tbl olive oil
1 tblish of minced garlic

Mix it all together, slather it on some tofu and leave it to sit. This amount goes across about 400g of tofu (firm! as always with marinading).

I served it with shaved carrot and zucchini and some cherry tomatoes, in a bush tomato-based dressing.

BTW if anyone in the Melbournes knows where I can buy not-ground bush tomato, please let me know, I want to try turning these into scones.

lemon myrtle and macadamia nut biscuits

Last night I used some newly purchased ground lemon myrtle to make lemon myrtle and macadamia biscuits. They were so amazing they were immediately eaten all up, not all by me fiona is also to blame! So sadly there is no photo to share. Lamentably, this means I will simply have to make them again immediately. Maybe gluten-free.

Lemon myrtle is my favourite indigenous Australian spice, and a little bit goes such a very long way. Macadamia is a nut I always forget about, even though it tastes amazing with all sorts of things, and I only ever remember it when I'm passing through the airport and it's filled with macadamia products (because macadamias are Australian and apparently really expensive overseas).

lemon myrtle and macadamia biscuits

you will need:
240g plain white flour
100g sugar (i used raw)
200g margarine + sunflower oil (i used about 150g nuttelex and 50g sunflower oil)
1 tsp baking powder (FLAT)
1 tbl lemon myrtle (FLAT)
comfortable handful of macadamias

oven: 200C

Cream together the sugar with the oily things until looking good and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder and lemon myrtle, and combine until lovely and smooth. I ended up having to rub it all together with my hands, but that brought it together beautifully. Crush or chop the macadamias and mix into the rest of it. Roll into circles and squash down on baking tray. Bake for 10-13 minutes, depending on how chewy or firm you like your biscuits. I forgot about mine and so they ended up beautiful and brown and fragrant and firm like a rock (though still edible).

I promise to photograph mine next time, but really the most important thing about them is the smell. Baking lemon myrtle is the best.