Excited about our first week on this adventure, I pulled up countries that started with A so we could look at it together. Excitedly she noticed Algeria first. After perusing the list however, she decided on Australia.
Australia - a land I knew very little about, and a cuisine I knew nothing about! Fortunately we have good friends that moved here from Melbourne so a few text messages later, I had enough ideas and recipes we could pick from. From sausage rolls, and meat pies served with salad on the side, to rosemary and garlic infused roasted leg of lamb served with toasted pumpkin, potatoes and peas - the options seemed endless. And for dessert, some options I had never heard of - pavlova served with fresh seasonal fruit and nuts, Lamingtons and Anzac biscuits. I wanted to try them all!
After discussing the options, we picked sausage rolls and pavlova for our Australian dinner. Anzac biscuits would have to wait for another day. The kid was so excited for this dinner! All week all she could talk about was the Australian feast we were going to have. I wanted this to be a teaching moment for the entire family so in addition to food, I also wanted us to learn a little about the country that is also a continent. I clearly had my work cut out for me..
Sausage Rolls: Every culture seems to have their interpretation of this, some sort of vegetable or meat preparation baked between layers of puff pastry. Not a new concept, but I think in this case the nuance lay in how simply the filling was seasoned, and yet how flavorful it was! This is the recipe I followed (loosely, I might add). For those of you that know me, you know I treat recipes as suggestions. Here are some edits I made to the recipe, partly because of what I had on hand, and partly because.
- I left out the bacon, fennel and breadcrumbs
- I used celery, carrot, onions and garlic, chopped extremely finely. Try to mimic the ground meat
Things your kiddo can help with:
- Fill the puff pastry with the meat mixture and form the rolls
- Egg wash the rolls
- Cut the rolls into single serving sizes (they might need help with this, but its the perfect opportunity to practice fractions!)
Pavlova: I used the recipe from Sally's baking addiction. I am not a baker (see comment about recipes). Baking seems fussy and rigid with little room to be spontaneous, or perhaps it is my inexperience with baking. Either way, I have used many of Sally's recipes and every one has been amazing, so it was a no brainer!
Things your kiddo can help with:
- Separate the eggs (if your kids are old enough)
- Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks
- Chop fruit for the topping
- Decorate the pavlova once it is baked (we used strawberries and blueberries on ours drizzled with honey-vanilla creme fraiche)
Additional Resources:
Books: My friend was very kind to loan us some fantastic kids books about Australia as well - here are a few of them in case you are interested:
- A is for Australia - Frane Lessac
- Are we there yet - Alison Lester
- Welcome to country - Aunt Joy Murphy and Lisa Kennedy
- Our World: Bardi Jaawi Life at Ardiyooloon
Website: While searching for kid friendly facts about Australia, I stumbled upon this website. While the interface is a little dated, I located a really comprehensive file with all kinds of details perfect to share with kids. They also have a lot of other information if you are interested in spending a little time exploring.
Hope you enjoyed our little jourmey to Australia, we sure did!
Fantastic idea
ReplyDelete🤩 loved it.
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