Explore local produce recipes and the stories of some of our amazing community cooks (click the photo or link below it).
- Community Cook – Lou’s Thai Eggplant
Lou Benton has had many interesting adventures and culinary experiences since she left New Zealand to explore different parts of the world. She spent 6 years in the UK and 8 years in Thailand, working and travelling. It was in Thailand that she developed her passion for Thai food with its plethora of wonderful street … Continue reading Community Cook – Lou’s Thai Eggplant - Community Cook – Dimity’s Garden Ratatouille
Words by Kim Yates The benefit of cooking in Lakeside Drive Community Garden was that Dimity Foster, our local chef, could source a lot of her ingredients straight out of the ground. Within minutes, after a quick rinse, the produce would end up in the heavy cast iron pot. What Dimity didn’t get to gather … Continue reading Community Cook – Dimity’s Garden Ratatouille - Community Cook – Ary’s Balado Cassava Leaves
Ary grew up in a small town called Pekalongan in Central Java, Indonesia, where local food and farming is a huge and important part of life. She was living with her family when she ended up meeting a young American man, Ben and moving to live with him in East Java. That was 22 years … Continue reading Community Cook – Ary’s Balado Cassava Leaves - Commuity Cook – Ben’s Star Fruit Salad
We featured this story in Off The Leash’s “Community Cooks” The Recipe is also available in the “Eat My Words” community cook book. Ben is a wonderful Bininji man from Murdudjurl country, growing up on his homeland which is now Kakadu. After some years living in Darwin and beyond Ben is back on country and … Continue reading Commuity Cook – Ben’s Star Fruit Salad - Community Cook – Karunika’s Pawpaw Curry
Community Cook- A Taste Of Sri Lanka Darwin community cook, Karunika creates fantastic curries with all the care and attention and wisdom that has been passed on for many generations within her family and certainly as is customary throughout Sri Lanka. She migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka in 2009 and is delighted to share … Continue reading Community Cook – Karunika’s Pawpaw Curry - Community Cook – Pedro’s Taro Rostis & Salsa
The first ‘not yet humid’ afternoon experience was held at a Darwin-style tropical house in Alawa and the small group enjoyed glasses of soda water with fragrant mint, bobbing bush tucker berries of pinkish lilly pilly fruit and slices of shrill green limes. Pedro, originally from Mexico’s tropical, humid, and jungle-like Chiapas region, shared his … Continue reading Community Cook – Pedro’s Taro Rostis & Salsa - Community Cook – Matumba’s Cassava Pone
Matumba is a fabulous member of our Darwin community and has lived in Darwin for 16 years. Matumba grew up in Darliston near Montego Bay in Jamaica in the Carribean with his Grandma until he was eight years old. It was pretty simple living, but food was always important, using whatever was grown on the … Continue reading Community Cook – Matumba’s Cassava Pone - Community Cook – Rod’s Cane Toad Canapes
It’s happened again, the cane toad eating has hit the headlines! Professor Phillip Hayward, from Southern Cross University has been promoting the eating of cane toads (and our site) This seems appropriate as the rain starts to come again and the invasive amphibians begin to come forth and multiply, messing with the ecological integrity of … Continue reading Community Cook – Rod’s Cane Toad Canapes - Community Cook – Bhavini’s Cassava Curry
Earlier this year we held a fabulous roots workshop at The Mulch Pit (in Nightcliff, Darwin). We had over 30 people attending, some cassava harvesting and wonderful presenters sharing their food stories and recipes of the easily grown roots- Cassava and Taro, they included- Matumba and his Cassava pone and Taro chips Grusha and Cassava … Continue reading Community Cook – Bhavini’s Cassava Curry - Community Cook – Erin’s Sapodilla dessert
Delicious Sapodillas are ready and available at the Rapid Creek, and probably other local food markets. Sapodilla, or Manilkara zapota, is a small brown rough skinned fruit resembling a (soft) small potato. It has a rich sugary malt like flavour and is from the Americas. It is grown in the Darwin region. I have now put up … Continue reading Community Cook – Erin’s Sapodilla dessert