Fraser Coast Foodies story in Fraser Coast Life & Style magazine,
August edition:
"LOW’N’SLOW WINTER WARMERS"
Winter is now well and truly upon us and as blessed as Fraser Coast residents are climate-wise, warming comfort food is still our favourite when the mercury dips on chilly evenings. Even our wonderful whales seem to slow down and glide languorously through our waters on their annual Hervey Bay holiday, taking their own sweet time to check out excited visitors on board the whale watching fleet and always drawing lots of oohh’s and ahhh’s.
I’ve just returned from judging 5 categories of food cooked low and slow by 40 teams on all kinds of wood-fired offset, kettle, egg and drum barbecues at The Brisbane Barbecue Festival. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it! This flavoursome event ignited my thinking about low and slow winter cooking and the many forms this can take.
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| Professional Offset BBQ Smoker. Photo/ Denis Maher |
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| Barbecue competion pork rib. Photo/ Denis Maher. |
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| Low'n'slow barbecue competition brisket. Photo/ Denis Maher |
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| Low'Slow Offset BBQ. Photo/ Denis Maher. |
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| Low'n'Slow BBQ competition pork ribs. Photo/ Denis Maher.jpg |
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| Professional BBQ competition pork rib judging. Photo/ Denis Maher |
Chef Dan Mulheron from EAT at Dan & Steph’s frequently fires up his 22” Bullockhead Creek offset smoker to produce special low'n'slow dishes like smoked brisket, pulled pork, American pork ribs and even beautiful smoked Portuguese chicken. Dan says it is all about finding the right flavours that work well with the subtle smoke of the local ironbark they use. “We apply our own blends of marinades and rubs to the proteins before smoking. Then into the smoker chamber with the temperature no higher than 220F, then we wrap it up and cook it out the rest of the way for up to 16 hours until it’s soft, moist, juicy and absolutely delicious”.
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| EAT at Dan & Steph's Bullockhead Creek offset smoker |
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| Barbecued beef cheeks. Photo/ Dan Mulheron |
In Maryborough, Chef Gavan Chin at the Federal Hotel regularly uses his gas-fired box smoker to impart special flavours to his menu. Dishes like apple wood smoked beef short ribs, hickory smoked lamb shanks, 14 hour smoked beef briskets and cold smoked baby octopus are always popular. Diners can find smoked dishes on the menu throughout the week but the second Saturday of each month is Gavan’s special “Low and Slow Smoking Saturday”.
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| Hickory smoked lamb shanks at the Federal Hotel. Photo: Gavan Chin. |
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| 14 hour smoked brisket at the Federal Hotel. Photo/ Gavan Chin. |
And the Beach House Hotel has just announced a new menu designed around their brand new, custom-built, wood fired smoker. Head Chef Matthew O’Brien is passionate about authentic American barbecue cuisine, and has been busy perfecting low’n’slow recipes and fine-tuning the new menu.
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| Beach House smoked beef brisket burger. |
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| Beach House Hotel Head Chef Matthew O'Brian happy with their new low'n'slow smoker. |
Sous vide is another low’n’slow cooking technique, and COAST Restaurant’s new winter menu features dishes like Lamb shoulder with pickled garlic concasse and black olive, Sticky beef short ribs with coconut and ginger caramel, and Beef cheek with smoked cauliflower, gremolata and onion cooked this way. The proteins are sealed into cryovac bags with the desired rub/marinade to intensify the flavour, and cooked at low temperature for a longer period of time until the meat becomes tender and pulls apart with ease. This gives chefs high levels of control to produce the consistent quality customers expect.
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| COAST Restaurant's low'n'slow beef short ribs. Photo/ Julia Passau |
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| COAST Restaurant's low'n'slow lamb. Photo/ Julia Passau |
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| 100 hour sous vide brisket at 129F. Photo: Sous Vide Nation. |
Did you know that the Fraser Coast is home to the number one Australian bestselling cookbook author Paulene Christie? Paulene established Slow Cooker Central in 2014 and now has over 2,550 slow cooker recipes available online, on her app, and in her 3 Slow Cooker Central cookbooks. Paulene believes slow cookers are a budget and user-friendly appliance to use all year round for traditional soups, stews and silversides, and also for non-traditional slow cooker recipes like cakes, bakes, curries, lasagna, quiches, lunchbox treats and much more. No fancy recipes or obscure ingredients but real food, cooked by real people, in real kitchens.
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| Slow Cooker Central author Paulene Christie book signing at Mary Ryans Hervey Bay. Photo/ Paulene Christie. |
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| Slow Cooker Central app. Photo/ Paulene Christie |
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| Photo/ Paulene Christie, Slow Cooker Central. |
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| Photo/ Paulene Christie, Slow Cooker Central. |
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| Photo: Paulene Christie, Slow Cooker Central. |
Don’t forget our fabulous Hervey Bay Seafood Festival on Sunday August 13th. For winter warming seafood dishes, think chunky seafood chowders, chilli crabs, and Thai green seafood curries. Topped with a last-minute squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice.
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| Fraser Coast chilli mud crab. |
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| Low'n'Slow BBQ event. Photo/ Denis Maher |
Until next month…bon appétit!
Stop Press: The Clubhouse Hervey Bay have commenced low'n'slow lunch options on Sundays, with a spit roast and a Hark offset smoker offering golf club patrons a fabulous feed.
#ausbbqa #barbecue #lownslow #slowcooking #sousvide
