This Australia Day consider having a truly Australian celebration by including some native ingredients in your banquet.

That's the recommendation of CSIRO's Dr Maarten Ryder, the scientist at the heart of the burgeoning native foods industry.

"There are some truly wonderful flavours among our native foods, and its high time we all started to enjoy a different taste with some authentic Australian ingredients," he says.

Bush tucker is no longer something you might sample on an Outback camping trip: it's increasingly available in supermarkets, in restaurants, from gourmet food stores, cottage-industry suppliers and even some city markets, says Dr Ryder.

Dr Ryder and his colleagues are working with farmers, Aboriginal communities and Coles Supermarkets on a cornucopia of fruits, nuts, seeds and other Australian delicacies.

The research focuses on ways to domesticate native plants, improve their yield and find the best ways to handle and process them to reach the consumer at the peak of flavour.

For instance, a bit of fresh bread dipped in a dukkah made from a mixture of macadamia oil, ground native nuts and seeds, like bunya nuts and wattle seeds is a different way to start the meal.

"If you're having a traditional Australia Day family barbecue, then give it a truly Aussie flavour with some bush BBQ sauce, or wild lime and chilli sauce, or bush tomato chutney," he suggests.

"If you're planning fish, then lemon myrtle leaves gives it a delicious lemony flavour. But the taste goes just as well in sweets like ice-cream.

Lemon myrtle and native pepper also add a mouth-watering tang to home-made sausages, pasties or hamburgers.

"If you like your food spicy, then try native mountain pepper - it comes from a tree that's native to NSW and Victoria and you grind it in a mill, just like the familiar peppercorns. Some people even put a pinch in their boiled fruit cake mix!

"Then there are riberries which taste sharp and fruity with a hint of cloves. Try adding them to your fruit desserts for a novel flavour.

Another reason for eating more Australian native foods, says Dr Ryder, is that they are good for our environment.

"These things evolved in this continent over millions of years, and are wonderfully adapted to it. Farming them is likely to be more sustainable and in tune with Australia's natural ecosystems.

"So this Australia Day, think about eating something that is not only healthy, delicious and original - but also good for Australia."

Recipes from Juleigh Robins, Robins' Australian Foods and Andrew Fielke Consulting Chef, Native Foods/Red Ochre. All serve 4 people.

4 Tasmanian salmon fillets/cutlets/steaks
4 teaspoons "Outback Rub"*
2 teaspoons Wild Herb Salt*
2 teaspoons Mountain Pepper
1 tablespoon Wild Lime Macadamia Oil (olive oil may be used)
Australian salad mix
1 Avocado
Wild Lime Chilli & Ginger Sauce

• Mix the Outback Rub, Wild Herb Salt and Mountain Pepper together
• Rub salmon fillets with the Oil and press fish lightly, each side in the herb mix
• Place a skillet/frying pan on a high heat with some Macadamia Oil. Cook salmon for 4-5 minutes each side, depending on the thickness of the fish
• Place a mound of salad mix on serving plate and fan slices of avocado on the salad
• Place the salmon on top and drizzle approximately a dessertspoon of Wild Lime Chilli & Ginger Sauce over the fish.

4 Australian prime eye fillet steaks
2 dessertspoons Pepperberries
2 dessertspoons Wild Herb Salt*
Macadamia Oil
2 bunches of Australian rocket (or your favourite salad greens)
1 red capsicum [sweet pepper] cut into fine julienne strips
1 golden zucchini cut into fine julienne strips
Wild Plum Chilli Sauce*

• Using a chopper, chop the pepperberries into a coarse powder [like coarse ground coffee] Mix the pepperberries and Wild Herb salt together
• Lightly rub the eye fillet with macadamia oil
• Lightly dust both sides of the steaks with the pepperberry seasoning.
• Heat a little macadamia oil in a skillet [high heat] and cook the seasoned steaks for 3 minutes each side. Place the sealed steaks in a preheated moderate oven for a further 5 minutes. [this will provide a medium rare cooked steak. Cook further in oven if desired.]
• Place a small handful of rocket [salad greens] in the center of each plate. Arrange a mix of the julienned strips of capsicum and golden zucchini into a loose pile on top of the rocket.
• Remove the steak from the oven and slice into medallions. Lay across the top of the salad.
• Drizzle Robin's Wild Plum and Chilli Sauce over the top of the steak.

SPINACH & RICOTTA TORTELLINI WITH BUSH TOMATO SAUCE

2 packets of fresh spinach and ricotta tortellini
2 Australian vine ripened tomatoes, diced
1 medium sized onion, finely diced
1 cup fresh chopped Australian herbs [eg. Chives, coriander, basil etc]
1 bottle [250 ml] Bush Tomato Sauce*
1 teaspoon Mountain Pepper
1 teaspoon Wild Herb Salt
Macadamia Oil [or olive oil]
Australian Parmesan cheese, shaved

• Cook the tortellini in a large pot of boiling water until tender. Drain the pasta and keep warm until sauce is ready.
• In a frying pan heat a little Macadamia Oil and cook onions until tender.
• Add diced tomatoes and cook gently for approx 2 minutes.
• Add Bush Tomato Sauce, the Mountain Pepper and Wild Herb Salt and cook until sauce comes back to the boil.
• Turn heat to low. Quickly fold through the fresh chopped herbs.
• Return pasta to the hot sauce and fold through.
• Serve in a bowl with the shaved parmesan loosely scattered on top.

WATTLESEED BUTTERSCOTCH ICE-CREAM SUNDAE WITH ALMOND BREAD

Kitchen Almond Bread
4 scoops of ice-cream
1 punnet of Australian strawberries, hulled and halved
½ Australian rock melon cut into cubes
1 bottle Wattleseed Butterscotch sauce*

• Place 1 or 2 pieces of Kitchen Almond Bread on a plate.
• Place a generous scoop of ice-cream on the top of the almond bread.
• Scatter the fruit over and around the ice-cream.
• Pour the Wattleseed and Butterscotch Sauce over the ice-cream.
• Place a piece of almond bread on top.

STIR FRY KANGAROO WITH BUSH TOMATO CHILLI SAUCE

I dsp sesame oil
750g lean kangaroo fillets (sinew-free and sliced into 5mm strips across thegrain)
1 dsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic (peeled and very finely chopped)
2-3 Red Chillis sliced (optional for chilli lovers)
1 dsp finely grated ginger
1/2 bottle Bush Tomato Sauce
1 medium onion sliced
1 bunch Bok Choy or Choy Sum washed and cut into even size pieces
1/2 red capsicum sliced
1/2 green capsicum sliced

To Finish:
1 x 200g Pkt. Hokkien noodles
1 bunch fresh coriander
1 bunch Thai basil

• Heat sesame oil in the wok until smoking and add kangaroo. Stir-fry on high heat,
• stirring continuously to seal the meat and lightly brown (approx. 1-2 minutes). Remove the meat from the wok. Cover and keep warm. Set aside.
• Add another dessert spoon full of sesame oil to the wok and stir-fry the garlic, chilli and ginger until just starting to brown. Then add the vegetables and stir fry for 2-3 mins. or until they are slightly softened
• Add the Bush Tomato Chilli Sauce, stir all together and then add the meat to warm through
• Heat the Hokkien noodles through in a little boiling water or chicken stock ( in the micro wave or pot) and serve onto plates. Top with the stir fry and sprinklings of fresh coriander and basil

FISH IN PAPER BARK WITH LEMON MYRTLE

1 x 2-3 kg Snapper (or other white flesh fish)
1 roll Paperbark
10 - 15 leaves Lemon Myrtle
Salt and ground Pepper Leaf (or fresh ground pepper)

• Cut 4-5 diagonal slits down each side of the scaled fish. Place a Lemon Myrtle leaf into each incision and a few leaves in the belly cavity. Season lightly both sides with salt and pepper leaf. Rinse the paperbark sheets of excess debris. (Paperbark may also be soaked overnight to soften if it is extra dry).
• Wrap the fish in sheets of bark and secure with string. Bake in an oven on a tray for 50-60 minutes at 200°C. Works well in the weber or the traditional aboriginal style in the hot ash and sand of the camp fire.
• Lemon Myrtle also makes an excellent light refreshing tea by bringing leaves to the boil and allowing to stand, keeping hot for 10-15 minutes to draw well.

225g Couverture dark
30ml brandy
30ml coffee
180g butter - unsalted
180g castor sugar
180g almond meal - ground
6 eggs
200g riberries
60g castor sugar

• Gently simmer the cleaned Riberries with the 60g sugar for approximately 10 minutes.Melt chocolate with the butter, brandy and coffee. Whisk in egg yolks and almond meal. Whisk egg whites with sugar (180g) to medium peaks. Fold in mixture with Riberries and pour into a cake ring. Bake at 160°C for 45 minutes.

More information:

Dr Maarten Ryder, CSIRO 08 8303 8534 or 0409 696 360
Email: maarten.ryder@csiro.au

Juleigh Robins, Robins Australian Foods 03 9587 8820 or 0419 325 245

Andrew Fielke, Native Foods, 0412 109 003
email: afielke@chariot.net.au

* Red Ochre, Robin's Australian Foods, and other products are available from Coles supermarkets. Coles, Red Ochre, Robin's Australian Foods and Taylor's Foods are sponsoring research and development of Australian Native Foods.