First Nations Food Companion is a groundbreaking celebration of the most accessible and popular Indigenous Australian ingredients and their uses in the everyday home kitchen. Welcome to a food-lover’s guidebook to the First Foods of this continent. Including an informative guide to more than 60 of the most accessible Indigenous ingredients, including their flavour profiles, along with tips for how to buy, grow and store them.
Damien Coulthard is an Adnyamathanha and Dieri person of the Flinders Ranges, an international artist, cultural educator and high school teacher. He is a former board director of the South Australian Native Title Service. Damien’s wife Rebecca Sullivan (@grannyskills) is a food educator, regenerative farmer, Yale World Fellow and TV presenter who has featured in ABC’s Gardening Australia as well as on Channels Nine and Ten.
Together, Damien and Rebecca are co-founders of Warndu, a native food enterprise and ethical lifestyle brand which runs pop-up restaurants and workshops, employs local indigenous and non-indigenous people. Their first book, Warndu Mai, was awarded the best cookbook in Australia at the Gourmand Awards.
Bunya nut risotto with bush green pesto
We like to use bunya nuts as a straight substitute for pine nuts. The best thing about them is they’re also about a hundred times bigger (slight exaggeration), so you only need a few to pack a punch.
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 4 cups (1 litre) vegetable or chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons macadamia oil
- 2 eschalots, finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 Geraldton wax sprigs, needles finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon powder)
- 150 g (5½ oz) arborio rice
- 2 cups (500 ml) white wine
- ½ cup (50 g) finely grated parmesan
- Native herbs, crisp-fried, to serve
Bunya Nut Butter
Ingredients
- 225 g (8 oz) bunya nuts, chopped
- 2½ tablespoons macadamia oil
Bush Green Pesto
Ingredients
- 5 cups (250 g) warrigal greens
- 2½ cups (50 g) sea parsley
- 1 cup (50 g) native basil
- 3 finger limes, pearls squeezed
- 1 cup (250 ml) macadamia oil
- 20 desert limes
- ¾ cup (100 g) macadamia nuts, roasted and chopped
- ¾ cup (100 g) bunya nuts, toasted and chopped
- 3 garlic cloves
- Juice of 2 lemons
- ²⁄³ cup (70 g) parmesan, finely grated
Method
For bunya nut butter, heat oven to 180°C (350°F). Roast bunya nuts for 3–4 minutes until hot but not browned. Reserve about 6 nuts to serve, then place the rest in a food processor or blender, add oil, 150 ml (5 fl oz) water and blitz on high speed until very smooth, scraping down sides occasionally if needed. If it’s a little dry, add a splash more water; you’re aiming for a nut butter consistency. Season to taste with salt and ground pepperberry. Nut butter will keep refrigerated for a month.
For bush green pesto, blanch warrigal greens in boiling water for 1 minute then refresh in iced water. Drain well, roughly chop, then add to a food processor with herbs, finger lime and a drizzle of oil. Blitz to a coarse puree, then add desert limes, macadamia nuts, bunya nuts and garlic and continue to blitz, drizzling the remaining oil in slowly. Stir in lemon juice, then parmesan and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepperberry. Pesto will keep refrigerated for 1–2 weeks.
— First Nations Food Companion by Damien Coulthard, Rebecca Sullivan (Murdoch Books) is out on the 5th of October.
First Nations Food Companion
How to buy, cook, eat and grow Indigenous Australian ingredients
A groundbreaking celebration of the most accessible and popular Indigenous Australian ingredients and their uses in the everyday home kitchen. Welcome to a food-lover's guidebook to the First Foods of this continent. Including an informative guide to more than 60 of the most accessible Indigenous ingredients, including their flavour profiles, along with tips for how to buy, grow and store them.
After that, 100 delicious recipes: all featuring native ingredients, and including tips for substituting regular pantry ingredients where needed - including Bush-Tomato Cheese on Toast, Anise Myrtle and
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