Edible Sunshine Coast - Caloundra

Eating local is...
Exciting, fresh, supportive and makes you feel good too.

The Sunshine Coast where I live, is home to some very talented local producers indeed.
We have locally made products like milk, yoghurt, the best cream I have ever tried, cheese, olives and olive products, preserves, chocolate, nuts and nut products, nut pastes, tempeh, salad dressings that are to die for, olive oils, avocado oil, flavoured oils, beautiful breads, buffalo haloumi cheese, cordials, ginger and ginger products, coffees, teas, seafood, African spice and sauce blends, spices, chick pea and broad beans "chips", jams, preserves, gluten free products, pastas, gorgeous fresh fruits and vegetables, beautiful chopping boards and even natural dishwashing liquid just to name some of them!

Almost a year ago I teamed up with a very exciting and innovative supermarket, Maleny IGA to use these amazing local products and create unique recipes around them that they published on recipes cards for their customers and were also introduced through fun taste testing events in store each month which were all received with great success!

I have been delighted to further promote these recipes, what the Maleny IGA does and the EAT LOCAL movement through the Sunshine Coast Libraries and a series of Edible Sunshine Coast events where the audience hears all about local products, why it is so fantastic to eat local, how it has a ripple benefitial effect through the whole community and supports local families and jobs and all about the extensive range carried by the Maleny IGA as one of the region's greatest supporters of local businesses.
 The audience also gets to taste test some goodies and 2 of the recipes!
Like the Custard Apple Coconut Crumble served with gorgeous Maleny Dairies cream and custard brought to each demonstration by the lovely Meg! Who is a fountain of knowledge on dairy and a huge favourite with the audience!

Meg

The Custard Apple Coconut Crumble

It was wonderful seeing the audience enjoy the food
Aamongst them was the lovely Karen from Wholistic Evolution

and the Sunshine Coast's own inspirational Yummy Mummies!

 And to end on a really high note we had some lucky (and very happy) winners of some fantastic prizes like gorgeous Maleny Dairies products, a beautiful locally made Fab Slabs chopping board and the sensational Pomodora's dressings

It was a wonderful morning full of the buzz for local food,

Thanks you so much to everyone that came and to the Caloundra Library for hosting us!
At the date of posting this one there are just 2 Edible Sunshine Coast events left! Nambour and Noosa, unfortunately Noosa is fully booked out but you can leave your name in case of cancellation and still get one of the last spots at the Nambour HERE

EAT LOCAL

Rebecca x
A big thank you to:

Cooroy Fusion Festival

One of my big passions, food, combines with my love of supporting locals in the 

Edible Sunshine Coast presentations. 

These 7 presentations kicked off on Saturday with the fantastic 

Cooroy Fusion Festival
What a well crafted and put together event!
I was absolutely delighted to be a presenter and so impressed with the large crowd that drew around as I started to talk and offer some taste tests and inspiration for eating local. It wasn't long before we were surrounded by a sea of enthusiastic locals trying the Custard Apple Coconut Crumble
served with gorgeous Maleny Dairies cream and custard by special guest Meg from Maleny Dairies

http://www.malenydairies.com/
And the Haloumi Bread Salad featuring the Sunshine Coast's own award winning haloumi cheese! And not to forget the Macadamia Mustard Potato Salad
It is so wonderful to get that live feedback from your food creations as people co
me up to tell you how much they enjoyed something, to see smiling faces as they happily eat something you designed!

This little girls was soo cute as she munched away on crumble and cream!
The audience also had the fascinating Bede from Maleny Avocado Oil as a special guest pop on the microphone and chat to the audience about his amazing avocado oil and how it is a nutrient booster and how his actually has the highest smoke point of oils at 225 degrees celsius. 

Making it ideal for roasting, baking, stir frying and beautiful in a salad.
And it doesn't just stop there either! Avocado oil is great as a moisturiser and great with essential oil blends!
And did I mention this avocado oil tastes gorgeous?
I used it in the pastry for the Quinoa Pot Pies, it gave the pastry a delicious nutty flavour.

And the highlight of the demonstration for one very lucky lady was the winner of that fantastic prize pack as donated by Sunshine Coast business Nutworks; a special bottle of extra virgin cold pressed Avocado oil personally from Bede!

http://www.nutworks.com.au/

http://www.facebook.com/Nutworks.com.au

When I say everybody wanted to win this prize I'm not joking!
Thank you Nutworks!!

I even found my oldest backstage enjoying my salad!

I absolutely loved being a part of the Cooroy Fusion Festival and my girls had an absolute ball as well.

If your in the Sunshine Coast area, there is still time to book into 5 of the remaining 6 Edible Sunshine Coast presentations
( 1 is fully booked out)
Follow this link to book in to these free events and get inspired to Eat Local!
http://www.library.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/sitePage.cfm?code=edible

Come along and find out why I joined forces with local supermarket Maleny IGA to produce recipes for their unique collectible Local Product Local Recipe - recipe cards.
Grab one in store!

Rebecca  xx

Prawns with Mango & Carrot lettuce cups salad

AS SEEN in the Sunshine Coast Daily - 2013

Looking for something fresh and tasty to serve for Christmas Day or a great dish to entertain friends and family at your next diner party? Or just a beautiful dinner or lunch idea for the family?

Fresh, light, healthy and looks gorgeous

Try my recipe Festive Prawns with Mango  & Carrot Salad served with either my apple cider cinegar lemon dressing or for Sunshine Coast people who are ok with sugar try the lovely Lime & Ginger Dressing by Pomodora's

Happy cooking!

Ingredients

• 4 large green prawns per person
• 1 whole head lettuce
• wooden skewers
• 2 ripe mangoes, sliced
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large red chilli, deseeded, chopped
• 2 cups Woodford baby spinach leaves
• 2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
• 2 stalks celery cut thinly on the diagonal
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 2 limes
• Pomodora's ginger & lime dressing

Bek's Apple Cider Lemon Dressing

• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• honey to taste
• chili to taste
• I find this dressing is different for everyone, tweak the quantities until the flavour is just perfect for you - its beautiful!

Method

• Soak skewers for 30 minutes
• Toast coconut by placing in a dry medium heat frying pan, stirring lightly browned, set aside.
• Gently combine carrot, celery, spinach, mango, coconut, chilli and sesame seeds in a bowl, gently toss.
• Lightly salt and then cook skewered prawns in frying pan or on BBQ, 2-3 minutes.
• Wash lettuce and pull of cups for serving salad in, arrange on plates, 1 per person - see notes.
• Fill each cup with carrot and mango salad, garnish with a little extra coconut.
• Place 2 cooked prawn skewers on each plate alongside lettuce cup.
• Serve with a lime wedge and a small side of the Pomodora's dressing for drizzling over the prawns and salad.

Notes

• To remove a lettuce cup - cut 3-4 cm off the bottom of a whole head lettuce. Hold under running water until cups (leaves) come loose, remove an discard outer leaves and use inner leaves (cups), drain.
• Use an iceburg lettuce for a more traditional, crunchier version or any whole head fancy lettuce for a decorative dinner parties, different lettuces for different effects.
• halve quantities for entree`and use small as possible lettuce cups.
• Easy entertaining, perfect for BBQ's, picnics and hot days.

My Lily

Toddler Tips

• Get the kids excited about salad, serve in very small child hand sized lettuce cups for easy, fun eating.
• Leave out chilli from their portion.
• Remove points on skewers.

I am also VERY excited to share that this was my
first recipe printed also in a newspaper, as it appeared in the Sunshine Coast Daily!

This recipe was one of my commercial recipe creation projects for client Maleny Supa IGA.
Maleny Supa IGA have an extensive range of gorgeous local Sunshine Coast products and I created the recipe and all the photography for their collectible Local Products Local Recipes - recipe cards

Rebecca xx