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:

2 RECIPES Haloumi Bread Salad & Zucchini & Chia Seed Chocolate Cake

Thanks to some gorgeous ingredients from the Sunshine Coast's Maleny Supermarket
I got the chance to create with a stunning and award winning locally produced Buffulo Haloumi Cheese!

This cheese has been in many magazines and is on the menu of many top restaurants in Australia.

Haloumi is an exciting cheese and for those on the Sunshine Coast like me you may have seen a local, award winning buffalo haloumi featured on the cover of Hinterland Times with local cheese maker Trevor Hart and his award winning haloumi.

If you aren't on the Sunshine Coast you can of course use any good haloumi you might find at your local delicatessen or supermarket.

If it is a cheese you already love or maybe one you have never tried before this recipe really makes it shine!

This is my delicious Zesty Salad with fried Haloumi and Olive Oil Topasted SourDough Bread Croutons.

An easy and very tasty dinner or lunch.

Ingredients:

• 200 g Haloumi, sliced 1cm thick
• 2 slices organic sourdough bread, slice into 1cm x 3 cm pieces
• Assorted salad greens, (include some bitter greens, baby spinach leaves, finely shredded kale, fresh herbs)
• 1 medium red onion, slices thinly into circles
• 1 small cucumber, sliced
• 2 really ripe tomatoes, chopped into big pieces
• ½ lemon, juiced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• Black pepper to taste
• Extra olive oil for the croutons
• paper towel to drain the haloumi

Method

• In a large bowl combine bread, tomato, cucumber, onion and salad greens
• In a small dish mix together olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice, taste and adjust quanities until you get just the right flavour for your palate. (add some fresh chili if desired)
• Heat a little oil in a fry pan on a medium low heat. (I use Neoflam cookware.)
  Lightly fry the sourdough pieces with olive oil until nice and golden on each side.
  Drain on paper towel and set aside.
• Gently fry the Haloumi briefly until nice and golden each side.
  Drain haloumi on paper towel.
• Place salad on to a large serving dish.
• Arrange Haloumi cheese and croutons on top.
• Season with cracked pepper, a little lemon juice and a tiny amount of good olive oil
• Serve

Notes

• This is a great centre table dish you can all share from making it great for entertaining
• This would be a lovely big salad to serve at a BBQ or alongside some freshly grilled fish or as part of a smorgasbord at a dinner party.
• Don’t season with salt as the cheese is already salty.

Toddler/Prep/Kindy Tips

• This is a salty cheese so I would serve theirs with lots of fresh salad and a fruit salad for dessert.
• Make their own mini dish by serving small pieces of the Haloumi with an assortment of tomatoes, snow peas, cucumber, sprouts, celery and carrots

Recipe and imagery (c) rebeccamugridge2012