Pig Face and not a Snout in Sight

 

Carpobrotus glaucescens

Pig Face

Foraging for food always puts a smile on my face and nothing compares to the singular drive to finding that perfect dish to celebrate a native, wild food in our family menu.

So many of our local coastal sand drifts are held together with this delightful succulent that I am quietly facepalming I had not noticed it before last year and begun the process of looking at it as a food source and not just a colourful photo opportunity of bounty and beauty.

This succulent ground running creeper with fleshy leaves and little purple flowers and dark red to purple fruit may be found on  Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian coastlines. The plump, juicy leaves can be eaten raw or boiled as well as being made into a pickle and have a salty taste that will add a unique flavour to meat dishes, can be added to salads and combines well with mushrooms, eggs and seafoods. You can apply the juice to sandfly bites or make a poultice of crushed leaves to apply to burns and scalds. The Ngaruk willum people of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria used it as a balm to minimise pain.

Pig face Fruits

The fruit, also known as beach bananas, has a sweet taste similar to strawberries, figs, bananas and kiwi with that salt tang making it interesting.

Very little nutritional information seems to be available in this sweet and savoury treat other than to state that on top of it's high sodium level it is a good source of other minerals, including potassium, magnesium, and calcium.

 

Recipes:

Pig Face Waldorf Salad

Pig Face Waldorf Salad

2 Apples, diced
4 Celery Stems, sliced
1 cup walnut halves
1 tbsp honey
1 cup pig face fruits, pealed
2 egg yolks 1/2 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
pinch white pepper
1 cup olive oil

Toss the walnuts in the honey and place in a medium oven for 15 minutes to honey roast the nuts, allow to cool and set aside
Place egg yolks, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper in a small ceramic bowl. Whisk until well combined.

Add 1/2 cup oil, 1 teaspoon at a time, to egg mixture, whisking constantly until well combined (this will take about 15 minutes). Add remaining oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until well combined. Add 2 tablespoons hot water, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking constantly.

Combine the apple, celery and pig face fruits in a bowl and dress generously with the dressing. Roughly chop the walnuts and stir them through and serve.

Pealed Pig Face Fruits

Pig Face Riata

1 cup of natural yogurt
pinch salt
1/2 cup pig face fruits, pealed
1/2 cup cucumber, grated and drained of excess liquid
2 sprigs fresh mint, finely shredded

Combine all ingredients and chill to serve with a curry

Pig Face Riata

Pig Face Riata

 

 

 

 

Pig face Pickle

Fresh Greens packed tight

1 cup of pig face leaves
1 sprig fennel frond
2 sprigs dill frond
1 small sprig fresh rosemary
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 small dried red chilli
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons salt
2 small bay leaves
4 cloves
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon dill seed
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon pepper corns

Soak the pig face leaves over night in water.

Place the fresh greens into a clean sterilised jar packing as tightly as possible.

Cook up the vinegar, salt, sugar, bay and spices until the pickling liquid boils and pour over the greens then seal and allow to cool.

Store in the fridge for at least a week and serve with cold meats, cheese platters, in dressings and tartare sauce.

Pig Face Pickle

Yoghurt in all it's glory

In the scheme of things easily added into a self invested lifestyle yoghurt has to be right up there. The first thing we made ourselves from scratch was yoghurt. We purchased a cheap incubator that has 7 small glass cups and plastic lids and made about a litre of yoghurt.

Our yogurt maker

Batch 1 was awesomely delicious and so we were encouraged to keep on keeping on.

Batch 2 was unusual and had an odd stretchy texture and a mild taste. It was still delicious.

Batch 3 we thought we mixed up the yoghurt culture with the cheese culture (silly bunnies) and we also overheated the milk and it boiled - testament to not making yoghurt when excessively tired. The result was quite thick and had air bubbles in it, but the flavour was still really good so yoghurt must be pretty bomb proof in this house.

At this point we became unsatisfied with the quantity we could achieve in one batch and went shopping for a single large glass dish with a lid that would fit in the incubator. Success! we found the perfect dish with a 1.6 litre capacity and so we now have the means to make 1.5 litres of our delicious yogurt all in one go!

Batch 4 awesome!

We then bought another incubator so I guess you could call us, at this point, yoghurteers with a potential problem of oversupply.

Natural Yoghurt

Ingredients
1.5 litres full cream milk
3 drops calcium chloride solution
1 dose yoghurt culture

Method
Heat the milk to 93 degC in a stainless steel pan and maintain for 10 minutes then add the calcium chloride solution. Remove from heat and rapidly bring down to 40 degC - We used a sink with cold water and ice packs. Add culture and pour into your incubator. Incubate for 8 hours and then refrigerate.

Makes 1.5 litres of natural Yoghurt.

Doesn't keep long cause we eat it too fast!

Quick Breaky

Quick Yoghurt Breakfast

1/2 cup of yoghurt
1 teaspoon Chia
2 tablespoons raw rolled oats
fresh fruit of your choice (grapes and passionfruit in picture)

mix the yoghurt with the chia and oats and top with fruit .. easy!

Bircher Oats

1 cup of raw rolled whole oats (you can use quinoa flakes or flakes of your choice)
1/3 cup chopped dried fruit of your choice
2 teaspoons chia seeds
1 cup whey from cheese making (you can use apple juice or milk)
pinch salt

combine your ingredients and soak overnight in the fridge. Top with yoghurt and fresh fruit and if desired a drizzle of honey.

Riata

Riata

1 cup yoghurt
1 cucumber grated
1/2 cup coriander leaves finely chopped
2 tablespoons mint finely chopped
good pinch of salt

Combine well and serve with your hot curry

Soured Yoghurt Cream

1 cup yoghurt
juice of 1/2 lemon

combine well and use instead of sour cream

Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi

1 mango flesh cubed
350ml natural yoghurt
1 tbs honey
1sprig of mint finely shredded
blend mango, yoghurt and honey serve with mint on top

Frozen Yoghurt

4 cups yoghurt
3 passionfruit
1/2 cup honey

gently fold the ingredients together without completely blending. Place in a freezer container and place in the freezer. Gently stir every 1/2 hour. Serve after 2 hours with fresh fruit or fruit salad.
Alternatively use an ice cream maker as directed.

Coconut Yoghurt Pudding

coconut yogurt pudding

4 cans Ayam Coconut cream (the purest on our market shelf)
warm the coconut to 40Deg C
1/3rd cup sago
2 inches vanilla bean
2 teaspoon chia seeds
whiz the sago, vanilla and chia in a spice grinder until as fine as possible
stir into the warmed coconut
3 tablespoons of natural cultured yoghurt
whisk the yoghurt into the coconut mixture and place all into a yoghurt incubator for 8 hours
serve with clotted cream and fresh berries

Labna (labaneh, labneh, labni)

All this amazing yoghurt allows us to make yoghurt cheese and as we upgraded our production to 1.5 litres batches and subsequently doubled our production with another incubator we now have plenty of yoghurt to play with. Labna is thick and creamy and much like cream cheese with a beautiful texture.

Pressed Labna

Ingredients:
1kg fresh home made natural yoghurt
20gm cheese salt
6 large cloves of garlic (optional for garlic Labna)

Method:
Combine the yoghurt and salt mixing well. Spoon the mix into a cheese cloth placed in a bowl, gather up the edges so that the yoghurt is in a tight ball, tie of and hang in a cool place over night. When the yoghurt ball has stopped dripping untie it and place into a container and chill in the fridge.

Roast the garlic cloves in a 180 degC oven for 15 mins. Squeeze the garlic flesh out of the papery casing and mash. Pass the garlic mash through a sieve and mix into your yoghurt cheese.

Eat with crackers, as a creamy spread for sandwiches, as a topping for baked potato ...... any where a savour cream cheesy flavour would go!

We pressed ours in the cheese press for a denser creamier labna wheel