Slow Roasted Beef Short Ribs: Cooking with Australia’s Bush Foods
I love experimenting with our wonderful bush foods. It is so easy to invent new dishes if you have the plants growing in your garden – just like the other herbs we are used to growing. Many of them like to grow in pots so you can keep them close to the kitchen door – such as Lemon Myrtle, Mountain Pepper, River Mint, Finger Lime and Native Thyme to name a few.
On these cold days we feel like some slow cooked beef–flavoured using bush foods, of course!
- 2 kg beef short ribs
- 10-15 fresh Lemon Myrtle leaves
- Few springs of Rosemary
- Few springs of Native Thyme
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- Mountain Pepper, ground (for seasoning)
- Salt (for seasoning)
- 2 cups of water for roasting
- Place Lemon Myrtle, Native Thyme and Rosemary on foil. Add beef on top of leaves with chopped garlic. Seasoned the beef with salt and Mt Pepper, wrap tight in more foil and put into a large roasting pan.
- Pour about 2 cups of water around the parcel and let slow roast at 100 degrees for 8 hours. You can do this overnight, pop it in the fridge during the day and then warm it up again at night or start it in the morning and it is ready for dinner!
The dish ended up with lovely spicy flavours from the bush foods and the meat was meltingly tender – brilliant. I teamed the meat with some sliced pears roasted quickly with chopped Lemon Myrtle, Mt Pepper and drizzled them with a little lemon juice and olive oil – a good non starchy alternative to roast potatoes – try it – they are delicious.
Then I wilted some fresh silver beet leaves from the garden and mixed them with some of the mix I put on the pears – yum and oh so healthy. We really enjoyed our dinner.
Here is a pic of the leaves I used – don’t they look fresh!
Copyright © 2015 Julie Weatherhead, Peppermint Ridge Farm. All rights reserved.
At Peppermint Ridge Farm we are passionate about Australian native foods and spices. We run bush food cooking classes, tours of our Australian Spice Garden, and foodie events on site in Tynong North, Victoria. We are also available for private functions. Find us on our website: www.peppermintridgefarm.com.au.