CLEAN AND GREEN Is the industry commitment to see businesses continue to prosper with sustainable fishing in some of the world’s most pristine waters. Clean Green Program Update — Certified Sustainable Wild Caught When we first trialled CLEAN GREEN in 2002 our hopes were high that we had reached a sustainable solution for the WILD CAUGHT fishing of Australian Southern Rocklobster. The program especially appealed to fishers because they felt they were in control and government was quick to appreciate the financial and environmental advantages of industry self–management. What Southern Rocklobster certified CLEAN GREEN fishers were not so convinced about was the market acceptance and willingness to buy their product. As more and more of the world’s greatest restaurants proudly list live Australian Southern Rocklobster on their menus, their confidence and pride in the program has markedly grown. Open food forums in the mass media and books such as those written by American author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and most recently In Defence of Food) and British investigative journalist Felicity Lawrence (Not on the Label) have done much to make the chef and the dining population seek more information about where their food comes from, how it is grown, harvested and taken to market. The utter transparency of Southern Rocklobster’s CLEAN GREEN system where the purchaser can track their animals from point of capture to the restaurant door has been a big bonus. Our web site has been a major tool in our market strategy and the visibility of the fisher ports with their pristine waters is further reassurance for the chef and consumer that our environment is well cared for. Most impressively, at a time when so many fisheries are collapsing, Australian Southern Rocklobster fishers are looking forward to a bright and healthy future for generations to come. Our entry into the market place has been smooth and rapid and we look forward to continued growth and even higher acceptance of our fabulous CLEAN GREEN and WILD CAUGHT Southern Rocklobster.

Our land. Our Plan. Our Future

It’s a bit like making bread every day, some people find it boring but others love the feel of the dough in their hands. In my case my hands tell me its perfect and my brain can wander to something else, more often than not, thinking about what to write so that when I get home I can just type it up. Almost a year in after our first experiments with the ice slurry technique we have become faster and faster and improved our meat to shell ratio, our best effort yielding 53% meat. The ratio is not consistent enough to boast about yet but we believe we can, with more practice, consistently achieve these ratios. The REVISED GREEN MEAT EXTRACTION TECHNIQUE has led to a lot of new dishes using green leg meat, which provides greater scope for a la carte menu items. We’ve worked out the best order of working, starting with the tail and finishing with the leg. We love the fact that we even get the meat from the leg joint and claw tip (on the big claws) and that the method extracts the clear plastic–like shell inside the legs. Whilst one still needs to check for small pieces of shell, the rest is easy and the legs keep a good shape.

NOT ON THE LABEL
Felicity Lawrence
Published by Penguin, P/B $24.95

If you think about it poor people, with a small piece of land that grow their food by time honored traditional methods have the best food in the world today. Do you want your children and grandchildren to grow up never having tasted a fresh fish or a piece of ripe fruit straight from a tree? In her book Not on the Label, what really goes into the food on your plate British journalist Felicity Lawrence explains how the long-life and out of season market works. The section on bread is particularly scary, as is the description of labour gangs (bordering on slavery) which frequently perform the work living and working under the most inhumane conditions. Large chains will undercut their independent competitors out of the equation, even working for months at a calculated loss. This book is a wake up to what we are doing to our food and health, and recognises that we need to take steps to stop the reemergence of slavery in the Western world.

for the stock
1kg Rocklobster stock made using the Thermomix method refer to recipe reduce by half, weigh to ensure you have it exactly right, top to 500g with good spring water
taste and season the reduced stock — we find that shells from ice slurry extraction don’t need salt and only occasionally pepper

for the pasta dough
Australia is blessed with some of the best flour in the world. It is no coincidence that the bakers of Iraq, some of the most talented and least celebrated bakers in the world today fought over the limited Australian flour coming into Iraq at the height of the Iraq war. Much of my cooking comes from old people (older than me) who have fearlessly taken me to one side and told me “you’ve got it wrong!” We used to make pasta dough with strong flour until our friend Lucia, one of my city’s finest traditional Italian cooks pointed out the error of our ways. We have used soft flour or cake flour for years and the result is wonderful. Tender, but al dente it is exquisite!
We also make our dough once a week and vac it; it saves time but it also inexplicably seems to improve the pasta dough. It’s also very easy to take out what you need and reseal. Our lovely egg man, John Morby runs free range and supplies stunning big delicious super fresh eggs. Fresh eggs as we all know are the real taste test. We have foxes on mainland Australia and the John protects his chickens with lamas. So sweet looking they are fearless when it comes to protecting their charges.

Ingredients
1.8kg cake flour
30 fine sea salt
50g EV olive oil
17 x 61g COLD whole eggs; egg size is important
8 egg COLD yolks from 61g eggs

Method
Mix the flour, salt and oil together. Add the eggs and work the dough to a smooth well–kneaded dough. Vac and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before using the dough. We never freeze pasta dough, believing it is an altered state.

for the ravioli spheres
makes 45 – 9 entrée appetiser/entrée serves or 3 ravioli per portion

equipment — half sphere silicon sheets 4cm diameter

Ingredients
315g green Rocklobster meat, roughly chopped — we believe the leg and knuckle meat provide the best flavour
90g quality Italian or French truffle paste
500g of the reduced Rocklobster stock, prepared as previously described
3g agar agar

Method
Put 7g of the green lobster meat into each form and then 2g of truffle paste on top. Put the stock onto the stove, bring to the boil and then whisk in the agar agar and continue whisking until drops will form on the whisk when it is held above the pot — 2–3 minutes maximum. Using a bulb baster fill the moulds and allow them to set.

to assemble the ravioli
Roll the pasta to the finest notch and make the ravioli using as little additional flour as possible.

for the jellied lobster consommé garnish
make another batch of the agar agar consommé and set in a form that will mean it is not more than 5 mm deep

for the passionfruit caviar — make the base 24 hours before you want to use it
100g fresh strained passionfruit juice
150g spring water
2g sodium alginate

Mix everything together in the Thermomix or blender. let stand for 30 minutes, then blend again. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

to finish and store the passionfruit caviar
for the bath
5g calcium chloride
1kg water

Mix together then drop the passionfruit caviar mix into the solution and leave it there until it becomes spherical – approximately 10 minutes. Rinse under cold water and store 50:50 fresh strained passionfruit juice and water solution in the fridge.

for the glacé chilli strands
Very finely julienne large sweet chillies. Cook them without movement in a syrup made from equal quantities of caster sugar and quality white wine vinegar until they are translucent light emitting strips like skinny strips of rubies.

for the passionfruit vinaigrette
The selection of the EV olive oil is critical to the success of this vinaigrette; it should be fresh and sprightly, new, but with fantastic tropical overtones, one of those rare oils with banana and pineapple notes, but with fabulous complexity and a little bitterness on the end palate.

20g roasted pureed organic garlic
240g EV Olive Oil
120g fresh strained passionfruit juice – tropical passionfruit are too sweet
black pepper, freshly and coarsely ground
black sea salt

Emulsify the garlic, olive oil, passionfruit and pepper. Stir the salt through so the grains of black remain apparent.

to serve
place some fine strips of the jellied consommé on a warm plate
cook the ravioli, drain them and place them on the consommé
drizzle the passionfruit vinaigrette over the top
garnish with the glace chilli
scatter the passionfruit caviar over the top
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