The global economic crisis is still very real for most people, even though those in the media say that the worst is behind us. For some serving up family meals on the table that are nutritious, taste great, whilst being cheap is a real challenge. So I thought I’d share some cheap meal ideas that are easy to make and cost around $10 or so.

For me, vegetables are the key in developing cheap meal ideas and are obviously nutritious as well. Proteins like meats, poultry and seafood are obviously important, but they tend to be the most expensive cost in any recipe. So going down the vegetarian path is the first part and then adding them to pasta, rice, nuts and even lentils also keeps the costs down.

Cheap Meals don’t have to taste cheap, so here are some Cheap Meals Ideas which have a gourmet flavour and don’t cost a lot to make;

Oven Roasted Pumpkin Risotto with Thyme
Everyone loves risotto and pumpkin is ultra cheap. If you oven roast the pumpkin together with some fresh thyme it will give your risotto a great flavour. As an addition, try freshly chopped spinach which will give it a great colour as well. If you wanted to add some other ingredients, then you can add bacon, chicken or mushrooms.

Quesadillas
I first experienced Quesadillas at a small hole in the wall Mexican diner in Los Angeles and since then I always frequent that place when I’m in California. Quesadilla is a toasted tortilla with melted cheese inside and some sort of filling. Quesadilla’s are traditionally filled with chicken, pork or beef, but they can also have mixed fillings. You can make some great fillings using mushrooms, Spanish onions, asparagus, pumpkin, zucchini, tomatoes and olives to name just a few. The herb of choice here is coriander and don’t forget to serve with sour cream and guacamole on the side

Mixed Mushroom Linguine
Pastas are considered by many as a cheap meal idea and this mixed mushroom pasta is no exception. Using a mixture of button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and enoki mushrooms, sauté these in a little butter and garlic till golden brown. Then deglaze with a little white wine and cream and reduce till a think creamy sauce. Then toss in a hand full of linguine, chopped Italian parsley and serve with parmesan cheese.

Chopped Salad
Relatively unknown in Australia, the Chopped Salads is well know at diners across the USA as it accompanies most meals, however the chopped salad can be served by itself. The Chopped Salad is exactly as it suggested with all the salad ingredients chopped usually into bit sized pieces and tossed together with a dressing of some sort. I like a simple balsamic. My chopped salad includes tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, celery, Spanish onions, avocado, dill and crumbled feta cheese.

Zucchini Slice 
My favourite vegetable is zucchini and I love making this slice. It’s kind of like quiche and you can make it with a pastry or without. I simply grate a couple of zucchinis, onions and carrots then combine them with eggs, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. I then pour into a baking tray. I bake for about 35 minutes at 180 degrees. Once again you can flavour with something like ham if you don’t want it vegetarian. Zucchini Slice can be served by itself or with something a protein on the side.

Sweet Potato and Corn Soup
We couldn’t have written about Cheap Meal Ideas without including a soup of sorts. I regularly make this Sweet Potato and Corn Soup at home and is simply peeled sweet potato, corn, stock and cream. I bring it to the boil for approx 35 minutes, and then blitz it up in the food processor. My secret is to only put half the corn in first and reserve half for after it’s blended. Add cream and some fresh herbs for added flavour. Serve with butter and freshly baked French stick (or just plain old toast!)

Burgers
Ok, I mentioned that I was going to avoid proteins and concentrate on vegetables, but the humble burger is a great cheap meal. I find the key is in the burger patty. I commonly use two different minces – lamb and beef, breadcrumbs, fresh herbs, egg, salt and pepper. Then stack your burger up with fresh lettuce, tomato, bacon, cheese and ketchup and you’ve got a great cheap meal.

Quiche Ideas
Everyone loves a quiche and the best thing about a quiche is the flavours ideas are endless. There are of course your classics like tomato, Florentine (spinach) and Lorraine (bacon and cheese); but there are many others. Why not try caramelized onions and roast capsicum or pumpkin, pinenuts and asparagus. For mushroom lovers, why not make a mushroom quiche. Quiche ideas are endless and the fillings can be from using leftovers in the fridge. Serve with a freshly tossed side salad.

Frittata
Unlike a quiche which is baked in the oven, a frittata is like cooked on the stove in a frying pane or skillet. But like a quiche, frittata fillings are endless. Some people like adding cooked pasta for texture and others just add the fillings. Try a frittata with roasted Spanish onions, thyme and goats cheese or roasted capsicums, mushrooms and spinach. If you want to try adding some proteins how about chopped smoked salmon and dill or even ham and cheddar cheese.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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A couple of months ago I visited for the first time the Home and Housewares show in Chicago. The show would have to be the biggest show for kitchen equipment, appliances, cookware etc. One of the stands I visited was the Kyocera stand. Immediately you’re probably thinking about Kyocera printers right? Well wrong. Kyocera manufacture a vast range of kitchenware products, with nearly all of them featuring their unique ceramic blades.

Recently, Kyocera sent me a sample of one of their newest products, the Kyocera Perfect Peeler. Featuring a ceramic blade, the Kyocera Perfect Peeler would have to be one of the best peelers I’ve ever used. It peels thick skinned ingredients like sweet potato easily. It reminded me of running a hot knife through butter gliding through without fuss.

The unique features of the Kyocera Perfect Peeler include;

• Stay sharp ceramic blade which won’t rust
• Handle Rotates making it suitable for either Left Hand or Right Hand use.
• Ergonomic, non-slip handle
• Dishwasher safe

Kyocera indicate in that because of the ceramic blade being used that it won’t brown foods or leave a metallic taste or smell on things being peeled. They also say that it’s impervious to acids, juices, oils, and salts.

If you’re in the market for a new peeler for your home kitchen or even you’re chef toolkit then I highly recommend you get your hands on a Kyocera Perfect Peeler.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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Savings Guide is run by friend, Alex Wilson and provides a comprehensive source for everything saving money related. Savings Guide is all about helping save money. Driven by Alex as well as numerous contributors and self confessed budgeting addicts, the aim and goal of the site is to provide a cost free resource for people wanting to learn how to save money and minimise their expenses.

Savings Guide will help you:

• Start saving money
• Help your family live a better life
• Reduce the cost of bills
• Minimise the cost of living
• Teach you how to budget

Savings Guide has become an industry leader in money saving tips, boasting strong editorial content and a large user community that actively helps each other discover simple ways to save money. Savings Guide is based in Sydney, Australia, with contributors from all over the world.

Visit Savings Guide at www.savingsguide.com.au

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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I’ve been wanting to write this blog for some time, but I thought I’d wait to the finale to share my thoughts. Over the past couple of months so many people have asked me about Channel Ten’s Masterchef and what I thought of the show and who my favourite contestant was. To be honest I didn’t really watch that many episodes, but on average I watched maybe 1 episode each week.

I never liked the UK version of Masterchef (which Masterchef Australia was modelled on) which has been on Lifestyle Food for sometime. I just didn’t like the pompy british judges. But Masterchef Australia was different. The Australian judges George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston are not only are highly skilled professionals with tonnes of experience, but they each are great characters which ooze their own personality on the screen. Loved the comments and advice from all of them. 

In terms of the guest chefs that appeared for the battles with contestants, Masterchef Australia attracted some of the best chefs in the country. Which is a feat on its own to get them in the same room, let alone have them share their recipes.

As the owner of Gourmet Ads, one of the most interesting things for me, is on the media side of things. I don’t think many people know this, but the Masterchef website was during the show’s duration the most popular food websites in Australia. I think this was probably due to the clever fact that they never really showed recipes on the show like other foods shows. Instead they attracted users to the website where they freely shared recipes.

On TV the ratings side apparently it was the most show this year, beating Underbelly. So its no surprise that there is a celebrity Masterchef in development which will hit the screens in September, and Fremantle Media is already looking for the next round of contestants for the Masterchef 2010.

The best thing about Masterchef Australia is that people around the watercooler are talking about good food, chefs, restaurants and cooking.

Finally, well done to Julie who won Masterchef Australia. Hope this is the start of a new career in the wonderful world of cooking.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

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About this Recipe

Ask my partner Jen what her favourite breakfast is and she’ll answer freshly cooked pancakes with real maple syrup. I often get up early on the weekends to surprise her with freshly cooked pancakes, and a cup of English breakfast tea. 

This really easy pancake recipe comes from when I used to work at the Watermark Restaurant in Balmoral Beach on Sydney Harbour. We used to pump out hundreds of these pankcakes each Saturday and Sunday morning using this recipe. Forget buying a premade mix, use this pancake recipe instead. 

Ingredients

200g (1½ cups) plain flour 
300ml (10 fl oz) milk 
60g (2 oz) castor sugar 
10g (2 teaspoons) baking powder 
2 small eggs
60g (2 oz) butter (melted)
pinch of salt 

Cooking Instruction

Start by sifting together the plain flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Once combined, make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk, egg and melted butter. Mix well until the batter is well combined. If you’re going to add fruits or liquids to the batter, make sure it’s slightly thick. At this point, I find if you leave the batter for say 20 minutes on the bench, I find the pancakes are fluffier when they are cooked. 

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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I’ve been on Twitter for ages with both my own accounts @chefben for food related stuff and my company @gourmetads for food and wine advertising. It’s a great platform for communicating and having a conversation with people you follow and don’t follow! Make sure that you follow both of my accounts.

Anyway, in order to help chefs find other chefs and people find celebrity chefs on twitter I thought I’d do a quick blog about chefs on Twitter. It seems there are a lot of fake accounts of celebrity chefs on twitter, so I’ve tried very hard to validate each of them. There are actually more chefs from the Food Network than I thought there would be. Let me know if you know of any other Celebrity Chefs on Twitter that you find.

Celebrity Chefs on Twitter

Tyler Florence - @TylerFlorence
Jamie Oliver - @jamie_oliver
Paula Deen - @Paula_Deen
Cat Cora - @catcora
Martha Stewart - @marthastewart
Giada De Laurentiis - @GDeLaurentiis
Dave Lieberman - @davelieberman
Bethenny Frankel - @Bethenny
Bobby Flay - @bflay
Guy Fieri - @ChefGuyFieri
Emeril - @Emeril

Other Celebrity Chefs I’d like to see on Twitter include Gordon Ramsay, Rachael Ray, Duff Goldman, Mario Batali, Sandra Lee, Alton Brown, Nigella Lawson and Ted Allen to just name a few. There is no doubt that chefs that embrace this platform will be able to communicate and talk to their fans easier than any other channel. Chefs if you are after a Twitter strategy I'd be happy to put you in touch with a few social media experts.

Chefs On Twitter

Mark Tafoya Executive Chef of Culinary Media Network - @chefmark
Vic Cherikoff Australian Food Pioneer & Aussie Chef - @viccherikoff
Luke Mangan from Glass and South Restautants @LukeWMangan
Meredith Baird Raw Chef - @mertb33 


These final two are not chefs, but they help connect a lot of chefs with other chefs, make sure you follow both if you’re a chef. They both offer great networking opportunities.

Star Chefs – @Star_Chefs 
Chef 2 Chef - @Chef2Chef

Finally if you know of any other celebrity chefs or Chefs on Twitter, please leave a comment below and we'll add it to the list.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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On the Saturday before Superbowl Sunday I took the afternoon off and headed down from New York to New Jersey to film a video #616 with Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV.

If you've never heard of Gary Vaynerchuk or Wine Library TV, that's ok you're in for a treat. Gary hosts the internet's most passionate wine program, Wine Library TV. He tapes a video every day usually from his office at Wine Library headquarters in New Jersey and reviews or tastes 3 wines. Garry has a huge following in the wine vertical.

When I arrived Matt from Gary's team showed me around the Wine Library operation which was huge. I was certainly impressed at the vast arrange of Australian wines that Gary carries. Gary suggested I find three wines that I would like to taste with him, so obviously I selected three Australian Wines.

These being;

2007 D'arenberg The Hermit Crab
2006 Kooyong Massale Pinot Noir
2005 Penfolds Cab/shiraz Bin 389

For years I've admired Gary from afar watching his videos on Wine Library TV and his personal site garyvaynerchuk.com. So it was great to finally meet and do a video (thanks for the guys at Hulu for doing the intro). Gary is a natural, we hardly spoke before the video started rolling and what you saw on the video was natural and unrehearsed.

Afterwards when the video was posted, I was overwhelmed at the amount of comments that the video gained on the websites in just a matter of hours there was over 170 comments on the video. I just looked now and there are 196 comments. Unbelievable.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I had taping it.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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In January for the last 5 years, Sam Kekovich has hosted a TV commercial for the Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) promoting to all Australian’s that they shoud eat lamb on Australia Day. I think every year each of the tv commercials have been controversial or attention grabbing to say the least. Last year it was calling New Zealand Prime Minister a man, one year it was having a go at vegetarians.

Last night while watching TV, I saw Sam Kekovich in his 2009 annual Australia Day address, which this year in centred around the economic at the “Australian Chop Exchange”. This year Sam blames the global credit crisis on un-Australianism, 'Wall Street wankers and bottom-feeding, billionaire bankers, stuffing their wallets at the expense of battlers – it’s about as unAustralian as it gets' says Sam Kekovich. He then says the solution is, “the only recipe to fix the fiscal fiasco is with a lamb chop in one hand and a coldie in the other”.

Sam Kekovich doesn’t stop there he also has a go at the movie Australia and says 'And how can you splurge $130 million on a three-hour movie called Australia and not spend one cent on showing a lamb barbie?' The ending is very Barack Obama styled, with a "yes we can".

There is no doubt that over the year lamb sales have soared at this time of year in part to the Sam Kekovich advertisements. For me, the Sam Kekovich Lamb ads are a great laugh and are something I look forward to around this time each year.

If you're looking for some great recipes for Australia Day, then check out my Australia Day Recipes and if you've missed Sam Kekovich advertisements from previous years they are all here;

Sam Kekovich 2008
Sam Kekovich 2007
Sam Kekovich 2006
Sam Kekovich 2005

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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The Chefs Network is a food media news portal blog platform, promoting food culture and food media production. Their philosophy is working together for the best interests of the culinary industry, supporting those that choose to follow in our footsteps. The Chefs Network is a network of Chefs of all culinary styles & cultures. and offers networking opportunities, an inside link to professionals in the culinary industry, insight and information to foster increased culinary development, excellent opportunities for professional and personal development and lasting relationships with colleagues in the culinary industry.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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About this Recipe

Christmas lunch for me is anything but traditional, but for some Christmas isn’t Christmas without their prized Christmas Turkey. So for those that want the traditional, but why to try something new at the sime time, here is an Australian twist on the traditional Christmas Turkey.

Apart from just the turkey being rubbed with Australian Wildfire Spice, the Christmas turkey stuffing includes lemon myrtle, macadamia nuts and riberries.

Ingredients

1 whole turkey
1 tablespoon Wildfire Spice
100g (3.7 oz.) salted butter
30g ( 2 tablespoons) tamari
Salt flakes

Riberry and Macadamia nut stuffing

500g (2 cups)  fresh breadcrumbs
150g (1 cup) Riberry Confit
80g (3 oz.) macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
30g ( 2 tablespoons) Lemon Myrtle Sprinkle
2 eggs

Cooking Instruction

Start by making the stuffing by combining the breadcrumbs, riberries, macadamia nuts and lemon myrtle in a bowl. Add eggs and mix until combined.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Sprinkle the skin and cavity of the turkey with Wildfire spice and salt flakes. Then stuff the cavity with the riberry and macadamia nut stuffing. Truce the turkey with butchers twice and place breast side up on a rack in a large roasting tray. Add a little water to the roasting tray and roast for 45 minutes.

While the turkey begins to roast, make the turkey basting. Heat the butter in a medium sized saucepan, then add the beer and tamari. Begin basting the turkey every 15 minutes. After the first hour remove, baste, then cover with foil and return to the oven for a further 60 minutes or 90 minutes depending on the size. Continue to baste every 15 minutes.

To check when the turkey is cooked, use a meat thermometer into the deepest part of the turkey. Ideally the internal temperate should be 82°C. When cooked, removed from the oven and allow to rest in a warm part of the kitchen for approx 20 minutes before carving.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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The last time you went to use the public BBQ how long did it take you to clean it of grime and rust and oil?
Well next time you if you grab one of these you wont have to clean it and you’ll have a healthy BBQ.
It’s called the Vic Cherikoff Down Under BBQ Hot Sheet and it makes BBQ cooking sheer bliss.

To use the hot sheet, just turn on the BBQ and the simply place the hot sheet directly onto the plate and start cooking. Instantly sanitized and ready to cook, the Vic Cherikoff Down Under BBQ Hot Sheets also let you cook fat free and non-stick.

Apart from being used on the BBQ you can use on old frying pans in the kitchen, baking in the oven and endless other cooking ideas. The Vic Cherikoff Down Under BBQ Hot Sheet can be washed in the sink or even put in the dishwasher.

Here is a video on how you can use the Vic Cherikoff Down Under BBQ Hot Sheet

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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Kitchen Discounts is a Brisbane based, Australian online kitchenware store - selling everything from quality kitchenware to cookware and utensils at discounted prices.

Kitchen Discounts endeavors to deliver the highest quality known brand names in the kitchen world at the lowest prices available with brands available including Tefal, Calphalon, KitchenAid, Microplane, Circulon, Anolon, Baccarat, Raco and Jamie Oliver. For items in stock, they offer same day shipping as well as a 30 day money back guarantee on all products from the lest expensive to the most expensive. So you can buy with confidence.

Contact the Team at Kitchen Discounts today on 1300 553 596 or www.kitchendiscounts.com.au

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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Australian company Birko, well known for making hot water urns has recently set the standard with their new Steamer Oven. The Birko Steamer Oven is about the same size as a large microwave and can sit straight on the bench or be professionally installed into the kitchen wall. It’s stainless steel design will make it the centre piece in any modern kitchen.

Unlike many steamers on the market, the Birko Steamer Oven doesn’t need to be professionally installed by a plumber as the unit has its own water reservoir which can easily be refilled. When completely filled the water reservoir gives you about an hour of steaming which is more than enough time for cooking most foods. Fully electronic, the Birko Steamer Oven allows you to choose not only the cooking time, but the actual temperature setting whereas most other steamers only let you cook at 100°C. So if you wanted to steam something delicate you could set it to cook at 75°C. 

Now to the cooking. With healthy cooking becoming more and more prominent, steaming is a  clever cooking method, especially for people trying to lose weight. When steaming foods, there is no need to use cooking oils or butter which makes it a healthy alternative to grilling, roasting or frying. Apart from being a healthy cooking method, steaming foods not only preserves the flavour but retains more than twice the vitamins and minerals than other cooking methods. So it makes sense to include steamed foods in your diet, and given the versatility of steaming the Birko Steamer has quick become an essential appliance in my kitchen. So far i have cooked seafood, poultry, vegetables and even desserts in the steamer and the results have far surpassed my expectations. 

I’ve tried a range of foods in the steamer oven, but my favourite would have to be my Wildfire Spiced Whole Chicken. I simply put a whole chicken into the steamer tray, dust the chicken with Wildfire Spice and a little salt, and then put in the steamer for 45 minutes. Everyone that’s tasted the chicken say it’s the juiciest and most tender chicken they have ever tasted. Adding to this, the steamer tray collects all the chicken juices which make a great tasting stock as well.

One of the greatest things about having the Birko Steamer is inviting the family around for the Sunday Yum Cha at home. Using a combination of homemade yum cha items such as Prawn Gow Gees and Pork Dim Sums together with bought items such as BBQ Pork Buns, we can now do our own yum char at home. 8 minutes in the steamer oven is all most items take except for steamed rice which only takes 13 minutes.

I must admit that the Birko Steamer Oven has become one of my most used kitchen appliances which I utilize nearly every day. It hasn’t been an issue for me, but friends who’ve seen me cook in it say they would’ve preferred a glass door instead of the full stainless steel.

For more information about the Birko Steamer Oven visit www.birko.com.au

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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If I served you a glass of sparkling wine with ice what would you think? Well that’s how winemaker, Rosemount suggests you serve their latest low-alcohol sparkling white wine called Rosemount O. Rosemount O is obviously aimed at young women who prefer lighter, low calorie and low alcohol beverages and I think it hits the mark.

Rosemount O has a light spritz which initially reminded me of the 1980’s West Coast wine cooler blended with a quality Italian Mascato, but nowhere as sweet. To be honest, I couldn’t really identify the actual white grape they used, which makes me think that it’s a blended wine opposed to a single variety.

Since tasting the sample that Rosemount sent me, I’ve bought a carton to have with friends and everyone has enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see if Rosemount achieve to change consumer’s thinking by adding ice to their wine.

Rosemount O is a light, easy drinking, low carb sparkling white wine which will no doubt be a very popular this summer.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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After hours and hours of uploading video, we finally launched my very own channel on Hulu called Benjamin Christie Travels.

We’ve initially launched with videos from my trip recent to McLaren Vale, but in the coming weeks we’ll be uploading new videos every week, so make sure you subscribe.

If you’ve never heard of Hulu before where have you been? Hulu is an independently operated joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp and as such has the online video rights to many of the network’s best rated shows. You’ll find some of my favourite shows like Saturday Night Live, The Office, Tonight Show with Jay Leno and many others. Last month Hulu streamed just under 100 million videos.

Together with my channel launching this week Hulu also launched their entire Food & Leisure section which includes titles such as Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Hells Kitchen as well as Food Network shows like Paula's Home Cooking and Giada’s Everyday Italian, Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals, Alton Brown’s Good Eats and Duff Goldman’s  Ace of Cakes. Also worth checking out is Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV.

So to watch my videos on Hulu visit www.hulu.com/benjamin-christie-travels

For viewers outside of the USA
Unfortunately for the time being Hulu is limited to viewing in the USA only. You can view the Hulu website and the video channels, but watching the video is restricted to American audiences only.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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About 20 minute north of Canberra is the Blue Frog Truffle Farm run by Wayne Haslam. For the past two years, Wayne has been growing black truffles for the Canberra restaurants. During one of the truffles hunts over winter, Wayne invited me to experience how truffles are grown and found by the use of the truffle dogs.

Also checkout the Black Truffle photos.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

Food Advertising and Wine Advertising with Gourmet Ads

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

Food Advertising and Wine Advertising with Gourmet Ads

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

Food Advertising and Wine Advertising with Gourmet Ads