Wattleseed Bread and Bush Beef Stew

Earlier this week I made wattleseed bread. Wattleseed is one of my Barbushco australian native spices. I used this recipe but made one big loaf. It has an interesting smell, I did not find it all that nice, it reminded me of a plant! It is made the same as most yeast breads just incorporating the wattleseed and also macadamia oil.

It baked beautifully, I felt really pleased when I pulled it out of the oven. I cut it while still warm but it had lost its crispy crust, I'm quite new to baking bread so I'm not too sure why, maybe the oil? I served it warm with some honey and although the flavour wasn't amazing it was different and went perfectly with the honey. I kept going back for more. I froze the remainder to serve with my bush beef stew I made yesterday.

To cook the stew I pulled out my slow cooker. The recipe was adapted from the Barbushco recipe booklet that came with the spices. I cubed about a kilo of stewing beef and put in the slow cooker with 4 slice spring onions, 1/2 cup beef stock, sliced ginger, a couple of chopped potatoes, a teaspoon of lemon myrtle ground spice and 2 teaspoons of aniseed myrtle ground spice. I cooked this on low for about 4 hours and then added the 'seasoning'. This was where the recipe turned asian! The seasoning - 2 teaspoons garlic, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/3 rice wine, 1 tablespoon hot bean paste, 1 tablespoon dorrigo pepper, 2 tablespoons kecap manis and 2 tablespoons of sweet bean paste. I bought the bean pastes at the asian grocer and realised one of them had MSG, I really should read the labels before buying. I cooked the stew for a further 2 hours. 

I served this up with some beans and wattleseed bread and very tentatively tried it, it was really tasty! The bread worked really well with the interesting flavours of the stew. I wouldn't be cooking it up again in a hurry but I am very happy I did cook it.