Waji’s

Catering

CONFIT OF ABALONE WITH A WARM ASIAN SALAD

500g fresh abalone
500ml olive oil
500ml quality vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
2 medium shallots
1/2 inch ginger
1 lebanese cucumber
1/2 lime 4 spring onions
2 bay leaves
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 granny smith apple
100ml Waji’s Palm Sugar Dressing coriander

Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter — western seasons that seem a little innocuous in Tasmania.

A radically different delineation of Tasmania’s seasons was developed by her original inhabitants, the Pallawa people. They identified three main ‘seasons’: Pawenya Peena, Wengytellanyta and Tunna.

They are based on the appearance and disappearance of important foods.

Pawenya Peena commences with the blooming of the wattles. It is the time when the air is thick with their scents and honey is plentiful. This is usually late in July or in August and continues into September.

Wengytellanyta begins with the return of the Yolla (the shearwater or muttonbirds) to rookeries all around Tasmania in the third week of September. When the Yolla leave, Tunna begins.

This is the commencement of the coldest time of the year, from April until the wattle bloom again, sometime in August. Such a seasonal conception, based on actual events, rather than fixed calendar days, keeps people in touch with nature.

Flathead is a popular recreational fisher’s catch. Good eating with sweet flesh.

They spawn in bays and inner continental shelf waters from September to February.

Beware spines on gills and fins.

Unique among Tasmania’s plant specific honeys is leatherwood honey. It represents 70% of our island’s honey production and attracts a premium price.

One of our major honey producers, The Tasmanian Honey Company situated at Perth, presents their leatherwood honey in an exquisite range of dramatically patterned presentation tins, a testament to the venerable contents within.

Leatherwood honey has its own very distinct characteristics of colour, flavour and aroma.

The leatherwood tree Eucryphia lucida is found primarily in the rainforest areas of southern and western Tasmania and usually flowers from December to March.

If it is a good flowering season, a hive can produce 90-100kg of honey. The nectar yield is correlated to the age of the trees. Many trees do not blossom till more than 70 years old, with most prolific flowering from trees considerably older, hence the continuing dilemma between clear felling of old growth forests and loss of commercial nectar producing stands of flowering leatherwoods.

Read more about this ongoing battle here.