DINKUM DINING
Desert delicacies
When our nomadic chef Adrian Millman joined a group of journalists assigned to test drive the new Mitsubishi Pajero range in central Australia, he found that preparation and improvisation are pre-requisites for cooking in the outback.
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Adrian's seafood platter - quite a challenge to come up with in the outback |
Occasionally, perhaps every seven or eight years, the heart of the outback is transformed.
In just a few hours heavy rain can turn bone-dry river beds into churning torrents.
Roads that have been showered only with a bulldust become soapy quagmires for unwitting drivers, and usually endless landscape is hidden by curtains of mist and rain, reducing visibility to 10 metres.
That was the scenario when Marko and Dougo of Dalton Logistics joined me in April for catering duties on Mitsubishi's desert test run of its new Pajero NM range of 4WD wagons.
Mitsubishi product executive Robert Chadwick and his team has organised a timed-to-the-minute test run through the desert for a fleet of NMs driven by Australia's top motoring writers.
The expedition was to begin at Coober Pedy and over four days put the vehicles through their paces on stock routes and some of the roughest roads in the red centre.
The original route was to take us through William Creek to Lake Eyre, Oodnadatta, Lambert Centre and Alice Springs.
Then a second party of 15 writers and back-up crew would join us for a return trip to Coober Pedy. At both ends of the expedition we were to present a banquet that encapsulated the finest and freshest of Australian food.
Adrian's recipe: Opal Miner's Game Sausage
Wild goat and boar sausages
Ingredients:
2 kg wild goat (boned shoulder)
2 kg wild boar (boned shoulder)
60g salt
50g native aniseed
6 finely chopped pepper gum leaves
Method:
Hand mince and combine all ingredients.
Stuff into sheepgut sausage casings using the mincer, without the cutting
plate.
grill in coil form on large hot plate and when cooked cut into entree sized
servings 
Full story Issue 12, August-September, 2000
