Watch The Cook and the Chef online: Episode 31 Coffee + Macadamia Nuts

This week take a trip with Maggie to the stunning sub tropical hinterland of Northern New South Wales where she explores a macadamia plantation and sips locally grown coffee. In the kitchen Maggie and Simon use our native bush nut and coffee to create both savoury and sweet delights. A special treat for Vegans is Simon's Vegan Laksa. The macadamia nut is Australia’s own bush nut and while it is grown commercially in other countries Australia is leading the world market. With nine hundred growers producing well over a hundred million dollars of kernel a year macadamia nuts are our most successful native food both locally and internationally and they are a favourite of Maggies. Just out of Bangalow on the New South Wales North Coast Maggie was given a tour of a huge macadamia plantation by farm manager, Lindsay Bryen, who told Maggie that macadamia nuts make great pesto. In the kitchen Maggie proves Lindsay right, mixing macadamia pesto with moist swordfish and celery to create a delicious textured warm salad. Simon uses macadamias as a worthy substitute for candle nuts in a creamy, tangy Singapore laksa. Suitable for vegans, Simon’s laksa uses soy sauce and a vegetarian blachan for the soup as well as egg free noodles. The coffee industry in Australia has been growing steadily and Northern New South Wales, with it’s high altitudes, high rainfall and volcanic soils, is producing some wonderful Arabica coffee. In the Tweed, Maggie visits Zeta and Mark Grealy’s beautiful mountain property to see how they grow and make their own boutique coffee. Maggie is really taken with the beautiful coffee tree and more than taken with the aroma and taste of the Grealy’s coffee. In the kitchen Maggie makes a deliciously wicked chocolate and vino cotto pavlova, a dessert to be served with the perfect coffee. The Pavlova is dressed with crème fraiche and strawberries but as Simon notes its winning feature would have to be the combination of “crunch and goo” in the chocolaty meringue. Simon’s also dishes up something sweet, making petits fours which are not only perfect with coffee but are also made using coffee. Macadamias feature in the Petits fours and are combined with golden syrup, the coffee and vanilla before being poured into deliciously textured tart cases and baked. The mouth watering mouthfuls are sweet and crunchy but our native bush nut, the macadamia is not overwhelmed and remains the hero ingredient. Recipes: - Simon’s Vegan Laksa - Macadamia Nut Tart - Swordfish with Macadamia Nut Pesto - Choc Vino Cotto Pavlova

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