A weekend in outback Chillagoe, eating out, exploring the famous Mungana caves, the Smelters and the rest

Chillagoe township is 2.5 hours west of Cairns, in Far North Queensland. It's a small, country, outback town, best known for the many underground Mungana caves, locally mined slabs of marble, volcanic landforms, charming buildings and outback pubs, and the friendliness of the residents. At one stage, millions of years ago, the whole area was submerged under the ocean. The complex geomorphology of this area is fascinating.

Balancing Rock, an attraction near Chillagoe

These rocks located on the way to Balancing Rock will cut you to pieces if given the chance, they are not to be scrambled over. 

The vistas near Chillagoe containing the caves, looked like this. Austere and stunning in their cragginess.

Here is our tour group, walking toward the Royal Arch Cave.

The Queen Victoria rock formation on our way to the Royal Arch Cave. Can you see her?

The Royal Arch cave, which was supposedly easy/moderate grade, and 1.3 km return, still held a few surprises, a narrow passage to sidle through, being careful not to bump our heads in a few spots, ouch, a low shelf to squeeze under, and another tunnel to squeeze through and drop from to the ground as an optional extra. However, the tour guide's excellent commentary, the small bats, the fossilised small plants and the limestone formations made the experience very worthwhile for 1.5 intriguing hours. 

In the Royal Arch cave, we were all given our own torches to help us see where we were going which worked well, however it was quite difficult to take quality photos in the cave because of the dim light, which was to be expected.

Can you spot the Elephant in this limestone formation? There are many examples of where our imagination runs riot and pictures animal and bird like shapes in the formations.

Mr. HRK is taking the photos as he enters the Trezkinn Cave. Inside the cave it's a 230 m walk, with 250 very steep ladder-like steps at the entrance. He handled these like a pro, but it's not for the faint hearted. The 'chandelier' to be found inside this cave, a spectacular cluster of stalactites bathed in spotlights was the ultimate reward.  Our caving odyssey reminded me that every cave potentially has narrow openings to squeeze through, low ceilings to scramble or crawl under, a labyrinth of passages, but spectacular clusters of limestone formations, not to mention darting small bats, fossilised plants and animals. The very rare and protected White Rumped Swiftlet bird is found in these caves, however they are very difficult to spot. 

We didn't take a tour of the Donna Cave. The entrance involved descending through a narrow cave entrance into the hidden world, and another 330 very steep steps. Perhaps next time. However, this experience reminded me of back in the days when I lived in Rockhampton, and aged about 18 and quite small, I scrambled with friends through the Capricorn Caves underground caving system there, through very narrow tunnels and small cave entrances, enjoying the adventure. Amazing!

In this caving network, there are also some self-guided caves to explore. The Archways Cave is 15km from Chillagoe, and we enjoyed exploring this one. To explore any of these self-guided caves, remember to take your torch.

Most of us who have explored caves recently, can't help but think about the schoolboys who were stranded in the caves in Thailand, and how frighteningly dark it would have been and how on earth they survived for so long. It's such a miracle that they were rescued and survived.

Here's some Aboriginal rock art at Mungana near Chillagoe. Recently touched up we thought. 

One of the highlights of the excursion for me was exploring the country village of Chillagoe, and it's main street, named unsurprisingly Queen Street.

There were lots of treasures to be found in the Chillagoe Gallery 29 and I was prepared to take the time and look for them. It's open most days.

Inside the coffee shop/gallery.

The gardens with a rustic influence presented a peaceful haven in which to enjoy our coffee and delicious Portuguese tarts, a specialty of the house. More about those splendid tarts later. They warrant another post when I make some. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the custard tarts, we were too busy eating them.

Chillagoe is also famous for its slabs of marble.  The uniquely coloured marble is the result of volcanic activity and intense mineralisation in the area. Everywhere we walked in Chillagoe there are beautiful examples of the locally mined marble used to advantage. Some marble slabs are discreetly tucked away in gardens, and others are very large and on view in the tourist areas. At one stage, apparently Chillagoe marble was being compared favourably with the famous Italian Carrara Marble, and some of the latter was used in the new Parliament House in Canberra.

Marble used as a tabletop.

What do you do in Chillagoe on Saturday night, a pub crawl of course to the two country pubs, to find the best TV on which to watch our beloved football team, the Cowboys play. Let's just say the TV in our accommodation didn't work.

We ate a delicious steak at the iconic outback Post Office Hotel for dinner on Saturday night. We also popped in for a cold beer at lunch time and watched Aussie tennis player Ajla Tomljanovic defeat Serena Williams at the US Open. So memorable.

This is how we ate steak and chips and salad in Chillagoe.

Mine is the smaller steak. On the menu, it gives a summary of the local cattle property where the beef was raised. 

We then moved onto the very unpretentious Chillagoe Hotel Motel to watch the footy match, and were treated to the authentic Aussie country pub experience.

They even have a courtesy bus for the hotel patrons and motel residents next door, and the country folk. Rhonda was very happy to have a chat and share some Chillagoe experiences. True country hospitality.

I found the Chillagoe Public Library tucked away behind The Hub, the building where the cave tours are booked. Of course I had to take a couple of photos through the window as the library was closed being the weekend, I have a very soft spot for libraries.

A country church open to the public always lures me in. 

The Chillagoe Weir is a favourite spot to cool off for the locals.

I love old buildings, and the Chillagoe Guest House in Queen Street is a real treasure. Formerly the Post Office, it is still proudly standing opposite the Post Office Hotel. The business is up for sale, or why not buy it to live in? Are you interested? We were tempted for half an hour.

The Chillagoe Smelters were once the centre of a thriving mining industry that brought wealth and development to the Chillagoe area. Today they are a fascinating ruin on the tourist trail. Between 1901 and 1943, a gritty bustling workforce, heavily-loaded ore trains and large-scale innovative industry was supported by the distinctive chimneys. Those were tough times.

I hope you enjoyed your vicarious tour of Chillagoe. That's another bucket list item ticked for us.

Warm wishes

Pauline

In My Kitchen, September 2022

As I write this, the US Open Tennis tournament is on in New York, and Aussie tennis players Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis are playing doubles. They won the Australian Open Doubles title earlier this year in Melbourne, so here's hoping they do well in the US. We love our tennis, so during this wet weather we are having here in Cairns whilst on holiday, it's great to have the tennis as a backup entertainment plan, when I'm not cooking or reading or knitting (ha, ha), I'm not a great knitter. In an ideal world, we would travel to New York to watch the US Open live one day, never say never. It's on the bucket list anyway.

I haven't been doing much shopping for interesting items to showcase here in Cairns in the city centre, as every couple of days a new Cruise ship is arriving carrying over 2,000 passengers, so the city is alive with tourists, which I suppose in a sense is what I am. Exciting times for Cairn's businesses as they really suffered during the Covid pandemic, being a tourist city. Now all the restaurants and coffee shops in the city heart are bursting at the seams so that's great for the economy. So far I think they have all been P&O ships arriving in Cairns. These ships are massive cruise liners. We haven't been tempted yet to take a cruise, have you?

Pumpkins have been so delicious this Autumn, so I've bought two and made very good use of them. I've roasted pumpkin, steamed pumpkin, mashed pumpkin, and here's a couple of the recipes with pumpkin I've made recently. I find it so hard to resist buying a whole pumpkin from the farmer, how about you. I'll be making my Pumpkin and Apricot fruit cake soon as well as unsurprisingly I still have some pumpkin in the frig crisper.

Lots of Pumpkin peeling

A Kent (Jap) pumpkin purchased at the iconic Rusty's markets in Cairns was put to good use. I made a batch of our favourite Curried Pumpkin and Coconut soup, as the wet inclement weather continued.

 Ingredients:

1 kg Jap pumpkin (peeled and chopped into 3 cm pieces), also known as Kent pumpkin
2 cups of chicken stock, or 2 chicken stock cubes and 2 cups of water
2 large garlic cloves crushed
2 teaspoons curry powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 can of organic coconut milk (400 ml) or use Coconut Cream or ordinary cream, but only 200 ml, and top up with water if needed.

Method:

Place first five ingredients into a 2 litre  casserole dish. Cook on High for 15-20 minutes in your microwave oven until all pieces of pumpkin are well cooked. You might need to take out the dish carefully, give the pumpkin a stir to move the middle pieces to the outside, and pop it back in the oven for 5 another minutes. This depends on your pumpkin.

Remove dish when the pumpkin is cooked, allowing the pumpkin to cool slightly.

Puree pumpkin with a stick blender. Stir in coconut milk and add seasoning to your taste. I used a lot of pepper. (Cream can be substituted.)

Cook on high for another 4 minutes in the microwave.

Garnish with fresh garlic chives or coriander, finely chopped.

I bought this beautiful fresh produce at Rusty's market as well as the pumpkin. 

Then there was International Scone Week, and I made some delicious Pumpkin scones. Here's the link to those and a photo in case you missed it. I was so thrilled with those scones.

Link to Pumpkin Scones.

I'm taking this opportunity to put up my two Lemon Curd recipes, as a reader noticed that the link to my stovetop Lemon Curd recipe wasn't live. So here it is, and also the link to my Microwave Lemon Curd recipe which has been one of the most popular recipes on my blog. I've made a couple of batches of the microwave style Lemon Curd during this month's lemon season and it's always delicious.

Link to Stovetop Lemon Curd recipe

Link to Microwave Lemon Curd Recipe

Last week I cooked a Spring and Lamb and Vegetable Shepherds Pie, Yum.

This Cherry and Brandy Fruit cake was the perfect boiled fruit cake to make to bring away with us on holiday. We are working through the second one now. This recipe makes two 20 cm cakes.

This post is part of the International In My Kitchen monthly series hosted by the lovely Sherry at Sherry's Pickings. Here you can catch up on what food bloggers around the world are doing in their kitchens.

Warm wishes,

Pauline

Spring Lamb and Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

 

 On a cold and wet day, leading into Spring, and we're having a few of those right now, this Shepherd's Pie will be your favourite go to comfort food, a nutritious feast of lamb and vegetables and lots of gravy, topped up with creamy mashed potato baked until it is golden and crispy, and drizzled with butter and grated parmesan. I don't generally follow a recipe when I make this pie at home, drawing on what's already in my head, but when I started to write it up, I realised there are quite a few steps involved. However, the lamb mince can be cooked in advance the day before, or even frozen, and assembled with the potato just before baking. The best part is that once it's in the oven there's no other prep work needed. Just pop it on the table for everyone to enjoy. Because I've made Shepherd's Pie more times than I can remember, I was wondering if this lamb recipe was actually blogworthy, that is until I made it this time, and all over again I fell in love with the piquant deliciousness of the dish. Simple as that.

September is Spring Lamb season here in Australia, and that's right now, when the best lamb should be on offer for the consumer, so now is the time to start planning some lamb meals. Just to clarify, Cottage Pie is made with Beef and Shepherd's Pie is made with Lamb. There, that's settled. Except for the difference between using lamb or beef, they are basically the same recipe. So I hope it doesn't confuse you if I say, a Shepherd's Pie made with beef is a Cottage Pie, and a Cottage Pie made with Lamb is a Shepherd's Pie. The type of mince is interchangeable. And as beef mince is generally more reasonably priced than lamb, I can understand why a Cottage pie would be the preferred option. However, I just love the unique flavour of lamb mince in a Shepherd's pie. 

With the cost of meat and fresh vegetables skyrocketing now, how do families with children afford to buy enough food for nutritious meals? With this in mind, I based this recipe on 500 g of lamb mince and added lots of vegetables so that this meal feeds 4-5 depending on meal portions. I am always a bit reluctant to categorically say how many people a main meal feeds, as it depends on meal portions so I always say this as a minimum, however to play safe this fed three of us comfortably for the main meal and then there was enough leftover to feed us all for lunch again the next day, so with all of the vegetables added, this feeds 6 people.

I like to taste as I cook to get the seasonings just how I like them, however by the time I have finished cooking, it is difficult sometimes to really know how it tastes. Do you find that? So Mr. HRK often very obligingly does a taste test for me at the end of the cooking time, and generally he is happy with the result. The quantities in this recipe suit my tastes perfectly, I like a little sharpness in the gravy that the Worcestershire sauce gives.

With the weather forecasters predicting a wetter than normal spring for us here in Queensland, and Winter on the way in the Northern Hemisphere, there are going to be plenty more opportunities to make this delicious dish. I've been making Shepherd's pies and Cottage pies for as long as I can remember cooking, and before that it was a favourite of my Mum's on the dinner table during cooler weather as well. I heard Taylor Swift say in a speech the other day that everything old is new again! If this can apply to music, I believe it can also apply to cooking, just not tripe, please.

Ingredients:

Feeds 6 people

500 g lamb mince, or beef mince

1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped

1 stalk of celery, strings removed and finely chopped

125 g mushrooms, coarsely chopped

1 chopped red capsicum

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 tablespoon mixed herbs (or if you grow the fresh stuff, 2 sprigs fresh thyme and 1 small sprig rosemary, leaves finely chopped, add 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley as well if you have it)

1/4 cup (25 g) plain flour

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup red wine (optional)

1 cup beef stock

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon tomato sauce (or use tomato paste if you prefer)

1 bay leaf

1 cup frozen peas

Salt and pepper

Mashed Potato crust ingredients

1 kg potatoes or (I used about 5 big ones for this recipe) peeled and cut into 3 cm cubes

2-3 tablespoons grated parmesan

1 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup (165 ml) whole cream milk 

Fresh thyme leaves to garnish if you have them

White pepper

Method:

The basis of a delicious and flavoursome mince, soup or stew is the soffrito, which means fried slowly, and is the combination of slowly sauteed onions, garlic, carrots, and celery.

Heat the oil in a large frypan to a medium heat, and add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion starts to look a little transparent. (You may need to lower the temperature, so the onion doesn't cook and brown.) Add the carrots, celery, capsicum and the herbs. Cook all of this on a gentle heat for about 3 minutes until softened. All of the vegetables will be turning sweet at this stage.

Increase the heat on your hotplate to high, add the lamb mince. Cook, breaking it up with a spoon along the way, until the meat is browned and all of the ingredients are nicely mingled.

Add the tomatoes, red wine, tomato sauce, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, mushrooms, peas and bay leaves. Stir well. All the ingredients should be in the pot at this stage. Bring this mixture to a rapid simmer on a medium heat. Cook for about 30 minutes, keeping an eye on it and stirring occasionally, until the liquid reduces and all the vegetables are cooked. At this point we haven't added any flour for thickening.

Thickening the lamb mince mixture:

I prefer to make a mixture of flour and water to add for thickening, starting with 1/4 cup of plain flour and adding enough water to form a smooth paste. By the end of the cooking time, the amount of liquid determines how much flour paste to use. On a low heat, add this paste gradually to your mince mixture until it is the consistency you like. It will thicken up very quickly. It's important not to thicken it too much so there is still a lot of rich delicious gravy. However, the consistency of your mince after thickening is what it will be after the end of the cooking time for the pie, so ensure it is thick enough, we don't want lamb soup. I've added this amount of flour to play safe, but I don't always need to use it all, or I might need more. You will need to be the judge.

Place the mince in your pie plate, cover and refrigerate. It's important that the pie mince is cold or at least cool, before adding the potato. If you are running short on time, pop the dish into the freezer to cool down, while you are making the potato.

The Potato Layer

Preheat oven to 180 deg. C/350F.

Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water until soft. This will depend on the size of your cubes or slices however about 15 minutes is the minimum to cook them. Definitely test them after 15 minutes.

Drain the saucepan, then return saucepan to the stove, steam dry the pot for about 30 seconds to remove any water, then add enough milk to the pot to cover the base, about 2/3 cup. Bring this milk to the boil in the pot, remove the pot from the stove immediately. Add the butter, a little white pepper, and start mashing. This method always ensures a creamy potato. It's important that the potato is spreadable and smooth, but definitely not sloppy. Too much milk and water left in the pot will make it sloppy.

Spread the mash onto the pie. The potato needs to be hot so that it spreads well onto the cold mince. I use a fork to draw squiggles onto the surface of the potato, which ensures all of those little peaks will crisp up and brown up. My friends, this is an essential step, and is a tradition going right back to the Shepherd Pies I remember as a child. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese or any other grated cheese, and drizzle with a little melted butter.

Bake your pie for 35 minutes, until golden on the top, and the mince will be bubbling around the edges. I always place a baking tray on the bottom of my oven to catch any overflow, just in case a little bit drizzles over the edge. That is quite normal.

Leave it to cool for 5 minutes on a cooling rack, sprinkle with thyme leaves if you have them and serve, with a side of green broccoli or whatever vegetables you have on hand. However, that's not totally necessary when the pie contains so many hidden vegetables.

Recipe notes:

• Red wine, yes definitely as an option
• You will have noticed that I mentioned to remove the strings of the celery. I had no idea that the strong strings of the celery can aggravate a sensitive gut, until I visited a dietician recently. I had started to take the easy path of not destringing celery, of not peeling cucumbers, thinking that we should be eating every part of the vegetable that nature has provided us with. However, there are dietary aggravators which we can do without, particularly as we get older, so I'm going with my newly acquired knowledge, however it is up to you.
• My Mum used to place a layer of seasoned sliced tomato on top of the mince, before adding the potato, which we all loved, however cooked tomato in this kind of recipe can be a bit divisive so I haven't added it to the ingredients or method. If you aren't adverse to cooked tomato give it a go, you will be pleasantly surprised. I am smiling to myself as I write this, as I know which of my friends and readers will be grimacing at the thought of the tomato, ha, ha.
• The cooked mince needs to have plenty of flavour, so add a touch more sauce and seasonings until it suits your taste. Or pull in another adult in the house who isn't doing the cooking and give them a fresh taste to see what they think. Potatoes are cheap to buy, so load up the potato topping I say. Everyone loves the mashed potato with the crispy crust.
• Some cooks prefer to add the flour for thickening to the mince mixture before adding the sauces, stock and wine. I've just always done it the way I described above. I don't think it makes a lot of difference. Either way, extra water or stock can be added if necessary for the perfect gravy, or it can be further thickened.
• It's preferable to cook the mince mixture in advance so that it can be refrigerated before assembly. This makes it easier to layer the potato crust onto the mince.

Warm wishes to you all, and I hope this lands in your inbox for Spring, or Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. A change of season is always a nice thought and I love Spring and the Spring flowers. It really puts a spring in my step. I hope it does for you as well.

As I hit the button to publish this post, the sun is shining. Wonderful!

Pauline xx

Parsley, Pumpkin and Beetroot Hummus: a superb trio of flavours and colours

 My kitchen has been humming this week, I've been making lots of hummus, using up excess parsley in our garden, and the rest of that large pumpkin I bought a couple of weeks ago. Remember those pumpkin scones I made just recently, well what with  pumpkin being such a versatile vegetable, it has now been mashed again and whizzed up and transformed into some very tasty and healthy hummus.

Pumpkin Scones: celebrating International Scone Week 2022 #ISW2022

It's International Scone Week 2022, where bloggers from all around the world unite to bake scones and share recipes through their blog posts. I've decided to bake some delicious and golden Pumpkin Scones for this event.

Baked Granny Smith Apples

Baked apples for dessert can be cooking away while you are eating your main course, and can be prepared well in advance. It is the perfect dessert, as it not only ensures that you eat at least one serving of fruit in your day, but apples are also a great  dessert for the whole family, healthy and delicious. Baked apples are quite the old-fashioned sweet, and our Grannies, even our Great Grannies, back in the day, were happily baking apples with various fillings to stretch the budget and present a delicious and welcome dessert for everyone. Desserts with every meal were the norm in my Grandmothers day. Back then, the cavity was sometimes just filled with sugar, and cloves were placed around the apple for spicy flavour, or a date or a few raisins or sultanas could be placed in the base of the apple, before filling it with sugar. They knew how to make the most of what they had on hand in the pantry. All that sugar and no guilt. They probably served them with custard or homemade ice-cream if they had an icebox, and everyone was happy.  

I've taken the dried fruit ingredient to the next level in this recipe, as I baked my Fruit Mince Teacake a couple of weeks ago, and had a quarter of a large jar of fruit mince leftover in the frig. It is the perfectly spiced fruity filling for baked apples. Apples are such a ubiquitous fruit, that so many wonderful dishes can be cooked with them, however when it comes to baking, the Granny Smith apple performs the best. Did you know about 60,000 tons of Granny Smith apples are harvested in Australia each day?

Legend has it that Maria Ann Smith, also know as Granny Smith, was an Englishwoman who emigrated to Australia in the mid-1800s with her husband Thomas. She was doing some weeding one day in Tasmania, and was composting I like to think, and dumped a crate of old rotten Crab apples from their orchard at the back of their garden. Many months later she noticed a sapling growing, which subsequently produced the green and slightly sour fruit,  which became known as the Granny Smith apple. I'm really pleased that the botanists haven't decided to change it's name. Granny Smith lives on, but she died never knowing that the apples she discovered would be popular the world over, thanks to their resilient qualities. There are many versions of the origin of the Granny Smith apple but they all agree that Granny Smith was responsible. 

 I enjoy eating fresh apples, but these baked apples exceeded my expectations, especially with fresh cream.

 Ingredients:

4 large Granny Smith Apples (the green ones)

80g unsalted butter, diced and softened

1/3 cup (65g) brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup fruit mince or mixed dried fruit

Pure (thin cream) to serve

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C

Find a baking dish that the apples fit snugly into.

Core the apples. To prevent the apples bursting during cooking, cut a thin line around the circumference of each apple with a sharp knife.

Mash the softened butter and brown sugar together in a bowl with a fork until combined. 

Then add the fruit mince and the cinnamon until well combined.

Spoon the fruit mixture into the cavity of each apple, and press it down well.

Pour 1/4 cup water (60ml) into the base of the dish. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbling and until the apples are just starting to soften.

Place the apples on 4 serving plates, small or large, and drizzle the juices from the baking dish over the apples, and top with a lot of cream.

 Serves 4

I have Granny Smith apples in my frig crisper, and some dried fruit in packets, so dessert is sorted for tonight.  We'll be very happy to enjoy a rerun of this dessert, whilst there is still a hint of cool weather left, however this dessert is still light enough to be eaten in Summer.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

Warm wishes,

Pauline