BBQ bugs & other stories: a bumper crop of recipes from Sydney

Balmain bugs with snow pea slaw; mango salsa; caper butter coral trout; potato and asparagus salad; plus, other seasonal deliciousness from my recent trip to Australia.

On the menu in this week's post from Australia

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Within an hour of leaving the airport, I am queuing for oysters.

Sydney Rock oysters to be precise (far tastier, sweeter and smaller than the usual slimy monsters) at Sydney’s legendary Fish Market.

Returning a few days later and slightly less delirious from jetlag, I realise I wasn’t hallucinating when I saw bugs for sale and that these are, in fact, a sort of lobster-crayfish cross that looks alarming like a flattened, pink cockroach and has been treated to the typically no-nonsense Aussie approach to naming things. I suppose we should be grateful they didn’t call them ‘squished bugs’.

Sydney Fish Market

I also pick up two enormous coral trout.

I’m told they are often served at gatherings and I will be cooking for a crowd in a few days since this trip is a visit to see family.

I am surrounded by a thousand (literally) cookbooks in the house we’re staying in.

And many are about Australian food. I pour over them for inspiration and discover a melting pot of flavours inspired by the extraordinary array of fresh produce that can be grown here – everything from mangos and almonds to kale and parsnips, often all at the same time. ‘Seasonal’ here doesn’t narrow it down much and now, at the start of the Australian summer, when the produce is particularly abundant, it makes our British basket look positively beige.

I also take a trip to The Cookery Book, an independent bookshop dedicated to cookbooks which fills my head with more ideas (and happily, stocks my book From the Veg Patch).

With plans and recipe ideas forming, I stop in at Balmain Farmers Market.

Aussie grown produce

And at Harris Farm (like Wholefoods) for veggie supplies where I find 90% of the fresh aisle is stocked with Australian grown fruit and veggies - from beetroot to bananas . I am agog at the homegrown bounty and have to be dragged to the checkout, dropping mangos from my overflowing basket as I go.

The result is a seasonal seafood feast that goes on for days

First, I light the barbie (why fight a cliché) in the shade of the veranda to cook the bugs. Fortunately, the mango for the salsa that will accompany them is enormous because I eat half of it on the way to the bowl. It is dribble down the chin juicy.

The following day, with guests on the way, I prepare the potato salad, the salsa verde and a lemony, garlic butter for the fish, so that all I have to do once everyone arrives is slather the butter over the coral trout, slosh a little white wine from my glass around the tray and bung it in the oven. Then it’s back to the poolside to discover more Aussie phrases (my favourites - ‘bin chickens’ meaning Sacred Ibis and ‘tea-bagging’ which is the act of having a brief dip in the sea without actually swimming) and await the feast.

Lemon and caper coral trout with potato and asparagus salad and salsa verde

This firm, white-fleshed fish lends itself to baking whole but the same method could be applied to any whole white fish since the real pleasure is parading two whole fish to the table and watching everyone dig in. Big napkins are a must. As is a potato salad – apparently no Aussie gathering is complete without one. And a gathering is just what this recipe is made for – prepare everything in advance then whack the fish in the oven 30 minutes before you want to eat and that’s it. More time for the cook to enjoy the sunshine.

Serves 8

• 100g salted butter, softened

• 3 fat garlic cloves, crushed

• Small bunch of parsley, leaves chopped, stalks set aside

• 2 x 1.5kg coral trout, gutted, scaled and fins removed