James Viles: Recipes from Biota which puts you in touch with Indigenous cooking

What is biota? Not just the restaurant - biota is the plant and animal life of a region, our region. To James Viles, biota is a notion, a philosophy that guides him towards mother nature and helps him create from local farms, forests and gardens. He finds himself making the most of every ingredient. To some this would be called a sustainable approach; to him it's just a way of life. Here he shares some recipes from his Southern Highlands restaurant Biota Dining in Bowral.

Garlic beans and bycatch prawns

The name "borrowed land" respects the original occupants of this region, the Gundungurra and Wodi Wodi peoples, on whose land Sahlan and Penny grow their garlic. They grow biodynamic purple heirloom Rocambole Australian garlic and also give me the garlic scapes that work wonderfully in this recipe. Bycatch prawns are also known as ebi prawns.

8 scarlet runner beans (see glossary)
30ml toasted garlic oil (see below)

Clean the beans and leave whole. Place in a hot, dry frying pan and scald one side until blackened. Rest in a warm place and then remove the seeds from the pods, add to the garlic oil and set aside until ready to serve.

Garlic scapes

4 garlic scapes (see glossary)
2 tsp toasted garlic oil (see below)

Cut the centres from the scapes and sear in a hot dry pan until dark. Dress with the garlic oil.

Whipped garlic

20g peeled garlic
40g egg whites
60ml olive oil
5g salt

Boil the garlic in 400ml water for about 10 minutes until soft. Purée the whole mixture in a blender and leave to cool. Whisk the egg whites into the purée until fluffy, then add the oil slowly, drop by drop at first, to prevent the mixture curdling. Season with the salt.

Reduced milk

1L full-cream cow's milk
20g kelp or sea lettuce
2 tsp white soy sauce

Place the milk and kelp in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat for about 30 minutes until reduced and sweetened. Remove the kelp. Season with white soy sauce.

Bycatch prawns

32 bycatch prawns
40g caviar (we use biodynamic Yasa)

Peel the prawns and keep on ice. Combine the prawns gently with the caviar and leave over ice until you are ready to serve.

Also on the plate

3 cloves pickled garlic
onion flowers

Toasted garlic oil

1 kg garlic, peeled
2L cottonseed oil

Finely mince the garlic in a blender. Heat the oil to 185°C and fry the garlic until crisp and golden. Using a slotted spoon, remove the garlic and drain on kitchen paper. Once the oil and garlic have cooled, combine the two in an airtight jar. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to two months.

Pickled garlic

300ml white-wine vinegar
100g white cane sugar
30 garlic cloves, peeled
3 cloves
3 star anise
6 black peppercorns

Put the vinegar and sugar into a saucepan with one litre of water and bring to a simmer. Add the garlic cloves and spices. Remove from the heat and leave to steep until cool. Bottle the garlic in the pickling liquid. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge or a cool place for up to 6 months.

River plants, steamed trout and buttermilk

We use brook trout, rainbow trout and brown trout in the restaurant, depending on the time of year and where we've been fishing. We often camp beside the local river; the banks are lush with river mint, fennel and purslane growing among the rocks.

Trout roe

80g trout roe
30ml light soy sauce

Put the trout roe and soy sauce in a vacuum or cryovac bag, seal the bag and leave for at least three hours in the fridge, to compress and marinate the roe.

Buttermilk

120ml buttermilk
10g salt
2 tsp olive oil

Whisk together the buttermilk, salt and olive oil until slightly aerated.

Trout

2 brown trout or rainbow trout, filleted
2 sprigs river mint (see below)
10g salt

Cut four pieces of baking paper just larger than the trout fillets. Place each fillet, skin side down, on a piece of paper. Put in a steamer, making sure none of the fillets overlap (you might need to use two layers of the steamer). Put a sprig of river mint on each fish, cover and steam for about 6 minutes. Peel the paper away from each fillet, followed by the fish skin. Season with the salt.

Brown butter creme

100ml brown butter, see recipe below, at room temperature
300g sour cream
10g salt

Mix together the brown butter and sour cream and season with salt.

Plants to finish

River mint
Fennel
Purslane
Brown butter
1 kg butter

Put the butter in a large pan and boil until the milk solids begin to caramelise and the butter begins to foam and give off a nutty scent. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to a week. It's also nice to finish the brown butter with hard herbs such as sage, marjoram and thyme.

River mint is a rambling mint bush found across south-eastern Australia in moist forests and around waterways. The thin, soft serrated and pointed leaves are found in pairs on long runners. If you can't find river mint, use variegated mint.

Forest flowers, Jamberoo Mt blue cheese and honey

This is inspired by our spring trips out to Pecora Dairy. There are often a lot of native wild flowers in bloom, with busy native bees buzzing around them. The Jamberoo Mountain blue is our local cheese – it's beautiful and fairly floral but you can use any local blue.

Native honey gel

120ml native honey
5g salt
6g iota carrageenan

Put the honey and salt in a saucepan and stir in 90ml water. Add the iota and heat to 84C. Strain the liquid and store in the fridge until ready to use.

Linseed crisp

100g egg whites
250g linseeds (flaxseeds)
10g salt

Preheat the oven to 70C. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and then fold in the linseeds and salt. Spread on a paper-lined baking tray and bake for 2 hours.

Jamberoo Mountain blue

300g Jamberoo Mountain blue cheese (sheep's milk blue)

Break the cheese into small pieces and leave out to come to room temperature before serving.

Forest flowers

Wild lavender
Blackberry buds and fruit
Native cherry flowers
Wild fennel pollen

Pick and clean the forest flowers. Keep in a cool place until you are ready to use.

Iota carrageenan is a gelling agent derived from red seaweed. It works well with proteins and dairy products and can be found in most speciality ingredient shops and online.

Fennel pollen has a wonderful intense flavour. We gather it from wild fennel and dry it, but it can also be obtained from speciality ingredient shops.

Glossary

Scarlet runner beans are a member of the legume family. These are long, green, knife-shaped pods. The purple seeds inside have a strong bean flavour and, when young, can be quite nutty. Can be eaten raw or cooked

Garlic scapes are the tender young flower stalks from the plant. We cut them off to promote larger bulb growth. Scapes have a wonderful onion and garlic flavour and the texture of a very young spring onion (scallion). If they aren't available where you live, use garlic chives for a similar flavour.

Sea lettuce is also known as green kelp or wakame. We are lucky to be able to gather sea lettuce along our coastline. This is very translucent and bright green, sometimes brown depending on the season and type. It adds an umami flavour to dishes and can be bought at Asian grocers.

White soy sauce is thinner and cleaner than regular soy sauce. We use it as a seasoning in many of our dishes, sometimes instead of salt. It can be found at good Asian grocers.

Bycatch prawns, also known as ebi prawns, are small prawns that are caught unintentionally while fishing for other species. You can sometimes find them for sale at fish markets. These are best eaten raw and very fresh and have a wonderful sweet flavour.

Onion flowers are bulbs that burst into white flowers towards the end of their cycle and have a wonderfully strong onion flavour. If they are not available where you live, society garlic flowers would be the best alternative.

Recipes from Biota by James Viles. Murdoch. $59.99.