All language subtitles for Rick.Steins.Australia.S01E05.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-HDFLiX_track3_[eng]

I was 19 years old
when I first saw Australia.

My dad had just died...

..and I was running away
from my old life.

What I found in Australia changed me.

And I can remember saying,

"This is me. I've escaped.
This is my life."

Ow!

Today, Australia is so much more than
another travel destination to me.

My wife is Australian...

Thank you, Ricky.

- Scrumptious!
- Scrumptious, eh?

..and this country
has become my second home.

Love them to bits.

So, after a lifetime of
food journeys,

I'm finally retracing
some of that first trip.

Now I'm ready to go.

I want to discover how Australia
and its food is changing.

I remember coming up this coast.

It was so remote. You come back now
and it's like this.

Takes me right back.

After exploring the outback,

I'm heading south to see how
the flood plains here...

Beautiful.

..have become a food bowl.

What enormous birds.

And I'm bringing my inspiration home
to create new recipes.

I will end up with my shirt
covered in beef and sauce.

I suspect it's going
to be another journey of a lifetime.

BIRDS CAW

I'm making my way through
the dusty outback,

and it's all the proof I need
that Australia

really is the most arid
inhabited continent in the world.

I must say, travelling around here,
everywhere is really dry

and the vegetation
very, very sparse and scrubby.

I'm heading south to a different part
of the country, about 500km away -

the Riverina - named after
the waterways that run through it,

the Murrumbidgee River in the north
and the Murray to the south.

The plains here have been home to

the First Nations Wiradjuri people
for millennia,

but over the last hundred years,

this land has been reshaped
by agriculture,

and I'm on my way to a place
that's reinventing

what farming in Australia looks like.

I'm going to see somebody who's
given up normal agricultural pursuits

and has thrown his lot in
with emu farming.

I remember seeing my first emu
in the '60s,

and they were running along a fence
near where I was hitchhiking,

and I remember thinking,
what enormous birds!

It never crossed my mind
that you could farm them.

But Ian Marston is the proud owner
of more than 750 emus.

Since you can't buy emu eggs or meat
in the supermarket,

I want to find out what's drawn him
to this strange animal.

EMU GRUMBLES DEEPLY

Good morning.
What's that extraordinary noise?

Yeah, that's the female
making that drumming noise

from deep in their throat.

- So, are they communicating
like that?
- Yes. Yeah.

How amazing.

- Yeah. It's... Yeah.
- Well, I'm blowed.

- The female makes
the drumming noise...
- Yeah.

..and the male
makes a grunting noise.

While the males,
they haven't got a good vocabulary

like the females have here
in the emu world, so...

Well, isn't that the same
with humans, us humans?

Don't you think women have
a better vocabulary than us men?

There is a lot of things about emus
that are very close to being human.

All right.

BOTH LAUGH

But I was just reading about emus.

- It's the men that sit on the eggs.
- That's correct. Yes, yeah.

So, what happens out in the wild,
and this is really intriguing,

sometimes you'll see
a group of three, three adults.

- Yeah.
- There'll be one female
and two males.

The female will go with the alpha
male first and mate with him

until she lays a clutch of eggs.

- Right.
- And then he'll sit on them,

and then she'll go off
with the beta male,

she'll lay a clutch of eggs
and he sits on them,

and then she goes out and parties.

It's just like humans.

So, how did it all start, then,
emu farming?

I bought in some cattle,

and I bought them in for $250 each
in those days,

kept them for nine months
and sold them for 180.

I thought, well, I'm not going
to make much money out of this.

- Going backwards fast.
- Yeah!

So I thought I'd try something else.

Ian's been farming emus now
for 30 years.

He tells me there's just
a small niche market

for their decorative feathers,
meat, leather and eggs.

EMU GRUMBLES

But in the last few years, scientists
have discovered that emu oil,

rendered from the fat of the bird,
is rich in a vitamin called K2.

The vitamin is believed to boost
cardiovascular and dental health,

and demand is booming.

How many kilos do you think I'll
get off this bird of fat?

Well, they don't look fatty
like geese, so I'd say...

..I don't know, two?

- Two?
- Yeah.
- OK.

These here, that one there
would go around about nine kilos.

- Right.
- And the older ones,

you can get between 12 and 15
average kilos of fat off a bird.

They're extraordinary-looking
creatures.

I mean, I've seen them just driving
through the back of Bourke.

But are they friendly?

- Oh, yeah. You can pat them
if they let you.
- All right.

But some of them are still flighty.

They're a commercial bird,
they're not a pet.

But the chicks, no worries at all.

Ian's taking me to meet
some of his younger birds,

which he says are much friendlier.

- So, these are nine months?
- Yes. These are the chicks.

They do look prehistoric,
a bit like sort of dinosaurs, really.

- Well, they're very friendly.
- Yeah, they are.

CHICK TWEETS

I don't know what they see
in my belt,

but there's something about it.

- Bloody hell!
- If you've got shoelaces,
they can undo shoelaces.
- Ow!

IAN LAUGHS

I'm not used to this, Ian.

Hey, just stop it!

Oh, would you get off my belt?

Would you just leave my belt alone,
please?

- Well, they are friendly.
- Very.
- They keep trying to eat my clothes.

I've only got one belt on this trip.

They're extraordinary creatures,
though.

I mean, I've never been with
animals like this before, I must say.

- There's the...
- Argh!
Gone for my belt again!

- You've got a friend for life there,
Rick.
- I know, I know.

He's not leaving.

I've never cooked anything
emu before,

but Ian assures me
the eggs make good eating

and he's invited me back to
the house to try cooking with them.

One emu egg is the equivalent
of about eight to ten chicken eggs,

so I think just one
is more than enough for an omelette.

Look at that.

Interestingly, emu eggs have
a much higher ratio of yolk to white

than hens' eggs -
about 10% more, really -

so that makes them very, very rich
and very nicely coloured.

Now, I like to keep my omelettes
very simple.

Just a bit of seasoning,
salt and pepper.

So now pepper.

In this case, I'm going
to add a bit of Parmesan as well.

I just love the taste
of fresh pepper in an omelette.

So, there we go.

Now just a simple whisk...like that.

Omelettes are so easy to make.

I just prefer myself
to make them just with butter.

And some people like to use a bit of
oil in the cooking of them as well,

but just butter for me.

So, there we go.

Now for making the omelette.

So, I just need
a small amount of butter,

and it's very important not to use
a lot of butter.

And now what I'm trying to do
is melt the butter

and give it a slightly burnt flavour,
but only very slight.

But I just want to give it
a little bit of a nuttiness,

so I'm waiting for the butter
to slightly go

a tiny bit brown, but not too brown.

That'll do.

And now for my omelette mixture.

Might all go into the pan
in one big bloop like that.

Now that's all right.

That'll be about enough.

So, what I'm doing now,

just going to leave that
for about half a minute,

just for the bottom to set.

Now, of course, what I've forgotten
to do now because I'm Rick

is I've forgotten
to grate my Parmesan.

So, I will quickly do
that while that's going

because I like a bit of Parmesan
in my omelette.

I like a plain omelette,

but I'm just addicted to
a bit of cheese,

particularly Parmesan,
in the omelette. That'll do.

We're pretty well ready to go there.

I'll just start drawing the fork
through to the middle

and piling up the sort of cooked egg,
and as I draw it through,

the raw egg will go to the bottom
and fill the omelette up.

So, I'm building up a bit of height,
a bit of fluffiness.

So, now the Parmesan.

Just all over there.

And that's looking good.

And the secret now is just to
cook it up,

but just leave it a little bit...

..a little bit fluffy and soft
and slightly liquid in the middle.

That's what the French call baveuse.

So that's looking very nice.

And now it's time to fold
the omelette up.

Great.

And turn it over like that.

Still a little bit soft
cos, in my opinion,

a slightly undercooked omelette
is the best omelette.

So that looks great.

So, now the last bit. I'm just going
to turn out on the plate.

And the trick is to angle the pan,
slide the omelette onto the plate

and have confidence
when you're doing the flip.

And there we have it.

Nice shape. Now all I need to do is
add some salad.

An omelette for one.

Fabulous.

- That looks nice.
- Yeah, it looks all right.

Yeah.

Very nice setting here, Ian -

eating emu egg omelettes
with a vista of distant emus.

If we had a pina colada,
it would be like paradise.

Yeah, it would.

What were you saying about emus?

They dig a hole in the ground
when they know rain's coming?

Yep, yep. They'll dig a hole out
in the middle of nowhere,

and then it rains and it's full,
and then they drink out of it.

- So how do they know?
- I don't know. I don't know.

- Amazing.
- Past my pay group, I think.

BOTH CHUCKLE

- Ah.
- Mm.
- It's really rich, isn't it?

I mean,
not overpoweringly rich.

Lovely yellow colour.

The Parmesan cheese
just brings it out, doesn't it?

I think so. I mean, you know,
purists would say keep it plain,

but I just like
a bit of Parmesan.

A little tang on it.
I think I might have more of these.

- All right.
- I know where I can get them from.

Ah. Yeah.

- I'll drink to that.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.

It was very tasty, really rich,
and I feel quite proud

that I have made an omelette
from an emu egg.

The Riverina was once harsh plains,

but in the last
century it's been developed into

some of the most productive farmland
in the country.

This extraordinary transformation
began with one of

Australia's first
nation-building projects,

the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme.

Started in 1907, it involved

an elaborate series of dams,

canals and holding ponds
that took water from

the Murrumbidgee River

to create 1.6 million acres
of farmland.

And I'm stopping at Scenic Hill,

a lookout on the outskirts of
the town of Griffith,

to see how this landscape
has changed.

The first European to reach
the area was the explorer John Oxley,

who passed through in 1817.

And here's a quote
which I really like.

"There is a uniformity of
barren desolation of this country,

"which wearies one more than I'm able
to express."

How wrong was he?

To me, that looks like a vision
of great farming.

Lots of lovely, neat fields,

great greenness everywhere.
For a country town -

and I've been in a lot
of country towns in New South Wales -

it's a big one.

The abundance I'm seeing is
the result of the irrigation scheme,

which was completed
after World War I.

It brought an influx of new settlers
and would-be farmers to the region.

Many were migrants from Europe

who came looking
for work and a place to call home.

This is really interesting.
The Hermit of Scenic Hill.

Hermit's Cave heritage
and archaeological site

is a rare example of
a hermit's dwelling.

It's a lasting reminder of
Valerio Ricetti,

the young Italian migrant
who lived here

as a recluse between the late 1920s
and 1952.

Ricetti,
a stonemason from the Italian Alps,

arrived broke and looking
for a life of solitude.

He found this cave
and used his skills

as a stonemason
to build his own utopia.

So that's presumably where he lived.

This looks like the kitchen
because we've got a fire here.

It's probably...
his sort of barbecue.

It seems this is a place

where people can reinvent
themselves into whoever they want.

Valerio Ricetti was part of
a wave of Italian migrants

who were drawn to the
newly fertile farmlands here.

As well as growing food,
they also planted grapes to make

the wines they loved from
the old country.

They were among the
first table wines made in Australia,

as Aussies at the time
favoured fortified wines

like English-style sherry and port -

something I remember well.

When I first came to Australia
in the '60s,

I remember there was no, like,
table wine.

I remember there were sort
of half-gallon glass jars of wine.

Yeah, it was a bit like you
bought wine to get inebriated.

Since then,
Australian wine has come a long way,

and the country is now one of
the world's biggest wine producers.

Today, wine sales bring
in more than $40 billion,

or £20 billion,
to the nation's coffers each year.

There are thousands
of boutique winemakers,

as well as a handful of large,

well-known companies like the one
I'm visiting today.

Well, I'm off to
the De Bortoli winery,

and I'm very keen to hear
about their family history.

I know them
because of their popular dessert

or sticky wine called Noble One.

And I'm going to meet the man
who created it,

third-generation winemaker
Darren De Bortoli.

- Hey, Rick.
- Hello.

It's funny, actually, Darren,

I remember somebody saying
to me about,

I don't know, the late '50s,
early '60s,

going to a pub
in the back of beyond

and coming from Europe and saying,
"I'd like a glass of red, please."

And the landlord said, "We got port
or sherry. Which do you want?"

Yeah, the first time Australians
started drinking more

table wine than fortified wine
was 1972.

- Seriously?
- My grandfather's
background being Italian,

so, he started making a table wine.

Did they start growing grapes then,
or was it just part of what the...?

Well, it was part of
what they were doing at that stage.

So 1928 came along and the beginning

of the depression years,
he couldn't sell the grapes,

so he decided he would make wines.

And a lot of
the early Italians actually

would come fruit pickers
and go up to Queensland

and cane cutters and whatever.

The very early markets
were up in Queensland.

I guess that's one of
the great things about

agricultural parts of Australia.

It's like reinvention.

One minute you're doing something
and you think,

"Well, hang on,
this doesn't work any more."

So how did you get into
the stickies, your Noble One, then?

Well, it all started
when I was studying winemaking.

They were doing a bit of work
with noble rot.

Noble rot, or Botrytis cinerea,

is a type of fungus
that grows on grapes.

It sucks the moisture
out of the grapes,

which are then harvested
for winemaking.

The concentrated juice makes for
a complex and sweet dessert wine.

- I absolutely loved the wine.
- Did you?

And that created an interest
in the style.

When I came home in the early '80s

I said, I'd like to make
a noble rot wine.

Cos at that stage, the prevailing
wisdom was Australia

was too hot and dry.

Well, that's what I would
have thought,

but I guess in the autumn
you get temperatures

- that are a bit lower
and slightly...
- Perfect.

And today's a good example.
It's been a very dry year

but these sort of days
with high humidity,

rain or whatever,
the botrytis loves it.

Well, I'd quite like to taste some.

Oh, let's try the Noble One.

Love to. Gosh.

It's over 40 years now.
It's amazing.

Oh, this is nice.

Welcome to our cellar door.

And we're going to try
the 1982 Noble One.

- 1982?
- Where it all started from.

Wow. I've never tried '82.

This dessert wine was originally
called a Sauternes

after a region in France famous
for this style of wine.

But in the 1990s,
Australian winemakers

were prohibited
from using French names.

I've been selling your wine
since it was called Sauternes.

Can I ask who came
up with the name Noble One?

Me, of course!

- I think Noble One's a better name,
actually.
- Couple of glasses, Rick.

Here we go.

- That's a serious glass for a sticky!
- Yes.

- And this is...
- Oh, look at the
colour in that.
- ..the 1982.

Yeah.

And as you can see, these colours,
it's darkened considerably.

It has, considerably.

- It smells really good, though.
- Yeah, it's the flavour.

It's still alive.
A lot of people make the mistake,

- they think the colour is so deep
that the wine is off.
- Oxidised.

As you see, this is still alive.

- Amazing, eh?
- It's so nice.

It's just got that...

I mean, the delicious sweetness,
you know,

it's sort of sweet,
but you don't sort of think,

"Oh, that's sickly sweet."

It's just so full of fruit still,

but it just incredibly concentrates
the flavour, doesn't it?

I think the other great thing
about really old wines like this

is just the joy of opening
a bottle that's so old.

Stood the test of time.

It's still got acidity,
still got plenty of fruit.

It will probably outlive me!
That's the scary thing.

- Probably will outlive me.
- Yeah.

- Oh, well, let's drink to that.
- Cheers!

Cheers!

Oh, I've just noticed this.

I was here in '66, '67.

And we've got here,

hot claret by the gallon,

a dollar a gallon, 1.20 a gallon.

Actually, the deposit on these
gallon jars was 50 cents.

So half of the price

was the jar itself.

I mean, there we've got lots of
sweet sherry, brown sherry.

That's what it was like
in those days.

Today, the De Bortoli winery
produces a whopping 30,000,000 litres

of wine every year.

The vats here hold gallons
of different red,

white and dessert wines,

which are then bottled and exported
to more than 75 countries.

And the next
generation of family winemakers,

like Darren's niece Kate,

are now creating their own vintages.

- This is fantastic.
- Yeah, it's beautiful.

And it is fortified wine, isn't it?

Fortified, yes.

I love these barrels.

Yeah, they're actually very old.

They're over 100 years old

and they're still used
as bulk storage vessels.

- So they use them still?
- Yes, they are.

It's something quite special, I
think, to be able to still use that.

Kate's passion isn't dessert wine.

It's cool-climate Pinots.

And last year, she and her team won
a double gold medal

at the San Francisco
International Wine Competition.

Being part of the family,
you're so familiar with winemaking?

I think so, I think it's one of
those things that's always,

always learning and always going.

It's just like with my sons,
cos I've got restaurants

and I realised
that as they were growing up,

they didn't say much,
but they took it all on board.

So when they started making
decisions about how things tasted...

- You just absorb it naturally.
- You do.
- Yeah, definitely.

- What have we got here?
- We've got some Pinot Noir.

Oh, great. Your wine?

Yes. I had a big part
in making this one.

- Nice colour.
- Yes.

- Oh, that smells good.
- Cheers.
- Of course!

That's really nice.

It's very sort of lively and fresh,

but I guess also
with different generations,

the market changes,

and probably the previous
generation don't get it.

I think I'm pretty lucky
that I work with...

..I work with my dad
and he's quite innovative.

Both of my parents are.

So, you know, you have a few heated
arguments and because it is family,

you can throw a lot more out there
than you would with other people.

But at the end of the day,
we all sit down together

and we all love each other

and we all respect
each other's ideas.

I guess I'm looking at the younger
generations of my family

just to be in tune with the next lot
of consumers, really.

- Definitely.
- And that's where you come in.
- Yes.

Brilliant. Cheers.

Cheers.

GLASSES CLINK

Over four generations,
the De Bortolis have emerged

as one of the most well-known
Australian-Italian families here.

But they're certainly not alone.

Today, Griffith has one of
the highest proportions

of Italian ancestry of
any part of Australia.

Nearly one in four people here
are of Italian descent.

I've come into town to see
if that heritage is alive and well.

Wandering around the main street
in Griffith,

there's so many Italian cafes,
Italian businesses.

It's really unusual.

I haven't been in
another Australian town

with so much Italian influence,
and that's great.

Look at that.

Bertoldo's panetteria.

I've got to go in there.

Oh, wow.

From a quick look
at what's on offer here,

I can see traditional Italian
biscotti and gelato...

This is really special, I must say.

..next to staple Aussie favourites
like pies and lamingtons.

But I've seen what I want -
it's cannoli.

I'm curious to see how it compares

with the cannoli
I've eaten in Sicily,

the island this delicious pastry
comes from.

- Hello. I'm Rick.
- Hi.

Well, I'd quite like
to order something,

and I just like the look
of those cannolis.

We've got lemon and ricotta,

we've got the traditional custard,
or we've got the custard

with chocolate on one side
and vanilla the other.

- It's got to be the lemon ricotta.
- Lemon ricotta it is.

Thank you. They look really nice.

Just love ricotta.

- Back in Sicily!
- Oh, thank you.

Don't forget the cannolis.

They're lemony.

I love ricotta cos it's got
that sort of graininess about it.

Yeah, it's got a texture.

It's less rich than cream

and less rich than pastry cream,

which is the vanilla ones.

- Coffee?
- Coffee, let's go.

Well, I'm sitting here...

..sipping what I would say

was a perfect flat white

and eating what I would say

was a perfect ricotta cannoli.

So what I'm asking myself,
really, is,

will the Italian influence live on
as strong as it is now?

And I think it probably will.

I mean, I guess inevitably
it'll disperse a bit

as more people come into the town,

but it's such a strong part of
the whole psyche of Griffith,

I think it'll last forever.

And one of the families
who are committed

to keeping this heritage alive
are the Piccolo family.

Piccolo's have brought the concept
of agritourism to the Riverina.

Agritourism started in Italy
as a way of getting tourists

to visit local farms
with farm shops,

farm tours and farm-based dining
and hospitality.

It's a great way for farmers

to bring in a little more income.

- Good morning.
- Hello, Rick.
- Peter, isn't it?

It is, it is. Peter Piccolo.

- Peter Piccolo.
- Piccolo Family Farm.

It's a lovely farm.

It's really, well...

I mean, I've been on farms
that don't look anything like

as tidy as this.
It's a delight to the eye.

- I'll take that as a compliment.
- It really is.

I've been intrigued about this
sort of agritourism idea

because I know it from Italy,

but you must be a bit of a pioneer
of the idea here

in the Riverina, then.

It's interesting, Rick,

the agritourism idea came
about necessity.

Farming has changed.

It's big, large-scale,
and the expenses are huge.

So for a small lot like this,

it's no longer viable.

So in order to keep the farm,
keep it flowing,

keep it in the family,
we had to think outside the square.

And agritourism was the answer.

That's amazing.

The Piccolos attract visitors
to their farm

through agricultural education

and hospitality in the form

of their famous long lunches

using home-grown produce.

What are these?
I've never seen these before.

OK, so this is San Marzano.

Oh, these are the San Marzanos.

Yes, perfect for pizza.

- Mm, beautiful.
- Yeah.

Really full-flavoured,
aren't they?

That has a beautiful,
sweet flavour to it.

Yeah. Delicious.

Not too hot at all
but it's nice that it is a bit hot.

So this is radicchio?

Yeah. We call it "radeekio",
or radicchi.

- Oh, yeah, it's quite bitter,
isn't it?
- Yeah.

Nice, though.

And all the produce Peter grows here

is put to good use
by his eldest son.

Luke Piccolo has built a reputation

as one of regional Australia's
most exciting young chefs.

Today, he's offered to cook me
one of his signature dishes

based on his experience of
growing up Italian in Griffith.

Hello, welcome.

- Very, very nice to meet you,
Luke.
- You too, Rick.

This looks exciting.

We're going to cook a beautiful
dish using local quail

and some of the amazing produce
from our farm as well.

So, we're actually going to use
the whole bird.

The quails will go in the oven,
but the heads, wings and legs

will be used to create the sauce.

And one quail for one person?

We generally cook two.

My father, Peter, who you've met,
he'd eat about six!

THEY LAUGH

The quail bits are sauteed
in butter

and then deglazed with wine.

Water is then added,

along with fresh figs
from the garden, and left to simmer.

The sauce is still nice and runny,

but what the figs will do
is they're just going

to thicken that up nicely

and give the sweetness, obviously,
to that as well.

The quails are stuffed with lemon,

topped off with sage
and thyme from the garden

and given a healthy whack of butter,

olive oil and a little bit of salt
and pepper

before being roasted in the oven.

So, where did you learn to cook?

My nonna lived down the road
from my primary school,

so I'd walk down with her

and she had a little veggie garden
out the back.

- We'd cook gnocchi,
we'd cook zucchini fritters.
- Wow!

So, you mean,
you'd run home from school

to your grandmother to cook?

- Exactly.
- This is like fairy-tale land!

You know, it's the best story
I've heard of any chef that...

- It's a pretty nice way
to spend your afternoon.
- Yeah.

As I travelled and as I learnt more,
especially in Sardinia...

- Sardinia?
- Yeah, I did a summer there.
- Really?

Yeah. I worked at
a Michelin-starred restaurant.

But to see the traditions
of Sardinia and also a restaurant

that had a farm
and had its own produce,

a thing clicked in my brain and I
said, "I can do this back home."

It blew my mind.

We had the farm here
but it was a monoculture.

It was 20 acres of citrus.

And so when I moved back
to open the restaurant,

it was a conversation
I had with Dad.

I said, "We've got to diversify."

So interesting, isn't it?

Cos what's happening is you're sort
of reinventing the place, really.

And Griffith's the perfect place for
it because we've got that culture,

that multiculturalism,
the agriculture.

So it's working

and we're absolutely loving
to do it.

So, the greens from the garden.

So, beautiful chicory,
has that lovely bitterness.

Yeah, yeah.

Do you think Aussies generally
get bitterness as a flavour?

No, they hate it.

I thought they might!

At the restaurant, occasionally,

I'll mix the cicoria

with some silver beet
or English spinach,

just to dilute the flavour
down a little bit.

So we're going to braise this down

with our vino cotto.

The Piccolos produce
their own vino cotto,

which is a traditional
Italian condiment

made of grape syrup aged in barrels.

Among other things, it adds a richly
complex sweetness to savoury dishes.

So we're going to put
a really good dousing of this.

Cos chicory is bitter.

It's a strong flavour.

- But, actually, cooking reduces the
bitterness, doesn't it?
- Yeah.

I'll put just a touch of
water in that too,

just to get a bit of steam.

After 20 minutes in the oven,

the roast quails are served
with chicory

on a bed of polenta,

which will soak up
all the lovely juices.

- And for the guest of honour...
- Oh, really?

Yeah, a guest of honour!

And lunch is served on
the terrace overlooking the farm.

Oh!

Lovely with the sweetness.

Has got that slightly gamey flavour.

It's a bit like guinea fowl.

- It's sort of a bit like chicken,
but not quite.
- Exactly, yeah.

Now this is the important bit to me.

- The chicory with the vino cotto.
- Mm.

You see that balance between

the sweetness of the vino cotto
and the chicory.

This bitterness,
it's like another dimension.

On that note, I just have to say

this is absolutely delicious,
Luke, thank you very much.

It's just so great
having recognisably

sort of country Italian food
in this part of Australia.

- Thank you.
- Good stuff.
- Thank you very much.

I'm leaving Griffith
and heading east towards the coast,

and on the way there's a small stop
we simply have to make.

My visit to the Riverina

has coincided with
the national election,

but unfortunately,
I'm not allowed to vote.

I've been a resident for 20 years,
but I'm not a citizen.

I'm going to the polling station

simply because the crew
have to vote.

Voting in Australia is compulsory

and there are hefty fines
if you don't.

To support this,
elections have almost

always been held on a Saturday,

making them quite a social event.

We're pulling into the local
primary school

that has been transformed
into a polling station...

..and I'm on the hunt
for another cornerstone

of voting in Australia -
a sausage sizzle.

Sure enough, the local parents'
and citizens' group have set up

a barbecue and are cooking up
sausages for hungry voters.

- Hello, I'm Rick.
- Hi, Rick. How are you?

- I'm Alicia.
- Very nice to meet you, Alicia.

I'm just wanting to know
about sausage sizzles.

Oh, sausage sizzles.

Not something we have back
in the old country.

OK, well, we've been doing the
sausage sizzle in Australia

from the 1980s, I think.

- Really?
- Yeah, since the barbecue
became portable.

Everybody has a good
old-fashioned talk

about politics around a barbecue.

And it's compulsory for Australians
to vote, so it just comes together.

- That's great.
- Yeah.
- Well, can I try one?

Absolutely, Rick.
We have a standard barbecue sausage.

And we also have continental
sausages today.

No, none of your continental.
Not on election day.

- Just a straight sausage?
- Absolutely.

Straight from the butcher,
we will get you one of those.

Onion?

Maybe I'll have a bit of onion
and sauce.

- That's how I would do it.
- OK.

Traditionally,
a sausage sizzle consists

of a barbecued beef sausage
slapped on a slice of bread,

served with optional fried onions

and tomato or barbecue sauce.

The humble snag has become such
a feature of elections in Australia

that it's been named
the "democracy sausage".

But on the quiet,
I don't think the Aussie beef snag

is a patch on the British
pork banger.

It might be messy.

Well, the sausage looks a bit bigger
than the bread.

- Than the bread.
- Is that normal?
- Yes, absolutely.

Local butcher, straight across
the road, supports us heavily.

Got kids in the school.
How's the sausage?

I'm amazed. I love Australia,

but I'm not actually
that keen on the...

- On the sausage.
- On the snags.
But this is a good one.

I hope so.

SHE LAUGHS

Maybe I am on the way to becoming
a proper Aussie after all.

- You've got to vote first.
- I'm not
allowed to vote.

SHE LAUGHS

My journey east is taking me along

the Murrumbidgee River towards
the town of Gundagai.

This region has long been
romanticised in Australian folklore,

including one of my favourite songs
- Along The Road To Gundagai.

It expresses a man's yearning
for his childhood home -

a little shack on the river amongst
the gum trees.

And since I'm actually on the road
to Gundagai, I'll hum it for you.

# Da-da da

# Da-da da

# Da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da

# Da-da da-da da. #

I'm no singer,

so perhaps I'm better sticking
to poetry.

And the most famous poem from here
tells the story of a teamster

whose wagon gets stuck
in a creek just outside Gundagai.

He comes back
to discover his faithful

dog sitting on his tucker box
guarding his food.

This old bush verse is

so popular there's even
a statue commemorating it.

I had to stop off here.
We're just out of Gundagai,

and I remember I came through here
in the '60s

with my friend Ed Ifould,
and he insisted on us stopping here

and seeing the dog
that sat on the tucker box.

But he didn't use the word "sat",
I have to say.

The Dog On The Tucker Box.

I've been jilted, jarred, and crossed
in love

And sand-bagged in the dark

Till if a mountain fell on me

I'd treat it as a lark

It's when you get your
bullocks bogged

That's the time you flog and cry

And the dog sat on the tucker box

Nine miles from Gundagai.

I'm not sure if "sat" is actually
what was meant.

Established in the 1830s on
the banks of the Murrumbidgee,

Gundagai grew into a thriving town

when gold was discovered 20 years
later.

Now home to around 2,000 people,

it's full of traces
of Australia's early colonial past,

which gives it an easy-going,
nostalgic feel.

But I've come to experience
something that,

as a Brit, you wouldn't expect
to find in an Aussie country town.

I remember
when I first came to Australia,

milk bars were all the rage,
and milk bars sold burgers,

but they were burgers beyond my
wildest dreams.

I mean, a lot of things
about Australia

were quite strange to me then,
but once I'd tasted the burger,

and then when I also tasted

a chocolate malted milkshake,
I thought,

"I like this country."

It was the milkshakes

that gave these cafes the name
milk bar.

And here on Gundagai's main drag,

I've come to pay homage to
the country's oldest.

The famous Niagara Cafe.

Built in 1902, it's believed to have
been the first

Greek cafe and milk bar
in Australia.

And it inspired a wave of
Aussie Greek milk bars around

the country that served up some of
the best hamburgers I've ever eaten.

This is fabulous.
It's really special.

All Art Deco. I don't
recall the milk bars I went to

were anything like as grand as this.

And I know I'm going to get a good
burger.

I've stopped here first and foremost

to try their Aussie burger with
the lot.

And secondly,
to meet Peter Castrission,

whose family operated
the milk bar over 100 years ago.

Oh, coffee! Thank you very much.

Beautiful coffee.

Cheers. I'll just try it.

- Ah. That's good.
- The Niagara's one of the places

that had coffee back
when everyone drank tea,

so I don't know, it's just grown.

How come the Greeks started
all those milk bars so long ago?

And your family in particular?

Well, first of all,
they were good businessmen,

and Gundagai was a good place to be

because it's halfway between Sydney
and Melbourne.

I can remember
driving through Gundagai,

- right down the centre, in the '60s,
yeah.
- That's right.

Yeah. So, it was a busy place.

They thought Castrission Brothers
Refreshment Rooms

was a bit of a mouthful, so,
they decided on the name Niagara,

which was glamorous, American.

Yeah. Of course.

So, it was this idea of an American
sort of milk bar, I suppose.

Yes. It was, of course,
what the kids saw at the movies,

particularly in the '50s, '60s.

The Americanisation had come in,
you know,

like milkshakes, carbonated water.

And they decided, we're going to
create Australia's wonder cafe -

and all this, the fountain bar,

the domed ceiling, these mirrors

all came from the US.

- All came from America?
- Yes.

- What can I do for you?
- Oh, well,
I don't need to look at the menu.

- I just want your classic burger.
- Sure thing.

And do you have a chocolate
milkshake? Malted milkshake?

- We can do a chocolate malt milkshake
for you.
- Perfection!

While milk bars like this imitated
the American fast-food experience,

their burgers were
uniquely Australian.

I've ordered a classic hamburger
with the lot -

which always includes
slices of canned beetroot.

It's a mystery as to why beetroot
began appearing on burgers here

but it's believed the opening of
canneries in Australia led to

a huge enthusiasm for
canned food across the country.

BELL TINKLES

Great. Well, this is the chocolate
malted milkshake, I'm hoping.

- It certainly is.
- I'll just have a little...

Lovely and cold, I love it when...

- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Right.

- Always in these aluminium...
- Beautiful.

- ..what they make them in.
- Yeah.

Oh.

- Yeah, they're...
- Heaven.

- Ah, here we go.
- Yum.

- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- Oh, lovely. Thanks very much.

- Thank you.
- Wow.

Well, that is really special.
I mean...

..it's actually, I think, quite a lot
bigger than I remember in the '60s.

Or maybe it's I've just got older,

and when I was in my early 20s,
this would have been...

..like that, you know!

But, oh, it's fabulous.

So, we've got cheese,
egg, bacon, fried onion,

patty. We've got tomato, lettuce.

- We've got the beetroot.
- Beetroot.
- The beetroot was the thing that...

- That's what made it.
- It was what made it.

- What made it Aussie, I think.
- Yeah.

- It may have come from the States but
they never put beetroot in it.
- No.

No, it always had beetroot.

And I do remember that,
I don't know when I was here,

I don't think they'd started
putting pineapple in it.

That's not my cup of tea.

But this is, you know,
this is serious stuff.

A three-course meal.

Moment of truth.

- Here you go.
- Cor...

..it's a handful, isn't it?

Oh.

Aw.

Takes me right back.

Yum.

I just love Aussie burgers. I...

You know, when... Oh.

I've just got
the tomato, the beetroot.

The beetroot has always got
this slightly sort of earthy taste.

Great beef patty.

The lettuce, nice crunch.

And the egg,
a bit of deluxe-ness there.

The cheese, fabulous.

- It takes me back.
- Right.

Do you know what? When I came back
from Australia years and years ago,

back to the UK, I was determined
to open a hamburger restaurant.

And I remembered
saying to my family,

"No, no,
you don't understand hamburgers.

"It's going to be
an Aussie hamburger restaurant."

Well, I opened a fish restaurant,
but hey-ho!

There's still time.

- Do you think so, Peter?
- Yeah. Of course.

Long before the Niagara Cafe
put Gundagai on the map,

the town was famous for
a far more notorious legend

born of the gold rush.

The discovery of gold in Australia
in the 1850s

brought an influx of people
and huge amounts of wealth

to towns like Gundagai.

These riches were also
a magnet for robbers

who hid in the bush
and conducted hold-ups

on the unguarded roads
in and out of the town.

They were called bushrangers

and one of them is buried here
in Gundagai's main cemetery.

I'm fascinated by bushrangers.
I don't know why it is,

but so many of us have this sort of
affection for the likes of,

I don't know, Robin Hood
or Dick Turpin or Ned Kelly.

There's something about this idea
that they were robbing from the rich

to give to the poor,
which is absolute rubbish, actually,

they were just, you know,
poor, desperate criminals.

But I'm looking here for where
a particularly notorious bushranger

is buried, one Andrew George Scott,

known as Captain Moonlite.

In 1879, he was passing through
this area with a small crew

including James Nesbitt,
who was very close to him.

Not far out of Gundagai,

he and his crew visited a station
where he took the occupants.

They didn't harm them,
but took their food,

using their piano,
and stole their clothes.

Eventually, the police arrived,
and a gunfight ensued.

At the end of it,
a policeman was dead

and so were all
but two of Moonlite's gang.

Most notably, Nesbitt had died

and Scott was found
weeping next to his body.

And this is a quote -

"His leader wept over him
like a child,

"laid his head upon his breast
and kissed him passionately."

Scott, or Captain Moonlite
as he called himself,

was captured by police
as he grieved.

He was taken back to Sydney,
where he was tried and hanged.

Finally, here it is.

Andrew George Scott,
Captain Moonlite.

And it says -

"Born Ireland,
8th of the 1st, 1845.

"Died Sydney, 20th of the 1st,
1880."

So, he's 35 years old.

"As to a monumental stone, a rough
unhewn rock would be most fit,

"one that skilled hands could have
made into something better.

"It would be like those it marks,
as kindness and charity

"could have shaped us
to better ends.

"Andrew George Scott."

And this is from
a letter Moonlite wrote

from Darlinghurst Gaol in Sydney,
about his feelings.

He poured his heart onto the page,

requesting to be buried
with his dearest Jim.

"We were one in heart and soul.
He died in my arms.

"I long to join him where
there shall be no more parting."

There has been some debate,
of course,

about whether they were lovers
but, of course, they were.

A century later,
two local women campaigned

to have Captain Moonlite's
remains reburied here,

near the unmarked grave of
"Jim" James Nesbitt.

That's what's happened.

But what is really great,
it is now a heritage-listed site.

He probably didn't want
to end up as a bushranger,

but now he's been reinvented
as a sort of folklore hero.

One of the things I was sort of
thinking about Australia,

I came here in the '60s
with a bit of

a sort of difficult time
in my family

and I suddenly realised
I could do what I liked.

And I think there is
a sense of sort of reinvention

about life here anyway.

Whether you fail or succeed
at reinventing yourself,

the important thing is
being prepared to give it a go.

And I think that spirit still lives
on in places like the Riverina,

which is what I'm paying tribute to
in this new recipe.

It's my take on
a great Italian classic.

So, this is ragu of slow-cooked
beef, with pappardelle.

So, the beef I'm using
for slow-cooking is shin of beef.

Now, if you were to slice it
and fry it, it would be so tough.

But, over two, two-and-a-half hours,

all that connective tissue
is going to melt

and give you this luscious taste.

So, the first thing I need to do
is fry this beef off.

Just add a bit of olive oil
in the pan.

Just putting my pieces of beef
in there.

I don't need to cut the beef up
much at this stage.

And at the end of the slow-cooking,

I'm actually going to pull the meat
apart with a couple of forks.

I'm also going to add
some vegetables.

Often we call that in the trade
a mirepoix.

Two carrots, two celery sticks,
two garlic cloves

and one onion should be enough.

I'm sure that beef's
ready for turning now.

Yeah, look at that.

And that will just add
a great colour and caramel flavour

to the finished dish.

Nice and brown now.

So, out they go, and in go my veg.

I often ask myself, why is that
the classic mirepoix,

the classic combination, ie,
celery, carrot, onion and garlic.

I don't know, honestly.

I suppose the flavours
work together so well.

You've got the sweetness
of the carrot and the onion.

You've got the garlic flavour,
of course, which you need,

but also you've got
the herby taste from the celery.

It's sort of like
a perfect combination, I think.

It's smelling very lovely,
smelling very like a stew.

Now, I'm just going
to add back my beef.

And now,
add the rest of the ingredients.

And that's the great thing
about this stew.

Once you've got this far, or this
ragu, everything else gets put in,

and then, a slow cook.

First of all tomato.
Just tinned tomato.

Put in half a can,
then, add 500ml of beef stock.

Red wine.

About 300ml.

If you can afford it,
something like Shiraz,

a really full-bodied wine,
is great there.

Some aromatics, a couple of
bay leaves, and some thyme.

And finally, from Griffith,
from Piccolo Farm,

vino cotto, and it's actually
sort of reduced grape juice.

It's delicious.

And you can pour it
over strawberries,

but also it gives a real lift and
a bit of a sweetness to a good ragu.

So, now, all I have to do is
put a lid on here

and leave it to bubble away gently.

But I will check it
just after about two hours

just to see if the beef
is falling apart.

So, two hours has passed.

Just have a look at this now.

It's smelling wonderful.

But there's quite a lot of juice
still in there,

of sauce still in there. I'm just
going to turn the heat right up now

and just reduce it down
a little bit.

So, now, just to cook the pasta,
the pappardelle,

I'm just going to season it
with salt, a couple of teaspoons.

And then, in goes the pappardelle.

And because this is
fresh pappardelle,

it'll only take
a minute or two to cook.

If you can't make or
buy fresh pasta,

don't worry, dried is fine.

You'll just need to cook it
a little bit longer.

So, that's reduced down,

and wonderfully, look at that, now.

I'm just going to taste it now
for seasoning.

I put a little bit of salt in
earlier.

I'm just going to put a bit more,
and a bit of pepper.

Ten turns, I always go for,
minimum.

That'll be fine.

Now, I'm going to start
pulling the beef apart.

This is one of those occasions
where I will end up

with my shirt covered
in beef and sauce.

I think, as you can see,

this is really quite a different
finished sauce to Bolognese,

which is made with mince.

It's smelling delicious.

So, that's already cooked,
the pasta.

Just lifting it out.

So, some of the pasta water
will thin it up a little bit.

I like the ribbon pappardelle

because the large surface area
of the pasta

allows the sauce to cling to it
in a pleasing way.

So, now, just tossing this over
a bit in the pasta.

So, I'm just going to finish that
with some olive oil and Parmesan.

Lots of Parmesan.

This ragu is so different,

this slow-cooked beef,
to ragu Bolognese.

I mean, that's lovely
but this is really deeper, rounder,

more comforting, I suppose.

I think I can taste,

I can indeed taste a hint of
that vino cotto I put in there.

But it's optional, of course. But...

..isn't food a cheering-up
sort of thing?

I mean, it's a bit of a dull day.

It's instantly made me feel
more happy and jolly.

But it's crying out
for a gulp of red.

Now, perfection is achieved!

Join me next time on the final leg

of my trip around
New South Wales...

Such a serene and green part
of Australia, this south coast.

..where I'll savour
some south coast favourites...

How many oysters can
an oyster shucker shuck?

Delicious, sweet.

..and try the unexpected.

This is our yellowfin tuna
and pistachio salami.

- Sensational.
- I'll take that!

- Best Australian fish pie
I've ever had.
- Oh!

In fact, it's the only
Australian fish pie I've ever had

but it's absolutely delicious.