Entries by Darryl Butler

Banana and green ginger muffins

For breakfast or morning tea how about using up the over-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl in some muffins with zing!

Wet mix: a quarter cup sugar, half a cup margarine, 4 ripe mashed bananas, 2 eggs, a quarter cup diced crushed green ginger

Cream margarine and sugar, add eggs and remaining wet ingredients or use a food processor.

Dry mix: 2 cups self-raising flour

Fold flour into wet mixture, place in prepared muffin pans and sprinkle over a mix of equal parts of garam masala and sugar. This adds an extra tang.

Bake at 180C for 20-25 minutes. Makes … Read more »

Chicken and Ham Terrine

Jenny Halliday

Now that we are coming up to the festive season and some warm weather, I thought it might be nice to have a cold dish that could be served on Christmas Day.

  • 1 ham hock
  • 2 sticks of celery, chopped roughly
  • 1 carrot, chopped roughly
  • 2 Onions, quartered
  • 2 fresh bay leaves
  • 1 chicken – 1.8kg, halved lengthways
  • 2 cups parsley
  • 3 titanium – strength gelatine leaves, softened in … Read more »

Mammoth

Reviewed by Heather O’Connor

Mammoth
Chris Flynn
UQP, $29.99

This very interesting book is narrated by a 13,000-year-old extinct mammoth, told to his fellow extinct creatures as they await their sale to customers in New York in 2007. As Thomas Kenneally wrote, ‘Mammoth (encapsulates) the macro-history of all life in the tale of one species.’ It’s a strong critique of the role humans have played in destroying the natural world, but … Read more »

Not Just Black and White


Reviewed by Heather O’Connor

Not Just Black and White

Lesley Williams and Tammy Williams

UQP, $32.95

One of the easiest and best ways to learn about Indigenous culture and history is to work your way through the winners of the David Unaipon Award. It was established to celebrate both Indigenous writers of both fiction and non-fiction, in collaboration with Queensland University Press. This award … Read more »

Blacklands

Reviewed by Debbie Worgan

Blacklands
Belinda Bauer
Orion, $19.99

Blacklands, the first novel by Belinda Bauer, is a chilling psychological read. It’s both a tale of a broken, dysfunctional family and a journey into the mind of a child-murdering serial killer.

The story revolves around Steven Lamb, a 12-year-old boy from a poor background, whose uncle, Billy, was believed to have been a victim of the … Read more »