JUDITH AISTHORPE E

Place chillies, vinegar, sugar, allspice, nutmeg, garlic, thyme and oil in a small food processor. Process until a loose paste forms. Season with salt and pepper. Place ham on a lightly greased wire rack in a large roasting pan. Add enough boiling water to pan until it reaches 2cm up side of pan. Brush ham with chilli mixture. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until golden and crusty. Remove and discard foil from shank. Serve. Amira Georgy, Super Food Ideas Craig Wall and Nigel Lough

LE Bistro Rakuya is dishing up a Christmas high tea with an east meets west theme. The venue at Casuarina Square is, for the next week, holding high teas to celebrate the unique Christmas people in Northern Australia experience.

Manager and chef Crystal Wong said the menu featured lobster, buffalo and tofu served with both Asian and western flavours with an emphasis on light tropical flavours.

“The concept is based on eastern and western culture. We wanted to create a menu that would tell the story of a tropical Christmas,” she said.

“We didn’t set a boundary for ourselves for matching the ingredients.

“We like to keep being innovative and passionate about what we are doing.”

Ms Wong and owner Gloria Chang both hail from Macau but have called Australia home for many years.

They have drawn inspiration from their heritage and their time here in Australia.

“We had the idea of western and eastern because Macau was a colony of Portugal many years ago and that’s why we have a lot of influences in western culture,” she said.

To accompany the high tea menu, each dish has been given a blessing.

Ms Wong explained they saw food as a gift and giving it a blessing was a way to share that and to share a piece of Asian custom.

Dishes for the high tea include lemon myrtle lobster salad on a charcoal disc and buffalo tataki.

She said it was simple coming up with the flavour combination of lemon myrtle and lobster.

“We ran a few tests and we love to be creative and work with the flavours. We knew lemon myrtle works with seafood and we tried it out and it was delicious,” she said.

The buffalo tataki is served on a rice cracker with wasabi mayo.

Dessert includes coconut cream tapioca with NT mango and matcha panna cotta with Kakadu plum jam.

Ms Wong said there was an emphasis on using native ingredients with an Asian fusion.

In the new year they are looking to update their menu.

They are also hoping to “bring the tea culture to Australia”.

She said cold brew tea, which was not iced tea, was a popular brewing method in Asia that she was looking to introduce Darwinites too.

Ms Wong said the brewing method allowed the raw flavours of the tea leaves to come through better than the traditional method of using hot water to extract the flavour.

The business will also expand to Alice Springs mid-next year after they won a contract to supply hospitality services to Alice Springs Desert Park.

“We want to bring the brand to the centre of Australia,” Ms Wong said.

They also have plans to expand their business and menu concept across Australia and create a franchise.

The high tea will run until December 31. To find out more head to their Facebook page Le Bistro Rakuya.