Berry simply delicious

Pork Belly at Peppers Restaurant - simple perfection. Picture: Alan Hughes Photography

THIS season, Peppers Restaraunt at Peppers Noosa Resort and Villas menu’s focus is all about local produce.
Peppers Restaurant has teamed up with wild forage Australia and will showcase unique ingredients such as beach mustard, lemon scented tea tree, sea spray and wood sorrel, to name just a few.

Their aim is to source sustainable produce as close to home as possible, supporting the local community and reducing their carbon footprint.
If heirloom carrots, radish crouton, truffled Hum honey and soft herbs as a side dish, followed by crispy Gooralie pork belly, chilli caramel, cucumber kim chi for entree and grilled lamb rack, minted pea puree, harvest salad, pea tendril with chimmichurri or Bendele Farm crispy skinned duck breast, butternut, caramelized pineapple and raspberry sorbet sound like a mouth-watering meal then Peppers menu will have you feeling pretty indecisive.
The Cooloolah Blueberry mousse, fresh raspberries, gold leaf, wild berry macaron and tamarind and chili roasted pineapple, coconut ice cream, peppered popcorn will round the meal off sweetly.
The team at Peppers have kindly shared their chef recipe for blueberry mousse, fresh berries, and wildberry macaron to try at home:

Ingredients
1 lemon, juiced
175g caster sugar
Half a vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
450g blueberries
12g gelatin sheets
3 egg whites
Half a tsp of cream of tartar
120ml pouring (whipping) cream
Fresh blueberries and raspberries to serve

Method
Place the lemon juice, 120g of the caster sugar, the vanilla bean, scraped seeds and the blueberries in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook for five minutes, and then remove from the heat. Transfer half the cooked blueberries to a bowl to cool. Place the remaining berries in a fine sieve placed over a bowl and press down to extract as much puree as possible. Discard the solids.
Soften the gelatin sheets in cold water for about three minutes, remove from the water and squeeze out any excess liquid. Whisk the gelatin into the warm pur¨¦e until it has all melted, then refrigerate until cool but not set.
Using a kitchen aid or electric beaters, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Whisk in the remaining sugar until glossy and the sugar has dissolved.
Next, whisk the cream until soft peaks form, and then fold into the cold blueberry puree. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Spoon the mousse into a piping bag fitted with a wide nozzle, then pipe into six short styled rocks glasses and refrigerate for at least five hours to set.
When ready to serve garnish with berries, and your favourite berry flavoured macaron.