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Archive for the ‘In My Kitchen’ Category

Our Garden

Posted in In My Kitchen on April 10, 2010| 33 Comments »

It’s a sunny Autumnal morn in Sydney, and Big Boy suggested that I take some photos of our fledgling garden to share with you.

There are just six small crabapples on a young tree that we  planted a couple of months ago.  I don’t think we’ll get any more this season, but it’s been very exciting to watch these grow…

Chillies seem to do particularly well in our garden, and apart from a large tree of birdseyes which seems to have gone completely mad, we also have this tiny bush of blazing hot habaneros, growing in a  terracotta pot.  I’m not sure what to do with them yet!

Our friend Maude will occasionally sneak into our backyard and plant something.  It’s quite lovely – once I went out and found a whole bed of sage growing, and had no idea where it had come from.

The stick of lemongrass she stuck into an old laundry tub a few years ago had grown into an enormous clump, so we’ve divided it up.  We’ll plant them in amongst the garden beds when they’re ready.

These little angels have been in our garden longer than the little angels in the house (Big Boy and Small Man).   They’ve been watching the Great Garden Project unfold with interest.

Tell me…what’s growing in your garden at the moment?  Anything wonderful?

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In My Kitchen

Posted in Food & Friends, In My Kitchen, tagged , , , , , , , on March 14, 2010| 26 Comments »

In my kitchen…

…we made sourdough pancakes for breakfast.  These were served with the Spice Girl’s homemade bacon (yes, she’s completely bonkers, and I adore her) and topped with a drizzle of organic maple syrup.

In my kitchen…

…sits a box of new season Royal Gala apples.  They’re sweet, crunchy and unblemished.

In my kitchen…

…there is a large slab of sourdough focaccia, baked for next week’s school lunches.  It’s made with cousin Andrew’s olive oil, organic bread flour and Maldon salt.

In my kitchen…

…are these little chocolates, made with tempered Belgian chocolate.

Big Boy plays the french horn, Small Man plays the trumpet.  When I saw this chocolate mould, I couldn’t resist.  And since Big Boy is now playing  first horn in the orchestra, I’m sending in choccies for the whole section.  Small Man ate all the trumpets by himself.

In my kitchen…

…there were 38 brownie cupcakes, topped with Callebaut milk chocolate ganache.  There are now 23.  Each one is bite-sized, so they don’t last very long around here!

Tell me, what are you making in your kitchen this weekend?

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New Kitchen Toys

Posted in Food & Friends, In My Kitchen, tagged , on March 3, 2010| 6 Comments »

Over the past few months, Pete and I have turned in excess of 100kg of roma tomatoes into homemade passata. It hasn’t been a difficult task, but putting the roasted toms through the food mill was always a little laborious.

A few weeks ago, Pete made the management decision to buy a new tomato juicer.  It cost $49 and is mostly made from plastic (apart from the sieve), which means that we have to let the sauce cool before processing.  Notwithstanding the fact that it leaks a little from the handle, it works brilliantly.  There is a clever corkscrew spiral in the middle, which forces the  mix through a sieve, producing sauce down the chute and pulp out the end.

The handle is almost effortless to turn, and it’s much faster than the old food mill.  We’ve recently been using it to make Chinese plum sauce from our President plums, which is what you can see in the photos.  We put the extruded pulp through a couple of times, to extract the last bit of goodness from it.

. . . . .

My friend Ozoz, the Kitchen Butterfly, surprised me yesterday with a package in the mail, all the way from the Netherlands!

One of the many items she sent included this poffertjes pan, for making traditional Dutch pancakes.  We had to try it out straight away – the pan turned out perfectly round mini pancakes. Oz even sent me the little wooden fork needed to flip them over…

Poffertjes are traditionally served with icing sugar and butter.  Big Boy had a huge plateful for dessert, drizzled with maple syrup.  He’d been studying for an exam, so was extremely grateful for the carb hit.  Thank you, Ozoz!

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Römertopf Bakers – Revisited

Posted in Food & Friends, In My Kitchen, tagged , , , on February 28, 2010| 17 Comments »

We’ve now had our Römertopf baker for over six months.

Compared to the photo above, taken when it was new, it’s now a little battle-worn…

…but the glaze on the inside remains perfect.  We take care not to scratch it with metal implements, and it rewards us by cleaning up a treat in the dishwasher.  The pots we get in Australia come directly from Germany, whereas the ones available in the US are made in Mexico and I don’t believe they have the interior glazing. Edit 2014: they’re now selling the glazed German made models in the US: http://romertopfusa.com/

We use our Römertopf at least once a fortnight and we’re astounded every time by how simple the process is.  There aren’t lots of pots and pans to wash up, and it’s an easy way to make use of whatever ingredients we have on hand.

In a nutshell, the procedure for our all-in-one rice and meat dinner is:

1. Soak the baker in cold water in the sink for at least 15 minutes.  We put it in before we start prepping ingredients.

2. Rinse one cup of Basmati rice and soak it in water.

3. Chop vegetables, prepare any meat.  No pre-browning or frying required.

4. Put the drained rice and vegetables in the bottom of the wet Römertopf, add two cups of stock, then lay the meat over the top.  Or, mix the whole lot together and put it in the baker, then cover with liquid, ensuring all the rice grains are submerged.  Often, instead of stock, we’ll use water, salt and seasonings.

5. Put the lid on and place the baker into a cold oven.  Turn the temperature up to 200C with fan, and bake for about an hour and a half.

Recently, I laid lamb shanks, seasoned with a little salt and pepper, over the top of the rice and vegetables and they cooked to sticky perfection.  The boys ate it so fast that I didn’t get a chance to take a photo.

Last week we made a chicken biryani in the Römertopf, adding half a packet of purchased seasoning mix, some onion, garlic, tamarind and curry leaves.  It was spicy, delicious, and just so easy.

The Römertopf Rustico baker is still only $39 at Peters of Kensington, which I think makes it the bargain of the year. It has certainly simplified our mid-week dinners.  The lack of added oil in the cooking process means that we’re eating better as well!

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In My Kitchen

Posted in Food & Friends, In My Kitchen on February 17, 2010| 22 Comments »

In my kitchen…

…I have five paper cranes, that Maude’s eldest daughter made for me. We strung them up so that they could fly…

In my kitchen…

…are these gorgeous washing up gloves, a gift from my dear neighbour June.  I told her I’d wear them to my next black tie function.  Luckily, I’m never invited to any…

In my kitchen…

…are seven jars of Pete’s latest jam – pluot, plum and boysenberry.  We were both surprised by how well the flavours blended together.  I should put them away, but their luminescent red glow makes me happy…

In my kitchen…

…is this beautiful handpainted Turkish bowl that I bought from Metin at the Orange Grove Markets.  He has a stall there on the first and second Saturdays of every month (tel. 0413 638 591 or email: aydinmetin@yahoo.com).

This little bowl is painted with a traditional carnation design, and filled with microwaved potato chips, made per the Spice Girl’s instructions. Don’t ask how many we’ve eaten today…

No matter how stressful life gets, there’s always something in my kitchen that will put a smile on my face.

So tell me…what’s brightening up your world today?

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