Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

The In My Kitchen gathering is on hiatus at the moment, as our lovely host Maureen concentrates on getting herself well. She’ll be back on the job in September and we wish her all the best for a speedy and complete recovery!

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In my kitchen…

…are treasures from San Francisco! We spent July there with our beloved friends Dan and Patrick and have only just arrived back, so please excuse this slightly jetlag-addled post. Lots of photos to follow soon!

I brought back kosher salt and French Fleur de Sel de Camargue…

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In my kitchen…

…are fridge magnets from Piedmont and Alcatraz…

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In my kitchen…

…is gum from the fabulous Powell’s Sweet Shoppe and a new red Moleskine notebook. I’ve developed a love for journaling while on holidays…

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In my kitchen…

…is a superb new UE bluetooth speaker from Costco, San Francisco. They have them here too! Wonderful music quality and it fits neatly into a nook on the bench…

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In my kitchen…

…is the best bread knife I’ve ever used, a Victorinox Fibrox Ergonomic 26cm. It cuts through a crusty sourdough loaf with ease…

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In my kitchen…

…is a mountain of flour. I’d let supplies dwindle down before we left, but made a quick trip to Southern Cross Supplies the day after we landed back in Sydney…

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In my kitchen…

…is yesterday’s bake of sourdough loaves and focaccia. Monkey Girl took very good care of Priscilla while we were away…

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In my kitchen…

…are Starbucks’ You Are Here mugs from San Francisco and Los Angeles. We brought a few back as souvenirs!

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And soon to be in my kitchen (hopefully)…

…will be scones for International Scone Week! Pop over to Tandy’s blog to find out more. Here are mine from 2015 – I’d better get baking for this year…

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Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen this month?

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The In My Kitchen gathering is on hiatus at the moment, as our lovely host Maureen concentrates on getting herself well. She’ll be back on the job in September and we wish her all the best for a speedy and complete recovery!

. . . . .

In my kitchen…

…are pizza bases made using our new high hydration sourdough, topped with pancetta, mozzarella and feta cheese. Pete has decided he likes these more than our usual yeasted version…

In my kitchen…

…is celeriac and potato soup, garnished with crispy sage leaves and served with sourdough focaccia croutons. I adore celeriac, but really only need to eat it once a year to be content…

In my kitchen…

…were Pete’s clever faux bacon bits, made by deep frying dried (not rehydrated) porcini slices for exactly ten seconds (they burn at twelve). They were part of a vegetarian dinner party we had recently for close friends…

In my kitchen…

…are dead soldiers from the abovementioned dinner party. It was a big night!

In my kitchen…

…are surplus sourdough loaves, sliced and stuffed with garlic and salted butter, ready for the freezer…

In my kitchen…

…are these stunning little cakes from Koi. Monkey Girl bought them for us – they tasted as good as they looked!

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In my kitchen…

…are new dough scrapers from Chefs’ Warehouse. At less than $1 each, they add colour to my early morning bakes…

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And speaking of early morning baking, in my kitchen…

…was very ripe high hydration sourdough, proved for 24 hours (including an overnight stint in the fridge). When I turned it onto the bench in the morning, it was blowing bubbles…

It was baked into three airy focaccia loaves (the recipe is here)…

Small Man eats his focaccia plain, cut into huge chunks. He paused for a second to allow me to take a photo…

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In my kitchen…

…were two boxes of prawn and pork mince, made for us by Monkey Girl’s wonderful mum. We combined it with blanched broccoli rabe from the garden and folded it into dumplings…

Perfect, easy dinner!

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Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen this month?

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In my kitchen…

…are the shells from the greenlip abalones I bought last month. Aren’t they beautiful!

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In my kitchen…

…is super fresh Korean chilli powder, a gift from our friend Jay. His father grew and dried the chillis himself…

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In my kitchen…

…there is always sourdough. Lately I’ve been slashing my loaves using this new pattern I came up with. My friend Moo calls it the starburst slash. It works well for loaves baked in an enclosed pot…

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In my kitchen…

…there was chocolate slab cake. I’m always so happy to have two offset spatulas whenever I make this – one to spread the batter, one to spread the icing. Yes, yes, I know I could just use one and wash it in between…

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In my kitchen…

…is Pete’s homemade quince jelly and some clarified jamon butter. Mum’s very kind friend Russell dropped off half a dozen quinces for us from his farm.

Here’s a late night photo of our messy kitchen as everything was being made and cooled…

And here’s a photo of the quince jelly the following day. The jars were glowing like jewels – Pete has a deft touch with jellies, and they’re always crystal clear…

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In my kitchen…

…is freshly harvested ginger, a wonderful gift from Monkey Girl’s clever mum. The aroma of fresh ginger is astonishing!

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In my kitchen…

…is the resurgence of an old mania. I used to cross stitch when I was at uni and last week I came across a box of old patterns. It’s amazing how our tastes evolve – very few of the designs still appeal some thirty years later (really? I liked calico cats and Holly Hobby at 19?).  Anyway, I thought I’d have another go…

In the process of looking for embroidery cotton, I came across this very old school project of Pete’s, made some 45 years ago. I wonder why we don’t teach boys to embroider any more?

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Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen?

If you’d like to write an In My Kitchen post, please do so by the 10th June and send your link to Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef. Thanks for hosting Maureen! x

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In my kitchen…

…were fudge brownies, baked for Small Man to take to his mate’s 21st birthday party (apparently they were a hit!)…

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In my kitchen…

…is a sack of Manildra Protein Enriched Flour.

This has the highest protein of all their bakers flours and the 12.5kg bag usually costs about $13. When I was at Southern Cross Supplies a couple of weeks ago, this was on the clearance stand for $5 (it had a small hole in the back). I didn’t actually need more flour, but I couldn’t resist the bargain…

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In my kitchen…

…is this magnificent piece of amethyst – a gift from my mum…

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In my kitchen…

…is a new enamel roaster by Wiltshire.

A headsup to my bread baking friends – this is the same size as the 30cm enamel roaster I use to bake my loaves in, but it’s a lot cheaper than the Falcon brand I usually buy from Peters of Kensington. I haven’t tried the Wiltshire roaster yet, but it looks almost identical to the Falcon one.

It’s currently available for $25 from Harvey Normal online (plus $10 shipping I think). I bought mine from Victoria’s Basement, but they’re now out of stock there…

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In my kitchen…

…are Delucas Wollemi open range eggs.

Our chooks are approaching retirement and hardly laying at all these days, so we’ve been supplementing with these eggs from Delucas. I like that they declare their stocking density to be 1000 hens per hectare (well within the free range code of 1500).

By the way, if you’re interested in knowing whether or not the eggs you’re buying in Australia comply with the code – this article by Choice Magazine is very useful…

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In my kitchen…

…was a batch of moghrabieh – a house favourite…

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In my kitchen…

…is dried Priscilla sourdough starter, made following Maureen’s technique and using the dehydrator that she so kindly sent me a few months ago. It worked a treat!

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In my kitchen…

…was a magnificent bottle of 1998 Mount Pleasant shiraz, uncovered in a recent cellar tidy up. It was drinking at its peak…

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In my kitchen…

…is a box of frozen sashimi grade South Australian greenlip abalones. I love eating abalone but have never tried cooking it before…

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Finally, in my kitchen…

…there is always bread! A sourdough sandwich loaf this time, plus a batch of cheese and olive rolls for Small Man…

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Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen?

If you’d like to write an In My Kitchen post, please do so by the 10th May and send your link to Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef. Thanks for hosting Maureen! x

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In my kitchen…

…are three tiny Swarovski angels, hanging from my plate rack. They twinkle cheerfully at me as I’m washing up…

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In my kitchen…

…is one of this year’s dark chocolate Easter eggs. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out…

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In my kitchen…

…is a tinned peach tea cake, baked for my mum. It’s her favourite!

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In my kitchen…

…is a bottle of 39 year old Portuguese vintage port, opened as a mid-week treat…

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In my kitchen…

…there is always a Römertopf, filled here with ingredients to make venison and barley stoup…

The end result after several hours of cooking was rich, thick and filling…

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In my kitchen…

…is a box of blooms from Fresh Flowers, a gift from my sister Cynthia. What’s fabulous about the photo below is that it was taken a week after delivery – the flowers from this company always outlast any others I receive…

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In my kitchen…

…is a gift from my friend Tezza, a book full of labels, tags, cards and other paper treats, all food themed…

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Finally, in my kitchen…

…is me! Wearing the new cotton poncho that Maude crocheted for my birthday last month…

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Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen?

If you’d like to write an In My Kitchen post, please do so by the 10th April and send your link to Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef. Thanks for hosting Maureen! x

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