Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

In my kitchen…

…is my first successful attempt at decorative slashing on sourdough loaves…

I used a new razor blade and baked the loaves in my enamel pots…

I followed a wonderful instructional video posted by Bonnie of Alchemy Bread Co – always so kind of  professional bakers to share their knowledge!

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In my kitchen…

…is a genius little sushi mould, which does away with all the sticky-handedness of forming rice balls. My sister Cynthia found it in Singapore, and the boys love it…

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In my kitchen…

…is yet another treasure from Cynthia, a set of tiny hand painted Turkish espresso cups. I adore them (and her!)…

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In my kitchen…

…was a Jamie Oliver Earl Grey Tea Cake. It was easy to make and even easier to eat, with cranberry studded Wensleydale cheese…

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In my kitchen…

…is a lytoceras ammonite, formed more than 100 million years ago. It’s palm-sized, and covered in the most exquisite suture pattern. There’s something magical when nature produces such artistry…

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In my kitchen…

…is a gift from lovely Gretchen, made with recycled glass. I love the clever wire work…

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In my kitchen…

…we’ve been making dumplings! My nephew Bryan and the gorgeous Lilian came over on Saturday afternoon to learn. Mum was on hand to offer her wise advice…

The half-moon pleat is tricky, but Lilian nailed it on her first attempt…

Bryan was hilariously rubbish at folding, but managed to produce edible dumplings nonetheless…

In the end, we made 160 dumplings, half pork and half chicken and prawn. One tray’s worth went into the freezer, and the rest were either boiled, steamed or deep-fried. Big Boy and Monkey Girl made sushi as well. They’re all such good kids, they even tidied up after dinner!

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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 March and send your link to Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef. Thanks for hosting Maureen! x

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In my kitchen…

…are fresh figs, picked from an overhanging branch that our neighbour Mark kindly leaves unpruned for us…

We grilled them in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil until soft, then added them to our lamb wraps…

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In my kitchen…

…is a batch of dark chocolate, just for us…

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In my kitchen…

…is Ali’s magnificent homegrown garlic. We’ve been given so much wonderful garlic this year – it’s been an enormous treat…

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In my kitchen…

…is arroz al horno (rice in the oven). Our Spanish friend Emma emailed us her recipe, and it worked brilliantly. That’s Ali’s garlic in the middle and the burnt looking bits are morcilla (Spanish blood sausage)…

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In my kitchen…

…there is always bread! Sourdough cheese and olive rolls for lunches, and loaves for our daily eating…

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In my kitchen…

…are magnificent dahlias! This bunch was a belated anniversary gift from my cousin Dil…

…and Big Boy and Monkey Girl went to the flower markets and brought back pink and red varieties as well. They’re sitting in an old fashioned crystal rose bowl, a wedding gift from Pete’s dad…

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In my kitchen…

…is lap ap rice, made by adding a piece of specially cured (salted and preserved) duck (known as lap ap) to raw rice and then cooking the whole lot together. The flavour and fat seeps out of the duck as it cooks and infuses the rice.

The Chinese BBQ shop in Flemington makes these salted ducks for a few months each year…

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In my kitchen…

…is a giant squash that we missed. For two days. That’s all it takes for them to end up humungous!

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In my kitchen…

…are chocolate chip cookies. I hadn’t made these for a couple of months, and the boys were asking for them…

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In my kitchen…

…is a box of homemade treasures from darling Clare in Geelong. I can’t tell you how nice it was to come in out of the rain and find a surprise parcel waiting for me…

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In my kitchen…

…is a new desk planner. It’s proven remarkably useful already! But I secretly bought it just for the stickers…

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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 February and send your link to Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef. Thanks for hosting Maureen! x

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Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful festive season!

As mentioned previously, the In My Kitchen gathering will now be hosted by the lovely Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef. Please send your links to her and she’ll add them to the list. And please remember to get your blogposts uploaded by 10th January!

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In My Kitchen…

..were Christmas flowers from Petal Post Sydney. I’ve been really happy with their service! If you’re interested in trying them out, they currently have an order three, get one free offer…

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In my kitchen…

…is Chicago John’s cookbook! It’s a fabulous read…

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In my kitchen…

…is delicious cherry chutney from darling Charlie at Hotly Spiced. It was perfect with our Christmas turkey…

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In my kitchen…

…is glorious, homegrown Australian garlic!

Lovely Francesca at Almost Italian sent me a braid of her pink blushed bulbs. It’s now hanging up in our kitchen…

Christine from Invisible Spice‘s large white garlic arrived first, and we ate them straight away. They were beautifully aromatic and flavoursome…

Finally, our dear friend Diana dropped off a kilo of her homegrown garlic – we broke the bulbs into cloves, vacuum sealed them, then stashed them in the freezer to see us through winter…

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In my kitchen…

…were dark milk chocolate feuilletine Christmas trees…

… and little boxes of treats for friends and neighbours, including chocolate, sablés and shortbread…

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In my kitchen…

…was a box of handmade treats from the wonderful Andrew, personally delivered just before Christmas…

We flamed his old-fashioned boiled pudding and served it with microwave custard at our family dinner. It was the best we’ve ever had…

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In my kitchen…

…there is still quite a lot of fruitcake…

…and freshly picked garden produce…

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In my kitchen…

…well, actually, in my dining room…because it’s holidays…there are Balancing Animals. These New Zealand wood puzzles are enormous fun! We bought four packs in 2005, and they’ve been played with regularly ever since. Each set is carved from a single piece of sustainable timber (farmed radiata pine).

The curvy kiwis are by far the hardest to balance, but Pete can always produce a stable configuration. That’s because he’s an engineer, says Small Man…

My adorable mum found these quite addictive…

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In my kitchen…

…are new Royal Doulton Fable mugs, a gift from my baby cousin Dilys. She bought them to match the plates Lilian gave me last month. I love having things in sets (apparently that means I’m old)…

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In my kitchen…

…was a 4.3kg half leg of ham, bought on sale at Costco after Christmas. It cost me just $28! We glazed it with Pete’s quince jelly and a little mustard…

…and served it up for dinner when our friends BJ and Matt came over. It was tender and succulent…

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In my kitchen…

…are wonderful gifts from faraway friends – beautifully scented spice bags from Jason, a wee tin of tea from Tania in Perth, and gorgeous spices from darling Emilie in New York. Watch out for Em’s new cookbook, due for release in February (it was featured in the latest Oprah Magazine!)…

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Finally, in my kitchen…

…are treasured gifts from our treasured neighbours, including French vanilla perfume sticks from Mark and Emma, and homemade sambal from Maude…

There were also cookies from Liz, a Morrocan-style storage container from Michelle, homemade apricot jam from June and locally produced extra virgin olive oil from Ellen…

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What’s happening in your kitchen this month?

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In My Kitchen is moving!

I wrote my first In My Kitchen post in February 2010, and started the IMK gathering the following year. Over the past five years, it has been a great joy to spend time in your kitchens. Together we’ve built an amazing blogging community, and many of these online connections have developed into deep and lasting friendships.

Unfortunately, I’m no longer in a position to give this fabulous get-together the attention it deserves. So I was both delighted and relieved that fellow IMK blogger Maureen, who also happens to be one of the most beautiful people on the planet, was happy to take over the hosting role. Under her care, I’m confident that In My Kitchen will continue to expand and bring together like-minded bloggers from around the world.

This December’s IMK will be the final one hosted here at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. As of January 2016, it will be hosted by Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef. Thank you for all your wonderful support over the past five years, and I hope you’ll continue to give the same to Maureen in the future. I look forward to dropping into your kitchens for a virtual cup of tea soon!

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

A note of warning to my vegetarian and vegan friends:
there’s a roasted pig’s head below. x

In my kitchen…

…are flowers from my neighbour Mark’s garden, arranged in a brass Turkish teapot…

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In my kitchen…

…is a set of four Royal Doulton Fable plates, a gift from my nephew Bryan’s new girlfriend. I can’t tell you how touched I was by this gesture – Lilian had only been for dinner once before, but she’d noticed our tile trivets and gone out of her way to select plates that would match with them (I think she’s a keeper, B!)…

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In my kitchen…

…there is always chocolate. I tempered a blend of milk and dark Callebaut to create chess pieces for a friend’s birthday…

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In my kitchen…

…are loads of beans! We’ve planted a new variety this year – Italian flat beans – and they’ve been prolific. We’re picking about 250g (9oz) each day…

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In my kitchen…

…is a little box of magic!

A gift from my mum, it holds a block of super-compressed black cloud-ear fungus (we call it bok ni). After soaking in a (very) large bowl of warm water…

…the block unfolded into a mountain of tender, perfect bok ni. Mum recommends simmering for five minutes before use. It’s great in stir fries and noodle dishes…

These little packets come in boxes of ten ($10, so just $1 each). They’re widely available at Chinese grocers. I’ll be keeping the photo below on my phone to show shopkeepers when I’m buying these – it’s easier than trying to describe them…

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In my kitchen…

…is a brand new dehydrator, a gift from the beautiful Maureen…

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In my kitchen…

…are new season’s cherries, brought from Young by Aunt Liz and Uncle Peter. They’re Small Man’s favourites, so Pete’s wonderful aunt buys him a box every year…

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In my kitchen…

…was an entire roasted pig’s head. I was at the K.W. Barbecue shop in Flemington on Friday and spied it in the window…

Apparently they only have one per day, each Friday and Saturday. It cost me just $10 and produced a ridiculous amount of meat and crackling – enough to feed all of us, my mum, and a few of the neighbours…

After picking it clean, I used the bones to make seven boxes of stock the following day…

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In my garden…

…grows green amaranth. We’ve tried frying it in the past and found it incredibly bitter, so we’ve always fed it to the chooks…

Then we discovered that if we boil it in quite salty water, the bitterness disappears and we’re left with an incredibly tasty and easy to prepare side dish. After draining, we simply pour over a little roasted garlic oil…

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In my kitchen…

…are weekend sourdough loaves and four jars of freshly made bread and butter pickles…

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Finally, in my kitchen…

…are twenty packets of Priscilla sourdough starter to give away for Christmas! I gave some away last year, and we all had enormous fun baking together. This year I’m only able to send the starter within Australia, and it’s only available to folks who have commented on our blog previously. If you’d like a packet, please let me know…

And some exciting news, some of my fellow Priscilla bakers will also be sharing their starters this month! Check out their December IMK posts (I’ll update the list once I have more information)…

• Emilie at The Clever Carrot (New York, USA)
• Maree at Around The Mulberry Tree (Victoria, Australia)
• Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef (Queensland, Australia)
• Tandy at Lavender and Lime (South Africa)
• Francesca at Almost Italian (Victoria, Australia)
• Liz at Spades, Spatulas and Spoons (USA)
• Clare at The Life of Clare (Victoria, Australia)
• Lisa at I’ll Be There With a Fork (Queensland, Australia)

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

If you’d like to do an In My Kitchen post on your own blog, please feel free  to do so. We’d love to see what’s happening in your kitchen this month!  Please link back to this blog, and let us know when your post is up, and we’ll add it to our monthly listing. Please upload your post by the 10th of each month.

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In My Kitchen November 2015 is now closed.

Please join us again in December!
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In my kitchen…

…was a fresh Australian salmon. This large 70cm fish cost just $31 from Costco. We roasted it very simply, stuffed with fresh garden herbs, and seasoned with butter, salt and freshly ground black pepper…

In my kitchen…

…there is always chocolate! Dark hazelnut praline pieces and our favourite chestnut flour brownies…

In my kitchen…

…is a piece of labradorite, photographed from two angles. It has a stunning blue iridescence in the right light. And it’s named after the district of Labrador in Canada, not the dog breed…

In my kitchen…

…are two very grotty enamel roasters. I use them twice a week to bake bread in, and because I’m lazy, I never bother washing them. It doesn’t impact at all on their performance…

As so many of my fellow bakers know, baking sourdough in these covered pots is the easiest way to get a fabulous loaf every time…

In my kitchen…

…is my collection of Juan and Olivia’s steampunk owls. I keep buying them as gifts, and then end up keeping them for myself. Each one has a distinct personality…

In my kitchen…

…is peeled roasted beetroot, grown by our neighbour Mark…

I blitzed it with a clove of garlic, olive oil, salt and a pinch each of cumin, coriander and sweet paprika. It makes a delicious dip…

In my kitchen…

…is Saturday morning bread! I tend to get a little carried away on the weekends…

In my kitchen…

…was a very simple midweek dinner – fresh sourdough and whatever else we could rummage up from the fridge. Ella Dee calls these picnic dinners, and it’s a great name! She gave me the delicious macadamias, and the jamon offcuts were a gift from our friend Johnny…

Finally, in my kitchen…

….are sidecar cocktails. The first batch for spring!

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

If you’d like to do an In My Kitchen post on your own blog, please feel free  to do so. We’d love to see what’s happening in your kitchen this month!  Please link back to this blog, and let us know when your post is up, and we’ll add it to our monthly listing. Please upload your post by the 10th of each month.

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Here are this month’s posts…

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Ardys @ Ardysez (Alice Springs, Northern Territory)

Maree @ Around The Mulberry Tree (Gippsland, VIC)

JJ @ 84th & 3rd (Sydney, NSW)

Sherry @ Sherry’s Pickings (Brisbane, QLD)

Christine @ Food Wine Travel (Brisbane, QLD)

Laila @ Table of Colors (Finland)

Lisa @ I’ll Be There With A Fork (Brisbane, QLD)

Ale @ Ligera de Equipaje (Argentina)

Bernice @ Dish ‘n’ the Kitchen (Calgary, Canada)

Faye @ Veganopoulos (Melbourne, VIC)

Kari @ Bite-Sized Thoughts (London, UK)

Kavey @ Kavey Eats (London, UK)

Diane @ Photographs and Recipes (Massachusetts, USA)

Lori @ Cooks with Evie (Canada)

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe (Melbourne, VIC)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella (Sydney, NSW)

Amanda @ Lambs’ Ears and Honey (Adelaide, South Australia)

Ella Dee @ Ella Dee (Sydney, NSW)

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden (Perth, Western Australia)

Sally @ Bewitching Kitchen (Kansas, USA)

Nicole @ Miss Food Fairy (Melbourne, VIC)

Emma @ Surrey Kitchen (Surrey, UK)

Cassandra @ Just a Little Piece (San Diego, USA)

Shaheen @ Allotment2Kitchen (Wales, UK)

Fiona @ TIFFIN – Bite Sized Food Adventures (Brisbane, QLD)

Tandy @ Lavender and Lime (Gordons Bay, South Africa)

Jane @ The Shady Baker (Broken Hill, NSW)

Emily @ Cooking for Kishore (New Jersey, USA)

Sandra @ Please Pass the Recipe (Brisbane, QLD)

Jan @ A Gluttonous Wife (South West VIC)

Gretchen @ Feeding My 3 Sons (South Carolina, USA)

Sally @ My Custard Pie (Dubai)

Debi @ My Kitchen Witch (Athens, Greece)

Anne @ Anne Lawson (Melbourne, VIC)

Vicki @ Boiled Eggs & Soldiers (Sydney, NSW)

Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef (Sunshine Coast, QLD)

Tania @ The Cook’s Pyjamas (Perth, Western Australia)

Maz @ The Toymaker (California, USA)

Greg and Katherine @ Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide (Little Rock, Arkansas, USA)

Shari @ Good Food Week (Canberra, ACT)

Mandy @ The Complete Cookbook (Sundays River, South Africa)

Liz @ Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things (Canberra, ACT)

Ania @ Milk, Toast and Honey (UK)

Liz @ Spades, Spatulas & Spoons (Oakland, CA, USA)

Moya @ Food and Tools (Bahrain)

Charlie @ Hotly Spiced (Sydney, NSW)

Jennifer @ Milk and Honey (Gippsland, VIC)

Tania @ My Kitchen Stories (Sydney, NSW)

Francesca @ Almost Italian (Melbourne, Victoria)

Sarah @ Say Little Hen (formerly Chantille-Fleur blog, North Queensland)

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