Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Happy August everyone!

A couple of things…

Firstly, a reminder that the 4th International Scone Week begins on the 11th August! Here’s our post from 2013 – hopefully we can have as much fun this year!

Secondly, if you do an IMK post, please let me know. You can leave a comment on my blog, or send me a tweet or email, but please don’t assume I’ll see your post and add it to the list otherwise. I’d hate to leave anyone off the list, but there are so many contributors now that I can’t keep track of you all without your help. Thanks!

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In my kitchen…

…are brownies for my young friend Red Roars, who is in the middle of exams. I used this recipe…

In my kitchen…

…is a new attempt at pulled pork. I skinned cheap pork hocks, seasoned them with a brown sugar spice rub, then baked them in presoaked Römertopfs for four hours at 135C. Unlike my usual recipe, I didn’t add any water, but I did turn the meat over and basted it in its juices a couple of times during the cooking process. The result wasn’t quite as tender as the other method (which could have been because of the cut I used), but the meat was incredibly flavoursome…

In my kitchen…

…is an automatic egg cooker, picked up from Aldi for under $20. My friend Carol swears by hers, and I’m hoping it will help us deal with our current egg glut…

And speaking of Carol, in my kitchen…

…is the last bar of nougat that she brought us back from Spain. The other two were absolutely delicious…

In my kitchen…

…is a one kilo box of Buderim Naked Ginger, which we found at Costco. We eat a lot of ginger at our house…

The naked ginger is still candied, but without the heavy sugary coating. I’m not sure how it can be low GI, as it’s still very sweet…

In my kitchen…

…is lots and lots of confit. A dedicated post is on its way…

In my kitchen…

…is fancy Italian pasta, picked up for $1 a packet on sale at our local Italian supermarket…

In my kitchen…

…are bags of Antico Molino Caputo Semola di Grano Duro Rimacinata. Along with regular bakers flour, this fine remilled semolina flour forms the backbone of most of my sourdough baking. The Caputo brand is of a particularly high quality…

In my kitchen…

…are our first limes ever off our dwarf tree…

In my kitchen…

…is a Spanish stew, made with chick peas, pork belly, potatoes and chorizo. The recipe comes from David Tanis’ One Good Dish…

In my kitchen…

…is smoked salt! It’s widely available here now. Tanya, this photo is for you…

. . . . .

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.

. . . . .

Here are this month’s posts…

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

Emily @ Cooking for Kishore (New Jersey, USA)

Moya @ Food & Tools (Bahrain)

Shaheen @ Allotment2Kitchen (Wales)

Christine @ Food Wine Travel (Brisbane, QLD)

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

Clare @ The Life of Clare (Geelong, VIC)

Serena @ Anything But Toast (Canberra, ACT)

Siobhan @ Garden Correspondent (Ulupinar, Turkey)

Mel @ The Cook’s Notebook (Brisbane, QLD)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella (Sydney, NSW)

Claire @ Claire K Creations (Brisbane, QLD)

Vicki @ Boiled Eggs & Soldiers (first IMK post! Sydney, NSW)

Danielle @ The nOATbook (Melbourne, VIC)

Anne @ Anne Lawson (Melbourne VIC)

Laila @ Table of Colors (Finland)

Indira @ I’ll Cook, You Wash (first IMK post! Georgetown, Guyana)

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

Liz @ Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard (Gold Coast, QLD)

Gretchen @ Feeding My 3 Sons (first IMK post! South Carolina, USA)

Emma @ SurreyKitchen (Surrey, UK)

Ngan @ Ngan Made It (San Francisco, USA)

Diane @ Photographs and Recipes (Massachusetts, USA)

Nicole @ Miss Food Fairy (Melbourne, VIC)

Becca @ The InTolerant Chef (Canberra, ACT)

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

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

Jennifer @ Milk and Honey (Gippsland, VIC)

Jason @ Don’t Boil The Sauce (Melbourne, VIC)

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe (Melbourne, VIC)

Ella @ Mulberry and Pomegranate (Sydney, NSW)

Jane @ The Shady Baker (Broken Hill, NSW)

Sherry @ Sherry’s Pickings (Brisbane, QLD)

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

Fran @ Life in the Food Lane (from Maine, USA this month!)

Taryn @ The Wooden Spoons (Canberra, ACT)

Kim @ A Little Lunch (Oklahoma, USA)

Kari @ Bite-Sized Thoughts (London, UK)

Maree @ Around The Mulberry Tree (Gippsland, VIC)

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

Glenda @ Healthy Stories (Melbourne, VIC)

Emma @ Gustoso (Brisbane, QLD)

Nancy @ Jamjnr (Shanghai, China)

Misky @ The Chalk Hills Kitchen (West Sussex, UK)

Anne @ Life in Mud Spattered Boots (Essex, UK)

Sandra @ Please Pass the Recipe (Melbourne, VIC)

Joanne @ What’s on the List? (Adelaide, South Australia)

Ardys @ Ardysez (Alice Springs, Northern Territory)

Charlie Louie @ Hotly Spiced (Sydney, NSW)

Tania @ My Kitchen Stories (Sydney, NSW)

Debi @ My Kitchen Witch (Sheffield, UK)

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

Sally @ Bewitching Kitchen (Kansas, USA)

Francesca @ Almost Italian (Melbourne, VIC)

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden (Perth, Western Australia)

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

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In my kitchen…

…is an olive dish, complete with pip and toothpick holder…

In my kitchen…

…are bay leaves from Mark’s garden, hanging up to dry…

In my kitchen…

…are the shells from our backyard eggs. We dry them out a bit in the oven and then blitz them in the food processor. The powder is then sprinkled into the worm farm, where it adds minerals, provides the worms with the grit they need, and helps with the acidity levels. Eventually it ends up back on the beds, where the chooks pick it out, thereby getting the calcium they need for their shells. Isn’t permaculture fabulous?

In my kitchen…

…are treasures from Essential Ingredient. This hamper was PeteV and Nic’s birthday present to Pete…

At the bottom of the photo above you can see a vanilla flower, made from twisted  and shaped pods. We now have two of these, so I popped them into a jar of vodka to brew into extract…

In my kitchen…

…is a litre of Portuguese olive oil, bought solely because I couldn’t resist the hatted man with his jacket slung so jauntily over his shoulder…

In my kitchen…

…are passionfruit and lime cupcakes. I meant for them to look rustic. (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.)

In my kitchen…

…is a delicious version of Jacques Pépin’s potato ragout, made with pepperoni and bacon from Black Forest Smokehouse…

In my kitchen…

…are two containers of lard. If you’re in Sydney’s Inner West, it’s worth knowing that the Talho Portuguese Butchery in Petersham (4/88-97 New Canterbury Road) sells lard at a very reasonable price – just $4.50 per large container. It’s a byproduct of the crackling they make for feijoada every week. This lard isn’t unscented and neutral like the one we make ourselves – instead, it’s garlicky and savoury. (Edit: Sadly Jose is closing his butchery on 26/7/14)

I gave one box to our neighbour June…

…and used some of the remainder to make flaky pastry for the freezer. Given my recent debacle with packaged frozen pastry, I’ve resolved not to buy it any more, but I do like having a stash on standby…

I’ve figured out that if I make the pastry by hand rather than in the food processor, it has a better chance of ending up flaky. I think that’s because making it by hand leaves lumps of butter in the finished dough (as you can just see in the photo below)..

Here’s the recipe I used:

• 400g plain (AP) flour
• good pinch of fine sea salt
• 75g lard
• 75g cold unsalted butter
• 125ml cold water (from the tap is fine)

Put the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Rub in the lard and butter until mostly combined, then add in the cold water and knead briefly to bring the dough together. This quantity makes enough to top two large pies. I also use this pastry for empanadas and curry puffs.

I ended up with the best pastry I’ve ever made – the garlicky lard adding flavour and crispness, and the cold butter producing flakiness. It was also quite sturdy – making it easy to roll out and shape…

In my kitchen…

…are the most wonderful lemons in the world, picked from our backyard tree…

My friend Sally from My Custard Pie said to make preserved lemons – so naturally, I did. I used the Stephanie Alexander recipe, tucking pieces of cinnamon, bay leaf and cloves into the mix…

. . . . .

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.

. . . . .

Here are this month’s posts…

Emma @ SurreyKitchen (first IMK post! Surrey, UK)

Tina @ The Rogue Sparrow (Australia)

Moya @ Food & Tools (Bahrain)

Laila @ Table of Colors (Finland)

Selma @ Selma’s Table (London, UK)

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

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

Danielle @ The nOATbook (Melbourne, VIC)

Becca @ The InTolerant Chef (Canberra, ACT)

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

Ngan @ Ngan Made It (first IMK post! San Francisco, USA)

Shaheen @ Allotment2Kitchen (Wales)

Joanne @ What’s On The List? (Adelaide, South Australia)

Christine @ Invisible Spice (Sydney, NSW)

Minnie @ The Lady 8 Home (first IMK post! Boston, USA)

Emily @ Cooking for Kishore (New Jersey, USA)

Fran @ The Food Marshall (Canberra, ACT)

Siobhan @ Garden Correspondent (Ulupinar, Turkey)

Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef (Sunshine Coast, QLD)

Nicole @ Miss Food Fairy (Melbourne, VIC)

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

Sandy @ Vegans Eat Yummy Food Too! (Sydney, NSW)

Maree @ Around The Mulberry Tree (first IMK post! Gippsland, VIC)

Ella @ Mulberry and Pomegranate (Sydney, NSW)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella (Sydney, NSW)

Claire @ Claire K Creations (Brisbane, QLD)

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

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

Veganopoulos (first IMK post! Melbourne, VIC)

Debi @ My Kitchen Witch (Sheffield, UK)

Jennifer @ Milk and Honey (Gippsland, VIC)

Sandra @ Please Pass the Recipe (Melbourne, VIC)

Marian @ Apricot Tart (Adelaide, South Australia)

Anne @ Anne Lawson (Melbourne VIC)

Stephanie @ The Dessert Spoon (first IMK post! Brisbane, QLD)

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

Sherry @ Sherry’s Pickings (Brisbane, QLD)

Mel @ The Cook’s Notebook (Brisbane, QLD)

Diane @ Photographs and Recipes (Massachusetts, USA)

Kim @ A Little Lunch (Oklahoma, USA)

Clare @ The Life of Clare (Geelong, VIC)

Liz @ Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard (Gold Coast, QLD)

Ale @ Ligera de Equipaje (Argentina)

Lauren @ Living the Savory Life (Perth, Western Australia)

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe (Melbourne, VIC)

Charlie Louie @ Hotly Spiced (Sydney, NSW)

Nancy @ Jamjnr (Shanghai, China)

Kari @ Bite-Sized Thoughts (now in London, UK!)

Jane @ The Shady Baker (Broken Hill, NSW)

Kylie @ Town Mouse Country Mouse (Northern Victoria)

Francesca @ Almost Italian (Melbourne, VIC)

Emma @ Gustoso (Brisbane, QLD)

Anne @ Life in Mud Spattered Boots (Essex, UK)

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

Misky @ The Chalk Hills Kitchen (West Sussex, UK)

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden (Perth, Western Australia)

 Tania @ My Kitchen Stories (Sydney, NSW)

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It’s probably fair to say that I’m a wee bit obsessed with clay cookware.

It all started five years ago when I bought my first Römertopf baker.  A year or so later, we gave away all our Le Creuset enameled cast iron (which I’d come to loathe by that time) and switched to the Emile Henry Flame range. We’ve never looked back (here’s the post I wrote about it in 2011).

Clay cookware isn’t for everyone, but for me, it’s a perfect fit. At a soul-deep level, cooking in clay makes me happy. I love the look and feel of the pots – the colours, the weight and the texture. I love the smooth glide as my silicone spoon moves food around in them. I love the earthiness, the way they hold and diffuse heat, and the gentleness of the cooking process. Whether it’s real or imagined, I genuinely believe food cooked in clay tastes better.

Somewhat surprisingly (to me), I’m completely unperturbed by the fact that clay is less durable than either stainless steel or cast iron. My Emile Henry pieces have proven to be very sturdy (although my mum has had a pot crack), but the Römertopfs are quite battle-scarred, boasting chips and scorch marks, yet these only seem to add to their charm.

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The latest additions to my clay collection are these gorgeous Portuguese ceramics. It began with our flaming birthday pig…

..and has expanded to include this beautifully decorated dish. We baked a lasagne in it the first night I brought it home…

After dinner, I put it straight into the dishwasher. This is how it came out…

The white petals are already tinged a little pink from the tomato sauce, but I don’t mind at all…

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Today, I heated my Spanish cazuela on the hob and made Tanya’s delicious chorizo tapas…

The Black Forest Smokehouse chorizos were very flavourful, but I agree with Chica (Tanya) – cooking in the terracotta pot really did add something special to the whole experience…

 . . . . .

I know it probably reduces their lifespan, but all my clay pieces go into the dishwasher. As we get older, the ease of clean up and the lighter weight (Emile Henry Flame pots are 30% lighter than their cast iron equivalents) are key considerations for us. Both the Emile Henry and Römertopf brands are guaranteed lead free – not all clay is equal, so it’s always worth checking before you buy.

Tell me, are you a fan of clay cookware? Or do you prefer cast iron, copper, or some other alternative?

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In my kitchen…

…is a beautiful Acacia wood board, a gift from the lovely Bev and Les…

In my kitchen…

…is new Falcon enamelware. I’m so suggestible that after seeing photos of Lorraine’s and Brydie’s baking sets, I couldn’t resist buying one for myself. The red trim matches our Turkish tile trivets perfectly.

Both Peters of Kensington and Odgers & McClelland stock the Falcon brand – Duncan and Megan at O&M are lovely, and particularly helpful if you’re looking for something specific (I’ve been buying pie tins from them for years)…

In my kitchen…

…is a fabulous dark chocolate by Mast Brothers that lovely Jo brought all the way back from New York for me to try. The Dominican Republic blend is a dark 70% cacao, with interesting smoky tobacco notes – it was too much for Pete, but I absolutely loved it. I ended up eating the bar whizzed into 30g chocolate shots…

In my kitchen…

…was my first and possibly last attempt at cooking pigs’ trotters. They were incredibly cheap – about 80c each – so I bought five home to experiment with. I ended up adapting Ai-Ling’s belly pork recipe, and I thought it all went rather well.

Pigs’ trotters don’t have much meat on them – they’re basically skin and cartilage. When I posted the photo below, I had a very mixed reaction – Nancy in Shanghai and Chicago John both offered to join us for dinner, Ali in Canberra nearly brought up her lunch, and my friend Dan rang from California to chastise me for scaring my followers.

Pete wouldn’t go near them and insisted on dumplings for dinner, the boys ate one trotter each, willingly but not particularly enthusiastically, and I thought they were delicious, but hard work to eat.

So here’s a photo for the records, as I won’t be making them again…

In my kitchen…

…are gifts from my friend Jane, who picks up treasures for me on her travels. The eclair liners and cucumber twister were from her last trip to London and France, and the culinary lavender from Tasmania. I recently read a recipe for lavender shortbread, but can’t now remember where – if it was on your blog, could you please let me know?  Thanks..

In my kitchen…

…is Australian sea mullet, a cheap and (I believe) sustainable fish. I’ve never seen them for sale before, so when I found this one for just $5.99 a kilo in Flemington, I bought it home to try. The large fish below set me back just $6.80 and easily fed all four of us – I roasted it wrapped in foil and seasoned with soy, ginger and spring onions.

The flesh was firm and mildly flavoured – pleasant, but not particularly interesting. I think it would work well as a base for strong flavours, so the next time I buy one, I’ll use it in a fish curry…

In my kitchen…

…are gifts from lovely Madge – shaped bread tins! I’m still thinking about how to use them…

In my kitchen…

…there seems to always be yellow cherry tomatoes from the garden. The passionfruits are off the vine overhanging from our neighbour Mark’s yard…

Finally, in my kitchen…

…are scones for afternoon tea, made with Pepe Saya buttermilk…

. . . . .

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.

Here are this month’s posts:

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

Mel @ The Cooks Notebook (Brisbane, QLD)

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

Emily @ Cooking for Kishore (first IMK post! New Jersey, USA)

Emilie @ The Clever Carrot (New York, USA)

Laila @ Table of Colors (Finland)

Selma @ Selma’s Table (London, UK)

Fran @ The Food Marshall (Canberra, ACT)

Ella @ Mulberry and Pomegranate (Sydney, NSW)

Moya @ Food & Tools (Bahrain)

Fran @ Life in the Food Lane (Houston, Texas, USA)

Jason @ Don’t Boil The Sauce (Melbourne, VIC)

Glenda @ Healthy Stories (Melbourne, VIC)

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

Claire @ Claire K Creations (Brisbane, QLD)

Danielle @ The nOATbook (Melbourne, VIC)

Anne @ Anne Lawson (Melbourne VIC)

Ale @ Ligera de Equipaje (Argentina)

Christine @ Food Wine Travel (Brisbane, QLD)

Jane @ The Shady Baker (Broken Hill, NSW)

Barb @ Just A Smidgen (Calgary, Canada)

Aneela @ The Odd Pantry (San Francisco, USA)

Nicole @ Miss Food Fairy (first IMK post! Melbourne, VIC)

Lisa @ Gourmet Wog (Sydney, NSW)

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

Kim @ A Little Lunch (Oklahoma, USA)

Kari @ Bite-Sized Thoughts (Western Australia)

Shaheen @ Allotment2Kitchen (Wales)

Anne @ Life in Mud Spattered Boots (Essex, UK)

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe (Melbourne, VIC)

Sandra @ Please Pass the Recipe (Melbourne, VIC)

Sherry @ Sherry’s Pickings (first IMK post! Brisbane, QLD)

Jennifer @ Milk and Honey (Gippsland, VIC)

Brydie @ CityHippyFarmGirl (Sydney, NSW)

Kylie @ Town Mouse Country Mouse (Northern Victoria)

Nancy @ Jamjnr (Shanghai, China)

Joanne @ What’s on the List? (Adelaide, South Australia)

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

Clare @ The Life of Clare (Geelong, VIC)

Becca @ The InTolerant Chef (Canberra, ACT)

Taryn @ The Wooden Spoons (Canberra, ACT)

Debi @ My Kitchen Witch (Sheffield, UK)

Lauren @ Living the Savory Life (Perth, Western Australia)

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

Ardys @ Ardysez (Alice Springs, Northern Territory)

Charlie Louie @ Hotly Spiced (Sydney, NSW)

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

Gail @ Using Up The Veggie Box (Ballarat, VIC)

Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef (Sunshine Coast, QLD)

Francesca @ Almost Italian (Melbourne, VIC)

Siobhan @ Garden Correspondent (Ulupinar, Turkey)

Sally @ Bewitching Kitchen (Kansas, USA)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella (Sydney, NSW)

Liz @ Mother Hubbards Cupboard (first IMK post! Gold Coast, QLD)

Sarah @ Chantille-Fleur (Queensland)

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden (Perth, Western Australia)

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

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