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Posts Tagged ‘preserved limes’

In My Kitchen, June 2012

Posted in In My Kitchen, tagged , , , , , , , on June 1, 2012| 92 Comments »

In my kitchen…

…is an elephant tea caddy, a gift from my dear friend Tezza some years back.  It now holds all my herbal tea bags…

In my kitchen…

…are authentic Malaysian prawn crackers, brought over by my cousin Doreen on her last visit.  They’re completely different to the little coloured ones that come with crispy skinned chicken in Chinese restaurants.  And believe it or not, the small dried crackers on the left expanded to the huge ones on the right when deep fried…

In my kitchen…

…is our old cast aluminium waffle iron. There is so much history in this piece of kit.  When we were twenty-one, Pete and I were living in a small apartment and we didn’t have any cookware.  What we did have was $100 to buy some stainless steel pots.  I was busy that day, so Pete went to the kitchenware store on his own … and came back with the waffle iron.

He was so excited!  It cost a fortune even back then, but he insisted it would last forever (and it has).  It had languished on the shelf for so long that the woman who owned the shop gave him a stainless steel saucepan for buying it. To this day, whenever we use it, I just smile and shake my head…

In my kitchen…

…are preserved limes.   They’ve been in salt for six weeks…

…and are now glossy and translucent.  I’ve figured out that I only need to make a small batch each time – I never get through more than a jar every few months…

In my kitchen…

…is Australian Bloodwood honey, bought recently from Richard the Bee Whisperer at Flemington Markets. It’s dark, tangy and not overly sweet…

In my kitchen…

…are straw spoons, a new find from Chefs’ Warehouse.  I love sipping hot chocolate through them, although I have to be careful not to burn myself. Pete thinks sucking hot liquids through a metal tube is an idiotic idea, but I think it’s great fun…

In my kitchen…

…is today’s harvest of chillies, waiting to be turned into harissa sauce…

In my kitchen…

…are self-sown yellow pear tomatoes, grown from seed which originally arrived as a gift from Chris at Slow Living Essentials.  They’re nestled in the beautiful, long fingered hands of our firstborn…

  . . . . .

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.

. . . . .

Here are this month’s posts…

Amanda @ Lambs’ Ears and Honey

Christine @ Invisible Spice

Pam @ Grow, Bake, Run

Shelley @ All Litten Up

Misky @ Misk Cooks

Christine @ Food Wine Travel

Sue @ Sous Chef

Sally @ Bewitching Kitchen

Claire @ Claire K Creations

Shirley @ The Making of Paradise

David @ Cookbooks Anonymous

Pamela @ Spoon Feast

Heidi @ Steps on the Journey

Anne @ Life in Mud Spattered Boots

Cecilia @ The Kitchens Garden

Lizzy @ Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things

Jane @ The Shady Baker

Tandy @ Lavender and Lime

Mandy @ The Complete Cookbook

Barbara @ Winos and Foodies

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden

…..


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Smashed Chickpeas

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on April 20, 2011| 36 Comments »

Lunch today came about by accident.

I was cooking chickpeas, and totally forgot about them, until they’d boiled dry – thankfully Pete rescued them before they burnt.  As a result, I was left with soft chickpea pulp, completely unsuitable for the moghrabieh I’d been planning to make.

A quick search on Google turned up an interesting recipe at Smitten Kitchen for smashed chickpeas. I was inspired by the idea, but used completely different flavourings (basically whatever I could find in the fridge and pantry).

The original recipe used tinned chickpeas, but my overcooked ones were already soft, making it easy to mix in the additions.  I added:

  • spring onions, sliced
  • sundried tomatoes, chopped
  • a couple of anchovy fillets, finely chopped
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • preserved lime rind, chopped, and..

Very tasty piled high on toasted slices of homemade ciabatta, and finished with a drizzle of lemon-infused olive oil!

PS. Spice Girl, you really should have come for lunch.

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Limes

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on May 7, 2010| 26 Comments »

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a box of Tahitian limes at the markets – at $7 for nearly 60 limes, they were just too much of a bargain to pass up!

They were in great condition too – green and unblemished.  Of course, I promptly forgot all about them, so by the time I opened the box a week later they were looking a little sad – softer and yellower, and in need of using up in a hurry.  That wasn’t a bad thing, as they were also riper and juicier, and better suited to pickling.

I’ve turned them into two large jars of lime preserves – on the left are traditional Moroccan style preserved limes, made by salting the quartered fruit and squishing them into a sterile jar with a few bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and cloves.  On the right is a sweet lime pickle, spiced with brown sugar, turmeric and salt.  Both recipes are from Stephanie Alexander’s cookbook, and  I haven’t tried either before.  I’ll let you know how they go!

Edit:  As a couple of people have asked for this, here is the preserved lemons recipe I used.  It comes from The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander.

  • 250g coarse kitchen salt (I used sea salt)
  • 10 lemons, scrubbed and quartered (I used 18 limes)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 – 3 cloves
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • extra lemon (lime) juice

1. Scatter a spoonful of salt into a 1 litre sterilised jar.  Tip the lemons into a large plastic tub with remaining salt and mix well, massaging the fruit vigorously.

2. Pack the fruit curved-side out into the jar, adding bits of bay leaf, clovers and pieces of cinnamon as you go.

3. Press down hard on the fruit to extract as much juice as possible, then scrape in any leftover salt from the tub.   Cover with extra lemon juice if required. (Stephanie points out that a wedge of lemon left exposed might develop a white mould, which she says is harmless.  That was enough to make me squeeze extra limes to ensure there was enough juice to cover it all!)

4. Wipe the rim and neck of the jar with a clean cloth dipped in boiling water and seal with an acid proof lid.  Let the lemons mature for at least 1 month in a cool place (not the fridge) before using.

Note: I haven’t tried this particular recipe before, but preserved lemons I’ve made in the past have occasionally fizzed a little during the first week.  Apparently that can happen as part of the preserving process – just loosen the lid occasionally to let the gas out.

Update: Here’s how they turned out!

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