IN MY KITCHEN - February 2021

 January 2021 was a month of recovery and readjustment from Christmas holidays, concern over the Covid crisis, tropical heat, some tropical rain, reading good books, relaxing, and not that much cooking or gardening. We were in Cairns, Far North Queensland for Christmas and New Year, and drove home on the 2nd January, just in time before the roads flooded the next day near Ingham cutting off the Bruce Highway to all traffic. We drove carefully through some torrential rain that day, and it was lovely and quite a relief to arrive home. Despite a wonderful holiday, there's no place like our own home. 

When we're in Cairns we always go to Chef Link, a countertop store and warehouse which supplies all of the Cairns restaurants, cafes and bakeries with their catering requirements, but is also happy to sell to and assist members of the public at no extra cost or the need for an ABN. I love this shop, and they are always so helpful. They will also accept orders online. Mr. HRK was looking at their coffee cups, I was looking for bread making equipment, and anything else that caught my eagle eye.

This time I bought a Herbert Birnbaum, plastic polypropylene Brotform, or a bread proofing basket. Brotforms, Bannetons, and bread proofing baskets are all the same thing. This range is made in Germany, is guaranteed to last a lifetime, and is recyclable.  I can't wait to try it. No need to use a tea towel or any cloth to cover the base, it just needs to be misted and lightly floured and the dough placed in it to rise. If it works to my liking, I'll invest in a rectangular one for a large loaf as well. I have a couple of round cane bannetons which I bought at Chef Link during 2020 last year, but they need a tea towel insert to work. Can't have too many though I reckon. 

Then we ventured onto the shopping centres, enjoying the air conditioning during the Cairns heat,  and whilst in a kitchen shop, we bought a new chopping knife. The Japanese make great knives, and their packaging is very attractive and designed to house the knife very well. Mr. HRK likes to use a good, sharp knife when he's chopping and I'm very happy to support him with that.

It is a Baccarat Kiyoshi Japanese Stainless Steel 42012 15 cm Chefs knife. The packaging says it is inspired by the traditional Japanese craftsman and Samurai sword makers.The blades are made from premium Japanese Steel that has been mined in the same Japanese region of Chuo-Ku, Chiba since the middle of the last century. I hope that is all true because I love a good story about the kitchen items we buy.

I still can't bear to discard the beautiful packaging, so I store the knife in its packaging in a drawer.

Australia Day, always on the 26 January,  was somewhat of a meat fest here , when good friends Paul and Jenny, brought over some very large, marinated beef ribs which we cooked in our BBQ. 

I made a sourdough cob loaf to complement the meal, and I used my cane proofing basket for this one.

There were some delicious salads, mixed grain, potato and tomato.

We had a great time and ate and laughed a lot.

And for dessert, I made Mango, Lime and Coconut Panna Cotta which I wrote about in a previous post, and here is the link to the recipe if you missed it and are interested. The recipe serves 6 people.

The seasonal Bowen mangoes were delicious during December and January here, but are finished now making way for the southern stone fruits.

I haven't been cooking nearly as much as I usually do, blame the heat and the holiday vibe. However I made some delicious Chicken Burritos from scratch recently. Believe me, there were no El Paso spice mixes to be found in this recipe. I'll be publishing it on my blog shortly. I just have to make them again  to take a photo of the finished product. I have photos of the process, but I forgot to take a photo before they all disappeared. Familiar story?

Throughout January it has been very hot and humid and we ate lots of salads. Salads, salads, and more salads was my mantra. Last week, I made some comfort food though, as my gut was telling me to take a step back and just eat some plain steamed vegetables, chicken, brown rice and so forth. Part of the problem I think is that Mr. HRK is waiting to have surgery on his sinuses this month, and as a consequence can't taste anything, which is quite frustrating for him so I have been trying to spice my cooking up a bit more than usual so that he can hopefully taste some food. I might have overdone it with spices when I have actually cooked, so I am being careful for a while and eating blander foods, while he continues to add condiments like Kewpie Mayo with wasabi and sweet chilli jam to our meals which he loves.

I made one of my favourite comfort food dishes last week for us, Paleo Beef Chow Mein which just has a minimal amount of curry powder added and is full of vegetables.  Always a winner. I used cabbage instead of kale which is in the original recipe.

Beef Chow Mein with some Kewpie mayo added for Mr. HRK.

Lots of fresh green cabbage added, yum.

Because I haven't been doing that much cooking compared to what I normally do, it's been the perfect time to clean and reorganise my pantry, spice drawer and baking products. I discarded quite a lot of unnecessary clutter and have made some space for the rest of the year. Mind you my friends, I found a couple of duplicate spice jars, as the small jars are now arranged in alphabetical order. I wonder how long they will stay that way. However I am very happy with the result.

We are looking forward to watching some tennis this month, with the Australian Open Tennis Tournament starting tomorrow in Melbourne. The overseas tennis players are so happy to be here and to be able to play after not much competition in 2020 because of Covid. Hope it all goes well for everyone. The summer of tennis in Australia is a long standing tradition. We love our tennis.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to read more In My Kitchens.

 

That's all folks and thanks for visiting.

Best wishes.

Pauline