In My Kitchen, January 2025

Happy New Year 2025 to you all. It has really felt like the Summer holidays here at home since Christmas, which I think we all needed.  Christmas was wonderful, we survived it, thanks to the air-conditioning. Hope you had a fabulous Christmas with some of your favourite people wherever you were.

 I've enjoyed some cooking from my new Cookbooks, some holiday reading, and there have been some great tennis matches on the TV leading up to the Australian Open Tennis Tournament which starts in Melbourne tomorrow. Then there was the 5th Test Cricket Match against India, played at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), which is very much part of the Aussie Summer culture, and provided an ideal excuse for a little bit of armchair lounging. By the way, Australia won the test. Over the years I've gradually become quite a fan of the cricket.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by the 13th of the month. Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens. Thanks for hosting this event once again Sherry, it's a lovely initiative and unites all of the keen bloggers and cooks around the world.

This post can't go ahead without mentioning Christmas lunch, which is the main Christmas event in our family.  Do you have  some favourite dishes which are requested every Christmas and really make it feel like Christmas? We do. However, we still try to keep it fairly simple.

Smoked salmon canapés with dill and creamed cheese were delicious as a starter. 

Wombok salad with a tangy Asian dressing is always a favourite, and compliments the sliced ham and roast chicken.

Wombok salad

A Potato Bake is always a favourite at our Christmas lunch. We made a different one this year using a smoky cheese, and the topping was made with garlic breadcrumbs. Really delicious. I'll post that recipe later as well. The photos don't do it justice. Shannon loves to make the Potato Bake.

I've featured my Brandy Christmas Plum Pudding many times before, and it didn't disappoint this year. We flambeed the pudding with brandy, which brought a touch of magical theatre to the table. 

Not too bad!

More brandy, and then yes, now that is a good flambé. What fun. The pudding tasted so very good.

 Our daughter invited family friends, Jamie and Lindy to lunch, along with their very adorable dogs, Charlie and Wooky. They brought a pavlova for dessert that Jamie decorated with fresh Summer fruits and grated white chocolate, and lots of chocolates and other treats. We felt very spoiled and the dogs were so gorgeous and well behaved. However, we really missed our family in France on Christmas Day, and called them in the afternoon while our grandchildren opened their Christmas gifts.

My family and Santa were very good to me this year on Christmas morning, and gave me four new recipe books, plus a few other goodies, but this is about the books. What fun I am having with them.

As you might know, from previous posts, I invested in an Air Fryer last year, and am still loving it. I cooked Steph's Five Spice Pork Belly in my Air Fryer, and it was absolutely amazing. 

Pork Belly ready for the Air-Fryer

The crackling was to die for. I need to cook it again for a blog worthy photo, fellow bloggers, you know how that goes, so I will publish the recipe when my photographic mission is accomplished.

I'm excited about trying some of the recipes in this healthier air fryer recipe compilation.

"Eat Like a Girl" by Dr. Mindy Pelz is one of those very inspiring recipe books, that I almost need to be taking notes from to take full advantage of all the information she offers. I've tried moderate fasting, however I find it too difficult to go without breakfast, and fast until the afternoon, ugh, but some people swear by it. Good on you if you do. Even though Dr. Mindy is an advocate of fasting, I have still found this book very interesting and the Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad I found in here was delicious. There are other recipes in here created by chefs she employed which also look interesting.

Santa brought me this Salad for Days cookbook. I couldn't resist it, ha, ha. It's definitely salad weather here in the Tropics.

This month I also cooked up Alice Zaslavsky's  Prawn and Broccolini Stir Fry. I'll hopefully be posting the recipe soon, with any variations I made to the recipe but it really was very delicious and healthy, so important at this time of year when we are all in recovery mode after Christmas. What's not to love about fresh prawns (shrimp) and crisp, green vegetables in a delicious Asian sauce. This really was restaurant standard. Mr. HRK gave it the thumbs up, 9/10.

Prawn and Broccolini Stir Fry

Alice goes to air with her 30 minute cooking show every evening here in Australia on the ABC at 6 pm, also featuring a guest celebrity or chef each episode.. It's well worth watching. I've managed to watch some episodes on ABC iview as  I can't quite make it to the TV at 6pm every evening.

Perfectly sliced into squares by Mr. HRK.

This delicious Chocolate and Coconut Weet-Bix slice cooked in my Air Fryer was a huge success. I've made two batches so far. They won't be the last. This biscuit iced with a rich chocolate topping is like a little slice of history brought back to life in the air fryer. This recipe is also to be found in the Air Fryer Queen by Steph de Sousa.

Whenever I tell friends that I had made Shortbread, they reminisce and decide that they need to make a batch as well. Shortbread doesn't need to be just a Christmas treat, it is delicious all year round. The first time I ate this shortbread was at a Book club meeting a few years ago, when another Pauline made it, and it was her Gran's recipe, not mine, that gave the recipe to her. It's delicious.

Here's a little curveball for you. Meet Bony the Dinosaur, who now has his head. 

We gave Hugo our Grandson, Bony the dinosaur and a book on dinosaurs as part of his 8th birthday present when he and his Dad, Matthew, visited last June, from France. Hugo assembled Bony on his own, and became very attached to him. Bony went everywhere with Hugo while they were here, but by the time they left Bony had lost his head, literally. Only yesterday we found the 2nd missing part of his head under the front seat of our car. So we were very happy to report to Hugo that Bony is now happily in one piece once more. We won't risk sending him over to France, I'm not sure he would survive the long trip. We will keep him here safely with us until he can be reunited with Hugo.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Warm wishes

Pauline