In My Kitchen, July 2025

I'm enjoying just being at home during our tropical Winter, with minimum temperatures of 8 deg. C, and a maximum of around 23 deg. C, what's not to love. As they say, we are living in paradise. It has to be the perfect time for cooking in my kitchen. Southerners visiting from the colder states in Australia, such as New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, and even Tasmania, probably don't even need to wear jackets, unlike us, who aren't used to the colder weather. We are rugged up and loving it.

Many of the southern travellers and overseas tourists voyage North along the Bruce Highway in their caravans and motorhomes to the warmer tropical climates of beautiful Cairns and the Cape York Peninsula at this time of year. This annual pilgrimage occurs between Mother's Day (2nd Sunday in May)  and Father's Day (1st Sunday in September). It's a cavalcade of holiday makers, all stopping at the various free rest stops along the road for the night, and driving off again in the morning to reach the next stop, ahead of the pack. When it starts to warm up again in September, it's time to head for home. Happy travels to you all and please take care on the roads.

Cooking from scratch using some leftovers and fresh produce can be so satisfying. I stuffed and baked a whole Kent pumpkin using leftover grains and vegetables in my refrigerator and it was absolutely delicious. This was our friend's home grown pumpkin, and baking it whole was the perfect way to cook and eat it. Chorizo, barley, red onion, lots of fresh thyme and other fresh herbs contributed to a delicious filling. Recipe coming soon my friends. Pumpkins are so good here right now.

My Happy Pumpkin

Tropical Beef, Vegetable and Mango Chutney Chow Mein is a very tasty and healthy mid-week meal with those authentic Asian flavours. 

This isn't a traditional Chow Mein recipe, however the sauces are, and it ticks all the boxes for us for amazing flavours and nutrition. It's an exceptional family mid-week meal. When I have lots of bits and pieces of vegetables and a quarter of a cabbage in my vegetable crisper, this is how I use them in the most delicious way. This dish has been on rotation in my kitchen for quite a few years now, has undergone a few reiterations along the way, and when I have cabbage to use up, and beef mince at the ready this is what I often choose to cook. The Mango Chutney is definitely the secret ingredient here. All the work is in having the vegetables chopped, and the sauces and spices measured beforehand and then it's full sail ahead.

 I make this Chow Mein in my large electric frypan, which is necessary when dealing with a lot of cabbage and it cooks quickly. The vegetables I used today when I made this were onion, carrots, capsicum, zucchini, mushrooms, and cabbage, and in addition to the soy sauce I added a tablespoon of Kecap Manis. You can find the original recipe here. I served it with noodles.

I made a delicious batch of Chilli Con Carne just yesterday, when I was craving some spicy food on a wet and cold day after watching an episode of Masterchef. One of the contestants, Depinder Chhibber,  made a  mean curry, which had my mouth watering. 

I love CCC in Winter, and this one has a chorizo sausage as the secret ingredient. Here's the link to the In My Kitchen post where I wrote it up.

There was a delicious Lamb Ragu, that we really enjoyed, and Mr. HRK made the pasta from scratch.

A delicious Curried lentil, tomato and coconut soup warmed us up during a cold snap.

Red Throat Emperor fish, caught by local fishermen in the Coral Sea off our coastline, was delicious for dinner cooked simply in flour and beaten egg by Mr. HRK. It's hard to beat freshly caught Reef fish.

I dedicated some of last week to making sourdough bread and loved it. I really needed to use up some bread making flour before the weevils took a liking to it, so they were white sourdough loaves which turned out perfectly. Four loaves later, a couple are sliced and in the freezer. When I can buy some good wholemeal flour, I will start working with that combination again.

This was an easy Saturday night's dinner, just last weekend. I cooked the Peking duck breasts in the air fryer and they were perfectly succulent. The sauce was delicious. 

Sweet treats are always appreciated aren't they, especially when homemade? These Double Ginger Scones with Currants exceeded my expectations of how this scone would taste.  Eaten when warm and aromatic, straight out of the oven especially on a cool morning, they are a little crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a hint of ginger and sweetness.

Regular readers of my blog would have seen this Cumquat Marmalade, Ginger and Oat slice that I baked only last week using homemade Cumquat marmalade. Absolutely delicious and I will be making it again, very soon. Thanks Sammie from The Annoyed Thyroid blog, for the original idea, although I gave it a few tweaks.

 

Once again it's time to be sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the monthly 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.

My IMK is mostly about what I cook, not what I buy for my kitchen and home. I really don't need any more stuff, except when something breaks and we need to replace it. Most of my generation are starting to size down, and I still have a long way to go in that regard.  However, it's always nice to buy something new when travelling. Having said that though, we needed to buy a new dishwasher a couple of weeks ago. Even Mr. HRK, couldn't fix the old one, despite his concentrated efforts. It's an ASKO, which is Swedish, and I really recommend it. It cleans beautifully, is quiet, and has a few coloured lights to let us know when the cycle is finished,  when the front door can be opened, or not. 

Pics below of beautiful Bucasia Beach, very close to where we live. One of our favourite beaches.

Handsome Monty, P&J's Border Collie dog, loves a walk on the beach

I hope you enjoyed what I have been cooking up this past month, I loved every minute of it, and it's great having you visit. 

Take care, and happy cooking,

Pauline