In My Kitchen, January 2026

 Hello there, it's been a little while!

Happy New Year to you all for 2026! Not much writing and blogging from me has been happening during the festive season, but I've been doing lots of cooking and food preparation, because I love it, after all it was Christmas time. We were in Cairns, for a few weeks, and I was getting to know and love Shannon's new kitchen. What a dream it is to cook and prepare food in, with mostly new appliances, so I was on a steep learning curve, which was a lot of fun.

Here we are, New Year's Day 2026,  a time for fresh beginnings and realistic resolutions. How was it for you? On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with a burst of fresh energy from who knows where, I cooked a delicious oven baked Lamb Tagine (recipe soon), collected the grains and made my favourite Cypriot Grain Salad, and also baked Ottolenghi's Blueberry, Almond and Lemon Cake, from his "Simple" cookbook which sits proudly on my bookshelf. What a great way to start the New Year, cooking and eating delicious and healthy food with friends and family. 

Whilst couscous is also the perfect and much simpler accompaniment to a tagine, this grain salad really ticks all the boxes. 

This is a perfectly balanced salad made from almost ancient grains (quinoa, burghul, and puy lentils) with a yoghurt dressing infused with toasted cumin, and adorned with pomegranate pearls. (Photo taken from a previous post of mine where I used pomegranates.) I can't find any fresh pomegranates here at the moment, so cranberries had to suffice. I couldn't even find a packet of frozen pomegranate seeds.

I cooked the Lamb and Apricot Tagine in my large blue Dutch Oven pot. Lamb is a rich and flavoursome meat and with long, slow cooking in the oven, it tenderises beautifully and works perfectly in a tagine. This dish was delicious. I transferred it to my Scanpan for reheating.

Succulent Lamb tagine

The Blueberry, Almond and Lemon cake is a simple loaf cake that serves as a light finish to a meal. I made mine a day ahead and stored it in the frig.

 A light, tangy lemon icing really completes the cake nicely.

While I was enjoying time in my kitchen, Mr. HRK was applying a coat of fresh paint to our garden wall in the courtyard. We were really happy with the result.

We didn't go overboard with the amount of food in the house over Christmas. It was just the three of us this year, which meant we indulged in our traditional favourites, ate when we felt the need, and as a result Christmas Day was extremely relaxing and stress free.

Mr. HRK cooked up 2 kilos of green prawns, I made the delicious Marie Rose Sauce, and Shannon assembled a Prawn cocktail, how's that for team work. Christmas Eve celebrations had begun. 

 

Christmas morning began with ham on toast and Barista coffee (a la Mr. HRK) and then a glass of bubbly set the mood for the opening of Christmas gifts.

A Spectacular Christmas Seafood lunch

A week prior to Christmas, we donned our Christmas attire, and full of expectation we drove to Palooka, a very popular restaurant in the Cairns suburb of Stratford, for a beautiful seafood lunch. Focaccia and delicious starters, a Seafood Platter served in a large clam shell for the main, and then a tropical Mango and Coconut Trifle for dessert left us feeling very spoiled and replete. This meal deserves a separate post, but here is a photo of the splendid Seafood Platter.

 A family photo taken at the lunch at Palooka. We were the first sitting.

A week later, following this lunch, we were very happy to have a simple but delicious Christmas lunch of sliced ham off the bone, a stuffed turkey breast baked in Shannon's new Siemen's oven, some more fresh prawns, unadorned, but with Marie Rose sauce if desired, a traditional Wombok salad, a tasty pasta salad, and I think there was also a fresh garden salad. Dessert of course was my reheated Brandy Plum Pudding, still perfect after being refrigerated for 12 months, and Brandy custard. Simple I said? It all came together beautifully.

I cooked Prawn Taglierini in the lead up to Christmas, Shannon loved it. You can find the link to the recipe here, and it will really surprise you how simple this dish is to prepare. Gosh I hope those of you who are allergic to seafood are coping so far. Let's change the pace.

Shannon baked a large batch of perfectly delicious Gingerbread biscuits, a Nagi and Recipe Tin Eats recipe, and then for Christmas, the remainder of the dough became Gingerbread men and other Christmassy shapes, with some adornment. No photos of those, but they were so delicious and pretty. Love that recipe.

All of the fresh fruit and vegetables that we could possibly want was available from Rusty's markets in Cairns before Christmas. Check out all those mangoes.

Speaking of mangoes, the Common Variety though (not in the photo above), it has also been mango chutney making season, and whilst I didn't get my hands on any Common variety mangoes this season, suitable for making chutney, and we were also away, we have a very hardy volunteer Birds Eye Chilli bush growing in our front garden, adjacent to the letter box. I suspect that the birds have dropped the seeds,  and we first noticed it around November last year. It is a great specimen, and we have given a few branches off this bush to friends who are making chutney. Just this afternoon, my friend Anne called in to collect some chillies, and finally I harvested some chillies for myself to freeze for later use and for drying the seeds, for future germination. Anyone nearby to us who is reading this post, you are welcome to some chillies. Not only is it a useful plant, it is also attractive. I wonder if the postman is tempted to try them, however beware please, this is one of the hottest chillies that I have ever known. Perfect for chutney though.

If you feel inspired to make a batch of delicious Mango Chutney, my tried and true recipe which was my Mum's is at this link. Never a failure, and absolutely delicious. I know of friends who buy frozen mango to make chutney, but that is an expensive way to make it, however it still comes with a sense of satisfaction. Chutney is absolutely delicious with Christmas ham, homemade Indian curries, and on sandwiches, or anytime.

I make quite a few meals using mango chutney which are on rotation in my kitchen, and if you type mango chutney in the search box of my blog, you should find them.

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. I'm looking forward to taking part for another year.

Warm wishes and hoping that you settle calmly into January 2026.

Pauline