In My Tropical Queensland Kitchen, July 2026

 

It's July already, when I'm embracing the beautiful humidity free Winter weather, and enjoying being in the kitchen and the garden during these cooler months. Winter is when I feel at my most productive. I hope you enjoy reading about what my June kitchen and cooking activities entailed. There are also some stories about our experiences in France and Croatia. The photo above is taken at beautiful Palm Cove near Cairns in the last couple of days.

June was spent recovering from our travels to France and Croatia in May, and settling back into home. There's definitely no place like home, as wonderful as travel is. It took us a couple of weeks to get fully back on deck when we returned from overseas. Jetlag took it's toll, exacerbated by a cold and flu virus that we all caught somewhere while travelling. A friend recently told me that travelling on trains overseas increases the risk of contracting viruses because the air-conditioning systems aren't as effective at filtering out the nasties, as they are on planes. We travelled on French trains, Paris to Montpellier, Montpelier to Avignon, Montpellier to Nice (via Marseille), and many French trams too of course. We also took quite a few flights. That is what overseas travel is about though, especially flying return from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. The main thing is we arrived safely at all our destinations. 

We returned home to a garden of produce which required our attention. So from the garden to the kitchen moved the cumquats, basil, lemons and mandarins.

I made a Small Batch of Cumquat (Kumquat) Marmalade, using cumquats from our tree which was I was really pleased with. As Stephanie Alexander said, "Cumquat marmalade is the best of all breakfast preserves, with a scented sharpness and a golden glow all of its own, " 1996. This isn't her recipe though. In the photo below is also featured a beautiful spoon I bought at a kitchen shop in Montpellier, France. I bought two of these spoons which are from Denmark, which was very soon after we arrived so I was still being moderate with my purchases. I wish now I had bought more.

Our lemon tree was loaded with lemons so I quickly baked this self-saucing Lemon Delicious Pudding, which turned out perfectly, and we enjoyed it over a couple of nights.  This is the perfect dessert for using up a couple of lemons. (The photo in the original recipe on my website at the hyperlink is better than this one, which was taken in a rush.) This is a Stephanie Alexander recipe.

Egg whites added to the Lemon batter

Lemon Delicious Pudding just out of the oven

We also dehydrated quite a few lemons into slices which will have so many uses as they retain the flavour and aroma of fresh lemons. They can be added to sparkling water, hot tea or herbal infusions, used as a garnish for cocktails and mocktails, or if you are feeling  a bit poorly, simmered in a glass of hot water with honey for a soothing drink. I haven't done this but they can also be ground up into a powder and mixed with salt and pepper for a tantalising citrus seasoning. So many applications with just a little time spent initially on dehydrating them. A dehydrator is a really good investment, we have used ours a lot. I also made a few batches of Lemon Curd in the microwave, which are now in the freezer in jars.

Basil is one of my favourite herbs to cook with and grows so well at home. On our return, our Sweet Basil bushes were out of control and needed to be harvested so that we could use the garden for the planting of some Winter lettuces and tomatoes. It was really tough to have to pull the bushes out of the ground, They are like good friends to me, but basil is a fairly sensitive plant and when it's in the ground for too long, it also becomes leggy and the older leaves bruise easily when making pesto and adding to dishes. I always try to leave a couple of bushes growing somewhere though so that the various varieties of bees can enjoy the flowers, and the basil seeds will continue to germinate throughout our gardens. So to cut  a long story short, ha ha, I made what I have named some Basil Flavour Bombs, which are just basil leaves blitzed in the food processor with enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil to make a paste and are then frozen. This is the same process as making Basil Pesto but without the extra ingredients of parmesan cheese, pine nuts or whatever else you wish to add. Two large bowls of basil leaves blitzed down to fill two large ice cube trays, to which I added a fine layer of extra EVOO to stop the cubes turning brown, and then froze them. The frozen cubes are now in freezer bags, and are delicious when added to marinara pasta sauces or wherever a Basil Flavour Bomb or two are needed.

Harvested basil from the garden

Pasta sauce to which I added a couple of Basil Flavour Bombs

1 cup of beautiful Basil Pesto when you are in the mood.

Hey PESTO!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons pine nuts

2 cups / 60g / 2 oz fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup (50 g) parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp cooking salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 small garlic clove

7 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

Toast the pine nuts in a small skillet over a medium heat, until light brown. 

Pour all the ingredients except for the olive oil into the bowl of your food processor. BLITZ until all finely chopped.

While the motor is still running pour the olive oil in a steady stream into the food processor bowl and mix until the perfect consistency is reached. I didn't need any extra Olive oil but add a little if you need it. You can also use a quite powerful handheld blender stick if you would prefer instead of a food processor.

It was surprising to me that basil wasn't a herb that I saw used very much in cooking in France or Croatia, nor did I see it growing. In Croatia, Dill and Rosemary and some parsley were used a lot in cooking, and Croatian food reflects a strong Italian influence, all of those Venetian invasions left quite an impact. Oregano was also noticeably used in France.

Here we are eating our first Nutella crepes in France, indeed our first crepes, with Hugo and Finn at the Carcossone Castle.

 Nutella is still very much a favourite chocolate flavouring over there.

I've already written a post on the Foods of Croatia and still plan to write more about our food adventures in France, however we lived in an apartment in Montpellier for 3 weeks where we self catered when we weren't eating out, and also ate at Matthew and Myrtille's apartment where he loved using some of the local foods especially for us.

Myrtille made a dessert one night (her specialty) of individual flans served in glasses, from this packet mix based on milk, which was delicious. Sorry no photo of the finished product, it disappeared quickly.

My 6 year old Grandson, Finn, helped me assemble this Tomato and Mozzarella salad using homegrown oregano and the Maille Vinaigrette, photograph below, it was delicious. He even cut up some of the tomatoes, it's not picture perfect but he loved helping and it was delicious.

The French love their Vinaigrette, and when not making their own this is a favourite brand to use.

We made these delicious and simple canapes for apéritif one afternoon with a few different tapenades and other products bought at the local market, including of course black olive tapenade, green olives, saucisson, and Comte cheese. These were delicious with a glass of French rose.

Because of the proximity of the Mono Prix supermarket to where we were living in Montpellier, we also shopped there frequently, I loved the diversity of foods that were available. The locals however think it is way too expensive. I hade to stock up on some more Herbes de Provence, I loved the packaging of this salt, Le Saunier de Camargue, which I first saw at a restaurant, and we still need to try the Persillade de Gresiers.

Mr. HRK and I took our three Grandchildren to Pirate's Paradise in Montpellier, which is essentially a large theatre restaurant for children with a Pirate theme, and we all had an absolute ball. The staff there are all very talented theatrically and great with kids, and the food is also excellent. We decided to order the steak as the children really wanted to cook it themselves on the grill, more so than eat it I think, but they did, as I remember this meal as being the best steak that I ate the whole time we were in France. It was really tender and full of flavour. Strange how that can happen in the most unexpected places.

Hugo slicing the beef into portions for cooking

Finn carefully watching his steak cook, and Evie sharing a dish of pasta with Aunty Shannon

The most recent recipe that I posted at home was this delicious Korma Chicken Traybake. I've now made this a few times and keep tweaking it slightly which I tend to do when I know a recipe well. I'm sure you, dear reader do as well. So as there was some leftover flavoured rice, I cooked it up into our Friday Night Special meal, which is an old family recipe, and was a favourite in our house  before I really knew about Tuna or Salmon Kedgeree. Tuna Kedgeree is a slightly fancier version of Friday Night Special but the basics are the same, and chopped up tomato, onion, desiccated coconut, curry powder, and tomato sauce (ketchup), are easy on hand ingredients in the Friday Night special. Our kids always loved it.

I also added curry leaves to my Friday Night special recipe which added to the flavour profile. We have an old curry tree growing which Mr. HRK keeps pruning and it keeps growing back defiantly. Below is a delicious fusion on the plate of Friday Night Special, Tuna Kedgeree, and Korma Chicken Traybake. Delicious.

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. It makes me dig deep, and really think about what I've cooked and the food we've enjoyed and shared during the past month. 

Two of my beautiful orchids were in bloom when I arrived home from our travels.

A Vanda hanging from the Sandra Gordon Grevillea tree, an Australian native.

A beautiful Cattleya orchid

Warm wishes,

Pauline