In My Kitchen, April 2025, and looking back on March

Dear Friends,  Hooray it's Autumn and April, at last. Consequently, there's a transition happening In My Kitchen. As the Autumnal humidity lowers and the temperatures cool down, the Southern Hemisphere is pressing the fast-forward button toward Autumn and Winter, and I am loving it. The Autumn showers are also disappearing and the sun is shining, enticing us toward Easter.

Roasted pumpkin, beetroot, pearl barley and haloumi salad recipe

 

This is a hearty, vegetarian Autumnal salad, celebrating the in-season vegetables, jap (Kent) pumpkin and beetroot, which are in plentiful supply at the Australian markets and retail supermarkets right now. Photos can't fully portray the delicious flavours contained in this salad, with pops of maple syrup sweetness accentuating the warm crispy haloumi, and a refreshing mint pesto combining with all the ingredients.

Orange and Barley Salad followed by Coconut Lime Syrup Cake, it's a citrussy kind of day

This grain salad has citrussy hints of Spring cooking with orange and lemon, however in Sunny Queensland even in Autumn it is a beautiful Autumnal salad. If it's warm weather where you live, and you feel like eating a nutritious and delicious salad this is the one for you.

The Freshest Coconut and Lime Ceviche for Easter

 

This Easter, if you like to enjoy Seafood on Good Friday as we do, why not make some   Ceviche for a seafood treat, it's fresh fish with a zing. Ceviche is typically made from very fresh raw fish which is "cooked" or cured in citrus juices such as lime or lemon. With other ingredients added such as fresh herbs and spices, it is a delicious, light and zingy starter for any meal, or can stand alone with a fresh salad as the delicious main meal. We used a very fresh fillet of Kingfish, about 500g, trimmed and cut into 1 cm cubes. The fillet needs to be at least 1 cm thick. However any firm white-fleshed fish could be used. With this recipe, the actual cooking of the fish is the easy part, as the acidulant in the lime juice  “cooks the raw fish.

CELERY GRATIN

In this recipe, humble celery takes centre stage. Normally it is used as a vegetable to flavour lots of other dishes such as soups, casseroles and stews, after all celery, onions, and carrots are the vegetable triumvirate or  Mirepoix in French cooking, used as the flavour base for so many dishes. This dish has quite subtle French style flavours,  and I used some stale sourdough to make my breadcrumbs in the food processor which made the crumb and parmesan topping so tasty and crunchy around the edges. However any breadcrumbs will do.

The idea for this recipe began when I was making chicken soup, on a cool rainy day (love those days here), and I realised I had a lot of celery in the refrigerator. So the celery took over, and I also started waging war on all the other vegetables lurking in my crisper. As a result, a pot of vegetable stock appeared using up all of the veges which were looking a little tired but still usable, and so I simmered the vegetable stock alongside the chicken soup for a couple of hours.  It's good time management to do it this way, as the same kind of veges went into the soup and the stock, and then at the end of the cooking time, I transferred some of the vegetable stock into the chicken soup to top it up. Delicious.

Meanwhile I was left with some nice crisp fresh celery, which I made into this delicious gratin. Who doesn't love a vegetable gratin? Celery is such an economical vegetable to buy, it only costs $2.00 for a whole head of it here, which is probably why I end up with so much of it, but it is very versatile and can be added to so many dishes.  I found this recipe in River Cottage Veg Everyday, another great recipe thanks Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Let's cook:

Ingredients:

 1 head of celery

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs of thyme

25 g butter

100 ml thickened cream

75 g breadcrumbs

30 g very tasty cheese, such as Parmesan, Gruyere, or a hard goat's cheese, finely grated

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 deg. C/Gas Mark 3.

Break the celery into stalks. Set aside the outer stalks if they look a bit coarse or hollow which they probably are. They will be great to use in stock or soups. The secret to this recipe is to choose fresh crisp stalks, and to remove any noticeable strings from the the stalks you have chosen.

Remove all of the leaves from your chosen stalks and set them aside to use in stocks as well. 

Cut all the stalks into 10 cm lengths.

Put the celery into a shallow ovenproof dish and add the bay leaf and the thyme, tucking in around the stems.

Pour over 3 tablespoons of water, dot the butter over the stalks, and sprinkle with some salt and freshly ground pepper.

Cover the dish with alfoil and bake for about 40 minutes until the celery is tender.

Remove the dish from the oven and turn the oven temperature up to 200 deg. C/Gas Mark 6.

Discard the thyme and bay leaf, and carefully pour off the liquid from the celery dish into a jug.

To the celery liquid add enough cream to make up to 150 ml and whisk together.  Have a taste and add more salt and pepper if needed, then pour back over the celery into the dish.

Mix the grated cheese and the breadcrumbs together, sprinkle over the celery and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the crumb topping is crispy. 

Finish off by grinding over some black pepper and serve.

Yum, my mouth is watering as I type this up.

Sometimes I  also freeze celery and the leaves. It needs to be cut into usable sized pieces, then blanched, then quickly chilled in ice water, dried and frozen in zip lock bags.Great to use in stocks and soups.

Celery gratin is perfect to eat on meat free Monday with a lentil dish or even a frittata, if you follow that path,  however we enjoyed it as a side during the week with a simple chicken casserole.

Warm wishes,

Pauline

Rosemary Sourdough Focaccia Bread

I've been busily baking sourdough bread these last few days, and given the empty flour shelves in the supermarkets, I'm not alone, although I would take a guess not everyone is baking with sourdough. Focaccia is a great way to start your bread making journey if you are keen to give it a go, either with instant yeast or with sourdough. It doesn't take as long to proof or rise as loaves of bread, the technique required is pretty simple, and this recipe feeds a lot of people. Focaccia is delicious to eat with cheeses, cured meats, pesto, olives, and all those delicious snacks we enjoy with a glass of wine or a cold drink in our backyards late in the day. No need for bought savoury biscuits.  I'll be honest with you, this was my first attempt at making focaccia and I was really pleased with it.

There are a few tricks to ensuring your sourdough bread dough performs and my friends I learn something every time I bake a loaf of bread. The main thing I learned this time was to choose a baking tin which is deep enough for the dough to rise whilst it is still covered by a damp tea towel, without it rising up to actually come in contact with the tea towel.  Mine was a touch shallow. Some people blame their flour when their bread doesn't rise enough and bake properly. Really flour should last for years unless it is weavil ridden. The yeast or the Sourdough starter needs to be very well prepared and bubbling well before you use it. If you aren't sure, a good tip is to place a teaspoon of your activated starter in a small glass of water, and if it floats to the top it is ready. Two days ago I was feeding my starter who I have named Beryl again, preparing her for a loaf of multigrain bread. Whilst she was bubbling away quietly, I wasn't convinced she was ready. When I did my scientific experiment of placing a teaspoon in a glass of water, it sunk to the bottom straight away. Oops! Obviously she wasn't ready. That evening, after a good feed of flour and water in the morning, I tried my experiment again even though she was bubbling away very well,  and the teaspoon of sourdough stayed afloat until all of the air bubbles were removed. My starter was ready. That night I prepared the ingredients for a loaf of bread and let it proof overnight in a large bowl in my warm laundry, sitting on the hot water system. It works for me. We had a loaf of multigrain bread by 10.30 am next morning. 

This is it. If you would like to make a large loaf of sourdough bread, my recipe is here. Use either wholegrain, wholemeal or rye strong bread  flour according to the recipe.

This was the same morning I had also decided to make Rosemary focaccia. It worked out well as I had two lots of sourdough starter and dough ready to go, I was only making one lot of mess in my kitchen for two lots of bread, and all of the ingredients were out of the cupboard ready to used for both. It was a very economical use of my time, the ingredients and the oven. They both rose pretty much in sync as well which was great.

This is how I made my Rosemary Focaccia. There are also plenty of recipes around for how to make this with instant yeast if you don't have a sourdough starter which will still be delicious. To substitute instant powdered yeast for sourdough starter, replace 100 g of starter with 5-7 grams of instant ;powdered yeast, or 12-15 grams of fresh bakers yeast. I am lucky that we have a large bush of rosemary growing in our yard which I couldn't do without. It seems easy to grow in most places from what I have seen on my travels.

Timing:

Steeping the rosemary: 12 hours

Mixing and kneading: 15 minutes

First rising: 2 hours

Proofing: 1 hour 30 minutes

Baking: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

Makes 1 large focaccia, about 940 g., leftovers can be frozen. It reheats well.

• 4-5 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 30g (2 tablespoons) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 500 g (4 cups) plain flour
• 330g (1 1/3 cup) lukewarm water 
• 100 g (scant 1/2 cup) liquid sourdough starter that is very active and bubbling, or substitute 5-7 grams of instant yeast
• 1 1/4 teaspoons instant powdered yeast (which I used) or if you can get it, use 7 g (2 1/2 teaspoons) fresh bakers yeast, in addition to the sourdough starter
• 10 g (2 teaspoons) salt
• Sea salt flakes for sprinkling

The night before, remove the leaves from the fresh rosemary sprigs and mix them with the olive oil. Leave them to steep overnight at room temperature.

I kneaded my dough by hand so I will give instructions for using a stand mixer and doing it by hand.

KNEADING IN A STAND MIXER

Put the flour, water, sourdough starter, yeast, and salt in the bowl. Knead with the dough hook for 5 minutes at low speed, then for 10 minutes at high speed. Add the rosemary and the steeping oil around 3 minutes before the end of the kneading time.

KNEADING BY HAND

Put the flour  in a large mixing bowl and make a large well in the centre. Pour in half the water, then add the sourdough starter, yeast, and salt. Mix well, then add the rest of the water and knead until all the flour has been incorporated. Add the rosemary and the steeping oil. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic.

Shape the dough into a ball, cover with a damp cloth, and leave to rise for 2 hours. Midway through the rise, deflate the dough by folding it in half. By the end of the rising time it will have increased in volume.

Put the dough in a shallow baking pan lined with baking paper. Stretch the dough with your hands to make a flat piece that fills a 40 x 30 cm pan, or 16 x 12-inch pan. Cover with a damp cloth and leave to proof for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Ensure the pan is deep enough for rising.

Place a baking tray on the bottom shelf of your oven and preheat to 230 deg C. (or 450 deg. F.) Use the tips of your fingers to press small holes over the surface of the focaccia. Pour a little oil into the holes and sprinkle with salt flakes.

Just before you put the focaccia in the oven,  pour 1/4 cup or 50 g of water into the baking dish in the bottom of your oven.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from the oven, turn out the focaccia , and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Stay safe and healthy,

Warm wishes

Pauline

Beef and Eggplant (Aubergine) Fatteh Recipe or Middle Eastern Nachos

"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength".
-Marcus Aurelius

The fresh Mint is still to be added

Fatteh is an Arabic word meaning crushed or crumbs, and often refers to a dish consisting of fresh, toasted or stale flatbread covered with other ingredients. Day old homemade pita bread is often used for fatteh recipes. What a clever creation this dish is, a Middle Eastern version of the universal family favourite, Mexican Nachos. 

The Collateral Beauty of the North Queensland Blue Tiger Butterflies in our backyard over Easter

This Easter, the trees are alive with Blue Tiger Butterflies, well our backyard Melaleuca is anyway.

When I saw all of these beautiful butterflies in our quite old but remarkable paperbark tree, I started to see them everywhere throughout our garden, and even when I was out walking with Locky our dog in our neighbourhood. I found myself thinking about the collateral beauty in our lives that we all need to be focusing on now to get us through these difficult times. It just might help.  When we lose someone or something precious to us or just forget about our ego, and the need for commercialism in our lives, we can try to think of the beauty of the things we actually have but sometimes are difficult to actually see. That is the collateral beauty in our lives. 

Mr. HRK took these photos and I thought I would share them with you as this is quite a remarkable butterfly event. For a start, we haven't seen our tree flower like this for a couple of years, which is all out of sync. We have never seen such a migration of this butterfly to this extent before either. After a little bit of research, we discovered the Blue Tiger Butterfly is migrating North to a warmer climate for the Winter. We are obviously in their flight path though as they are settling in, at least whilst our tree is in flower. Breeding is during the warmer months, and is generally timed to coincide with the wet season when new growth on the host vines is available for the caterpillars to eat. Makes sense doesn't it?

 The caterpillars have evaded being eaten by the birds and other predators whilst down south, as the butterflies breed on a plant poisonous to birds but not to them, so the birds leave them alone. The main host plants for this butterfly are the Corky Milk Vine and the Mangrove Milk vine. The sap of the milky vines is toxic and the larvae feed on the toxic plants but are able to store the toxins in their systems making them unpalatable to their predators. Consequently  they often survive for months and are able to migrate to coastal North Queensland en masse. I wonder if they will make it to Cairns.

 Isn't nature amazing?

When I was gazing up at them yesterday, I could also hear a faint buzzing from our bees, which are also enjoying the nectar of the beautiful flowers. There is plenty for everybody however it is much easier to see the butterflies than it is to see the bees amongst all of the foliage. Our beehive isn't far from this tree at all.

Below is a photo of the Orchard Swallow Tail which is also gracing our garden at present. However it is more of a loner than it's tropical neighbour, the Blue Tiger. I suspect though that it's larvae is guilty of demolishing some of the leaves on our citrus tree and more ornamental plants. She is quite beautiful though isn't she?

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoyed reading my amateurish but well meaning attempt to bring you an interesting story from our garden. I am mainly a food and travel writer, but sometimes a nice garden story presses the right buttons as well and I always learn something. I hope you have as well. If you have some extra information to add to this story, I would love to hear it.

I hope you can find the time to enjoy the collateral beauty around you today in these challenging Covid 19 times.

Warmest Easter wishes

Pauline

My Malaysian Fish Dish Recipe

Instead of queuing up for fresh fish and prawns today, and paying a fortune, I cooked this Malaysian Fish Dish curry for dinner tonight for the two of us, and it was delicious, and there are leftovers tomorrow to look forward to. This recipe is a riff on a family recipe I found the other day, handwritten on a piece of paper in one of my Mother's recipe books. 

Memories of Peru In My Kitchen

 I thought I would share some of our happy experiences in Peru and Chile with you, as part of the In My Kitchen series hosted by Sherry's Pickings. Some photos are from my kitchen, and some are taken in Peru. When we travel we don't take really large suitcases because we have to hump them around ourselves, and we don't buy a lot of gifts for others or mementos for ourselves anymore either as really we don't need a lot of extra stuff anymore. Having said that, a few purchases were made.

This photo is of happy times for us taken at Machu Pichu on a cloudy and wet day, with these amazing cloud shrouded peaks in the background. Of course it's a mistake to think that all there is to Peru is the magical, mysterious Machu Picchu. The Lost City of the Inca is, of course, a standout and never fails to disappoint, but there is more to this land of hidden treasures, and its intriguing people.

We arrived home from our travels to Chile, the Falkland Islands and Peru on 3rd March, 2020, after travelling for 7 weeks. To this very day Mr. HRK and I feel so relieved that we were due to 

fly home from Peru via Chile when we did. When we were travelling we only watched a minimum of British and U.S. television and as far as we were aware at that stage Covid-19 was at pandemic levels in China, with some cases in Great Britain and the U.S. and that Australians were being told to be cautious. On our flights home some people were wearing masks, and as our daughter is a health care worker she was already worried about the Australian situation and encouraged us to wear masks. We went shopping for  masks in Arequipa in Peru but by that stage there were none available. Obviously the population in Peru was on alert by then, but this wasn't being communicated to us. We didn't realise that Covid-19 had the foothold in Peru that it did. The situation escalated very quickly. Thankfully it wasn't peak season for tourists in South America, and most of our tours had a maximum of only four people. Also we missed a couple of tours in our second week because of illness, confined to our hotel room for three days,which in hindsight I look on as possibly a good thing as far as exposure to Covid-19 was concerned. Anyway, on arriving home we self isolated for two weeks, were tested for the virus,  and not a lot has changed for us with all of the restrictions still now in place.

I do like a nice tablecloth and you can't have too many as far as I am concerned. The fabrics and designs in Peru are so colourful and interesting. We bought this one in Pisaq, in a small shop in a laneway off the main street, and after I had gone back a couple of times I bought it for what I thought was a reasonable price however it is so difficult to negotiate when the shopkeeper doesn't speak much English and we don't speak Spanish. We paid 135 sol, which now is approx. $65.00 with the Australian dollar taking a nosedive, it cost less then, but everything is costed for you in American dollars when purchasing so the mental calculation required can be challenging. Anyway I really liked it, and as we were in a hurry because the bus was waiting for us, we bought it and rushed for the bus. Mr. HRK felt we had paid too much for it so his mission then was to find another tablecloth for less, to average out the cost more. Which he did. 

I really liked the pattern, which features the ubiquitous PACHEMAMA. She is the Goddess revered by the indigenous people and is known as the earth mother. In Incan mythology, she is also the fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and presumably causes earthquakes. So this lady has many roles and is represented everywhere. I thought it was appropriate to buy a tablecloth with her symbol embroidered on the cloth and a few Llamas as well.

A brown Llama and an Alpaca. All very photogenic.

Because I couldn't bring a beautiful Llama  home to keep I had to buy one. Llamas are related to the camel and are the oldest domesticated animal in the world.The black Llamas are the most revered in Peru. Llamas have much longer necks and are generally larger than their cousins the Alpacas, which are prized for their wool.

 My very friendly alpaca, and so very cute

A Llama

Tourists feeding the  shaggy Llamas

Their smaller fluffier cousins are the Alpacas, in this photo below. I hope I've got this right about who is who.

This was the very colorful second tablecloth that thrifty Mr. HRK bought at Yucay, from a lady selling them at a table near the restaurant where we had lunch.  He bought this one for 80 Sola or 38 Australian dollars, so that averaged the price out for tablecloths and he walked away very happy with his purchase. All of the vibrant colours are typical of many garments and merchandise on sale in Peru.

I found these  colourful Ceviche Oven mits in a shop near Machu Pichu which are now in my kitchen. I was quite taken with them and they were very reasonably priced I thought. I didn't eat any Ceviche in Peru, but I did in Chile at Valparaiso and it was fresh and delicious with zingy flavours. The Chileans and the Argentinians have constant verbal battles about who makes the best Ceviche. I haven't tried one made in Argentina, but the one I had in Vaparaiso would be very hard to beat.

Mr. HRK bought this vibrant wall hanging for me on the floating islands at Lake Titicaca which was one of the tours I missed due to illness. He was feeling sorry for me for missing the tour so it was a lovely surprise when he arrived back at the hotel in Puno with this.  Pachemama is featured prominently on this one as well. He watched the local women actually weave this one so that was very special for him, as a lot of the work over there is now manufactured commercially on machines. Weaving is the stuff of life for many of the women here, with the traditional patterns holding the keys to the stories of the native people. It's important that tourists learn all about the ancient techniques of weaving first hand, and help to support its preservation.

If you are into fashion, these local Uros ladies on the floating island at Lake Titicaca were dressed up beautifully for the tourists.



In Peru, altitude sickness at 3,500 feet and higher debilitates many tourists, however luckily I had sought out  Prescription tablets from my GP which prevented the more serious side effects but breathlessness when we arrived in Cusco  made some activities  quite difficult. Unfortunately it also affected our appetite, something I wasn't prepared for. On arrival at any of the hotels, the travel guides and hotel staff encouraged us to drink Muna tea or Coca tea to help with altitude sickness. It was okay for the first couple of days and then all I wanted was a nice cup of English breakfast black tea, which wasn't to be found anywhere. When in Peru do as the Peruvians do I suppose but we soon realised that too much of these aromatic teas causes sleepnessness as well, even though they supposedly helped with the altitude sickness. Mr. HRK really liked the tea though and drank them for the whole time we were there. I became a bit tired of it and moved onto Camomile and other herbals after a while.

We were also given very freshly picked aromatic herbal teas as well when on tour, and this one was very nice.

I would have bought one of these mugs if I had seen them for sale.

Potatoes, corn and quinoa are the staple crops grown in Peru. In Chile and Peru, a bowl of roasted corn seasoned with salt was generally placed on our table to nibble on before a meal. This corn is very different to our corn being a larger variety. Peru boasts thousands of different varieties of potatoes that they grow, and have for centuries. Obviously every meal served has potato, quinoa or corn embedded in it somehow. Because quinoa has recently become so popular in western cultures, it has become expensive in South America for the locals to buy as well unless they can grow their own. This is quite sad really, because it was always such a staple for the poor people who are struggling now to afford it. It used to be so plentiful there that they fed the chickens with it.

Travelling to Cusco in Peru through the beautiful sacred valley

Altitude here is 4,335 feet. It's enough to make you breathless.

 If you are into Ruins - We were told this is the highest existing Incan ruin in South America

Back home in my garden, self seeded Birds Eye Chilli bushes were a surprise.

 We have three bushes growing at the moment, all extremely healthy and prolific but all self seeded. I've frozen a lot of the chillis for my future batches of Sweet Chilli Jam and chutneys, as these are the old fashioned variety of chilli not easily found in the supermarkets now. I think the birds must have spread the seeds for these to grow as the birds love them.

Happy days at home to you all.

Best wishes

Pauline

Sweet and Salty Cheesecake with Cherries and a Nut Crumble

I have a new and recently published recipe book on my bookshelf, Ottolenghi Simple, thanks to a recent birthday gift from wonderful friends, and this recipe literally jumped out at me from it's pages. I am very happy to review it and give it 10 out of 10. It is delicious. There are 3 stages and layers to this dessert, something like a parfait really, all very achievable and quite simple to prepare, the attraction being that they can be made well in advance of when they will be served, if you are organised enough that is. I now have the time to be well organised in advance although I realise not everyone has. So that's what I did. The Cheesecake keeps for 3 days in the frig, the compote keeps for 5 days (although this is risky as you will be dying to eat it with absolutely everything), and the nut crumble which keeps for a week or so can be kept on the kitchen bench in a covered container, just don't tell anyone or it will disappear as well. As Yotem Ottolenghi says the compote and crumble are also lovely for breakfast, served with Greek yoghurt, if you have any leftovers that is, and I doubt you will. The crumble will also take any fruit crumble to greater heights.

The cheesecake component of this dessert is not the kind of food that I would suggest we eat every day of the week. Most people I know are practising calorific restraint on an almost daily basis, however as I love to cook and enjoy beautiful food I allow myself the occasional indulgence, such as this dessert.  It is lovely to share delicious food with friends. Wanting to cook and eat  spectacular recipes that I come across is one of the realities of being a food blogger, however I am not just a food blogger but also a healthy lifestyle advocate so I try to find a balance with what I cook and add to the blog. It is also a trap to be influenced by the fads of celebrity chefs and to be totally guided by their choices, and I suppose Otam Ottelenghi falls into this category. However I like his emphasis on mostly healthy ingredients, such as vegetables and spices, and simple preparation, and it is our choice after all as to what we choose to cook. We owe it to ourselves to stay healthy and that is what is guiding a lot of my cooking choices now, on a daily basis.

Speaking of ingredients, here they are. Whilst it might seem like a lot of ingredients, the only ones I needed to go out and buy were the frozen Cherries, hazelnuts and cream cheeses.






INGREDIENTS:

Serves six to eight:

CHEESECAKE

100g feta
300g full-fat cream cheese
40g caster sugar
1 small lemon: finely grate the zest to get 1 tsp
130 ml thickened cream
2 tbsp olive oil, to serve

CRUMBLE

100g blanched hazelnuts, roughly chopped (I blanched these myself but buy them if you are short of time) There are good websites available on how to blanch them with bicarb soda and boiling water.
30g unsalted butter, fridge-cold and cut into 2cm dice (I used salted butter)
80g ground almonds
25g caster sugar
1 tbsp black sesame seeds (or white)
1/8 tsp salt

CHERRY COMPOTE

600g frozen pitted cherries, defrosted
90g caster sugar
4 whole star anise
1 orange: skin finely shaved to get 4 strips

Method:

To make the Cheesecake

Use a spatula, and break down the feta in a large bowl until it is as smooth as you can get it. Add the cream cheese, sugar and lemon zest and whisk by hand to combine. I used a fork during this process as well to break it down. This needs to be done by hand.
Pour in the cream and gently whisk together until the mixture has thickened enough to hold its shape, This happens quickly. Leave to set in the fridge in a covered container until ready to use. You can leave this for 3 days in the fridge.


To make the Crumble
Preheat the oven to 180 deg. fan forced
Place the hazelnuts, butter, ground almonds and sugar in a separate bowl.
Use the tips of your fingers to rub the butter into the dry mixture until the consistency of breadcrumbs is achieved.
Stir in the sesame seeds and salt, then spread out onto a baking tray.
Cook in the oven for about 12 minutes, until golden brown.
Allow to cool, then store in a covered container on the kitchen bench until ready to use, or use straight away, when the compote is made.


To make the Cherry Compote (use with any berries)
(I love this part)
Put the cherries, sugar, star anise and orange skin into a medium saucepan and place on a medium high heat. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened (but it will continue to thicken as it cools down). Set aside to come to room temperature. The star anise and orange peel should be discarded.

When ready to serve, spoon a large scoop of the cheesecake into each bowl and top with half the crumble. Spoon the compote on top and finish with the remaining crumble. Drizzle over the olive oil, yes really, and serve.

I really hope you enjoy this dish if you decide to make it this weekend. Have a great weekend everyone, and do something that you love doing.

Best wishes

Pauline