Italian meatballs in Tomato Sauce

A comforting bowl of Italian meatballs in Tomato Sauce anytime

Tender baked meatballs simmered in a homemade umami flavoured tomato sauce really deliver in flavour. The layering of ingredients, the fusion of flavours into the meatballs and the sauce during the cooking process, and the addition of fresh and dried herbs bring together a meal that has you coming back for more.

Chicken Marbella, a celebratory dish suitable for Thanksgiving

 "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts."

Aristotle

I am submitting this recipe as part of the Brookford Kitchen Diaries November Cookbook Club where Thanksgiving, or a favourite family recipe with meaning is the theme. It's also originally a favourite American recipe, which ticks another box when choosing a recipe for this linkup. We don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia, but if we did this is one of the dishes I would definitely bake. It's an all time family favourite, and also generally a safe and very popular baked chicken option to cook for friends and family with various food aversions, needs, and preferences and the cook can stay relaxed. Win, win.

In My Kitchen, November 2023

What a varied month it's been, and as always, the cooking I do in my lovely kitchen reflects what is in season, my use of any produce gifted to me, what I have the time to cook and those recipes which I love to cook. So, I'm excited to be sharing a few new recipes with you this time, although regular readers of my blog may have already seen them. However, that doesn't mean I'm not excited about bringing you some old favourites as well. I suspect that like me, your cooking repertoire contains those recipes that are on high rotation in your kitchen and contains some old and tried but true recipes which feel like a big hug from faithful friends, which always feels so reassuring. With Christmas well and truly on the horizon now, some nostalgia is creeping into my cooking as well.

Mexican Chicken and Capsicum Tray Bake

Mexican food is always full of flavour and colour, and when the ingredients can be combined into a homemade Mexican style traybake, with a few shortcuts, then it's a winner in my humble opinion. The first time that I cooked this dish we all loved it, I honestly couldn't fault it.

In My Kitchen, November 2022

 I am looking forward to Christmas so much this year, it will be a Summer's Christmas at the beach for us, sun and surf, can't wait.  With the promise of catching up with family and friends as a bonus. 

Edamame Bean and Tuna Salad

 

Edamame beans are a delicious addition to any salad. Full of fibre, and protein, they bring green freshness, crunch and are filling to eat. Edamame are young soybeans, harvested before they turn brown. I've made this salad a few times, always with a slight variation, however this is the basic recipe I use. 

in My Kitchen - November 2021

When I looked through all of my photos for the past month, and all the food I have created out of my kitchen, I realised it has been a busy month, it certainly feels like it, and this past week for example has gone so quickly. Christmas is just around the corner, so the next projects will be Plum puddings, Christmas cakes, and Mango Chutney. Could we just extend November though please? 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 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens. 

A recent dinner party for 12 people, and I brought out the Big Guns in my cooking repertoire when catering for a crowd. Curried Beef Lasagne, Moroccan Chickpea salad, and Chocolate Mousse. All can be prepared well in advance which I love, and were delicious. I also made a big green salad, just because we need our greens my friends.

A Moroccan Chickpea salad is the perfect partner for this Lasagne.

Moroccan Chickpea salad

And then for sweets there was Chocolate Mousse based on Nigella Lawson's recipe. I worked on this recipe for a couple of days as I found it too rich to start with.

Stovetop cooking certainly improved for me when we installed our new stovetop this month.  It has made me realise just how fast and very hot two of my stove elements were, and now I need to be patient to achieve that level of heat if I need it. Here's a photo of Mr. HRK preparing to remove the old stovetop, with screwdriver in place of course. It became a major operation though, when we lost power, which was caused by a green faulty fuse box located two doors up the road, which our power runs from. Who knew our fuse box was there, not us? The fuse box  hadn't been maintained for 30 years apparently, because of a huge and very happy plant growing in front of it. Of course nobody admitted to planting the plant. The electrician arrived, our Power Company, Ergon, was called in, a convoy of vehicles lined the road, the plant was removed using a winch, and all was well by dinner time that night. Phew, what a drama. However because of the issues we had encountered, we had to wait for a specialist electrician to call the following day to install the stovetop, much to the chagrin of Mr. HRK, who had planned to do the job himself.

There's been an exciting development at our family. We've have invested in another Beehive, during this last month, Italian bees, not native bees although we have plenty of the latter in our garden all of the time. Farming bees is a real learning curve and a wonderful interest, and our friend and bee mentor whom we bought this hive from, told us that beekeepers who have had problems in the past become the best beekeepers. Well thanks Keith, here's hoping. We lost our hive last year when some Robber Bees infested it with a killer American virus, called American Foul Brood, which is eventually fatal to a hive. It was a big year for viruses in 2020. So we had to destroy the hive and every piece of equipment associated with it, which was so tough, and then wait until we felt strong enough to take on another hive. 

Here's a photo of Mr. HRK and Dylan, a young friend who lives nearby, preparing to smoke the hive to pacify the bees so they can check on their progress. By all accounts the bees are going well, and we should be able to add a "half super" box soon which is where they start making the delicious honey that we hope to harvest in the future. The weather here at the moment is hot and windy, and we saw a few of our bees on the bird bath yesterday trying to cool off. We have high hopes for this hive. The Queen bee came from Duaringa in Central Queensland so she has travelled quite a distance to be with us and her new hive. Beehave Lady Queen Bee,  we need you and some homemade honey.

Adding bark to the smoker

Lighting the smoker

Checking our hive. I didn't get close to take photos of the inside, but the bees seem to be very calm

Here's a lovely little bouquet of flowers in my kitchen that a friend gave me for cooking her dinner. The frangipanni perfume is quite intoxicating, and is one of my favourite flowers and contrasts beautifully with the blue flowers.

Halloween brought us a scary but lovely surprise this year. Generally we don't have any trick or treaters knock on our door, but this year we did. These two dear little girls have recently moved into the neighbourhood, we know their family well and it was lot of fun when they called to trick or treat with their Mum. Thankfully I had some chocolate on hand in the refrigerator so they were happy.

This morning, for a camping trip we are planning, I made a version of my Beef, Mango Chutney and Sauerkraut Goulash, however I seared the flour coated meat in a hot pan, and then added red wine and stock and simmered that down to capture all of the delicious beef scrapings. This is a step I sometimes omit if I am pushed for time, but I want this stew to be full of flavour, some of which might end up in pies.

I made a delicious Vietnamese chicken salad recently, which was perfect as the temperatures rose. Here's the link to the recipe if you missed it.

One of the highlights of my cooking adventures this month has been this Beef Brisket with prunes and vegetables. You can find the recipe at this link. Such a great recipe from Monday Morning Cooking Club, so tender and full of rich flavours.

Last month, 4 weeks ago in fact, when we said goodbye to our beautiful Border Collie, Locky. Our dining room table overflowed with beautiful flowers sent by our family.

There's a very funny story attached to the table runner that you can see on our family dining room table, well we can laugh about it now. We purchased it in Istanbul during a trip to Turkey about 6 years ago, during which of course we embarked on a compulsory carpet buying spree. We were targeted by a supposedly well meaning tourist guide, and taken to a questionable Government Carpet wholesaler. Mr. HRK and I still think we were lucky to escape with our lives in tact, slightly inebriated and well fed though, but we still don't believe this is the actual carpet we purchased.  However it was shipped home to us very quickly, and we weren't in a position  to take the matter any further, despite our doubts. All of the Lonely Planet guides and Turkish tourist books can't prepare you for what really happens during a carpet buying adventure in Istanbul. Older and wiser they say. This Magic Carpet is the curve ball of my story.

Best wishes,

Pauline
 

Summery Vietnamese Chicken Salad

It's Vietnamese food for lunch today. Great! We are so very fortunate to be able to enjoy cooking and eating a variety of cuisines at home now, however one of my favourites, particularly during the Australian Summer, is to eat Vietnamese. This recipe is everything that you love about Vietnamese food, healthy, fresh, full of flavour, and with lots of different textures.

This amazing recipe is based on the fantastic Vietnamese dressing and fresh salad mix used by the great Australian chef, Bill Granger in his book, Bills Open Kitchen. I have been making this recipe for years as his book was published back in 2003, but the recipe is timeless. I haven't included any noodles or rice in my recipe as we are watching our carbs, and quite frankly the dish doesn't need it, but if you must, serve this on a bed of vermicelli noodles, or with rice, and everyone will thank you for it.

It is also very versatile. If you are short on time, buy a cooked chicken, and use the chicken meat already cooked, or substitute cooked prawns for chicken. I love the flavour of Vietnamese Mint, and I'm fortunate to have it growing in a pot in my back garden, however if you can't get hold of it, substitute some chopped coriander leaves. Both of these herbs are quite strong in flavour, but I love that. I know already that a couple of my readers will say they don't like Vietnamese Mint, but there are always substitutes, or just leave it out.

Ingredients:

Serves 4 people

3 x 200 g (7 oz) chicken breasts without skin(or use 600 g precooked chicken breast)

2 tablespoons Olive oil or Vegetable oil 

sea salt

white pepper

90 g (1 cup ) bean sprouts, I even like more of them

20 g (1 cup) Vietnamese mint leaves or 1/2 cup coriander leaves

50 g (1 cup) fresh Basil leaves (sweet or Thai)

180 g (4 cups) Chinese cabbage, finely shredded, or iceberg lettuce if you must

Vietnamese dressing (recipe below)

90 g (1 cup) pickled carrot ( below) or raw carrot, peeled and finely julienned

Method:

Preheat your oven to 220 deg. C. (425 deg. F./Gas 7). 

Heat a frying pan on the stove top. Meanwhile, brush the chicken breasts with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Brown and sear the chicken breasts for 2 minutes, turn over and sear for another minute.  

Line a baking tray with baking paper, and place the chicken on the tray and cook them in your oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Leave the meat to rest covered for 20 minutes.

When cool enough, shred the meat into thin strips, your hands will be fine to do this, and place in a large bowl. This is the foundation of your salad.

Add the remaining ingredients and toss to combine. 

Vietnamese dressing:

60 ml ( 1/4 cup) lime juice

60 ml (1/4 cup) fish sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon caster sugar

2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

 1/2 red onion, finely sliced or 3 red Asian shallots, finely chopped

1 large red Capilano chilli ( or 2 if you really like some chili), seeds removed

Method:

Place all the ingredients n a small bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved

Pickled Carrot: as a delicious side and to mix through the salad

250 g (9 oz) carrots, peeled and finely julienned

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon caster sugar

Method:

Mix the salt with the julienned carrots in a colander and toss to combine. Leave for 20 minutes to remove the excess moisture . Place 185 ml (3/4 cup) water with the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and cool. Rinse the carrot, squeezing out any excess water with clean hands, and place in a bowl. Pour the pickling liquid over the carrot and stand for 1 hour. Strain before serving.

We ate this salad for lunch today, and it was so delicious. I prepared the vegetable salad early in the morning, and made the dressing, and kept them both in the frig. Then when I came home from shopping, I cooked the chicken fillets,  made the pickled carrot,  and the whole dish was very easy to assemble from there.

Cooks Tips:

• If you find you have a lot of the Chinese cabbage left over as I often do, my Wombok and noodle salad recipe has been very popular amongst readers, and my family love it. You can find the recipe at this link. It is also a Christmas favourite here in Queensland
• The pickled carrot makes a delicious side dish, however it is optional and as an alternative just mix some grated carrot though the salad.
• If necessary, crispy iceberg lettuce could be used instead of Chinese cabbage.
• Use a bought cooked chicken on busy days to make this dish, your family will hardly know the difference.
• Cooking the chicken fillets as I did in this recipe, produced very tender, flavoursome, shredded chicken
• If you have any chance of growing your own Basil plants or Vietnamese mint plants in Summer, it is well worth doing.
• If you have them growing, add two very finely chopped kaffir lime leaves to the salad. 

Here is another delicious salad in the same style as the one I have just shared with you, my Vietnamese Ruby Grapefruit Salad

HAPPY RETIREE'S KITCHEN : Vietnamese Ruby Grapefruit Salad (happyretireeskitchen.blogspot.com)

 Best wishes,

Pauline

Instant Chocolate Mousse, it's egg free and delicious

Chocolate Mousse is such a crowd favourite, and when we both had a yearning for a chocolate dessert,  I was intrigued to find this Express recipe by the iconic Nigella Lawson, which uses mini marshmallows instead of raw eggs as the setting agent. The secret ingredient is the gelatine in the marshmallow, and it works beautifully and is delicious without being too sweet. There's no stress involved with worrying whether or not this chocolate pudding will set, because it sets brilliantly in the refrigerator. I tweaked this recipe over a couple of days as there are a few versions of it out there in books and online, but this is my final rendition of this classic dessert. I am so pleased that I now have the perfect chocolate mousse recipe to offer, which I will be very happy to make repeatedly, and without using lots of valuable eggs along the way. 

The first two batches were still edible but very dense and chocolatey, is that a word? I can't tolerate very rich desserts anymore, although Mr. HRK still thought they were delicious as he was feeling a little unwell with a head cold, but I knew the texture I wanted, light and creamy and fluffy but still with delicious chocolate as the base, and not overly sweet. For the first batch I made, I tried chopping up normal marshmallows into small pieces as I couldn't find mini marshmallows at the first supermarket I shopped at. I don't suggest that you try this as an alternative, as chopping up marshmallows is an onerous job, and they took a long time to melt. That first batch almost became Rocky Road, which would have been a delicious outcome, but I persisted, and it was eaten anyway by our young neighbours, happy to be experimented on. As you can see, I had fun along the way and shared the love of chocolate. 

Do you derive a huge sense of satisfaction out of working with a recipe until you finally achieve the result you are after? To be honest, I don't do it that often, but with this recipe I enjoyed the process, so did Mr. HRK. Read on my friends, and I know you will enjoy making and eating this divine Chocolate Mousse. My Cook's tips will give you further insight into my cooking process.

Ingredients:

150 grams mini marshmallows, pink and white is fine

50 grams (4 tablespoons) softened butter

250 grams good quality dark chocolate melts or dark chocolate chips (I used melts)

60 millimetres (1/4 cup) hot water (from a recently boiled kettle)

284 millimetres thickened or double cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

In a flat, wide heavy-based pan, place the marshmallows, butter, chocolate buttons and water. It's fine if the mini marshmallows are pink and white. 

Heat the saucepan over a gentle heat, to melt the contents. Stir often whilst hovering over the pan. The chocolate will melt first, the marshmallows will take longer.

The marshmallows are starting to melt while I stir. Marshmallow streaks are starting to appear.

The marshmallows are melting well.

When all the ingredients are melted and combined, remove the pan from the heat. It will be a smooth and silky chocolate sauce like mixture.

A smooth and silky chocolate sauce mixture, a few marshmallow streaks don't matter as cream will be added

Leave the chocolate mixture to cool off the stove top.  Meanwhile whip the cream with the vanilla extract until thick.

 Fold the cream by large spoonfuls into the cooled chocolate mixture until the mixture is smooth and well mixed.

Pour or spoon the chocolate mixture into 4 decorative glasses or ramekins, allowing about 175 ml/3/4 cup each in capacity, or 6 smaller ones (125 ml/1/2 cup), and chill until you are ready to eat dessert.

Decorate with swirls of cream and grated chocolate, or just grated white chocolate.

Cooks Notes:

• This recipe doesn't use eggs. The gelatine in the marshmallow is the ingredient that sets the mousse and works it's magic.
• Make them the day before and keep covered and chilled in the refrigerator. This makes life a lot easier on the day of eating as the work is already done. 
• Take the mousse out of the refrigerator when the main course is being served, cover,  and allow the desserts to soften up slightly for eating while the main course is being eaten. The mousse may become quite solid in the refrigerator. It needs to be soft and fluffy and "mousse like" before being served.
• If you like your mousse to be on the lighter chocolate side, use the dark chocolate buttons or dark chocolate chips. However if you like your mousse to be very dark chocolate, and rich and denser in texture, use a finely chopped dark chocolate block, at least 78 % cocoa. The ratio of cream to chocolate determines how light and fluffy the mousse will be. Some recipes only use 1 cup of cream, I like to use 284 millimetres of double cream for a lighter and fluffier mousse. It's a matter of personal taste, and the amount you need to serve to your guests. More cream will  stretch the quantity of the mousse, and take slightly longer to set. But it will set on the same day in a couple of hours.
• If the mini marshmallows are taking a long time to melt in the pan, increase the heat slightly on the stove and keep stirring. My stove is electric and I did most of the melting at number 2, and raised it to 3 to melt the marshmallows.

This second Chocolate Mousse batch below was quite dense and very rich, using 78 % Lindt chocolate and only 1 cup of cream.

What is your preference for a chocolate dessert ? Do you prefer the the very rich and denser chocolate mousse, or are you like me and prefer a lighter and fluffier style of chocolate mousse. It's certainly easier to eat more of the latter, but both are achievable by altering the ratio of cream to chocolate sauce.

Best wishes,

- Pauline xx

In My Kitchen, November 2020

Beautiful Jacaranda trees growing in our street

It's a lovely time of year with the Jacaranda trees in flower and my Dancing Lady orchids (oncidiums) producing beautiful golden sprays of colour this year. I feel as if I have lost a week though, as I started this post a week ago and then we received news that our brother-in-law was in intensive care in Rockhampton which is in Central Queensland, following surgery. Jim is blind and has been for over 20years, he is incredibly independent though. But his blindness adds extra complications to any health issues. Knowing that Jim's children and family in NSW wouldn't be able to visit him because of Covid restrictions and other family couldn't get there until Monday we drove down, after all Mackay is only 350 kms up the road from Rky. Rockhampton is my hometown, so it is always nice to go back,  perhaps under better circumstances though. We drove home yesterday after 6 days of visiting the hospital, and Jim seems to be doing quite well in rehab at the Mater Hospital now so I'm so pleased we could be there for him. The staff at the Rockhampton Base Hospital provided excellent care for him. 

Dancing Lady orchids

A highlight of the trip though was that Mr. HRK and I found a grove of Common mango trees where we took our dog Locky for a walk each day, still green but ready for picking, and perfect for making mango chutney. So my handyman husband repaired Jim's specially designed mango picker,  and on Wednesday we picked two bags of mangoes. We needed enough mangoes for 2 kilos of mango flesh. Jim also has a thriving Bowen Mango tree in his backyard, so we picked all of those for him and brought back just a dozen for ourselves. Common mangoes don't have the lovely pink blush around the stalk that the Bowen mangoes have, as they ripen then turn yellow.

A bowl of Green Common Mangoes ready for cooking.

It's interesting though that the mangoes in Mackay are still not ready for harvesting despite being further North, Rky has surprisingly had more rain than us. So today in my kitchen can you guess what I've been doing all morning, yes my friends, making mango chutney as some of the mangoes have started to ripen already with the warmer weather around. The mangoes need to be very green and hard for making chutney or the flesh will just break down too easily in the chutney. The result, 13 jars of spicy and sweet mango chutney which I am very pleased with. Mr. HRK peeled them while I sliced them up, and then I cooked up the mixture in a large pot, outside in our patio BBQ area on the gas burner, our outdoor kitchen. It took 45 minutes. So it's Mango Madness here in the North, or anywhere where there are mangoes growing, heralding the beginning of the Christmas preparations. Traditionally mango chutney is eaten with ham on Christmas. Day. However we eat it all year round. 

Click here for my Mango Chutney recipe on a previous post.

All the ingredients are in the pot, ready for cooking

My latest batch of mango chutney still to be labelled and stored.

Just before we left for Rockhampton, I made this delicious Chicken, Tomato and Basil traybake using up some fresh tomatoes given to me by my wonderful friend Irena. It was delicious.  I'll put up the recipe one day soon. 

My sweet Italian basil is growing beautifully this year, so I made some pesto from it. It was so delicious, the best pesto I have ever made, mainly because I think the basil was so fresh. The pesto is all gone, so I need to make some more. However here is the recipe I used from River Cottage Veg everyday, written by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. A great recipe book and never far from my kitchen.

Hey presto we have delicious basil pesto

Basil Pesto ingredients:

50 g pine nuts or walnuts, lightly toasted (I used pine nuts this time)

A large bunch of basil (about 30 g), leaves only

1 large bunch of parsley (about 30 g), leaves only

A few mint leaves (optional)

1 garlic clove, chopped

50 g Parmesan, hard goats cheese, or other well flavoured hard cheese, finely grated

 (I use parmesan)

 Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

100-150 ml extra virgin olive oil

A good squeeze of lemon juice

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To Serve:

Extra virgin olive oil, to trickle over the top (optional)

Method:

Put the toasted pine nuts into the food processor along with the herbs, garlic, grated cheese and lemon zest. Blitz to a paste, then, with the motor running, slowly pour in the olive oil until you have a thick, sloppy puree. Scrape the pesto into a bowl and season with salt, pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice. This will keep in the refrigerator for a few days. Sometimes I make a  pasta dish using this pesto with new potatoes, and green beans. Delicious!

Below is my Brassia Rex orchid in flower at this time of year. It's quite an un usual flower.

Nasturtiums from a friend make a lovely posy in a vase in the kitchen. This is the last of them now unfortunately that the Summer heat takes it's toll on some garden plants.

 I started sewing a couple of weeks ago, and made this book bag for Hugo our grandson, and sent it in a Christmas parcel over to the Falkland Islands with a book inside of course. I really enjoy sewing once I get started. This is an easy project and very useful. I'll be making some more for the children in the future.

I've written this post as part of the In My Kitchen series hosted by Sherrys Pickings. It is worthwhile dropping over to her posts if you haven't already

We are so fortunate here in Queensland that life continues pretty much as normal now, however we are aware that the the Covid pandemic situation overseas is still very concerning. You are all in our thoughts and prayers and one of the biggest global challenges now is to produce and distribute a  reliable vaccine that immunises populations across the world against this dreadful virus.

That's all folks, have a safe weekend. My next project today, soaking the fruit and nuts for this years Christmas cake.

Warm wishes,

Pauline.