In My Kitchen - January 2024

Greetings dear friends and family, and Happy New Year! As January saunters along, I hope that your 2024 will be healthy (health is wealth as they say) and fulfilling for you in many ways and include some travel if that's your thing. My Kitchen is one of my happy and most fulfilling places to be, and this year whilst I love to prepare the occasional "fancy" meal, and doesn't everyone, I'll be challenging myself to mostly cook from scratch with what's in season, and using minimal ingredients when possible. There is still a cost of living crisis in the community, and most people are watching their dollars, but I think there are ways to still eat economical, delicious and healthy meals and with a minimum of waste. It is so important to cook nutritious food that we really enjoy. Food is one of the great pleasures in life.

A weekend in outback Chillagoe, eating out, exploring the famous Mungana caves, the Smelters and the rest

Chillagoe township is 2.5 hours west of Cairns, in Far North Queensland. It's a small, country, outback town, best known for the many underground Mungana caves, locally mined slabs of marble, volcanic landforms, charming buildings and outback pubs, and the friendliness of the residents. At one stage, millions of years ago, the whole area was submerged under the ocean. The complex geomorphology of this area is fascinating.

Balancing Rock, an attraction near Chillagoe

These rocks located on the way to Balancing Rock will cut you to pieces if given the chance, they are not to be scrambled over. 

The vistas near Chillagoe containing the caves, looked like this. Austere and stunning in their cragginess.

Here is our tour group, walking toward the Royal Arch Cave.

The Queen Victoria rock formation on our way to the Royal Arch Cave. Can you see her?

The Royal Arch cave, which was supposedly easy/moderate grade, and 1.3 km return, still held a few surprises, a narrow passage to sidle through, being careful not to bump our heads in a few spots, ouch, a low shelf to squeeze under, and another tunnel to squeeze through and drop from to the ground as an optional extra. However, the tour guide's excellent commentary, the small bats, the fossilised small plants and the limestone formations made the experience very worthwhile for 1.5 intriguing hours. 

In the Royal Arch cave, we were all given our own torches to help us see where we were going which worked well, however it was quite difficult to take quality photos in the cave because of the dim light, which was to be expected.

Can you spot the Elephant in this limestone formation? There are many examples of where our imagination runs riot and pictures animal and bird like shapes in the formations.

Mr. HRK is taking the photos as he enters the Trezkinn Cave. Inside the cave it's a 230 m walk, with 250 very steep ladder-like steps at the entrance. He handled these like a pro, but it's not for the faint hearted. The 'chandelier' to be found inside this cave, a spectacular cluster of stalactites bathed in spotlights was the ultimate reward.  Our caving odyssey reminded me that every cave potentially has narrow openings to squeeze through, low ceilings to scramble or crawl under, a labyrinth of passages, but spectacular clusters of limestone formations, not to mention darting small bats, fossilised plants and animals. The very rare and protected White Rumped Swiftlet bird is found in these caves, however they are very difficult to spot. 

We didn't take a tour of the Donna Cave. The entrance involved descending through a narrow cave entrance into the hidden world, and another 330 very steep steps. Perhaps next time. However, this experience reminded me of back in the days when I lived in Rockhampton, and aged about 18 and quite small, I scrambled with friends through the Capricorn Caves underground caving system there, through very narrow tunnels and small cave entrances, enjoying the adventure. Amazing!

In this caving network, there are also some self-guided caves to explore. The Archways Cave is 15km from Chillagoe, and we enjoyed exploring this one. To explore any of these self-guided caves, remember to take your torch.

Most of us who have explored caves recently, can't help but think about the schoolboys who were stranded in the caves in Thailand, and how frighteningly dark it would have been and how on earth they survived for so long. It's such a miracle that they were rescued and survived.

Here's some Aboriginal rock art at Mungana near Chillagoe. Recently touched up we thought. 

One of the highlights of the excursion for me was exploring the country village of Chillagoe, and it's main street, named unsurprisingly Queen Street.

There were lots of treasures to be found in the Chillagoe Gallery 29 and I was prepared to take the time and look for them. It's open most days.

Inside the coffee shop/gallery.

The gardens with a rustic influence presented a peaceful haven in which to enjoy our coffee and delicious Portuguese tarts, a specialty of the house. More about those splendid tarts later. They warrant another post when I make some. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the custard tarts, we were too busy eating them.

Chillagoe is also famous for its slabs of marble.  The uniquely coloured marble is the result of volcanic activity and intense mineralisation in the area. Everywhere we walked in Chillagoe there are beautiful examples of the locally mined marble used to advantage. Some marble slabs are discreetly tucked away in gardens, and others are very large and on view in the tourist areas. At one stage, apparently Chillagoe marble was being compared favourably with the famous Italian Carrara Marble, and some of the latter was used in the new Parliament House in Canberra.

Marble used as a tabletop.

What do you do in Chillagoe on Saturday night, a pub crawl of course to the two country pubs, to find the best TV on which to watch our beloved football team, the Cowboys play. Let's just say the TV in our accommodation didn't work.

We ate a delicious steak at the iconic outback Post Office Hotel for dinner on Saturday night. We also popped in for a cold beer at lunch time and watched Aussie tennis player Ajla Tomljanovic defeat Serena Williams at the US Open. So memorable.

This is how we ate steak and chips and salad in Chillagoe.

Mine is the smaller steak. On the menu, it gives a summary of the local cattle property where the beef was raised. 

We then moved onto the very unpretentious Chillagoe Hotel Motel to watch the footy match, and were treated to the authentic Aussie country pub experience.

They even have a courtesy bus for the hotel patrons and motel residents next door, and the country folk. Rhonda was very happy to have a chat and share some Chillagoe experiences. True country hospitality.

I found the Chillagoe Public Library tucked away behind The Hub, the building where the cave tours are booked. Of course I had to take a couple of photos through the window as the library was closed being the weekend, I have a very soft spot for libraries.

A country church open to the public always lures me in. 

The Chillagoe Weir is a favourite spot to cool off for the locals.

I love old buildings, and the Chillagoe Guest House in Queen Street is a real treasure. Formerly the Post Office, it is still proudly standing opposite the Post Office Hotel. The business is up for sale, or why not buy it to live in? Are you interested? We were tempted for half an hour.

The Chillagoe Smelters were once the centre of a thriving mining industry that brought wealth and development to the Chillagoe area. Today they are a fascinating ruin on the tourist trail. Between 1901 and 1943, a gritty bustling workforce, heavily-loaded ore trains and large-scale innovative industry was supported by the distinctive chimneys. Those were tough times.

I hope you enjoyed your vicarious tour of Chillagoe. That's another bucket list item ticked for us.

Warm wishes

Pauline

North African Pumpkin, Lentil and Chickpea Stew

"If you are feeling depressed in life, all you really need to do is grow things, cook things, and let nature care of you."

Joanna Lumley 

This is  a richly spiced and hearty dish originating from Morocco, where it is called Harira.

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