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.

In My Kitchen April, 2023

The Easter Long Weekend starts tomorrow, and as I write this, I am under the lifesaving ceiling fan, as the Northern tropical heat hasn't abated like it's supposed to over Easter. I am in beautiful Cairns, in Far North Queensland at our daughter's home, and I know there is lots of chocolate "hidden" in the refrigerator waiting for Easter Sunday to be enjoyed by all of us. I the Easter bunny coming to your house? Delicious chocolate goodies and Hot Cross Buns are the theme of foodies and food bloggers around the world leading up to Easter, there's so much Easter excitement. However, my go-to fudgy, double layered Chocolate Fudge Cake will be our baked chocolate indulgence of choice over Easter. It will be the third time I've baked this beauty over the last few weeks. Whether it's iced with Malted Buttercream, or with Nigella Lawson's Coffee buttercream, it's a winner. 

This is my April submission to the #IMK series hosted by the wonderful Sherry from Sherry's Pickings. Each month food bloggers from around the world gather to share what is new in their kitchen.  I don't buy a lot of new merchandise for my Kitchen, just mainly food ingredients, but I love cooking and baking. This is a sample of what I've been very happily cooking In My Kitchen.

Chocolate fudge Cake with Nigella Lawson's delicious Coffee Buttercream

Mr. HRK prefers Nigella's Coffee buttercream version for icing. I also love a chocolate cake with just the old-fashioned chocolate icing which is so easy and very heat tolerant. It was almost Death by Chocolate when I made the Malted Buttercream version of the Chocolate cake for Jenny's birthday recently, so delicious, chocolatey and fudgy, and slightly challenging to transport in the North Queensland heat but we made it. Buttercream needs to be refrigerated, so as soon as I iced this cake which is the photo at the top of this post, it was in our frig, and she stayed there until it was transported very carefully over to Jenny's refrigerator to be eaten for dessert that evening. Here's the link to the Chocolate Cake and Coffee Buttercream recipe, and I'll post the Malted Buttercream recipe shortly.

On a more Savoury note, I made these cheesy vegetable muffins four days ago and I am thrilled with them, not only for how they tasted when first baked, but how after being refrigerated for a few days and now being reheated in Cairns for morning tea they are still light and fluffy in texture and even more improved in flavour. If you take a look at the recipe, you will see the various vegetable combinations that are possible for these muffins.

I baked a few loaves of sourdough bread in the morning and made Herbed Mushrooms with Goats cheese for lunch which was delicious on toasted sourdough.

I found a silver Beetroot server when I was in Brisbane shopping at my favourite Antique shop in Annerley. It's perfectly designed for serving Pickled Beetroot allowing all the beetroot juices to drain through. Let's face it, beetroot juice can be very messy. Here's a batch of my Pickled beetroot which is infused with cinnamon. It was really tasty.

And on a cooler, rainy day at home I made chicken soup. Here's a photo of the stock in the soup pot.

I think of Boiled Fruit Cake as contingency baking. If there's a boiled fruit cake in the pantry or the refrigerator there's always cake on hand to have with a cuppa for surprise visitors. 

This Cherry and Brandy Fruit cake recipe makes two 20 cm cakes. One has travelled to Cairns with us, and the other one is in the refrigerator at home. It'll be there on our return. I've made this cake so many times, as whole round cakes and muffins, it's my friend Mr. P's Mothers recipe and is a real goody. 

Sometimes it's handy to have a retro recipe up your sleeve, and Salmon Rissoles or fishcakes are very retro, but these have a couple of optional surprise ingredients. Anyhow they were really good, coated in egg and breadcrumbs and pan fried and very crispy, what's not to love. Besides being tasty, retro food generally also stretches the budget, that's pretty important right now don't you think?

Those of you who know me well will be expecting a new Traybake in this edition. Here it is my friends, Moroccan Baked Chicken with Fennel and Chickpeas.  Very tasty.

Creamy French Tarragon Chicken transported me to France, which was my intention and this dish lived up to expectations. I'm hoping the airlines do the same for me in a couple of weeks. I'm off to France, to visit our son and my beautiful grandchildren, and hopefully sample some delicious French cuisine while I'm there. Did you know Cuisine is the French word for cooking? Seems obvious, doesn't it? 

Mr. HRK gave a couple of little visitors a tour of our beehive. They loved it, morning talk about bees coming up. We're hoping there will be fresh honey to harvest in Spring. Usually our bees are quite placid, no gloves needed, however they didn't appreciate being visited at 4 pm in the afternoon and were quite angry for some reason. Mr. HRK was stung twice, once on his face and on his hand. His hand really swelled up for a couple of days. Thankfully the girls were well covered and were standing right back from the hive. After all, bees are wild insects.

Gracing my daughter's dining area, is this newly acquired and endearing painting and drawing of an owl gifted to her for her birthday, by a talented friend. Aren't the eyes just full of so much expression? 

Mr. HRK picked these flowers from the garden this morning while he was pruning. Tropical flowers are just so colourful.

Hoping you have a very special, restful and meaningful Easter. Safe travels if you are travelling.

Warm wishes,

Pauline

Pickled Beetroot

 

The secret ingredient which sets this Beetroot Pickle recipe apart in flavor and intensity is the cinnamon stick. All the flavors will develop in the jars over the next couple of weeks resulting in a very aromatic and tasty beetroot pickle. I pickled 4 large beetroot and finished up with two large jars of Pickled Beetroot. 

In My Kitchen, March 2023

February has always had a special zing to it for me because it's my birthday month. I mightn't feel a day over 25, but I hope that I am a lot wiser than I was back then. My friends really spoiled me this year with beautiful birthday cakes. Jennifer arrived for dinner one night just before my birthday when husband P was away, with a dozen beautiful Butterfly Cakes which she had made that day, which are nostalgically reminiscent to me of school fetes, church fetes, and splendid old fashioned afternoon teas. I was so appreciative as there is quite a lot of fiddly work involved with these. Each cake either had homemade strawberry jam or lemon curd dolloped into the middle under the cream. I froze a few of them, and they kept beautifully in the freezer. We've eaten them all now. Gosh they were so good.  I'll bake some one day and share the recipe with you. Thanks so much Jen, you are a very thoughtful friend.

Perfect with a cuppa

Chris, my dear friend of many years and who lives nearby, was hosting Mahjong on the Tuesday afternoon after my birthday and baked this spectacular Sponge cake, with a candle on top as well. Three of us share a birthday during the same week in February, so that's three Aquarians in the one group, that means a lot of laughter and chatter. 

The cake was absolutely divine. What is it about a sponge cake with lots of cream and fresh strawberries that sets it apart from most other cakes. If you look closely you can see a few Mahjong tiles to the right of the photo. It was so lovely to eat birthday cake for afternoon tea which someone else had made for me. I was very spoiled.

Before my birthday I made a Pear, Chocolate and Walnut cake for friends, which would also be perfect for dessert, as Mr. HRK keeps reminding me. Surprisingly though he said he would prefer sultanas instead of the Chocolate chips in it. He never ceases to amaze me. What would you prefer?

I had some homemade Scottish Shortbread leftover from the February Book club meeting which was here at home, so I added a piece to the slice of Pear cake on the plate. The rich red flowers are edible Dianthus from our garden. They've been growing for a couple of years now which has really surprised me.

Corella pears were perfect in the cake

I bought a new Zyliss brand Apple Corer and used it to core the pears for this cake. I originally bought it for apples and it is fantastic to use. So much stronger than any others I have ever had. I've broken a few apple corers over the years. It was a little bit more expensive, but it does the job, and it even has a lock on it to lock in place the moving parts. It removes and discards the cores beautifully. 

This cute tea towel says it all, except perhaps that I also need a great kitchen, and lovely family and friends.

Not surprisingly, we were all caked out for a week or so after my birthday, but I've managed to bounce back well, hee, hee. Continuing on with the sweet theme, I made French Style Pears as baked in Savoie.  The pears were absolutely delicious. Mr. HRK was over the moon about them and I have more pears in the crisper of the refrigerator so that they keep crisp enough for this dessert later in the week. The pears were baked in a luscious syrup, minus any alcohol. Honestly they didn't need it. Remnants of the Vanilla pod can be seen in the photo.

I've just pickled some beetroot. The flavour and colour of beetroot pickled at home is much more intense than what we can buy in a tin.

Four large beetroot made two large jars of pickled beetroot, one of beetroot wedges and the other sliced. The slices will be perfect for sandwiches and burgers.

A fun tea towel gift from special friends. They know me well.

I also feel quite blessed that one of my Cattleya Bowringiana orchids was out in bloom for my birthday. The two in the photo flowered slightly later and I can see them from my kitchen window which is lovely. I started off with one pot of these Bowringianas from my Mum in Rockhampton over 15 years ago and now I have 4, and I've given some plants away as well. They always herald the beginning of Autumn for me. 

I just love this tea towel which my daughter bought for me recently during a wonderful holiday we all had up at O'Reilly's Resort, in the Lamington National Park. The birdlife there was just phenomenal. I keep meaning to frame or hang this tea towel. The beautiful King Parrots were feeding out of our hands on the patio of our "Glamping" tent.

I baked some Cheesy Broccoli Fritters which were delicious on a meat free day.

A traybake of Moroccan Baked Chicken with Fennel and Chickpeas was healthy, tasty and very easy to put together.

Coriander Pesto and Pea and Sorghum Spaghetti was a delicious and very different midweek meal to make. My interest in using sorghum products for cooking was piqued during a recent road trip along the Burnett Highway, an inland rural highway in Queensland, where the broad acre agricultural fields were mostly rust, orange or red sorghum. Sorghum in general has a diversity of uses, from livestock cattle feed to human food, so I was interested to see this sorghum spaghetti in the fruit and vegetable shop, even though the country of origin isn't Australia, but Bolivia in South America. In Bolivia they grow organic white sorghum for flour.

Freshly washed coriander for the pasta.

Savoury Yeast flakes replaced cheese in the Sorghum Spaghetti recipe which was interesting. I've never used it before. Now I need to find a way to use the rest of it.

There are just so many ways to use Pomegranate syrup, and the sweet variety was delicious on cooked barley that we ate with my Moroccan Baked Chicken.

This is my March submission to the #IMK series hosted by the wonderful Sherry from Sherry's Pickings. Each month food bloggers from around the world gather to share what is new in their kitchen.  I don't buy a lot of new merchandise for my Kitchen, mainly food ingredients, but I love cooking and baking. 

I hope you have enjoyed a visit to my kitchen this month. Cheerio.

Warm wishes

Pauline

Parsley, Pumpkin and Beetroot Hummus: a superb trio of flavours and colours

 My kitchen has been humming this week, I've been making lots of hummus, using up excess parsley in our garden, and the rest of that large pumpkin I bought a couple of weeks ago. Remember those pumpkin scones I made just recently, well what with  pumpkin being such a versatile vegetable, it has now been mashed again and whizzed up and transformed into some very tasty and healthy hummus.