In My Kitchen - February 2023

Before Christmas I was selected as a prospective juror for two weeks from the 30th January, 2023, so whilst trying to do my civic duty, I said I would be available if my name was chosen in the second selection, and of course it was. This meant I needed to cancel any commitments for these two weeks, so that I would be available. However, late each afternoon last week I was messaged by the Supreme and District Court to the effect that I wouldn't be required the following day, so it's been a week of just planning things day by day. Next week could be exactly the same, with no assurance that I will be required but if I am I will have to be available or risk being heavily fined. It seems a strange system, but I can't think of a better one, so next week I will be living day by day as well. That means plenty of time in the kitchen, reading a good book, playing the piano, impromptu catch ups, etc., sounds good. One week to go without being able to make any definite daily plans in advance. I have already sat on a jury panel once, have you? Thankfully mine wasn't a disturbing case, and I found the experience quite interesting.

Photo taken before the spinach started to wilt a little.

 I've made two vegetarian Lentil curries, a week apart, because the first one was so delicious. It was a Lentil, Mushroom and Spinach Curry, and I made this one when all of the flooding was occurring In Southern Queensland and New South Wales and there wasn't very much fresh fruit and vegetables available at the supermarkets or the farmer's markets because of the heat and then the rain. I bought a packet of spinach leaves and some mushrooms, which were close to the expiry date and made this curry. I always have jars of green and red lentils in the pantry, so they were the basis of an earthy and delicious lentil curry. 

Then a week later, I changed the vegetables slightly and made an eggplant and mushroom lentil curry, which we enjoyed even more, perfect for the wet weather at the time. Even though this is such a simple recipe, I'll post it on the blog soon, as I know you will enjoy it too. A simple vegetarian meal with leftovers during a busy week, is just what is needed sometimes. However leftover chicken could easily be added to it.

 

I had some leftover mashed pumpkin in the refrigerator so I made a batch of golden Pumpkin Scones from a Kent (Jap) pumpkin, just last week. Cooked mashed pumpkin keeps well in the frig. I made these ones slightly larger than normal, and the recipe made 8 instead of 10. I think a pumpkin scone needs to be on the larger side as they are so delicious with a cuppa. They also reheat beautifully in the microwave oven.  I haven't made pumpkin scones for a while, and it pays to keep in practice don't you think?

So while the scone making flour fest "in my kitchen" was in full flight, I resurrected my Sourdough Mother from the depths of the refrigerator, poor thing. She responded beautifully to being fed with just plain flour and warm but boiled water, by bubbling away happily on the warm windowsill of our North facing laundry.  I always ferment a couple of jars of the sourdough, more than I need, just in case one doesn't work well. The trick is to catch the bubbling dough just in time before it starts bubbling up through the lid of the jar onto the windowsill below. The jars really need to sit in a container in case that happens. "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble", always pops into my head when I am working with sourdough as it seems a bit witchy, even though it should be "Double, double, toil and trouble" originally from Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth. 

Beautiful sourdough bubbles

I mixed up the sourdough for the bread, and then left it to rise slowly in two large bowls overnight at room temperature. I have just baked two loaves, a large hi-top loaf and a smaller loaf. The air conditioning is on during our heat wave, so it's perfect conditions inside for this dedicated baker. These loaves don't have the large holes like the round artisan loaves, as I used a lower hydration recipe, which works well for a standard loaf of sandwich bread. I didn't add any glaze or flour dusting to the surface of this loaf, so it is quite rustic in appearance, but tastes great after it has cooled slightly and is fresh out of the oven. I have made round artisan style loaves before, using the high-hydration method, which are great to have if visitors are coming over.

The smaller loaf today from the second dough mix. Different lighting also?

January included the Lunar New Year celebrations, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit, and whilst we don't get involved in any actual celebrations where we live, I was obviously influenced by all of the fun and publicity at the time. I made a Chinese Omelette for dinner one evening, named Egg Foo Young. I deconstructed it and made a very tasty pork filling to sit inside the omelette. It was a lot of fun to make with all those bean sprouts, and delicious to eat. Egg Foo Young was created by economical Chinese kitchen cooks to use up meat and vegetable leftovers, as was Fried Rice. It's very versatile as well.

It was also Australia Day on the 26th January, amid quite a lot of controversy about what it should really be named and on which date it should occur. The day before we enjoyed some Crystal Bay Prawns on a sandwich for lunch as the easy accessibility to fresh seafood here is one of the food highlights of living in our great Southern land and North Queensland. The prawns are farmed in the Hinchinbrook Channel near Cardwell in Far North Queensland and are sometimes sold at the supermarket. Australia Day is always very laid back. Good friends, P & J invited us over for an Australia Day meal in the afternoon which was delicious, with beautiful seafood to enjoy and homemade Aussie pavlova for dessert.

I purchased a new Australian cookbook, simply called Dinner. I've been wanting Nagi Maehashi's cookbook for ages as I often try her recipes and she has built up a very reliable reputation with her everyday recipes here in Australia, and overseas too I believe.

I agree wholeheartedly with her five non-negotiable rules in the kitchen, and would like to add one more to the list please Nagi.  If cooking with wine, keep a glass for yourself to drink, tee hee.

I made a simple Chicken stir-fry using Nagi's special stir fry sauce, and also tried her Tip on tenderising the chicken, Chinese style. It was delicious. It was extremely hot outside last night, even at 7 pm, still around 30 deg. C, so I cooked the meal inside in a frypan, rather than in a wok which we usually do on our outside gas burner. It was still delicious. This photo is before I added Nagi's magic sauce. Even though stir fries are considered fairly common place these days, I'll post the recipe later so that I can find it easily when I am travelling, and also for your interest if you don't have her book. My stir fries often involve chopping up whatever vegies I have on hand, adding some sliced chicken or beef, some herbs, and then adding some soy sauce and a little oyster sauce as well. Quick and easy. I took this stir fry to the next level by actually following a recipe.

Chicken, snow pea, capsicum and carrot, and a special stir fry sauce about to be added.

That's all folks for now. Thanks for dropping by. I'd love to hear from you, so if you do read my latest IMK or any of my posts, you can leave an anonymous comment at the end in the Comments section if you wish.  Anonymity is guaranteed. And if I happen to know you personally, just type your first name at the end of your comment and say hi, and that would be great.

This is my February submission to the #IMK series hosted by Sherry from Sherry's Pickings. Each month 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 enjoy some of my recipes and stories.

Cheerio from very tropical North Queensland,

Pauline x

Beef Stir-Fry with a Citrus Kick

My stir-fry will tantalise your taste buds, delivering a citrus kick to Aussie beef, crisp veggies, and fresh herbs. This meal has everything. Generally when I cook a stir-fry, it is because I am short on time. I cook the meat in the wok, whether it is beef, chicken or pork, remove it while I add the vegetables, ginger and garlic, add the meat back into the pan with some soy sauce and perhaps another Asian sauce, stir fry it until the vegetables are ready and that's it. It's always tasty, but now that I have made this recipe using lime juice in addition to soy sauce and fish sauce, and marinating the beef, there's no going back for me to a simple stir-fry. And when I buy my limes for a stir-fry, I might just buy a couple of extra for Gin and Tonics for us to enjoy as an aperitif before I start cooking. It doesn't get much better than that.

Sometimes it's Mr. HRK that cooks the stir-fry in the wok, outside in our BBQ area on the patio while I prepare everything in readiness. This time, because a little bit more of an effort was required, and I was still cooking in my beautiful daughter's kitchen, I prepared and cooked this meal. We were all thrilled with the result. 

We are home now, and the temperatures up here in North Queensland are soaring to 37 deg. C. some days. We are running our air-conditioner almost 24/7, however if we turn it off for a few hours in the morning and keep the house closed up, it stays beautifully cool. We can't ever remember the humidity or the temperatures being so continuously high here in Mackay, and with no real rain forecast for us, although it must be coming. However, south Eastern Queensland and now Northern New South Wales have been absolutely hammered by the recent rain event and have suffered significant devastation, and those poor people affected are now cleaning out their flooded homes and salvaging what belongings they can. The badly affected have lost almost everything. The Australian Army is spreading themselves thin trying to help those in need to clean up, as are available and well meaning residents and volunteers not as badly affected. It is all very sobering. I fear that these extreme weather events will be exacerbated as a consequence of the developing climate change scenario.

This recipe is my twist on one that I saw in a recent Coles monthly supermarket recipe book, originating from our very own Aussie chef Curtis Stone, who was wanting to move back to Australia from Covid stricken Los Angeles. I'm not sure if he has or not. These catalogues tend to promote the supermarket's  own home brand product, which isn't necessary to produce a a great result, and the photographs are always nice and inspiring. This recipe is perfect to cook during the Australian Summer, although it is no longer Summer, but the beginning of Autumn. Bring on the Autumn temperatures, please.

Recipe serves 4

Ingredients:

Preparation 15 minutes + 15 minutes marinating time. Cooking time: only 10 minutes because it's a quick stir fry.

400g - 500g rump steak, Scotch fillet, or even Sirloin steak, thinly sliced across the grain into 6 mm thick strips (marinating the meat will give very tender results). I used Rump steak.

2 tbs fish sauce

2 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs vegetable oil divided

1/4 tsp cornflour

1 red capsicum, seeded and thinly sliced

200g green beans, trimmed and halved diagonally

1/2 cup (70 g) thinly sliced shallots

1 tbs finely chopped garlic

1 tbs finely chopped ginger

1 cup coriander leaves, divided

1 cup mint leaves

1 lime juiced, divided

1 tbs sugar

Steamed rice to serve

Method:

• Prepare the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl by whisking it until the sugar dissolves. Place the sliced beef in another medium sized bowl, add 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce mixture and mix the sauce into the meat. Set the bowl of meat aside for 15 minutes to absorb the flavours. I marinated mine for 2 hours, covered the bowl and stored it in the refrigerator, until ready to use, as I had the time to do that. 
• Whisk the cornflour into the remaining soy sauce mixture and cover.
• Remove the beef from the bowl and pat it dry with a paper towel. Add 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil to a large hot frying pan,  and add the beef, spreading it over the base of the pan in a single layer. Without stirring the beef or touching it, cook for 2 minutes until well browned. You can see why the pan needed to be hot to begin with. 
• Stir fry the beef, and continue to stir and fry it for 40 seconds until cooked through. 
• Transfer the beef now to a plate with a rim to catch the juices.
• You are now ready to cook the vegetables. 
• Add the remaining oil, (1 tablespoon), and the capsicum and beans and cook for 2 minutes until the vegetables soften slightly. Stir and fry the vegetables. You want them still quite crisp. Stir in the shallot, garlic and ginger,
• Add the remaining soy sauce mixture, and the beef and the juices to the pan with the vegetables. Stir and fry for 1 minute until the beef is just heated through, the vegetables are tender, and the sauce has thickened slightly. 
• Take your frypan from the stove and stir in half the coriander leaves, the mint leaves, and half the lime juice. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to add the lime juice and at least one of the herbs.
• To serve divide the rice among the serving bowls. Top the rice with the beef stir fry, and drizzle with the remaining lime juice and for presentation, sprinkle with the remaining mint and coriander leaves.
• Serve with extra lime wedges if you have them

Cook's Notes:

• Please believe me, the lime juice adds a delicious zing and kick to this beef stir fry.
• If you are having trouble finding fresh produce in the supermarkets or markets at the moment because of recent weather events, frozen beans added toward the end of cooking will be fine.
• The quality of the beef will be much better if you buy it whole and slice it yourself. For a stir fry buy the steak or fillet as a whole piece, and slice it yourself, or buy from a reputable butcher and ask them to slice it for you. I have never had great results with beef that I have  purchased already sliced from a supermarket, which is being sold as stir-fry beef. 
• Using coriander and mint leaves will produce superior flavours, however the first time I made this I only had mint on hand, and it still tasted amazingly good.
• Please don't skimp on the lime juice, it's a game changer.
• Whilst I love to generally cook brown rice or even cracked bulgur wheat whenever I can as a side for health reasons, with a stir fry like this one, white rice is the perfect accompaniment.
• Marinating the beef for up to 2 hours before cooking, ensures very tender meat for a stir fry and is packed with flavour.
• 400g of beef might be enough for you if you aren't big eaters, but I used 500g. 
• If you are time poor, 15 minutes marinating the beef will be ok, however if you have plenty of time, marinate the beef for up to 2 hours before cooking for maximum flavour and tenderness.

We are being careful with what we eat at the moment, with low calorie meals being the preferred choice during the week. Stir-frys are a perfect option for healthy eating. Here's the breakdown per serve for you if you are interested:

Per serve:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Calories: 309/ 1292 KJ, Protein 28g (56%),Fat 16g (23%),Sodium 1763mg (88%),Carb 12g (4%),Sugar 10g (11%),Dietary fibre 6g (20%)

Warmest wishes,

Pauline

Gingered Garlic Pork with Stir Fried Vegetables

This is the perfect meal on a hot and sticky day like we are experiencing today, it's light and tasty. I love the way we Aussies describe a day like today, it's a Stinker, or it's Muggy and we are always hoping for rain or a storm.