In My Kitchen, March 2021

It's March already, and as I start to write this, the tropical heat has been replaced by rain showers today, as Cyclone Niran builds up off the Far North Queensland coast to a Category 3 and keeps us all guessing as to her next move. These systems are so unpredictable and still seem to keep the meteorologists guessing, despite all the technology at their disposal. One minute they are intensifying and moving out to sea, next report it is stationery and could track south. So we will see. I have a well stocked pantry, however many times living here on the coast we have burst into action fortifying our property as the cyclone approaches, only for it to wave to us as it passes down the coast further south. However the winds and rain from this cyclone have already annihilated valuable banana plantations up North costing the industry millions of dollars.It's tough being a farmer. P.S. A week later, life took over for a while, and thankfully for us the cyclone has moved East and is now a very destructive Category 4-5 over New Caledonia. They are in our thoughts as they battle this dreadful storm. 

I brought these orchid flowers inside when they bloomed a few weeks ago. This is my Cattleya Bowringiana Orchid, a very old species which my Mum originally gave me. The Cattleyas are showing signs that they will flower in the next couple of months, and I'm really looking forward to that. I hope to have some flowers to show you over the coming weeks.  With the weather starting to cool down slightly, I hope to start some gardening again in a few weeks.

February was a quiet time for us, with Mr. HRK having sinus and septum (nose) surgery two weeks ago, and thankfully he is starting to feel a bit better now. Recovery hasn't been pleasant. So leading up to this and up until now I have been cooking the kind of meals he loves, which is just good old fashioned cooking. I don't have many photos to share but we really enjoyed this dish of Cottage Pie, although my Mum always called it Shepherd's Pie due to her Scottish origins I suppose. Cottage Pie is made from minced beef, and Shepherd's Pie traditionally is a base of savoury minced lamb. Both are delicious.  The topping is creamy mashed potato, and lots of it. I often add a layer of seasoned sliced tomato between the mince and the potato.

Savoury minced beef has lots of potential for use as a base in minced pies, Cottage pie,  pasta sauce, Chilli Con Carne or just  mince on toast for an easy tea or cooked breakfast. It also freezes very well as a batch. I lightly sauteed 2 onions, 4 carrots, 3 stalks of celery, added a kilo of beef mince and browned that off,  and added my secret ingredient, a tablespoon of vegemite and mixed it in well. The vegemite is Mr.  HRK's family secret. Then for extra flavour, 2 teaspoons of dried mixed herbs or fresh equivalent if you have them, and 2 tablespoons each of Worcestershire sauce and Tomato sauce take the dish to superstar status. I also added a can of tomatoes, and sliced zucchini and finely chopped capsicum can also be added. Mince for a cottage pie may need to be thickened with a little cornflour and water or the juices will spill over the side during the cooking process. 

Then for dessert I made Apple Crumble, another family favourite. I also poached some pears in a red wine sauce, served with ice cream of course for a little extra pink pizzazz. Mr. HRK could actually taste all of this food after his surgery, so he was in seventh heaven. This is all very easy cooking, the type of food I grew up with. However it is healthy, tasty and just perfect for those times when we aren't feeling very well. I feel a bit guilty even writing about these dishes dear reader as they are probably in your regular cooking repertoire as well, however I can't really presume that they are.Much better for us than refined food from the supermarket or takeaways and they contain lots of fibre. I am so pleased that all of our food is mostly cooked from scratch.

This is my original Apple Crumble recipe which I have been told by my family not to change.

APPLE CRUMBLE

FRUIT (apple)

4-6 Granny Smith cooking apples, peeled and chopped into quarters
1-2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup water

(However when rushed I have also used a large can of cooked apples, it does the job.)

Other Fruit Variations

Rhubarb and apple
Pie peaches
Stewed dried apricots

CRUMBLE

1 cup plain flour (wholemeal is preferable)
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons coconut
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon Rolled oats 

Crumble waiting to be added as topping for the apple

Let's cook

1.  Peel and core apples and slice thinly.
2. Place in a saucepan with water and simmer gently until soft. Add sugar to taste and stir to dissolve.
3. Allow to cool then pour into a pie dish, keeping back excess juice.
4. Place flour in a bowl then rub in butter with the fingertips.
5. Add sugar, coconut, rolled oats and cinnamon and mix well until a good crumbly consistency.
6. Sprinkle lightly on top of apples.
7. Bake in a moderate oven until lightly browned on top.
8. Serve hot or cold with boiled custard .

(I like doing steps 4 and 5 by hand, however you could use the food processor.)

POACHED PEARS IN RED WINE

This Poached Pears in Red Wine recipe is simple but sophisticated and because it is based on fruit and red wine, must be healthier as a dessert. 

Serves 4. Prep and cook time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups  sugar
2 cups  red wine
2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
Juice of 1 lemon or 2 strips of lemon rind

4 cloves
4-5 just ripe pears, with stems attached

Let's cook:

Place sugar, wine, water, cinnamon and lemon juice into a medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 5 minutes or until slightly reduced.

Meanwhile, peel pears and, using a small sharp knife, remove cores from underside of pears.

Lower pears into the poaching liquid and simmer upright in the sauce, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes or until tender, turning pears occasionally during cooking so that they colour evenly.You might like to cover the pears with a round of baking paper nicked with scissors, so that the stems poke through. It helps if the pears fit snugly into the saucepan to reduce movement. My saucepan was a little too large but the pears still cooked beautifully. I should have added an extra pear for good luck.

Transfer pears to a heated plate and cover to keep warm. Boil the remaining liquid for about 10 minutes or until it becomes syrupy. Serve pears with syrupy red wine sauce and ice-cream or double cream, if desired.

TIP: I cooked the pears early in the morning before I left home for a mid-morning appointment, and kept them in the frig with some of the sauce in a covered container. I warmed up the pears and the sauce in the microwave just before I served them. They were delicious. 

Another option is to simmer down some of the sauce until it is almost like a toffee consistency. This is then really delicious dribbled down the pears.

This is such a cinch of a dessert recipe to make, I have vowed to make it more often. Pears  transform into such an elegant dessert, and have so many delicious uses in dishes, and now they are available all year round.

One other night I cooked a Baked Rice Pudding, which is always very easy to make and delicious. It is Mr. HRK's favourite.

Ready to pop in the oven

A baked rice pudding, straight out of the oven

February was my birthday month, and I had a lovely day, which was just a few days before Mr. HRKs operation. Wasn't that lucky? We went out for lunch to our favourite Vietnamese restaurant, spoke to our daughter and our family in the Falkland Islands, and I received lost of beautiful messages from my special friends.

I don't have any expectations about receiving gifts for my birthday anymore. However Mr. HRK and my wonderful daughter collaborated and bought me a cast iron Challenger Bread oven pot, online from the U.S. I was pretty amazed. So my friends I am now educating myself in perfecting an oval cob loaf in my new breadware. The first loaf I made turned out pretty well, but could have been larger. However the crust was very crusty and the bread tasted delicious. 

Cooking in this pot requires a very different technique to cooking  sourdough high top loaves in my loaf tins, and the high top sandwich loaves are more suited to slicing and freezing. I like to make a cob loaf for the weekend.

The only fault with this bread ware is that is very heavy to take out of the oven when it is very hot, and it does get very hot. It is meant to be heated in the oven for an hour prior to baking at 260 deg. C., the bread dough is then added, and the temperature reduced to 224 deg. C for 15 minutes. The lid is then removed and the bread cooks for a further 30 minutes. It then produces a lovely crusty loaf of bread.

I was concerned about the heat of this pot, so on the advice of Mr. HRK and my friend Julia, I bought a pair of welders gloves, this my friends was the high point of a shopping expedition to Bunnings. I kid you not. However, the heat of the pot is even too hot for these gloves, and they need to be doubled over to work. They will still be put to good use in my kitchen though or the shed. Challenger stock breadmaker's gloves, so I might invest in a pair of those when they restock, or buy a better pair of industrial gloves. 

So this weekend My Kitchen activity has focused on  bread making and experimenting and researching as we stay quietly at home until Mr. HRK feels a lot better. Our house has been smelling like a bakery, not hard to take at all.

These are photos of my first attempt at cooking my first sourdough loaf in my new bread pot. 

An improvised oval banneton for proofing

Adding an ice cube to the pot for some steam.

Into the oven she goes. The pot rests on the inverted lid for the second baking to prevent burning of the base.

The final product. When I am happy with the whole process, I will let you know. In the meantime, if you use Challenger bread ware, please contact me and let me know what works best for you.I would love to hear from you.

My first cob loaf baked in the Challenger Breadware.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  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 read more In My Kitchens. 

Best wishes

Pauline

Country Style Green Apple And Walnut Cake

 

I like to have fresh cake made for the weekend, such a treat don't you think to eat cake on Sunday with a nice coffee, and this one ticks all the boxes. No icing on this one though, just sifted icing sugar, but you could ice them if you really must. This recipe, was adapted from a school recipe book in Western Australia by Matthew Evans, of Gourmet Farmer fame. These aren't fancy cakes,  they are low cost country style apple cakes, moist and crumbly, and taste even better the day after they are made. Matthew Evans lives in Tasmania where apples are plentiful, and I always have apples in the fruit bowl and walnuts in my freezer staying fresh, so it is easy to make this cake. Apples and walnuts should always be together.

Granny Smith green apples are the best kind to use for this cake. Those of you of my generation might remember Roger Miller's famous song "little Green Apples, from his 1968 album "A Tender Look at Love", which he wrote for his wife. It has been covered many times by various artists and even though I have to say it wasn't an actual favourite of mine, the song bounced into my head as soon as I started thinking about green apples.

"God didn't make little green apples

And it don't rain in Indianapolis in the Summertime

And when myself is feelin' low

I think about her face aglow and ease my mind" 

And if that's not lovin' me, then all I've got to say, .........

Written by Roger Miller. 1968

After that moment of self indulgence, back to the cake. The consistency of this cake mixture reminds me of a mixed fruit cake mixture, where there is a minimum of cake batter and maximun of fruit, and where the mixing spoon stands up by itself in the centre, a sure yardstick of a good fruit cake.  The first time I made these cakes, the mixture makes two 20 cm cakes,  one was eaten very quickly, and the other one sat in the refrigerator for over a week and still tasted perfect, like any fruit cake should. I was pretty thrilled with this recipe. The bonus with making two cakes, is that if you need one for an occasion, pop that one in the frig, leaving the other one to be eaten by the family. 

My 4 year old grandson living  in the Falkland Islands is invited to a lot of birthday parties, in fact in Stanley it seems that everyone in the class is invited to every birthday party always held at a large venue in the town with jumping castles etc, so that means a lot of parties and a lot of cake. Because the population there are basically British, and we know they have a sweet tooth and love cake, well they do in the Falkland Islands anyway, (hope I'm not generalising too much),  I am told there is always a predominance of cake over savouries and healthy food, at the children's parties. Some of the parents, including my son and his wife worry about the amount of cake the children are eating, and when I made this cake I thought this would be the perfect kind of cake for a children's party. Sweet enough, or the sugar can be halved, and there is plenty of fruit in the mixture. That's what I told myself anyway as I ate a second slice. It could be iced and decorated and still be much healthier than a bought one.

Ready to be iced if you wish.

Dusted with icing sugar

This recipe will make 2x20 cm cakes and this time I made a loaf cake and a round one, I have also made a large 23 cm cake, and a couple of muffin size cakes which can be frozen. Whatever works for you will be fine.

Ingredients:

6 large apples, or 8 small, preferably Granny Smith or some other sour variety

200 g (1 cup) demerara or raw sugar (or use a mixture of brown and caster sugar)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

few drops vanilla extract

125 ml (1/2 cup) Extra Virgin Olive Oil

200 g very fresh walnuts, broken up

250 g (2 cups) self-raising flour

pinch salt,

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice or baharat

Icing sugar and thick cream to serve

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C. Grease and line two 20 cm round cake tins or use loaf tins. 

This is a sit down job. Peel and core your apples. Cut and dice into pieces the size of a 5 cent piece. 

Place the apple into a large mixing bowl and add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, oil and walnuts.

Sift in the flour, salt, and cinnamon, and stir to make a smooth batter.

Divide the batter between the tins, then bake for 40 minutes. Test to see if it is cooked by inserting a skewer into the mixture and if it comes out clean, voila the tins are ready to place on a cooling rack. 

Cool the cakes in the tins for a few minutes, then turn them out onto your wire rack to cool.

To serve, dust with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of thickened cream or yoghurt. 

I hope you are enjoying a relaxing weekend, wherever you are.

Warm wishes,

Pauline

Golden Zucchini and Spanish Onion Fritters

 

Who doesn't love a fritter, whether it's vegetarian or loaded with corned meat, or in the form of a rosti, a bhaji, or a potato cake. They are all based on the same theme, crunchy on the outside and delicious on the inside.What a wonderful surprise these fritters were, considering they are made with chickpea flour, and are gluten free, dairy free, and egg free, which isn't something I normally think about, so you can just about make them for everyone without needing to worry about any culinary issues. These are perfect for a meat free Monday dinner.

I purchased some chickpea flour from the supermarket especially for this recipe, after I had watched a cooking segment on the ABC News Breakfast programme (Australia), where Alice Zaslavsky, resident chef, presented them to the hosts Michael and Lisa and of course they were devouring them on air, how unkind, although they probably don't have time for brekkie before the show.  They looked delicious and made me just a bit peckish, I hadn't eaten brekkie either by then. Alice didn't actually cook them on the show, however there is a video on ABC Everyday of her making them, and I felt I needed to give them a try in my kitchen. 

Chickpea flour (or besan flour) whilst being free of gluten,  acts like egg when you add liquid to it. In this recipe the liquid from the zucchini after it rests with salt, is enough to bind the flour. As Alice said, the water you drain out of your chickpea tin can also act as a common plant-based egg replacement if necessary, aka aquafaba. The ratio of vegetable to flour is perfect in these fritters, however if you want to add more vegetable such as peas or grated carrot you can.

Let's Cook some fritters:

Ingredients:

Makes 10 - 12 fritters

400 g (3-4 medium sized ones) zucchini

100 g (1/2 a small one) Spanish or red onion

1 teaspoon salt flakes, plus extra for sprinkling

1 cup (110 g) chickpea (besan) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons olive oil

Method:

1. Use the grating function on your food processor to coarsely grate the zucchini and the onion, or do this using a hand held grater. I don't have a good relationship with graters so I avoid them whenever I can, but if you are ok with them use the coarsest teeth on your grater.

Sprinkle a teaspoon of salt flakes on top of the grated zucchini in a largish bowl and stir through the salt, mix it all up and let it rest for 5 - 10 minutes. It should get really juicy, as the zucchini releases all those lovely juices which binds the chickpea flour together.

2. Scatter the chickpea flour on top of the zucchini mixture, either through a sieve or by mixing it with your fingers to sift out any lumps. Sprinkle in the baking powder.  Stir all of this together with a spatula and it should start to come together to form a ball of batter in your bowl. If it is still too wet to come together, slowly add another tablespoon of chickpea flour until it binds together.

3. In a frypan, add two-thirds of the olive oil (2 tablespoons)  and when it starts to heat up, or "shimmer" add heaped tablespoons of the mixture into the pan, but not too closely together or it will be difficult to turn them over. They should be sizzling slightly. After putting the mixture in the pan, flatten each fritter slightly with your spatula or egg flipper. 

4. As the bases of the fritters start to cook they will become golden and crispy, and that is when you flip them over using your egg flipper and a spoon. Cook both sides, drain them on a kitchen towel on a plate, and whilst still hot, sprinkle lightly with salt flakes. Keep warm in the oven until they are all cooked.

The fritters will keep well in a covered container in the frig for 4-5 days, or an extra batch can be frozen, thawed out overnight and then reheated. I haven't done this, but Alice says to "whack'em in on a lined tray, crank up the oven to 160 deg.for 10-15 minutes, because by the time the oven's heated up, the middles have too."

Garnish with coriander or parsley and dive in.

Variations:

Add some frozen peas or corn to your vegetable combination. Just thaw them by pouring some boiling water over 1/2 cup of either, drain and add to the mixture. Other vegetables can also be used such as grated sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin or beetroot, how versatile is that?

Or add some spices such as smoky paprika, cumin, or curry powder, depends on what mood you are in, and what your gut tolerances are. Surprise your family by adding something different each time.

Thinking of all our friends overseas and in Australia who are still in lock down. Stay safe, the vaccinations can't come soon enough can they?

Happy cooking and delicious eating, 

Pauline

Melt in Your Mouth "Custard Kisses" for Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I found this nostalgic recipe for Custard Kisses in one of my Mother's old recipe books and I thought they would be perfect to make for Valentine's Day for a little treat. They are a beautiful, melt in the mouth, dainty biscuit, perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea.

Chicken Enchiladas

 

Mexican food is fresh, vibrant, delicious, and should be fun to cook and eat. It's an easy way to feed the family and they will love it. 

IN MY KITCHEN - February 2021

 January 2021 was a month of recovery and readjustment from Christmas holidays, concern over the Covid crisis, tropical heat, some tropical rain, reading good books, relaxing, and not that much cooking or gardening. We were in Cairns, Far North Queensland for Christmas and New Year, and drove home on the 2nd January, just in time before the roads flooded the next day near Ingham cutting off the Bruce Highway to all traffic. We drove carefully through some torrential rain that day, and it was lovely and quite a relief to arrive home. Despite a wonderful holiday, there's no place like our own home. 

When we're in Cairns we always go to Chef Link, a countertop store and warehouse which supplies all of the Cairns restaurants, cafes and bakeries with their catering requirements, but is also happy to sell to and assist members of the public at no extra cost or the need for an ABN. I love this shop, and they are always so helpful. They will also accept orders online. Mr. HRK was looking at their coffee cups, I was looking for bread making equipment, and anything else that caught my eagle eye.

This time I bought a Herbert Birnbaum, plastic polypropylene Brotform, or a bread proofing basket. Brotforms, Bannetons, and bread proofing baskets are all the same thing. This range is made in Germany, is guaranteed to last a lifetime, and is recyclable.  I can't wait to try it. No need to use a tea towel or any cloth to cover the base, it just needs to be misted and lightly floured and the dough placed in it to rise. If it works to my liking, I'll invest in a rectangular one for a large loaf as well. I have a couple of round cane bannetons which I bought at Chef Link during 2020 last year, but they need a tea towel insert to work. Can't have too many though I reckon. 

Then we ventured onto the shopping centres, enjoying the air conditioning during the Cairns heat,  and whilst in a kitchen shop, we bought a new chopping knife. The Japanese make great knives, and their packaging is very attractive and designed to house the knife very well. Mr. HRK likes to use a good, sharp knife when he's chopping and I'm very happy to support him with that.

It is a Baccarat Kiyoshi Japanese Stainless Steel 42012 15 cm Chefs knife. The packaging says it is inspired by the traditional Japanese craftsman and Samurai sword makers.The blades are made from premium Japanese Steel that has been mined in the same Japanese region of Chuo-Ku, Chiba since the middle of the last century. I hope that is all true because I love a good story about the kitchen items we buy.

I still can't bear to discard the beautiful packaging, so I store the knife in its packaging in a drawer.

Australia Day, always on the 26 January,  was somewhat of a meat fest here , when good friends Paul and Jenny, brought over some very large, marinated beef ribs which we cooked in our BBQ. 

I made a sourdough cob loaf to complement the meal, and I used my cane proofing basket for this one.

There were some delicious salads, mixed grain, potato and tomato.

We had a great time and ate and laughed a lot.

And for dessert, I made Mango, Lime and Coconut Panna Cotta which I wrote about in a previous post, and here is the link to the recipe if you missed it and are interested. The recipe serves 6 people.

The seasonal Bowen mangoes were delicious during December and January here, but are finished now making way for the southern stone fruits.

I haven't been cooking nearly as much as I usually do, blame the heat and the holiday vibe. However I made some delicious Chicken Burritos from scratch recently. Believe me, there were no El Paso spice mixes to be found in this recipe. I'll be publishing it on my blog shortly. I just have to make them again  to take a photo of the finished product. I have photos of the process, but I forgot to take a photo before they all disappeared. Familiar story?

Throughout January it has been very hot and humid and we ate lots of salads. Salads, salads, and more salads was my mantra. Last week, I made some comfort food though, as my gut was telling me to take a step back and just eat some plain steamed vegetables, chicken, brown rice and so forth. Part of the problem I think is that Mr. HRK is waiting to have surgery on his sinuses this month, and as a consequence can't taste anything, which is quite frustrating for him so I have been trying to spice my cooking up a bit more than usual so that he can hopefully taste some food. I might have overdone it with spices when I have actually cooked, so I am being careful for a while and eating blander foods, while he continues to add condiments like Kewpie Mayo with wasabi and sweet chilli jam to our meals which he loves.

I made one of my favourite comfort food dishes last week for us, Paleo Beef Chow Mein which just has a minimal amount of curry powder added and is full of vegetables.  Always a winner. I used cabbage instead of kale which is in the original recipe.

Beef Chow Mein with some Kewpie mayo added for Mr. HRK.

Lots of fresh green cabbage added, yum.

Because I haven't been doing that much cooking compared to what I normally do, it's been the perfect time to clean and reorganise my pantry, spice drawer and baking products. I discarded quite a lot of unnecessary clutter and have made some space for the rest of the year. Mind you my friends, I found a couple of duplicate spice jars, as the small jars are now arranged in alphabetical order. I wonder how long they will stay that way. However I am very happy with the result.

We are looking forward to watching some tennis this month, with the Australian Open Tennis Tournament starting tomorrow in Melbourne. The overseas tennis players are so happy to be here and to be able to play after not much competition in 2020 because of Covid. Hope it all goes well for everyone. The summer of tennis in Australia is a long standing tradition. We love our tennis.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  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 read more In My Kitchens.

 

That's all folks and thanks for visiting.

Best wishes.

Pauline