In my kitchen: June 2019

It hasn’t been so hectic this last month with a lot more time for leisure and music. I went away for a few days with the Australian Doctors Orchestra and on the preceding chamber day fulfilled a long time wish of playing the Brahms piano quintet – an amazing effort on everyone’s part to come together en spec and pull it off!

With the cold weather, the garden is really winding up. Whatever vegetables are left are really for entertainment value, like this peanut sized bitter melon. 

On the baking front I have been making a few plain loaves for my quartet.

A beautiful olive loaf that was eaten with the Mozart String quintet in C minor, Mendelssohn String quintet Op. 12 and the Beethoven Gassenhauer piano trio. I love the text for the lively last movement of the Beethoven, which goes something like..

I’m going to work!

But first,

I must have a little something

To eat!

Here is another walnutty loaf we ate with an interesting assortment of music. I’ve been playing the viola recently, and we struggled through the Mozart Kegelstatt trio with me mashing up all the notes. We also played some Bach 3 part inventions arranged for string trio and finally the Debussy Piano trio – a lovely early impressionist work.

On this occasion, it was sourdough naan that we had with a feast of curries and veggies. Softened by Greek yoghurt, this dough is a pillowy delight to knead and puffs up nicely in the pan. They were all gone in a flash! 

We ate this with the Bach Goldberg variations for string trio and the Beethoven String trio Op 3.

My friend was also visiting from China for a week and she brought me some goodies.

The best instant noodles from her city Wuhan. They are called “Hot dry noodles”, and after cooking the liquid is discarded before mixing with three sauces (soy, chilli and peanut). 

A hotpot base from the Chongqing area, where hotpot is very famous. The label reads “Medium heat, 45 degrees” - wonder how many degrees it is out of?

I’ve been rather obsessed with turning leftover milk into a soft ricotta just by heating and curdling it with lemon juice or white vinegar. The whey I use instead of water in my sourdough, and the cheese I scoff down on bread or in this particular case in a simple pasta with kale and cherry tomatoes. 

I’m sending this to Sherry, who hosts the In My Kitchen series. Thanks Sherry!