In My Kitchen: October 2019

I have really enjoyed the last few weeks, emerging out of the chilly weather. I worked a lot in September but interspersed it with heaps of music and baking.

In the garden…

The very last of the baby bok choy was harvested.

On the day I pulled every last stalk out of the ground, the pile stood so high that I thought it was a man (the Bok Choy Man) sitting on the chair.

It took me ages but I stripped all the stalks of bok choy and ended up with a huge bag (maybe 1kg) of bok choy leaves that I ate shredded in salad every day (every meal, practically) for two weeks. 

Here it is with some simple but delicious dal. Sometimes the simplest things are the best in life.

The warming of the weather means the coriander is coming to an end too, though I did still eat a heap of coriander every day in September.


Baking projects...

It was moon festival this month, and I decided to have a go at making Shanghainese style moon cakes stuffed with a savoury pork filling.

The pastry was quite a pain (had to make two types of dough – an oil dough and a water dough to mix together) but in the end the flakiness was worth it. 

The insides were so juicy and hot that I burned my mouth when they first came out of the oven!

In more news from Barney, here is a beautiful loaf with particularly lovely holes.

I’m fortunate to have sourdough most mornings for breakfast. My friend who always sends me pictures of avo on toast from various cafes inspired me to make this one – avo, cheese and spicy beansprouts. If I may suggest, that is the best fusion avo toast ever.

These are just about the most adorable things I’ve made for a while – cute little sourdough pumpkin buns stuffed with dark chocolate chips. They came out of the oven soft and moreish, pulling apart to delicate strands. The string to get the pumpkin shape was pretty fiddly but it was well worth the effort!

Onto the Food and Music series…

I went with the Merewether ensemble up to the Gold Coast for a music weekend. What fun that was! We were just about the most eclectic collection of musicians ever. There were the traditional instruments like piano, violin, viola and cello. But we were joined by a variety of recorders, a saxophone, a trombone and random percussion instruments. Of course we all had a go on the didjeridoo cos that’s really traditional chamber music! One of us brought a piece for piano 8 hands (that’s 4 people sitting at the same time on the piano bench) which became the theme song for the weekend. We also had the rare opportunity to play 2 piano duets!

Our gracious hosts made this divine slow cooked lamb shoulder one night for dinner, filling the house with incredible smells as it roasted in the oven, served with a zingy salsa verde.

Of course Barney came for the ride too, here he is on the plane reading the safety instructions

These delicious parmesan scrolls were eaten one night with some wonderful piano duets – the Peer Gynt suites by Grieg (just about my favourite piano duet music), the incredible Fantasie in F minor by Schubert and a lesser known work – Lebensturme (Life’s Tempest), and for a dessert a sweet little sonata by CPE Bach.

My string quartet had a wonderful reunion sans Barney (I was working too much that week). We had the most succulent salmon and crispy roast potatoes, along with fresh veggies and salad. This feast was enjoyed with all the violist's favourites - the Beethoven string quartet Op 18. No.4  (probably the quartet for our group), a mash through the first movement of the Brahms String quartet Op 51 No.1 & No.2, and the other all time favourite, Schubert's Death and the Maiden.

It was the violist’s birthday and we took the chance to indulge in this wonderfully rich chocolate cake. I switched the candles around while the cellist was looking for matches… How do you know we are all getting old? The cellist thought she’d developed dementia and the violist thought her eyes needed checking. Only the other violinist picked up immediately that I’d been up to mischief! Who knew that we could sing Paphy Dirtybah instead?

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