In my kitchen: January 2021

So here we are in 2021, and it feels like the months are just rolling by. As always I am extremely grateful for the monthly chance to look back over photos. 

In the garden...

My first season of growing zucchini has been interesting. In fact it has been my first season of growing anything! I had a few chances to do zucchini IVF before the plants were totally covered in powdery mildew. I chopped off all the leaves and now the plants are clinging to life... later I realised I could have treated the leaves and not chopped them off! You live, you learn.  

So far there were two successful candidates, and this is my firstborn zucchini. Isn't he a beautiful Italian heirloom? 

My chillies have been going mad! Finally I have enough to supply myself, family and more. It's hard to imagine that one single chilli I bought in January 2020 came to four mature chilli plants. Such is the cycle of life. 

On the baking front... 

I loved this loaf of sourdough I scored in a rose pattern 

I was inspired to make this Gnocchi alla Romana by S' Christmas dinner in Italy - his sister had made it and I was immediately drawn to the idea of semolina dumplings covered in cheese. They were soft and pillowy with an oozy cheesy topping. Definitely something I would like to eat again. 

I also made these vegan sourdough donuts called Sufganiyot for Hannukah celebrations with my friend B. We made them from Barney my sourdough and flax seed instead of egg. I must admit the flax "egg" made me a bit sceptical, ground up flax reconstituted with water really looks like gloop... but they were beautifully light and fried up a treat. We made our own strawberry & raspberry jam as well and filled them.  

It was actually the first time in my life I've deep fried anything. Since we had so much oil, we thought we could make traditional potato latkes after the doughnuts. Utterly delicious! 

I made these sourdough roti prata for a Christmas gathering. Slapping them on the counter till they were huge and extremely thin was really fun! 

Onto the Food & Music series....

This was a beautifully presented dinner with a salmon fillet atop a bed of sweet potato puree. We enjoyed this with Shostakovich 8th string quartet and the not much played Glazunov Quartet Slave. I absolutely adore the Shosta - such a monumental work! 

This was our quartet's Christmas turkey dinner which we enjoyed with Schumann's Piano quartet in Eb major. We were joined by a guest for the piano part and it was wonderful to play a string instead! 

Finally, the curveball...

Pengy (L) was stuck in Queensland for some of 2020, and my friend bought me a new penguin (R) which she named Penga (to avoid confusion). She decided at Christmas that they must have had a baby! Here is the adorable family portrait.

I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings who hosts the monthly In My Kitchen series. Thanks for hosting Sherry!