In My Kitchen: October 2021

September just about flew past! It's been a strange time - on one hand, I love the lockdown because I am a naturally introspective person, on the other hand I'm really missing the social contact with other human beings.  

In the garden... 

I have been eating turnips every day - the turnip patch has gotten out of control and overtaken the entire veggie patch. One day I took a photo of this one because I thought he looked like a man sitting on the chair. My favourite lunch now involves a turnip addition to whatever I'm eating - I saute the root part of the turnip in a little olive oil and wilt the greens. It's quite a nice way to introduce more veggies!  

My sugar snaps and snow peas have been excellent this year - I've been having them everyday practically and it's such a treat. My favourite way to eat them is in a stir fry with tofu and other veggies, here with also a smattering of my own coriander.  

I don't eat salad every day but my small patch of rocket and radicchio serves me well for when I feel like salad. I usually pick a whole lot, wash and spin them then store them in the fridge for a quick boost of salad. 

In the kitchen... 

Here are the white oyster mushrooms from the kit I got for my birthday - they grow super fast! I found them incredibly tender and more-ish, nothing like a simple stir fry with some sugar snaps from the garden, a little bit of ginger and some sesame oil. 

This was one of the Masterchef challenges - a black forest cake with a hazelnut praline mousse. It was SO complicated to make and took two of us three hours (the recipe card said 40 min prep and 1 hr cooking - what liars!) It was absolutely delicious though so huge we could only manage a tiny slice each. 

This was the end of the Apple Project. I celebrated Rosh Hashanah with my vegan friend and made her this vegan challah - it was from an excellent recipe featuring the Yudane method.

I stuffed it with apples sweetened with maple syrup. It was so soft and fluffy, excellent recipe indeed!

I made this quiche with some rainbow chard from my own garden - I blanched the rainbow chard and dunked it into ice water to preserve the colour. The little blobs are roast pumpkin,  it kind of looks like a rhubarb and apricot tart! 

And with the rest of the tart pastry I made these little tarts with a simple ricotta custard filling and fresh berries, yum!

The new baking project...

 

I'm doing a new project now where I am baking my way through a "Pains de France" tea towel that I bought last year - I'm baking a different bread every weekend. 

Boule de Campagne - "Countryside bread"

Baguette épi - baguette cut into a wheat stalk shape 

Regular baguette

This was probably the fanciest thing I made this month, a Couronne Bourdelaise (crown bread), which worked really well as soft tear apart rolls. I have found the key is to read French recipes (or watch French youtube videos) - they really are excellent baguette recipes

Finally... the curveball

I'm fortunate to work in a hospital looking out onto bushland. Often on lunch breaks I go for long walks around the hospital campus and one day I saw this beautiful kookaburra. Gotta love his hairstyle! He was so calm, just checking everyone out. I'm sad to say that with the new hospital precinct development, they will lose their hospital home and probably be displaced onto adjacent bushland. 

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