In My Kitchen: November 2021

October came and went past in a flash - honestly, I think it was the fastest month this year!  

In my garden...

I planted broad beans this year, and they flowered really early, but did not give me a single bean until the turnips flowered. Then the bees came for the turnips, and before I knew it there were broad beans everywhere. 

The last of the snow peas and sugar snaps were harvested and eaten - I had such a good run with them, I probably ate them every day for 2 months! Here was a quick stir fry I made with my own broad beans and sugar snaps.

The last of the radish greens, which I blanched and froze to throw into future stews.. 

These strawberries were incredible - tiny, juicy, sweet and incredibly flavoursome. 

I grew a pumpkin in the summer called Alfonso. I harvested my 4.2kg baby in March. I kept him for a long time thinking I would share it with S when he could come to Australia, but he never got a travel exemption to come to Australia. So I gave Alfonso to my dad before this lockdown in June. He kept it for another few months in a dark corner and finally, we ate it! Here he is stir fried with garlic, chilli and a few last stray sugar snaps 

On the bread front...

The Pains de France baking project continued with this Pain aux cereales, a delicious multi-grain loaf

A giant 1kg loaf that turned out really well - I took this one to a Freedom Party, it was strange to be in a room with lots of people again! 

I've been quite obsessed with the Asian style soft bakery breads, and here is an overnight sourdough Japanese-style milk bread (shokupan) I made. It was so cottony soft and fun to pull into threads!

Other things in the kitchen...

And one day I just felt like making a pear tarte tatin. These were made with corella pears that Ozharvest had rescued, and that we took home because they had soft spots.

I went away into the mountains for a few days on my own - it was wonderful to read, write, draw and take long walks. I stayed in a tiny house and the lovely hosts gave me some sweet juicy oranges from their orchard...

While away on retreat, I also enjoyed this little hamper that my friend sent me during the lockdown. It was such a treat to have a solo picinic! 

Finally, the food and music series...

After more than four months, my string quartet finally got together again. We celebrated with a loaf of my own sourdough, roast lamb and lots of veggies for dinner. And of course for our reunion we played the very first piece that we ever played together - Beethoven's Op 18 No 4. I played the viola for a change, since I am heading to Paris very soon and plan to play viola there. 

And the curveball this month is from another freedom party I went to - aren't dogs just the best? We also discovered that dogs love durian! 

I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's pickings, who hosts the monthly In My Kitchen series - thanks Sherry!