In My Kitchen: March 2022

February felt like a quick one! 

We had our own little celebration before I left Paris, it wasn't quite Valentine's day but the Patisserie Cyril Lignac had already started doing their St Valentin special - a light vanilla bourbon flavoured cream in the shape of a heart with a heart of salted caramel and crispy biscuit base of speculoos.  And yes - it was as delicious as the description sounds! 

Our last dinner together in Paris - whole roasted fish, brussel sprouts, some random navet - red bean curry with rice. 

I arrived home to Newcastle and found this beautiful Indigenous art design cake plate from my friend. It had arrived a couple of weeks earlier and was waiting for me on my back porch (thanks Oz post for keeping it safe). Here it is with the last little briochette from our local Eric Kayser that I picked up on my way to the airport. 

While I was in France, the pumpkin plant had gone wild in my backyard, and it was trying to break into my house by attaching itself to the screen door! 

My first job at work was to clear out the office - I was the supervisor of training for the trainees the past 3 years but in preparation for the move to Canada, I had to hand over and move out! Here are all the bottles of wine that were hiding in my office, mostly from previous trainees. (I can never bring myself to drink them... it's like they mark certain achievements!) 

I felt very fatigued with rather a poor appetite after I got back from Paris. So I had many "ploughman's" lunch plates like this with just some sourdough that I made (even my starter was sluggish in February), some salad veggies and cheese. Here I had it with my own lettuce and cucumber. 

I got lots of cherry tomatoes from my dad 

And a lot of chives - these turned into dumplings that were absolutely delicious.  

For Valentine's day I made this Slovenian style bread - I found it on Google when I googled "heart shaped bread" - it's a brioche dough that's braided like a challah, and then formed into a heart shape. Isn't it adorable? 

It was really nice to see the cellist in my quartet again - we had a simple dinner of roast veggie salad and some sourdough I made. Our string quartet has disbanded - the violist has moved to the UK and the other violinist is dealing with covid-related paranoia. So it's just me and the cellist now! Still, we played some Bach 2-part inventions (for the violin/cello we just read the left/right hand parts) and the Beethoven string duets which are transcribed from an original work for clarinet & bassoon.   

Finally towards the end of February I started to get my mojo back. These were some delicious sourdough hot cross buns... 

And la piece de resistance - the galette des rois that I saw everywhere in Paris! I recreated it at home from store bought puff pastry and a simple frangipane filling. The patterns can be really elaborate in Paris, I think mine wasn't bad for a first attempt! It's always made with a treasure and I put inside the little cow that I brought back from Paris, which has now gone home to live with my friend who was lucky enough to eat the piece with him in it!

I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Kitchens who hosts the monthly In My Kitchen event. Thanks Sherry!