In My Kitchen: April 2022

S was visiting Australia for most of March, and so it flew by even faster than February! I have just 10 weeks left in Australia before I move to Toronto in June to pursue my life/career change - I have been working in Intensive Care for 12 years and the sea change will be to palliative care... 

In my garden...

The chillies are going crazy! We have been eating chillies almost every meal.

This pink oyster mushroom kit was a Christmas present, which I didn't open for ages - even though it was past its "best grow" date they sprouted quickly in the recent warm humid weather. I cooked them in a light braise with silken tofu flavoured with ginger and shallots. 

The second compost pumpkin I've grown, a Queensland blue. Last year's one was 4.2kg and this bubba was even bigger at 5.9kg! We had a quarter of him as a giant pumpkin soup with lovely fresh sourdough straight out of the oven, and another quarter turned into a pumpkin chickpea curry.

Only because S is Italian, the pumpkin was christened Alfonso... this strawberry couple was kinda creepy, a funny gag present from S. 

Some fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden for a simple pasta sauce. 

In the kitchen.. 

We went to Melbourne for a quick overnight trip when S was invited to give a lecture at the University of Melbourne. I had no idea he was such a superstar mathematician. Meanwhile I headed to Lune for one of their amazing croissants, here the almond croissant is like a work of art - all the gently toasted almonds fixed by almond paste to form the porcupine shape. 

This stir fry was made from a few things from my dad's garden - snake beans, capsicums and bitter melon. Together with carrot and tofu, it's really a wonderful combination 

We've been having a lot of "healthy meals"! Here it was soba, a stir fry of carrot, tofu and wombok (and a lot of chilli!), with the greens blanched separately. 

We also went up to the Gold Coast for a long weekend, staying at my friend's place while she was overseas. We utilised her gorgeous Moroccan plate to showcase this simple but delicious roast sweet potato and chickpea salad. Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best. 

The curveball... 

The picture on the left was when S just arrived - how extraordinarily pale his foot was coming from the Parisian winter! 3 weeks later he'd developed a nice tan but unfortunately  was also having the true Australian experience of sunburn from the beach! 

I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings who hosts the monthly In My Kitchen series. Thanks Sherry for the monthly opportunity to write and review my photos!