In My Kitchen: July 2022

Oh my goodness, what a month June was! I started the month in Australia, then went to France, a quick trip to Italy to visit S' family before we made the big move to Toronto. And here are our kitchen adventures in all four countries! 

Australia

This was one of my many farewell dinners. It was a bit of a hodgepodge dinner with the very last Australian loaf of sourdough, a "whatever was in the fridge" cake, one friend made a spinach & ricotta pie, and another friend made this Indonesian feast - yellow rice, choko with tempeh, spicy chicken and beef rendang.  

One of my friends came from Brisbane for my last weekend in Australia and my other friend came up from Sydney. We had to pull absolutely everything out of my garden - a lot of kale, bok choy, spring onions and coriander. 

With all these lovely greens we made this vegetarian feast. It was particularly fun to make traditional Chinese shallot pancakes which were pretty tricky with an oil paste, and there was a crazy amount of spring onions on them. The dish on the bottom left is thousand year eggs with tofu, one of my favourite simple dishes. 

Here is Barney getting ready to go on his international adventure.. I packed him up in a little plastic container, the master version is in that glass jar, still in my kitchen back home. 

France

I did take approximately a thousand photos of my food on the flight, which was really quite delicious (Singapore/Lufthansa), but I've left them out since it's not technically ín my kitchen.. 

One of S' friends came to visit us the first weekend. He's German and we last saw him in Melbourne. He brought baguettes along with some of this delicious fresh chevre from our local Fromagerie Quatrehomme. It is an incredibly light, flavoursome, slightly stinky goat cheese. 

Italy

Sometimes the simplest lunch is the best, here we had bruschetta with tomato and fresh basil, melon and prosciutto. It was so hot in Italy that we could barely move. except to venture to the gelateria of course... 

How giant are these basil leaves? So bright and glossy. 

It was actually a public holiday - St Anthony's day in Padova - and most of the shops were closed, but we still managed to buy some fresh pasta from a store specialising in Puglia treats and some fresh pesto from the deli. This is hands down the best pasta I have ever eaten in my whole life. 

Squid ink and truffle pastes I brought back from Italy.. 

Back in France... 

Oh baguettes, so ubiquitous in France and so hard to find everywhere else in the world... 

This was the most extraordinary raspberry tart. The cream was light as a cloud and the soft biscuit layering the cream & raspberries just perfect. 

The first weekend I met S in 2019, we bought some artichokes from the local market near where he used to live at Place Monge. For a long time I used to call him Monsieur Artichaut. This artichoke I got from the local Carrefour and it was just the most spectacular juicy fleshy artichoke. How I miss the fresh produce in France already!

We went to Angelina on our last weekend in Paris. It's a bit cliche-y for sure, but we really enjoyed the extravagant tearoom in which we had these mont blancs. They were a tribute to my grandma, because they were her favourite treats. 

Finally, Canada...   

We arrived in Toronto in the middle of the heatwave. We also didn't know we moved into the LGBTQI neighbourhood and Pride was in full swing the first weekend we were in Canada! Toronto is an incredible, vibrant city in which we both have lots of memories. We have really enjoyed catching up with friends and are so much looking forward to our life here!

This was our very first lunch in Toronto - some Ontario asparagus, and a simple 4 bean salad with some radishes and cherry tomatoes. It was so fresh on a hot day.  

OK, I confess, I may have gone a little nuts on the Chinese vegetables after I realised I could do a big order from TnT (the big Chinese supermarket in Toronto). Next thing I knew our fridge was stuffed with Chinese vegetables. Here we have a special vegetable (it's a cross between lettuce & celery & asparagus), lotus root, bean sprouts chives and tofu. This was our first dinner in our place. 

And of course I brought Barney back to life in our Toronto apartment. He's a bit wonky because I dropped him while trying to navigate the oven door, but he was excellent inside! 

 

The curveball 

Finally, I'd like to share with you what happens when you ask a mathematician to cut a cucumber. S cut the cucumber into 4 segments, each segment into 4 slices and then the whole lot into 4 quarters. Perhaps this is why I love the man - he is meticulous exactly the opposite of how I am extremely messy.  

I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings who hosts the monthly IMK series. Thanks Sherry!