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(This post is my first attempt to participate in Fig Jam and Lime Cordial’s monthly hosting of other such posts entitled In My Kitchen. Celia hosts this snapshot of kitchens around the world, and what is taking place in them. Very fun to read. Thanks Celia!)
beside the sink
This has been a surprising week in my kitchen. Surprising because often in January our temperatures are so hot I have no desire to cook. Added to the fact that we just don’t eat as much as we used to, the kitchen is not the busy place it once was. But I have been inspired this week by some of summer’s luscious jewels, and cooler temps in the 30 C range (90+ F).
First, I was privileged to receive a lovely selection of figs, grown by a dear friend. She can work miracles in this dry, red soil of ours here in Central Australia. Her ruby, sweet figs are but one of her miracles. I’ve told you before how I lust after figs and my friend’s figs are as good as any I have tasted in Spain or Italy, so what an inspiration they were. (I hope you are listening Fiona)
At first I drank in their beauty, eating one before I even had an inkling of a thought to photograph it! Who could blame me? But my senses returned and I realised I had to capture their gloriousness for a future day so that I would know they had not been a dream!
time for tea
When an urge for cake could no longer be ignored, I used one to elevate the plain almond cake to art.
Tarta de Santiago (with fig)
And then, to be truly decadent I made something I could never ordinarily make because I’ve never had enough fresh figs before. I used a Donna Hay recipe for Chicken with Honey and Haloumi and green salad studded with fresh figs! Heaven.
Chicken, Haloumi and fig salad
Buckwheat Pikelets with white peaches and maple syrup
Finally, this morning I treated my husband and I to freshly made buckwheat pancakes (to my American friends), pikelets (to my Australian and British friends) topped with sweet, white peaches and maple syrup. Divine. The peaches are not local, but sometimes even we can buy stone fruit that is good! I am gluten intolerant but as I have said for years, just because I can’t eat gluten doesn’t mean I’ve had a taste lobotomy!
I have posted the cake and pikelet recipes on my ‘pages’ under the FOOD menu, and given you a link to Donna Hay’s recipe if you are interested. Right now I am interested in another pikelet… ciao for now!
ardysez 
I think your photos are gorgeous and I have told my fig tree that I expect great bounty in about nine months time so that I can try out the chicken and haloumi salad. I am currently eating fig and apple chutney made from the last of my figs in the autumn, very sweet and sticky but nothing like the glory of those beauties. You hae cheered me up with your sunny pictures – Hope you are having a good weekend! xx Jo
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So pleased to have added some cheer to your day! And you know you added some to mine! 😉
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Ardy, I enjoyed your first post very much. Thank you for translating “pikelets” (I love the differences in terminology from region to region) and for your beautiful cake art photo. Fresh figs and peaches sound (and look) very appealing in the middle of our winter. Welcome to IMK!
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Thank you Kim, am so pleased to be part of the IMK contributors, have long admired the idea and I always love seeing what others do in their kitchens.
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Well, of course, you could turn anything into a beautiful art project!
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Thank you Maralah! Have a great weekend!
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Those figs look perfectly ripe! And that cake, wow!
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The figs looked so ripe because they were perfectly ripe when picked. Apparently figs are a fruit that doesn’t ripen further once it is picked, and often they are picked too soon so they will transport well. Thank you for your comments, I’m almost embarrassed to accept praise for the cake as it is SO easy!
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Nice.
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G’day ardysez and congrats on your very first post, true!
LOVE your Tarta de Santiago and thank you also for this month’s kitchen view!
Cheers! Joanne
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Thank you Joanne! The Tarta is so easy to make, I hope some people will use the recipe I’ve provided and try it for themselves. And I’ve neglected to say, it is delicious as well! Very moist and mellow flavour… I used the alternate flavourings of cinnamon and vanilla rather than the citrus, but I look forward to trying the citrus version as well. Was delicious with fresh raspberries and cream too!
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What a glorious bounty of fruit you have in the Red Centre, Ardys! If those figs tasted half as good as they looked, them I’m sure they were absolutely delicious! And they really did make your cake very stunning! Thanks for playing! 🙂
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Thank you SO much for adding me to your wonderful collection of playmates! Such a fun and informative thing to do.
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Hello & welcome! Great to have someone blogging from Central Australia join the gang as it will be very interesting to see how your seasonal kitchen compares to others. I also love figs but it’s too humid to grow them here (Brisbane) with any success and they are far to expensive to buy so they remain a rare treat. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to reading throughout the year.
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Thank you so much. So happy to have found you all!
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My monitor’s screen does not taste anything like your pictures suggest it would.
Loved the post, Ardys, and I look forward to trying out some of the new recipes. YUM!
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Those figs are stunning. Ours are just starting to ripen, but we are not getting a bounty that I can cook with yet. Just one here and there to nibble on. And they don’t look as good as yours.
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I have never tasted such delicious looking figs as yours, but then ours are probably the ones picked before they are full ripened for transport! 🙂 love your bounty of fruits and welcome to IMK!
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Thank you for your kind welcome to IMK! Believe me, those figs were special, as is my friend who grows them. She can grow things like you wouldn’t believe. This is a very difficult climate to grow things, extreme temps, very little rain, all kinds of pests. Hard work. Also, apparently, there are many (around 18) different varieties of figs, each suited best to certain climates. Who knew?
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Love the look of those buckwheat pikelets with peach!!!
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As I just told EllaDee, the yellow peaches we’ve gotten here in Alice have not had much flavour this year. The white ones have been much better. Somehow the maple syrup combined with the peaches and the flavours were both enhanced. Thank you for reading!
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Wonderful you have shared the delights of your kitchen via the IMK forum, and celebrated delights of January via the forum of fruit. Even I, who cannot eat a lot of fruit usually have spent 3 weeks indulging. Amongst savouring the wonders of abundant seasonal fruit, a highlight was yellow peach slices I poached in vodka & sugar, slipped into the passionfruit jelly component of our deconstructed Christmas trifle. But of figs, only vicariously via your gorgeous post and an earlier discussion with a friend of their merits.
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Happy New Year EllaDee! Those poached yellow peaches sound wickedly good. The yellow ones we have had here have had no flavour to them this year, but the white ones have been nice.
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Welcome to In My Kitchen! Love the look of those figs, I’m yet to have any yet this year!
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My own fig tree is fig-less this year. My green-thumbed friend was very generous!
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Welcome Ardy, Really nice to take a peek in a kitchen from our amazing red centre. It’ll be a couple on months before we get figs in Melbourne, but we do have tasty yellow peaches. I look forward to trying them on your GF pikelets. Hope your Tarta Santiago is GF too, going to look at the recipe pronto 😃
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