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ardysez

~ surrender to yourself

ardysez

Tag Archives: In My Kitchen

in my kitchen – Feb 2015

03 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by Ardys in Alice Springs, Food, gardening, In My Kitchen

≈ 37 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, cooking, Food, In My Kitchen, photography

grasshopper-alice-springs

Anyone for fried grasshoppers?

This fig leaf was lunch for the grasshoppers, and they are still hungry!!

This fig leaf was lunch for the grasshoppers, and they are still hungry!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, thank you to everyone who commiserated and encouraged me in my time of loss of Kitchen Mojo last month. I’m happy to say it has nearly returned to normal. That is to say I’m having the usual number of failures rather than the dismal number I was having this time last month! It has been a battlefield here. We had a very wet start to January, followed by an invasion of thousands, and thousands of grasshoppers. They have nearly devoured my favourite herbs, citrus leaves, curry leaves and even my sapling fig trees. I don’t like to use poisons on my edible plants, for obvious reasons, so I have very reluctantly employed the ‘compression method’ my husband taught me.

Ick. But effective.

Well, let’s put it this way, I’m losing the battle more slowly than I was previously.

 

Bay Tree - BEFORE

Bay Tree – BEFORE

IMG_4935

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next, and ongoing, battle was a bad infestation of scale insect on my 10 yr old Bay tree. Because of our heat here I couldn’t just spray with white oil and let it do the job. White oil will kill the plant at temps above 30C. So I had to strip all the leaves from the tree that had scale on them, while leaving the newer growth to help it recover. Then I had to spray the branches and trunk with the white oil, leave it under cover and out of direct sun for two days, then gently spray with soapy water and use a soft brush to wash it off. So far, it has worked. I am checking the leaves every few days and scraping the occasional scale off and tiny new leaves are appearing. When winter comes I will be able to spray it again.

 

soup-beans-cornbread

Ham and bean soup with corn bread

Meanwhile, in the kitchen we’ve enjoyed a few nice meals inspired by the cool temps that came with the rain event. Leftover ham bone from Christmas made a delicious, savoury cannellini bean soup, along with corn bread made in my new cast iron pan. The cast iron pan is another battle I’m slowly losing, but I have not given up.

 

buckwheat-pancakes-fruit

Buckwheat pancakes with fresh blueberries, peaches, apricots, walnuts and Greek yogurt (inspired by our own Bizzy Lizzy here)

The seasonal fruit has been delicious this year, with or without buckwheat pancakes!

peach-australian

Australian grown peach

fig-macro

If there is a more gorgeous fruit than a fig, I’d like to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lamb-bacon

Lamb Mignon created by Milner Meats, Alice Springs

A wonderful new find from our butcher is ‘lamb mignon’. They use fillet or backstrap pieces and wrap it in bacon (their own) and skewer it for cooking on the barbecue/grill. Delicious.

 

 

 

 

IMG_6184I’ve been experimenting with some salads that are substantial meals in themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

chilli-seeds-cabbage

finely shredded chilli and cabbages and crushed mustard and fennel seeds

chilli-cole-slaw

Chilli Cole Slaw

 

 

 

And, finally, my creation of the month, as declared by my husband, is Chilli Cole Slaw. We have some medium/mild yellow chillies growing and so far the grasshoppers haven’t developed a taste for them, so I have plenty to use. I finely shaved two colours of cabbage, added the finely sliced pieces of chilli, then… wait for it… the magic ingredients… about ½ tsp each, mustard seed and fennel seed, finely ground in my tiny mortar and pestle. For a lighter than normal dressing I used organic, Greek yogurt, thinned with a little apple cider vinegar, whatever sweetener you like, and a bit of salt. The dressing should have a sweet/sour taste which offsets the chilli nicely. I used about 1/3 C for 3 C of shredded cabbage, but adjust it to your own liking.

 

 

Happy February everyone. May there be no grasshopper plague in your lives!  Be sure to call around to Celia’s place at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial to see what’s happening in the kitchens around the world!

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In My Kitchen – September 2014

01 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by Ardys in Alice Springs, Food, In My Kitchen

≈ 35 Comments

Tags

Australia, cooking, eggplant, Food, health, In My Kitchen

I’m an experimenter; a tweaker. I find it difficult to follow a recipe exactly, unless it is for baked goods, which often don’t lend themselves to much tinkering. But my tweaks in early August were a pleasure free zone. I won’t waste your time.

beef-cheeks-ragu-eggplant

Beef Cheeks Ragu over eggplant shards

slow-cooker-beef-cheeks

Beef cheeks in slow cooker with stock

beef-cheeks-cooked

Shredding the meat

By the third week, however, I was number 1 with a bullet (read: top of the charts and ascending!). I decided to experiment by cooking beef cheeks. I’ve tasted them a couple of times and thought they were slightly stronger tasting than a normal roast. I decided the flavours would work well in pasta sauce. I slow cooked the cheeks first, and shredded them, then added to a very simple passata sauce. My husband had pasta, I had the sauce over eggplant that I had roasted in shards in the oven. Heaven on a shard! Two thumbs up from my husband. Four grass fed beef cheeks ($13.52) made enough sauce to feed 6.

IMG_2049The weather has a hint of spring in it here so I’m starting to get urges toward salad-y things. I thought I’d ‘lean into’ them a bit with a recipe I saw for Brussels Sprouts and Potato salad. Very nice ‘transitional salad.’

cucumber-salad-bacon

Cucumber and Corn salad with coconut bacon

‘Coconut Bacon‘ should just about offend everyone equally, I’m guessing. I’m not a vegetarian (see beef cheek paragraph above) but I used to be, for two years, and I still get curious to try things intended for vegetarians. Good food is good food. My curiosity was whether the crispy texture and savoury flavour would be nice in salads this summer. It is. Then I tried Cucumber, Corn and Coconut salad from a favourite blog I’ve been following for a while http://www.remedialeating.com/2014/08/in-the-weeds.html  Except I tweaked. My version was to use a bit of dill and some chives instead of the herbs called for in the recipe, and because I couldn’t find dry roasted peanuts anywhere in Alice, I used straight toasted peanuts, and the Maple Coconut Bacon to add the savoury element. It did work perfectly. Two thumbs up from hubby again. That’s twice in space of a week, if anyone is keeping track!

lemons-home-grown

basket of lemons

We have been picking lemons by the box and basketful! It’s such a shame to not be able to use more of them, but we give them away, so nothing is wasted. I have frozen some zest and juice in ice cube trays (zest and juice of 1 lemon per cube) for use later in the year. I wish you all were here so I could give some to you!

Also I have been soaking legumes and nuts before eating them, in order for the phytase to develop which lowers the phytates, which effects nutrient absorbtion. Because I drink almond milk much of the time, instead of dairy, I consume quite a few almonds. I soak them before whizzing them, the resulting milk tastes noticeably better, and hopefully, I’m getting more nutrients from them. I can now eat chick peas again, simply by soaking them for 24 hours before eating! Who knew? According to a Paleo site, ancient people used to soak most grains and legumes before eating them, but we got out of that practice somewhere along the way.

grilled-salmon-eggplant

Grilled salmon, eggplant strips and cucumber/corn salad

Finally, Don cooked most of dinner on the grill the other night and it was amazing! He cooked the salmon filets simply, with olive oil and salt, and the eggplant strips I had simply drizzled with olive oil as well. You can also roast the eggplant in the oven, but it’s the dressing for the eggplant that made it special. As per usual, I did have to make a change in the recipe, omitting the garlic, but it was still a new favourite.

Will send him to your place for weddings, parties, whatever…

Have a delicious month!

–Ardys

Please check out the other IMK posts at figjamandlimecordial.com  Thank you to Celia for hosting this monthly tour through kitchens around the world! Pop on over there and see what other interesting things are happening.

 

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