Monday 6 June 2016

In my kitchen - June 2016

About a week before June rolled into town, the weather suddenly turned from the mellow days of early Autumn to the chilly wind and rain of winter.  Now we are well and truly feeling the cold.  It is weather for hearty stews and bread.  Not great weather for food photography.

Above is a frypan filled with tofu, noodles, red capsicum, carrot, kale and leek with an orange sauce similar to one I found at Bite Sized Thoughts.  My volume of noodles and veg was far higher so the sauce didn't go quite far enough but it was very tasty.  As you can also see, I have been experimenting with presenting stirfries in a more photogenic way than usual.  And I was pleased that Sylvia enjoyed the tofu and noodles.

Another blogger who continues to inspire me is Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.  She is the founder of this In My Kitchen event and continues to come up with new ideas for bread baking.  When she suggested the Wiltshire range of oven roasters for baking her overnight sourdough loaf, it was just the tin I had been searching for at a reasonable price.  I love it so much that I am now wondering if I can fit two in my oven at once!

As I have mentioned, Coburg Famers Market is now held weekly on a Saturday morning and I have been trying to go before gymnastics.  Not only is it open more often but in Autumn I love the Three Bridges apples and we have been eating helps of these.  In this photo we also have King Valley walnuts, coloured carrots, raspberry and coconut cake (vegan), sourdough bread, croissant, kale and Cocoa Rhapsody salted lime chocolate.  It has been so nice to see some of the stalls we haven't seen for a while, esp the Cocoa Rhapsody.

Though not quite in my kitchen, we have had some food at the market.  We also tried the kefir icy pole.  Sulvia wasn't so keen.  Not sweet enough.  Nor was she very keen on the chocolate caramel tarts.  Too sweet.  She thought the profertjes just right.  The other morning it was really cold and wet so we indulged in a $10 cheese toastie.  It was huge and rich but so so good.  Great for sharing with Sylvia so she wasn't starving after gymastics.

Those purple carrots were so gorgeous when chopped up.

I put the carrots into this vegie stew.  They cooked until they were falling apart.  E at first thought the purple carrots were sausages.  I also added dried mung beans instead of my usual lentils or chickpeas.  They take a little longer than dried lentils but at 30-40 minutes it wasn't too long.  I was just using them up but I loved them cooked this way so much that I might just buy them again.

The kale from the market went onto a pizza that used fast track sourdough pizza dough, potato, cherry tomatoes, red capsicum and vegan mozzarella.   The crispy kale on top was delicious but perhaps a bit much.  Unfortunately the potato wasn't quite cooked when I put it on top and it was not a success.  I was inspired by this potato and kale pizza.

At another visit to the farmers market, I bought these tortilla chips.  I found a recipe for burgers using tortilla chips in a family veggie cookbook.  The I just left them to E to eat the chips and left the burgers in the world of my imagination!

And pester power continues to bring minions into our kitchen.  Yes Sylvia asked for these minions squeezy yoghurts and then decided she didn't like them.  I am trying to look at ways to boost her (our) calcium intake lately and though squeezies are not the best option for yoghurt, it means that she will eat yoghurt.

I am sending this post to Maureen of The Orgasmic Chef for In My Kitchen.  It is an event where bloggers around the world share what is happening in their kitchens.  Please head over to Maureen's blog and visit some other bloggers or even join in (by 10th of each month).

18 comments:

  1. Oooo the oven roaster for baking bread! That sounds intriguing - I love baking bread too, I'm definitely going to check out Celia's post about how she uses them. I hope it's not too wet down in Melbourne!

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    1. Thanks Kyra - the oven roaster is great for baking bread so it steams when it cooks for the first 20 minutes and then crisps up later - and melb seems to have turned on the rain in the last week or two

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  2. awesome :) thanks will try for sure :)

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  3. Blooming marvellous! I have some sourdough starter sent to me by Celia and have yet to use it, I may be coming over to your for advice so that I can get started with the bread making - if ever. Yours looks so so good and yes, Celia is indeed inspiration. I love the packaging on those tortilla chips. And I do love Rainbow carrots, I won't be growing any this year sadly, so hope I will find some at a market

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    1. Thanks Shaheen - it is amazing that the sourdough starter can wait til you are ready - celia is so clever - am sure you would enjoy it - I keep meaning to post about maintaining my starter now I have had it a few years. Shame not to have rainbow carrots in your garden - that would be fun - but at least they are easier to find these days.

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  4. I love the stir fry presentation, it's really elegant, as it isn't easy to present them! The sourdough is equally beautiful. Lots of good stuff in your kitchen.

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    1. Thanks VegHog - stirfries are hard to present but sourdough bread always looks impressive esp now I am better at slashing

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  5. ah yes the powers of Pester Power reigned supreme here today to the tune of a $19 soft toy (long story)... whenever I buy corn chips I always have those soups in mind or something that involves crushed corn chips but they end up getting eaten by someone else in the house!

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    1. Thanks Faye - oh pester power makes it bliss to go to the supermarket alone - yeah chips are something that E never allows to linger long in the house unless I write notes on it to leave alone :-)

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  6. A nice look into your kitchen. This year is whizzing by so fast!

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    1. Thanks Lorraine - hard to believe we are almost halfway through!

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  7. Mmm this all looks deliciosu! I really want to make my own sourdough sometime. It makes the most amazing pizza dough, doesn't it?

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    1. Thanks Aimee - I love having the starter for pizza dough - I cheat and use half sourdough, half yeast so I have the taste and the speed!

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  8. It looks deliciously autumnal in your kitchen and those carrots are beautiful. Thanks for linking to my sauce and I like your top photo of the stir fry; I don't think mine are ever that neat at any stage of the cooking process!

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  9. Your sourdough looks amazing Johanna, you should be very proud, It just makes me want to feed my starter now. Love your enamel roasters too. Love the coloured carrots, the purple is just gorgeous. Here's a tip I learnt from some chefs while working at the tennis - keep the purple seperate to the other colours as the purple will leak into the orange & yellow, especially if boiling. What's your sourdough starter ratio for pizza dough? It's lovely seeing you for IMK, see you soon x
    https://missfoodfairy.com/2016/06/08/in-my-kitchen-june-2016/

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  10. The wok with the tofu is very pretty. Do you cook it all at the same time? I haven't mastered one pot cooking yet.
    Your bread is gorgeous! Wow. The new bakeware is nice too =)
    Oooohhh the sea salt lime bar sounds super delicious. As does the kale pizza. Wow! So green and gorgeous.
    We're really enjoying the heirloom carrots from the market right now too.
    Your kitchen is always so fun =)

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  11. wow lots of goodness here. your bread looks lovely. i do have an enamel roaster so i must give it a try for my overnight bread. it cooks faster i am guessing? love the purple carrots. so pretty. i wonder if they are the original colour just like tomatoes used to be yellow?

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  12. That chip bag looks too good to throw out. I must get to the Coburg market one of these days. I am linking you to my IMK post this month, F

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