In My Kitchen - May 2015

We are well and truly into the autumn with its mellow fruits.  The camellia bush is full of flowers, our lemon and lime trees are heavy with fruit, and the fruit bowl is filled with crunchy red apples.  Oh joy!  The nights are drawing in and making it difficult to photograph food in natural light.  We are excited by farmers markets, a wobbly tooth and the annual hard rubbish collection.  Above is the lemon tree.  There is lemonade in my kitchen.

We have been visiting farmers markets in Coburg, Geelong and CERES.  Here is a selection of some of the produce.  Strawberries to nibble on, a fun stripey zucchini, freshly picked walnuts and a selection of in-season apples.

Some time ago the little food processor attachment that came with my hand held blender ceased to work.  Despite recently buying a high speed blender, I miss the little attachment for quick small jobs.  I gratefully accepted a hand held blender from my brother who has packed up his house in favour of travelling in a caravan.  It seems to do the trick, though occasionally spurts soup everywhere thanks to gaps in the stick blender attachment.

I am such a sucker for a quirky crisp flavour.  So I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try Windsors Camembert and Quince crisps.  They was surprisingly good.  Cheesy with a slight sour fruity flavour.  Though I would be unlikely to eat them regularly, this packet made me wish manufacturers were more adventurous more often.  Meanwhile I still dream of baking a quince and cheese tart one day.

I am much better at resisting a new twist on a favourite chocolate bar.  There are just too many to buy every new 'edition' and often the original is still the best.  Yet I fell for the Cherry Ripe bar with Dark Chocolate Ganache.  After all it was the 90 year anniversary and a local icon to be supported.  This bar was nice but no improvement on the original.

I made a visit to Terra Madre in Northcote a few weeks back.  It was hard to exercise restraint with such interesting groceries on offer.  My purchases were hit and miss.  It's good to have black beans.  The kale chips were like corn chips with a tiny bit of kale.  E loves the Devilish Tomato and Chilli Relish.  I am not sure I will ever use the VegeSet (substitute for gelatine).  I made a vegan omelet with the silken tofu.  Most exciting was finding Daiya shredded vegan cheese.

I couldn't wait to try the Daiya.  I made a melted cheese sandwich with kale pesto.  It was really really good and gooey and I think it might have had stretch too.  Then I got worried about how long the cheese would last and put the rest into a Vegetable Nut Crumble.  It was really good.

On E's birthday he was given some chocolates that have lasted surprisingly for a couple of weeks.  He also received a jar or WispaGold caramel hot chocolate that we all love.  It is from Treats From Home that imports British groceries for ex-pats.  So I am not sure it will be a regular in our house.  Maybe just as well.  In the photo is also a Hawaiian girl door stop and some 3D glasses for a fancy birthday card.

Sriracha, like Daiya, appears in lots of blog posts I read but is not so common in my part of the world.  I found a bottle on sale at Asian supermarket KFL.  We have barely touched it but I am sure once E has finished some other hot sauce he will enjoy it.  I also bought some blueberry tea and frozen edamame beans.  I must write more about this supermarket one day.

A week or so ago I made a Red Lentil and Celery Soup.  It is a crazy world where a full bunch of celery was cheaper than a half bunch in clingwrap.  I love having some celery about but a bunch always seems a lot to use.  This soup seemed a good way to use a lot of celery but I am not sure the flavours were quite right.  It may have been my substitution of parsnips for some of the carrots as I could taste them a bit too much.  I might try it again some time.

The other morning Sylvia called me into the kitchen to show me how nicely she had plated her breakfast and ask to use my phone to photograph it.  Yes, it seems that she thinks photographing food and posting it online is quite normal.  How different from my young self.  At her age, I had never heard of computers, the phone had to be plugged into the landline, and we didn't take many photos because it was expensive to develop film.

Lastly I have finally sprouted my first batch of mung beans.  I was surprised at how much they grew from the dried beans (above).  Almost three times the volume.  See a photo of them sprouted here.  So cheap and so easy.  I have always loved mung bean sprouts.  They are so good in a salad sandwich or scattered over a salad.  

And now that I have finally sprouted mung beans, it seems I might one day do other things I always hoped I would.  Onwards and upwards.

I am sending this post to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for her In My Kitchen event.  Head over to join in (by 10th of each month) and/or check out what is happening in other bloggers' kitchens.