In My Kitchen - October 2023

September was a busy month.  Fathers Day.  The Yes23 rally.  A trip to visit friends in country NSW.  The AFL Grand Final.  Catching up with friends.  October has arrived with unseasonally balmy weather and typically soaking wet Spring weather.  All the usual Spring paradoxes are here with 28 C one week and then back down to 15 C the next, a relief the winter fruits are over and yet waiting for summer fruits, enjoying arriving home from work in daylight but still resenting losing an hour of sleep when the clocks go forward for daylight savings!We have been trying some new recipes and as usual, I never have enough time to blog.  And this week I went to a presentation where I learnt the fascinating terms The Matilda Effect and The Matthew Effect about bias in science. 

Above is our AFL Grand Final platter from last weekend.  A fine spread of focaccia, vegies, dips, olives, dolmades, casbews, crackers, raspberries, and dates stuffed with brie.  Served with some non-alcoholic beer.  It was great for snacking as we watched the pre-show Kiss spectacular and a football game that was tense as the lead see-sawed between Collingwood and Brisbane.  Collingwood won by 4 points, delighting the fans in my family.  Seeing past stars Peter Moore and Peter Daicos hug their premiership sons made me nostalgic for a teddy bear my brothers had named after these stars when we were kids.

I meant to revisit my overnight sourdough parmesan, onion and tofu bacon focaccia for the above platter.  It is pretty easy but I forgot to put it together the night before our Grand Final.  We had been in Geelong seeing my parents that day and I was tired.  So in the morning I made a sort of cheat's sourdough focaccia with some yeast as well as sourdough.  I didn't get the proportions and the timing quite right.  It was a bit damp in the middle but nice enough.

On Father's Day weekend we bought a six pack of Crullers at Moon Cruller.  Sylvia had saved some money for them for her dad and her grandfather.  The special that day was a Rum Baba cruller with rum jelly, spiced whipped cream, gold leaf and icing sugar.  Sylvia and her dad shared that one.  I remembered the Rum Baba recipe I had stared at for ages as a child and wondered if I would like it as much as I once thought I would.

Earlier in the month we enjoyed "fish and chips" from Flakes on Sydney Road on a Friday night.  Sylvia insisted on a small pizza because Friday night is pizza night.  I had to try the garlic and cheese potato cake but it was not as good as the plainer traditional potato cakes.  We also had corn jacks and chips.  It was very pleasant waiting for our order inside at the window, feeling cosy as we watched pedestrians and cars outside in the cold evening.

We cannot resist a novelty snack.  This was crass marketing of Netflix's Stranger Things, but we still could not go past this Scoops Ahoy ice cream with U.S.S. Butterscotch flavour.  It was delicious and quite decadent.

We have been trying quite a few meals lately.  This is a riff on an old favourite.  Sylvia has been curious about bok choy so we have had it a few times.  Here I made a stirfry with fried Japanese-seasoned tofu, some changes to vegies, including the spring onion garnish and bok choy.  I chopped up the bok choy and layered it on the cooking vegies with some noodles on top to steam it.  A good way to taste it.

We are still enjoying dumplings.  This dish was a quick stirfry vegies with noodles topped with furikake and dumplings.  We had a few frozen dumplings leftover recently and steamed them in a lidded tub in the microwave.  It was so much quicker and easier than on the stovetop, especially as there weren't many.

I see so many mugs I want to buy but am very disciplined because we have no room in our kitchen.  But when there is a space begging for a cup, I am tempted rather easily.  This Cattitude mug was pretty cute and reminded me of our black cat Shadow!

While I was marching in the Yes23 Rally, Sylvia and E were buying a cute cube croissant.  We shared it when we got home.  It was delicious with a strawberry custard filling.

I went to see a film on Indigenous guys travelling around the North of Australia to talk to Indigenous locals about their attitudes to the Referendum for the Voice to Parliament.  This was followed by a panel discussion.  I had expected that the refreshments in the invitation would be canapes after the event.  It turned out it was Uncle Charlie's Popcorn with two indigenous flavours: sunrise lime and quandong was quite tart and refreshing, but the bush tomato and river mint didn't work quite so well. 

When I was on holidays recently I stopped at The Weekend Local in Euroa and purchased some gifts for my hosts and some for Sylvia and me.  Truffle olive oil for Sylvia.  Mandarin balsamic vinegar for me.  And rose chocolate for both of us.  We've made a start on all of them.  The truffle oil was a nice addition to quite a few meals, the balsamic has been good on baby spinach on the side of a meal, and the chocolate has been creamy with some interesting bits of rose petals, orange zest and pistachios.

Lastly we have been making some new dishes.  I would like to blog about each individually but am sharing them here as I am not sure I will find the time to write up too many draft dishes.  

Above is  a Cauliflower and mushroom tater tot  breakfast casserole.  It was delicious and creamy - no surprise given the double cream added though not cheesy.  Once we had roasted cauliflower and mushrooms and fried tater tots (pomme noisettes in my day), the idea of layering was too fiddly and we just mixed everything together and topped it with the tater tots.  Great comforting food for a cool spring week and excellent with pasta.  I hope to make it again.  Sylvia would like more cheese and I would like to try baking the creamy sauce in with the vegies rather than simmering it separately on the stovetop.

A dish we have made quite a few times for dinner is this One-Pot Tomato Chickpeas and Orzo.  This is easy peasy comfort meal of pasta and legumes.  It is one of the many versions of pasta e ceci.  The main challenge I have is that it needs to be stirred well to stop it catching on the bottom of the pot.  

While I was away this was one of the dishes that Sylvia made for the first time for her and her dad.  She also made her first bechamel sauce for mac and cheese and her first batch of sushi rice for sushi hand rolls.  Even when I am in Melbourne, it is delightful to come home from work and find she has made dinner.  At 14 years old she is at home in the kitchen and can cook far better than many adults!  I am very happy how much my blog helps her but she is also able to follow a recipe she hasn't encountered before.

Finally Sylvia and I agreed that this Dumpling Okonomiyaki was a must-have.  It was worth making just because the name is fun to say.  But it tastes good too.  However I have made it three times and still not found the sweet spot.  If I do all the mixture at once in my cast iron frypan, it takes forever and if I divide the mixture into two lots in the frypan it is not enough dumplings and still takes forever.  But the okonomiyaki part is really good with half a wombok cabbage in it so it is not too stodgy.  The dumplings we have used are a good gingery sort which add to the flavour.  I will continue to try it - perhaps in my stainless steel stockpot or mostly in the oven.  Stay tuned....

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.