In My Kitchen: July 2024

July has been a crazy cold month.  We have had lots of miserable rainy days that require warming meals. We have had lots of good food but I have been too busy with NAIDOC / Indigenous ideas and the Fairy Nook to write much up else.  I have at least 5 recipes from this month that I would love to write up if I have the time.  Life is only going to get busier when I start a new job next week.  And I have had the most intense onboarding I have ever had for a job - including a blood test!  I will write up many of our activities in My Monthly Chronicles but we have been enjoying dill from the garden, had a small burst of Minions fever and Sylvia has confirmed her peanut allergy with a new skin prick test that has also identified a possible buckwheat allergy.

The top photo is a quick noodles with kimchi that Sylvia loves.  I don't love kimchi.  We have had a few jars of it that went off before we could use it.  I don't like the huge pieces of cabbage.  It is too spicy for my liking.  But I know it is surfing the zeitgeist and the fermentation is good for the gut.  It is hard to avoid.  Sylvia likes the Keep it Cleaner kimchi from the supermarket.  I bought her the Kehoe's Kitchen red kimchi at a health food store and she was not impressed.

It is no surprise that Sylvia, with her love for kimchi, had her eye on a recipe for Kimchi fried rice.  It is fairly easy to make and tasted good, even though a bit spicy for me.  I liked it even better on the second time I made it, possibly because I served it with lightly-fried snow peas and well-fried tofu bacon.  It also helped that I squeezed a lot of moisture from the kimchi the second time.

We have been quite fond of Recipe Tin Eats Broccoli Fritters lately.  I really loved serving them with an Apple Beet and Carrot Salad that I found on Scratch Made Food.  It was an easy salad and lasted well for days in the fridge.  I was prompted to make it when I bought beetroot for Borscht (see further down the page).  If I bought just a few beetroot for the soup the individual ones were really wrinkly and soft.  The fresh firm beetroot could be found in a larger bunch.  So I bought the bunch and had enough over for the salad.  I also had the salad on sandwiches, mixed with pasta and with rice dishes.

Other than pizza, there has not been much sourdough baking lately.  However I did make this excellent focaccia topped with steamed sweet potato, feta and olive focaccia.  I have had too many experiences of vegan pizza where the toppings do not hold on without the glue of pizza so I sprinkled some grated cheddar and mozzarella cheese under the toppings.  It was delicious and very moreish.  Update: I posted the sweet potato, feta and olive focaccia recipe.

When I saw this Broccoli loaf on Hungry Happens, I loved how it looked like an unyeasted bread with broccoli.  The one I made was not that robust.  It had a softer texture that was more akin to the Zucchini Slice that I had often as a child.  I love zucchini slice so I was pretty happy with the Broccoli loaf even if it did not turn out as I expected.  Sylvia has made it since and we loved it then all over again!

Sylvia has made No boil baked mushroom stragonoff a few times now.  When she made it earlier in the month, it was a bit dry but when she tried it again with more liquid it was much better but it spilled over the oven and was still not quite as creamy as I would expect of a straganoff.  Despite this, we enjoyed it over a few nights this month.

Another dish that was lovely though not quite as I expected was this Creamy Greek Chickpea Soup.  It looked really creamy in the recipe on Food By Maria.  Mine was a thin broth rather than creamy and I should have checked the seasonings and lemon juice additions more at the end because the balance was too lemony.  No matter how you advise about seasoning in a recipe, it does require some level of understanding to make a meal great.  I also found it quite similar, though not quite as good, as a favourite vegan version of Avgolemono with chickpeas.  My preference was to add tahini instead of egg at the end.  Sylvia added lightly whisked egg to hers and was more judicious with her seasonings.  She was a big fan of the soup even though she usually prefers her soups thicker! 

I went to buy my usual laundry detergent recently (Bosisto's sensitive laundry powder) and struggled to find it.  Once I found it I saw how different the new black packaging was to the familiar red and green one.  As I was searching the supermarket shelves I was struck by how few laundry detergents came powdered in a box and how many more are now in liquid form in plastic bottles.  I felt quite old school with my top loader washing machine which is almost 20 years old.  You can see how the control panel has seen better days but is hanging in there!

When I talked to friends they say front loader washing machines are all the rage and more environmentally friendly.  Sigh!  We have recently moved from crystal to paper pellet kitty litter for Shadow after finding that the crystal litter is hard to get because it is not environmentally friendly.  I dislike change but will do it for a good cause.  I am not looking forward to when my faithful old washing machine is finally kaput and I have to make some hard decisions.

Home made fast track sourdough pizza is our comfort food on Friday nights.  One of Sylvia's recent successes has been this (white or tomato-free) mushroom pizza with goats cheese and truffle seasoning that we brought home from Rome.  She is still in love with zucchini pizza but I really love this mushroom one.

Arnotts Barbecue shapes are a sentimental favourite.  Like a lot of manufacturers they love to riff on the original.  When we saw how cute these x-box shapes were and that they were half price we bought a box.  I had fun eating them with chop sticks after seeing Emily eating Cheetos like this on Criminal Minds to avoid getting her hands caked in seasoning.  When Sylvia found me doing this, she reminded me that Emily was high on weed when she did it on the tv show.  But who needs drugs to be weird?

This borscht with beans and grains was amazing.  I made it to use up bits and pieces in the fridge and pantry.  I loved every mouthful.  Traditional Eastern Europeans probably are quite faithful to a recipe but I found some different versions online and on my blog.  My version was most excellent.  It was very hearty with a well flavoured broth.  I loved serving it with yoghurt and dill from the garden.  I hope to write more about it soon.

These flowers were brought by Kerin as a celebration when I got offered a new job.  She brought them from Friday Flowers by Swagata.  Swagata picks flowers from her Coburg North garden each week to sell to locals.  Aren't they beautiful!  They are photographed with some of Sylvia's windowsill plants.

I made Delia Smith's oven roasted ratatouille again.  It is a great dish to have around the house.  I had it for dinner with rice and tofu bacon.  It was also delicious in sandwiches, as a side dish and on pizza with olives and cheese.

Cheese and parsley muffins are a favourite recipe of Sylvia's.  She riffed on them recently by adding zucchini and herbs from the garden (parsley, dill, thyme).  We have got quite good at wrapping the grated zucchini in an old tea towel and squeezing out as much liquid as possible.  The muffins made such excellent snacks.  

When I hung the washing on the clothes line this morning, I thought I saw a slug in a hoodie but found it was just a rogue piece of grated zucchini that had eluded my attempts to rinse out the tea towel after the squeezing!

I decided I needed new cupcake papers for craft projects.  So we visited My Dream Cake in the Western suburbs of Melbourne.  It fittingly describes itself as a cake decorating super store.  This was a warehouse of amazing food dyes, fondants, toppers, shapes and all sorts of decorations.  I wandered through with my jaw on the floor as I saw what people use to create such amazing cakes.  I never knew so much baking bling existed.  As well as the cupcake papers, we bought black cocoa powder, green macarons, green shimmer and a red velvet cupcake.

While out in the West, we also visited Mitko Deli and Cafe nearby in Albion.  It had an amazing array of pickles, pierogi and other Polish goods.  We bought this packet of Sam's Pierogi that is made in Melbourne by Eastern European migrants.  They are excellent and we are looking forward to eating the rest of the packet that is still in the freezer.

We then went on to Sunshine, one of the best suburb names in Melbourne's West.  We love the Helping Hands Mission op shop there.  The above photo shows what we bought for $12 (candlesticks, piano for dolls house, Anh Do book, necklaces, painting, a bundle of dessertspoons, a glass dish and a stack of silver plates).  I really love the painting of produce that is now hanging above our fridge.

Also in the photo are a pruner set, two gnomes and blue fish with plant that we bought at Bunnings hardware store.  I have used secateurs in the garden for years but the one in the pruner set is the first time I have bought any.  My mum usually gives me a pair of old ones she has hanging about her garden.  It felt very adult to be buying my own!

I have written about how I made a nut roast with an Aboriginal flag design.  The above photo is of a slice of the nut roast that I diced and played with making into a map of Australia - complete with Tassie - which retained elements of the flag.  It seems I need a little practice with making the shape of Australia!

The recent release of Despicable Me 4 at the cinema has set off a small burst of Minions fever both in our house and with marketers.  That is why Sylvia asked E to buy her a Minions happy meal at MacDonalds.  It is not the sort of thing I would buy her but her dad eats meat and has the occasional Maccas meal.  Sylvia had some of the vegetarian part of the meal and was delighted with the little AVL Dave Minion figure.

As Sylvia has become a matcha enthusiast, it was only a matter of time until we purchased a bowl with a matcha whisk at Lunar Mart in Brunswick.  Isn't it gorgeous!  We haven't used it yet but have matcha pancakes on our radar.

Also at Lunar Mart we bought another set of gorgeous chop sticks and a packet of Steamed Dumplings with Japchae: Korean Sir-Fried Glass Noodles.  I am looking forward to the dumplings.  Perhaps I will wait until my new purchase of a microwave steamer is delivered.

We visited Oasis Cafe and Store in Fairfield with my parents.  After lunch we were very tempted by the groceries but I managed to get away with just one jar of Macedonian Tahini with Cocoa.  It is like a healthier version of nutella.  By which I mean, delicious and even quite moreish.  I loved it more than Nutella because it does not have the dairy powder intensity.  One of my favourite snacks lately has been the chocolate tahini spread on Vita Wheat dry biscuits.

Tonight I was warning Sylvia not to fall for the marketing tactics of cafes offering freebies in return for signing up to websites.  It is always easier to see the weaknesses in others than myself.  Unfortunately I did not avoid temptations in the supermarket of a half price packet of Roses chocolates.  I am such a sucker for a bargain and pretty packaging.

I did however resist the temptation of the Gotham Doughnuts which recently opened in Coburg.  While they were really cute, my weakness is more geared towards the jam doughtnuts at the Vic Market.  The photographed Biscoff doughnut and Frog in a pond doughnut were bought for E and Sylvia.  I admit I had a taste of each and they were lovely.

It was 3 C when I got up the other morning and took my bike for a service.  It was one of a few bike rides into freezing headwinds lately.  One trip was so bad it was making my head ache.  This sort of weather is perfect for a bowl of this wonderful warming creamy gnocchi with kale. 

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.