Category Archives: Cooking

Unveiled

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Last week I was watching as the builder was putting the finishing touches to the pantry. Then there was some final sanding and painting to do.

The final step was to rearrange things. It was a big job and I took my time and there is still some more tweaking as usage patterns develop. Now it is time for the big reveal.

Since it is a long, narrow space it is impossible to photograph an overall view.

The extended benchtop, drawers and overhead shelving. Note the LED strip lighting under the open shelving.

The full wall of open shelving on the other side. The height placement of the shelves was specifically determined according to the height of what I wanted to store.

Since well before the pantry renovation began I have been dreaming of how I would organise the new, improved version.

Let me show you a few closer details.

I previously had these plastic tubs full of plastic storage containers in the corner cupboard. It was a reasonable solution but having them in a deep drawer is even better.

I spotted these 3 cute glass jars in an op shop recently and immediately decided that they would be perfect for GMan’s collection of teas – black, Earl Grey and green tea. All ready for making tea and coffee. The mugs are hanging just out of sight to the right of this photo.

I have reinstated the ‘breakfast corner’ with the kettle and toaster together near the entrance to the pantry.

The far end of the extended bench is home to the Kitchen Aid stand mixer and airfryer, both of which are used frequently.

Other regularly used appliances are stored on the open shelves. I have placed them at a height which makes them within easy reach and simple to access.

The storage buckets of bulk dry goods stand on the floor.

There is space to store the empty glass jars and bottles.

Teatowels and aprons in a drawer close to where they are used.

The addition looks completely seamless as we were able to match all of the components with the original. I am beyond ecstatic to see this all come together and I am really looking forward to the increased functionality of my kitchen and pantry.

Homemade Sauce/Dressing

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Fromm time to time I stumble across interesting sounding recipes on Facebook. I generally ‘save’ them on Facebook and often forget to go back and look them again. However, a few days ago I saw one that I could not wait to try out.

This is for a vegan ‘sour cream’ made from sunflower seeds. Sounds a bit ridiculous? That was my thought, too.

VEGAN ‘SOUR CREAM’

1 cup sunflower seeds
1¼ cups water
⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ onion
1 large clove garlic
1 teaspoon salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and blitz until creamy. Makes about 500ml.
Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze portions for later use.

NOTE: I have not tried freezing it as yet.

NOTE: You could also try adding additional spices or nutritional yeast to alter the flavour a little.

I know it sounds improbable and ridiculously easy – it really is that simple.

This is the result, although some has already been used. I would say it is a bit like a cross between sour cream, yoghurt and mayonnaise.

This was my lunch today with a generous serve of my new-found dressing.

Please note that this is not GMan-approved but I am happy to have found an easy and tasty alternative.

However, he is still raving about one of my other homemade sauces, a bechamel-style sauce made using cauliflower instead of flour and butter as the base. We have successfully grown cauliflower this winter and the last 2 became another batch of the sauce. The recipe is here and it freezes really well.

Op Shop Finds

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It is hard to believe that it is a week since my last post. There has been plenty happening, including committee meetings, a friend’s milestone birthday party, family visiting from interstate as well as lunch with a group of extended family. PHEW!!

On Saturday we were out and about with our visitors and had fun checking out a few op shops in our travels. I had a couple of small wins with the spatula ($1) at one shop and 3 more of my favourite jars (50c each) at another.

The spatula shows very little sign of previous use and the metal handle means that I can safely prop it on the side of the pan.

The jars are my some of my favourites when making jams or chutneys as well as for general storage. The wide neck and straight sides make them simple to fill using a wide-necked funnel and also easy to scrape out the last of the contents.

Patience Pays Off

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This afternoon GMan was weeding in the garden and he removed the cover from the raised bed where I planted some cauliflower seedlings months ago. They have had no attention and amazingly we found one ready to pick.

There are about 4 or 5 others which are a bit smaller but will be ready to harvest before too long.

Meanwhile, the chard continues to produce enough to pick. Here is what I picked this afternoon and it will be used for dinner.

We arrived home yesterday after being away for a few days. We went to see our football team play in the first of the finals and it was a very disappointing outing as they were thoroughly outplayed. They do have one more chance this weekend. I am hopeful but not confident. Our other engagement was a difficult one as we gathered with many others to farewell a friend who had died much too young after a courageous battle with cancer.

Out of respect for everyone involved there are no photographs.

However, here is a sweet reminder of the joy of little things.

What’s For Dinner?

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I do not often post our main meals these days as we mostly eat a selection of the meals already on the index. However, a couple of weeks ago I made a new creation which was a great success so tonight I photographed the steps when making it again.

CREAMY MUSTARD CHICKEN – serves 2

Ingredients

Half onion
Handful of silverbeet
1 chicken breast fillet
1 medium mushroom
250ml cauliflower white sauce** (recipe here) or you could use regular white sauce
2 spoons of mustard mayonnaise

Method

Finely slice the onion, cut and finely slice the silverbeet stalks. Shred the silverbeet leaves and slice the mushroom. Cut the chicken fillet into small strips. Cook the chicken lightly until cooked but not browned. (I cook the chicken in the airfryer). Set the chicken aside.

Saute the onion and stalks, add sliced mushroom and chicken. Cook for 5 minutes. Add cauliflower sauce and mustard. Finally, stir in the shredded silverbeet and cook for a few more minutes until the silverbeet is softened and the mixture is all heated through.

I served the chicken dish with mashed potato, carrots and green beans. It works equally well with rice which I chose previously or pasta could be another option.

Birthday Lunch & Harvest Time

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I mentioned in my last post that I had been cooking.

We hosted lunch on Sunday for GMan’s birthday. There were 17 of us altogether and I did almost all of the preparation beforehand.

Here is a list of what we ate.

NIBBLES

Raisins
Spiced peanuts*
Dips – beetroot, tzatziki, hummus*
Cheese – brie
Biscuits – water crackers, GF crackers, pita chips

HOT SNACKS

Mini meatballs*
Kofta balls*
Potato wedges*

Sour cream
Tomato sauce*

MAINS

Green chicken curry*
Beef casserole*
Rice

DESSERT

Mulberry and apple crumble*
Ice cream
Cream

The spiced peanuts and tomato sauce are homemade pantry items and wedges were made on the day but everything else that I made was prepared in advance and either refrigerated or frozen. This made for relatively easy catering.

There are very few photos, however, here are a couple from when I was making the dessert.

I retrieved about 1kg of mulberries that had been in the freezer since December. I think we picked and froze about 6kg. It is great to have them to use at other times.

The mulberries and apple combined and ready to be refrigerated. I made the crumble topping and froze it. I assembled the crumbles and popped them in the oven on the day.

It is great to eat seasonal produce but it is fairly easy to store some things for a treat in the off season. It is difficult to imagine this mulberry tree laden with fruit but that is exactly what it will be like in another 4 months. It is in a public space in our town and the fruit is appreciated by many.

Meanwhile, there is abundance of citrus everywhere at the moment. These grapefruit were being given away.

So, I made more marmalade. That should keep GMan supplied with breakfast condiments until next winter.

A Spot of Sewing

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Food preparation and cooking has been my main focus for the past few days as we prepare to host a birthday lunch for GMan on Sunday. There will be more details about what is on the menu in a future post.

Today I managed to do a bit of sewing in between the cooking. I had noticed that the covers on a couple of the spare pillows were looking a bit stained and generally less than ideal. So, I decided that it could not be too difficult to replace them.

The first step was to carefully slit the end of the cover and remove it. The inside of the pillow is simply no more than a compressed bundle of microfibre filling in the appropriate shape.

I used the old cover to cut a new piece of fabric from some offcuts of sheeting in my stash and stitched 3 sides before carefully replacing the pillow inside.

The end was then pinned.

Finally, I stitched and finished the seam with bias binding.

The 2 revamped pillows in their pillowcases and back on the bed.

Back In Town

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It is 3 days since we arrived back in Australia from our overseas trip. We were away for 4.5 weeks and visited Scandinavia 9Denmark, Sweden and Norway). I know that a lot of you followed our adventures but if you have not seen the blog here is the link. https://mobilecastle.wordpress.com/

Meanwhile, life is beginning to return to normal here. Bags are unpacked and everything mostly put away. One load of washing done and meals prepared. GMan is making bread. Yesterday we did some shopping. The bonus of a comfortably stocked pantry and freezer is that it was really only milk, cheese and fresh fruit and vegetables that we needed.

Yesterday I was occupied dealing with some admin work as a result of some of the mail that arrived while we were away. Today I have been working on hemming the binding on a quilt. I need to have it finished by Saturday and it is a long way around a queen sized quilt with tiny hand stitches. It will be worth it when finished. I hope to show you the finished product in a couple of days.

There is not too much exciting for blog photos so this is our dinner tonight. I made a big pot of bolognese sauce and the remainder will go in the freezer for future meals.

Made to Measure

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I am always open to new ways of preparing or cooking food to simplify the process.

Since buying the airfryer about 18 months ago I have successfully modified my cooking methods for several recipes. One of these was zucchini quiche which I have converted to mini quiches made in the airfryer using muffin rings.

I recently took this a step further and made them in a muffin pan. Of course, a full-sized muffin pan does not fit in my small airfryer so I said to GMan that I needed to get another one so that he could cut it down to size. I had imagined that I might find one in an op shop but I did not even have to go that far. We were walking the dog one day and noticed a pile and goods on the verge to give away. Yes, it included a somewhat rusty muffin pan. GMan clean it up and cut in into some smaller sections that now fit in the airfryer.

I was very pleased with these zucchini muffins I made yesterday.

There will be no stopping me now. It will be so easy to whip up a small quantity of muffins fresh at anytime without having to heat the huge oven.

A Bunch of Basil

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I grew a very successful crop of basil during the summer.

I made some pesto early in the season and also used some of it fresh. However, it is now going to seed and taking up space that I want to use for winter crops so it is really time for it to go. Yesterday I picked an armful of the younger shoots, stripped the leaves and rinsed them.

This haul was 4 tightly-packed cups of basil leaves so it was time to make more pesto.

Here is my recipe.

BASIL PESTO

4 cups basil leaves, tightly packed
7 tablespoons sunflower seeds
4 cloves garlic
1 lemon, juice and rind
5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Place the basil, sunflower seeds and garlic in food processor and process until finely chopped and combined. Add the lemon juice, rind and nutritional yeast. Process until thoroughly combined. Gradually add the olive oil until desired consistency is reached. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I have chosen to replace the traditional ingredients of cheese and pine nuts with nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds which makes this recipe not only gluten-free but also nut and dairy free.

It was rather exciting to know that I had used basil, lemon and garlic which I had grown as well as locally produced olive oil.