Ganga

When I learned to make pancakes, from The Women's Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook, they were the large, thin pancakes that are so good with lemon and sugar, or spread with jam and rolled up. I even had a special pan that was perfect for cooking them.

I made these for late breakfasts each Sunday for years, with friends joining us for our pancakes.

Years passed..... then all of a sudden everyone is making what I used to call Pikelets, but now people are calling pancakes. I suspect it was an Americanism that crept in. Even all of the pancake recipes in my cookbook library are for the smaller thicker ones, except the Cooking Class Cookbook one. 😬

What was your history with pancakes? Anything other than the smaller, thicker ones? Does anyone remember when the thinner ones were common?

I don't like the thicker ones as much as my original pancakes.

#Pancakes

I can't eat greens yet, on my recovery diet. So sending garden fresh greens off with friends and family.

#FromTheGarden #FromTheKitchen #Vegetarian

I was talking to @mativity@aus.social yesterday about the Middle Eastern desserts, called Milk Puddings by Claudia Roden and "creams" that is sweetened milk thickened with rice flour, cornstarch or other flours to a custard like consistency, with various sweet spice flavourings (saffron, cardamom, rosewater, etc).

It reminded me of Besan Payasam in South India. Sometimes called Chickpea Porridge, this dish is not a porridge in the traditional sense, but more like a custard. It is sweetened milk and spices thickened with chickpea flour. It is delicious!

The recipe is simple. Take some chickpea flour and add to milk. Add saffron, sugar, cardamom, cashews and maybe some dried or fresh fruit and simmer until custard-like. Now you have something sent directly from heaven, I am sure. And made in under 10 minutes. True instant food.

This is a generally a dessert, but it is also great for breakfast. It can form a replacement for egg custard in lots of recipes. Imagine it layered trifle like with fresh fruit.

There are recipes online if you search for Besan Payasam or Besan Kheer.

#FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #IndianFood #Food #Payasam

#FromTheGarden

Things are weird in the veggie garden. The 2 tomato bushes are still growing, flowering and producing a few fruit. At this rate, they will last all Winter and I'll have red ripe tomatoes in Spring! Unheard of.

The borage is growing and flowering. Normally it doesn't emerge until well into Summer. I had to prune one back as it was leading over the path. The leaves are laid on one of the beds yet to be planted.

I heard a bee fly by today. It has been a while, even tho the tulsi is flowering again after the severe pruning.

There are leaf buds on the ornamental grapevine! I haven't even pruned it yet.

In other news, I weeded the carrot bed this morning. It is fiddly work, getting the weeds out without too much disturbance to the carrots.

When I planted the carrot seeds, I transplanted some daikon seedlings from another bed where I had oversown them (on purpose) to thin them out. Of course, they are big now, and the leaves overshadowing the carrots, so I have pulled up half a dozen small'ish daikon for #fermentation.

Time for a cuppa now, and the countdown to the critical alert occurrence. Should be fun.

#FromTheGarden #Gardening #GardeningAU #GardeningAdelaide #FromTheKitchen #GrowYourOwn

Waiting for Spring.

#FromTheKitchen #FromTheArchives #Food #soup #Asparagus #Vegetarian

You can keep your Monte Carlos, your Tim-Tams and your Scotch Fingers. South Australians love Yo-Yo biscuits. Not heard of them? That's because 95% of all production is sold in SA.

https://www.delicious.com.au/food-files/article/yo-yo-arnotts-biscuit-found-only-south-australia/z3gciwmd

#yoyoBiscuits

A gratin with a difference.

A long time ago I fell in love with gratin dishes when I was working in Nancy in France. There was an art theatre there that often showed films in English, so I was a regular visitor. Close by was a little cafe that served only gratin style dishes. It was very convenient to have a meal and then pop next door to the theatre, so it became routine for me to visit. It was so good, I still remember it fondly, especially its wonderful dessert Poire Belle Helene.

This is a slightly different gratin - Fennel Gratin made utterly delicious with feta and honey. The recipe comes from Ilva Berreta, food photographer and former food blogger. I miss her blog, it was full of the most delightful stories and recipes. Ilva calls it a gratin, and who am I to argue.

Fennel bulbs have some of their core removed, and this is chopped, braised, and mixed with feta which is then used to stuff the bulbs. The bulbs are then lined up in a pan and baked with a scattering of rosemary. Finally a drizzle of honey is added before serving.

A different and interesting way to cook and serve fennel.

#FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #Fennel #Gratin #Vegetarian

Spring is nearly here.

#FromTheKitchen #FromTheArchives #salad #SpringFood #food

Tomato Rasam has to be one of the most loved Rasams of South India – it certainly is mine. We have a number of different recipes for Tomato Rasam, as well as variations on Lime Rasam, and this one is one of Meenakshi Ammal’s recipe.

It is an interesting recipe, using tomato with some lime juice as the souring agent instead of tamarind. There is no chilli in this recipe, rather black pepper is used to provide some heat.

The top water of cooked lentils is also used for added flavour (and nutrition), akin to using stock in Western soups. It is a good practice, one I adopted years ago – when there is flavoursome water in which lentils have been cooked, make rasam. Or at least use in soups.

I surprised a friend once – we were on holidays in Hawaii and had cooked some lentils for a lunch dish. I saved the water and whipped up a tasty rasam with some snacks for our afternoon tea. She adored it.

#IndianFood #FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #Rasam #Vegetarian #food

These are the wonderful non-slip socks that they gave me to wear in hospital for physio and for when I could walk in the corridor. They are so good. The beautiful staff snuck me half a dozen pair to bring home.

Having the rubber pads, they are not suitable for washing machines, but I'll hand wash them till I feel I don't need them so much.

#Hospital

How to make a salad - it makes it very simple, love the way it lays out the layers in a salad. It doesn't include raw carrots tho ... I wonder why 🤔

https://observer.co.uk/food/recipes/article/how-to-build-a-perfect-salad

These days my salads are very simple, and from the garden. I don't salt them, and the dressing is a little home made vinegar or some lemon juice drizzled over, then evo. (I might salt tomatoes, radishes and eggs, if included, but not always.) Home grown veg is so wonderfully delicious in ways that store-bought are not.

#food #Links

#FromTheGarden

It has been a while since I've spent time in the veggie garden, due to rain, cold weather and general busyness. So there was a host of veg and herbs to pick today, including ..... wait for it ...... more tomatoes from those bushes that seem to be surviving despite short days, little sunshine and temps down to 1 and 2C at night.

I am picking the tomatoes green when big enough and ripening them inside. They are not the best tasting tomatoes ever, but I roast them or char them in a pan to intensify the flavours. #Winter

In other lovely NEWS - the broad beans are flowering!! There may be early Bbeans if the flowers set. And the loquat flowers have turned into tiny loquats. The possums and parrots will be mighty pleased.

I've picked most of the remaining oranges, but there are tons of mandarins left, even tho the possums help themselves at night. The chinotto oranges are almost ready for pickles. I picked a whole lot to make an early batch.

There are some lovely crimson carrots in the garden haul today. I am extra pleased with these.

I opened a jar of the cauliflower pickles I made for my friend's birthday (and kept 2 small jars for myself). It is lovely, tangy and slightly sweet.

#Gardening #GardeningAU #GardeningAdelaide #GrowYourOwn #FromTheKitchen

Dipping sauces, diluted with light stock, make excellent broths for all sorts of things.

#FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #Noodles #Vegetarian #AsianFood #Food

Kachumber - a peppery Indian Salad.

Chopped salads are so easy to make with a food processor. Simply add the ingredients and pulse until a perfect texture is achieved. This salad is a breeze with the food processor, and can be made in 2 minutes once the vegetables have been peeled.

The recipe is an Indian salad – salads of this sort are not common but also not unusual. They are a spicy take on English food no doubt. In this one we add black pepper and chilli powder to the salad, and it is dressed with lime juice.

#IndianFood #FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #food #salad

I just read this.

Fermentation does not ask fruit to be beautiful.
It asks it to be alive.

So true.

"Modern food systems are built around perfection, uniformity and shelf life, while fermentation is built around transformation.

Supermarkets reject softness. Fermentation embraces it.

Industrial systems prioritise appearance. Microbial systems prioritise life."

#Fermentation #Fermenting #FermentingEverything

It has been a while. I must be getting back into the swing of things. A pic #FromTheArchives .

A delicious and colourful salad of Beetroot, Yoghurt and Preserved Lemon.

Beetroot, one of my great loves.

It's an #Ottolenghi recipe from his book Plenty, or here at the link. I plated it better than he did, I think 😊

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/11/food-and-drink-vegetarian

#FromTheKitchen #Salad #Beetroot #Vegetarian #Food

Rosemary sugar! What a brilliant idea*!!

I've made vanilla sugar, lavender sugar and buddleja sugar in the past, but never thought of using rosemary. To be sprinkled on biscuits, cakes and doughnuts.

Just add a sprig to a jar of sugar and allow to sit for a couple of weeks or until you want to use it, to allow the flavour to infuse the sugar.

Mandarin sugar can also be made with mandarin peels!!

OMG.

Ideas from Food Saver's A-Z by Cornersmith.

*If i wasn't restricting sugar atm.

#Food

Ok, I am checking the recipe for the filling for this week's #DumplingDay - Brussels sprouts, sesame and miso filling. It is just what it says, wilted finely shredded Brussels Sprouts, garlic, light miso, sesame seeds and black pepper.

Recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon's book To Asia with Love. The pic is from her book too. Hopefully the weekend will have time to make these, plus some for the freezer. (Then I will have enough dumplings for 3 meals in the freezer, and I can have DumplingDay more often.

I'll make a scallion-based dipping sauce again.

#food #Dumplings

These overnight rains are a real boon for the garden. And it is spectacular outside atm. Rain drops cover everything, and they are dripping from the leaves of the plants and trees. The sunlight catches each and every drop and every one is a world unto itself.

#FromTheGarden #JoyOfGardening #Gardening #GardeninAU #GardeningAdelaide #BeautyAmongstTheWeeds

Whole mung beans never look pretty or photogenic when cooked, but oh boy, they are tasty and comforting.

Periodically I love to go back to The Monks' Cookbook as it is a connection to the wonderful monks of Kauai, and because the recipes in this book are always simple, not at all fussy, but alway tasty and healthy. And this Mung Dal is a true comfort dish, using whole mung beans cooked with tomatoes and a few spices.

#Food #FromTheKitchen #FromTheArchives #IndianFood #Dal #Vegetarian

Check out Australian classic dishes from the '90's. What are you still making?

https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/popular-90s-dishes/05gxmajv3

#Food #AustralianFood #Links

I had a coffee catch-up yesterday with a friend I haven't seen in a long time, at Nest in Walkerville. It was great to see them again.

Nest is not my favourite location - it is quite noisy. But the coffee was good (new barista) and staff are friendly.

#Adelaide #Coffee

What does Hetty McKinnon look for in a dumpling?

"1. Flavourful filling – no surprises here. Because I am usually using them in salads or stir-fries, I want one that is well-seasoned, but not too salty. I also want the filling to be juicy. No dry filling please.

2. Recognizable ingredients – the filling should not look like mush! I want to be able to taste the vegetables and herbs.

3. A sturdy but thin skin – some brands have a very thick, chewy skin. They are not for me. I prefer a thin-skin that is still robust enough that it won’t break and can withstand pan-frying and tossing in salads, but I want to taste the filling and not just have a mouthful of dough

4. Filling to dough ratio – if a dumpling has a thick wrapper, it often has less filling, which throws off the balance. A good dumpling always has more filling than dough, a plump ‘belly’ with a well-sealed edge."

https://tovegetableswithlove.substack.com/p/dumpling-salad-season-is-here

#Food #DumplingDay #Dumplings #Vegetarian

Good morning beautiful people. We start again. Another week, another beginning. #Monday

I was so pleased to use a whole lot of stuff from the garden yesterday. It was very satisfying. Pomegranates and quinces. A bunch of deepest deep red carrots. A handful of black eyed pea/beans - the first time ever I have eaten these fresh.

I cooked the quinces in pomegranate juice, steamed the carrots and tossed with butter, and shelled the black eyed beans and cooked them with rice and some dill for a pilaf-like dish and stirred through some ghee at the end.

And a salad of steamed chard, some radishes, and a whole lot of different salad greens and herbs from around the garden.

Wishing you a fabulous week of good food, joyful moments, and kindness both given and received.

A big bowl of porridge with amazing dried fruit from the Afghan shop. Yes, late in the day I know but I only nibbled this morning as I had a complex quote to get out.

I have always loved a large bowl of thick, steaming hot porridge with oodles of golden syrup and some cold milk poured around the sides of the porridge. That lovely sweetness of the golden syrup with the porridge, and the contrast of cold milk and hot hot porridge - nothing better.

But, even tho I've relaxed my #NaturopathsRestrictedFoods somewhat, golden syrup is off my list now. So I am incorporating either some self-dried fruit or some of the incredible dried fruits range from the Afghan shop.

And, keeping my dairy low, using soy milk.

And Oh Oh Oh it is good!

Porridge for the win!

#Winter

#Food #Porridge #BreakfastFood #FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating

Hawaiian Chilli Water

Oh my, the year I first made this it became my favourite drizzling sauce for Winter – over soups, vegetables, into dals, on tofu and paneer, on rice, in sandwiches and sauces, with lentils and bean dishes — anything! I even mixed it into amazing dressings.

It is a condiment or hot sauce that is very popular with Hawaiians and has a range of variations on the common base of chillies, garlic, vinegar, salt and water.

As well as a condiment, it is also used as a drink to sip, and as a sauce. Many Hawaiian homes keep Chilli Pepper Water on their table, and guest will bring a bottle of their own home made version to leave with the host.

Why does it work? We know that an acid or sour flavour – vinegar, lemon juice, bitters, tamarind etc – enlivens any dish. Chilli adds interest and heat. Salt brings out flavour. Garlic adds bite and deeper flavours. If you add bay leaf or soy sauce they provide grounded earthy flavours (umami). All of this in one bottle of sauce that is composed mostly of water!

Here's a recipe (there are lots online) https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/chili-pepper-recipes/hot-sauces/hawaiian-chili-pepper-water/ but note that you can add all sorts of things to vary the flavours and work with the seasons. I have added, at different times, turmeric, spring onions, herbs, black peppercorns, bay leaf, umaboshi, pinch or two of sugar, kaffir lime leaf and cumquat peel.

Each time you make it the flavour profile can change depending on what you have available at the time. In this way, it will also change with the seasons.

Right now I am making a fermented version which will be ready in about a week for drizzling this winter.

#FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #FromTheArchives #HawaiianFood #HotSauce #Vegetarian

I do love a good dipping sauce. Think – steamed vegetables, fried vegetables, dumplings, tofu, noodles, spring rolls, summer rolls, sizzling rice squares. The perfect sauce will lift a dish to new heights.

There are many varieties of dipping sauce, and the Japanese or Chinese style ones have their respective core set of ingredients. For Chinese it tends to be soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, Chinese vinegar perhaps, and some ginger and spring onions. Perhaps some chilli. This dipping sauce is another variation on that theme. So very very good.

A dipping sauce is perfect with these vegetable dumplings that I get from the Asian grocery in the freezer section – I put them in a flat pan with a little water and a little oil, and cover the pan. As the water simmers, the dumplings defrost and steam, and when the water evaporates they crisp on the bottom. Flip them over if you wish for a nice crispy top. They are also delicious steamed or even very gently microwaved.

#Food #ChineseFood #FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #DippingSauce #Dumplings

Well dinner tonight is country Yorkes style - reminiscent of food I grew up with in that part of rural South Australia. Tomato soup. Then vegetarian pasty with tomato sauce, heaps of mashed potato, green beans, cauliflower.

#food #Dinner #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating #FromTheKitchen

Oh look! Drinking kvass in The Americans.

Not the beetroot one, like I make. The original, bread based one.

#Fermentation #Ferment #Kvass

I've been wondering a lot about a separate bed in the garden for herbs. At the moment, many large ones are scattered around the veggie beds and they take up too much space. This morning, while working in the garden (in the drizzle 😄 ) I decided that it wouldn't be a raised bed, and decided where it would be. I'll start getting it ready for spring plantings. I am quite excited by the possibilities.

#FromTheGarden #Gardening #GardeningAU #GardeningAdelaide

I pulled some 5-spice tofu out of the freezer to pan fry for tonight's dinner with some stir-fried greens.

There is something about the marinated tofu that has been pressed within an inch of its life, when it has been frozen and defrosted. The flavour intensifies. It is SO good.

I can only find it now and again in the Asian grocery I go to. I stock up when I see it.

#Food #FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating #Dinner #AsianFood

Last winter I made "soup packs" for the freezer whenever I had spare veggies. I'd chop them then freeze them with lentils, herbs, spices and all sorts of flavourings, so when I needed them I could just turn them into the instant pot, add water or stock, and cook.

I found one in the depths of my freezer! #win

So, bear with me, I soaked some soy beans and am now cooking them in the instant pot with twice the amount of water required. Most of the liquid will become a protein-rich stock that I'll use with the soup pack!

The beans and a little liquid will be simmered a little longer with miso, lemon juice, butter and stuff for a lovely bowl of beans for later in the week.

The stock idea and the bowl of beans idea comes from The Book of Tofu, by Shurtleff, in which he talks about soy beans in general, as well as tofu. He includes several different flavouring combinations for mixing with cooked soy beans, and I'm going to try them all (I love soy beans).

All of the recipes I have tried from this book and The Book of Miso have been excellent.

#FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #SoyBeans #Food #Vegetarian #Cooking #CookingTheBooks

I had a look at this book - a third of the 300'ish pages is the story of finding and setting up a guest house which they named Beit Trad in Kfour in the mountainous region of Lebanon. It is gorgeously photographed and covers finding the house, decorating it, developing the food and experience philosophy, setting up the kitchen and staff, and the menus of course.

The rest of the book contains the recipes of the dishes that are served at Beit Trad. None of them are difficult. They are traditional home recipes of the cuisine they are keeping alive there.

My only complaint is that the text in the first part of the book is small and could be a bit darker in colour. It is harder for aging eyes to read.

It is a lovely coffee table book that you'll use in the kitchen.

#Food #CookbookBrowsing #LebaneseFood #Cookbooks

A wonderful read on Lao Gan Ma chilli crisp noodles with a wonderful sauce. What deliciousness!

https://thewoksoflife.com/lao-gan-ma-noodles/

I am using the sauce as a dipping sauce for MORE DUMPLINGS tonight.

#DumplingDay #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmMaking #FromTheKitchen #Dumplings #Link

Bugialli

🧵 1/2

I was sad when Bugialli died about 7 years ago. He was instrumental in bringing Italian regional food to the US – beginning with his first book in 1977, Food of Italy. Surprisingly, he didn’t become as well known in other parts of the world, but that might have been by design.

When French cuisine was being celebrated in the 1970s, Bugialli argued that Italian cooking also deserved to be taken seriously, beginning with the understanding that it varies by region. This fundamental fact, true of any great cuisine, is so often bypassed as we delve into foreign foods – and today the great internet machine condenses ancient and complex cuisines into a few popular dishes.

Bugialli, with his love of his own heritage, scoured Italy for regional dishes and published authoritative books on many sub-cuisines of Italy.

When we think about the handful of people who have been instrumental in exciting other countries about the cuisine of their own country, excited enough to alter the supply-and-demand chain of ingredients, it is difficult to more than a couple. Roden, Child, David, Thompson – can I include Oliver in this list? – all English speaking passionate foodies who fell in love with the food and food philosophy of a different country. Bugialli and Jaffrey are two of the few who have successfully translated their own cuisine in a way that not only is acceptable to others but has also driven culinary change.

You might expect there to be more people who have achieved notoriety in this way. The difficulty is, ...

#Food #Bugialli #ItalianFood #Cookbooks

I love this, and it reminds me of my time in France, where I spent many weekends in Paris.

https://frenchglimpses.substack.com/p/15-parisian-habits-that-will-change

#Travel #FrenchFood

I made the first simple kitchari in the newish rice cooker this morning, and it turned out really well - better than the old rice cooker.

Rice cookers make a North Indian style* kitchari - there is a congee setting that I could work with to make a more South Indian porridgey type kitchari I suppose, but I like it this way. The Instant Pot makes it more porridgey when I fancy that.

About ¼ cup red lentils and ¾ cup rice. I added a whole lot of purslane from the freezer and some spices.

* more pilaf like

#Food #Khichdi #Kitchari #IndianFood #FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating

"Girl Dinners". Ugh. Or are they a good idea? https://www.foodandwine.com/girl-dinner-restaurant-trend-12007746

Don't throw your sweet potato leaves away (if you are lucky enough to have them in your garden) https://foragerchef.com/sweet-potato-leaves/

Mouth ulcers? Check your diet. Some foods can trigger them https://www.superchargedfood.com/reviews/mouth-ulcers-and-your-diet-the-trigger-foods-and-nutrient-gaps-behind-them/

#Food #Links

Kosumalli is a delightful Indian salad generally made with mung dal and cucumber, (with spices of course) but other vegetables can be used. There are many variations of this salad – we have at least sixtthat we make. It is an easy salad to construct, once the dal is soaked.

#IndianFood #Food #FromTheKitchen #FromTheArchives #Vegetarian

I needed a break, so popped out into the Autumn sunshine to weed the Dutch irises. I got over half of them done. They've really enjoyed the rain these past 2 months, and are looking very healthy - they are also multiplying.

I hope the flowering is good this year 🤞

In other news for those who follow the saga of the non-flowering bella donna plants, despite all the recalcitrance about putting up flowers, the leaves have now popped up in neat rows throughout the whole garden. Grrr. I want to rip them all out, but can't be bothered. They are so teasing me with their leaves.

#FromTheGarden #GardeningAU #GardeningAdelaide

The oven is on (and will warm the kitchen) and I am roasting brussels sprouts, broccoli and tofu. I'll add the cooked soy beans with a miso dressing/glaze at the end and hit it all with lemon when cooked.

#Food #FromTheKitchen #BudgetEats #NaturopathsRestrictedFoods #Vegetarian #WinterFood