Welcome to The Kitchen Playground. Cooking can bring great joy and great despair. I hope that the recipes you find here, many of which are very quick to make with the weeknight in mind, help you to experience more joy than despair. Many recipes have instructions for the Thermomix 31 as well as traditional instructions. The emphasis is on real, fresh food that combines flavour, texture and scent to delight the senses.
Oregano grows like a weed around here. We always end up pulling out massive clumps, more than we can use, dry or give away. I decided on a new plan this year. I’ve made a pesto like concoction to use in cooking rather than dried stuff. Which of course loses it’s flavour very quickly. I […]
In response to Maria’s food challenge. Firstly, I don’t think you could successfully use applesauce as a sugar substitute. You can use apple concentrate but it’s pretty much as bad as sugar. Too much concentrated fructose. One thing that you might like is that it can be used as an oil/butter substitute in baking. You’ll […]
There is something akin to meditation in finely hand chopping lots of lovely fresh ingredients, laying them out in little bowls and then cooking them really quickly. When I make a dish like that I rarely use the thermomix. I like to do it all by hand, even mincing meat where necessary. It is a […]
A recent discussion about calcium intake and absorption inspired tonight’s dinner. Calcium Boosting Tuna Bake 2 cups grated cheese 4 cloves garlic 25g butter 40g flour 400ml milk 1 red onion, finely chopped 2 tablespoons capers 400g tin tuna in spring water 1 bunch silver beet 2 tomatoes, sliced 1 1/2 cups brown lentils If […]
OK, this sandwich is very, very naughty but incredibly delicious. Crispy fried free range bacon and creamy blue cheese. My rear end is expanding just making one for the Bread Winner’s lunch. Lucky I don’t have enough bacon left to actually eat one.
Sometimes I fear I’m going to end up retyping Into the Vietnamese Kitchen in it’s entirety on this blog. So I will suffice to say thast last night I finally made the pantry staple caramel sauce. Used in savoury dishes in Vietnamese cooking it is a bittersweet condiment. This was used in Caramelised Mince Pork […]
Kinder meeting tonight, work tomorrow morning and night, a trillion jobs to do. No time to cook a time consuming meal. One thing is for sure though, the Bread Winner had a nasty take on last week’s cold and I want the house to have a big vegetable infusion. The result, vegetable curry. Less than […]
It’s uncharacteristically cold and wet here today. Most un-February like. Plus the entire family is suffering from a rotten cold. I loathe summer colds. They’re anachronisms to my mind. Good weather for soup though which is nice as I’m still trying to clear out the freezer. Poor thing is crying out for a defrost. I […]
I’ve been neglecting Into the Vietnamese Kitchen of late due to holidays and the need to clean out the freezer. I couldn’t neglect it any longer though, I was missing those heavenly flavours. So tonight, we had had the grilled chicken with salt pepper and lime dipping sauce served western style with a simple green […]
I’m off to yum cha tomorrow for a friend’s birthday. I wanted to take her a little birthday treat and figured a small cake was somewhat apt. Only thing is, my house is rather devoid of sweet things right now as I still have two rogue Christmas kilos to banish from my nether region. I […]