In My Kitchen March ‘18
“A pinch and a punch for the first of the month.”
The first of the month means it’s time to head over to link up with Sherry at Sherry’s Pickings for the monthly In My Kitchen forum of worldwide food bloggers. The world is at your finger tips, just click on the link at the bottom of the page.
The end of February marked my blogging anniversary. In the six year life of Please Pass The Recipe more than 300,000 people have looked at one or other of the 605 recipes I have posted. By far the most popular has been my recipe for Oat and Walnut Crackers followed closely by my dear Grandma’s recipe for Passionfruit Flummery.
oat and walnut crackers
Grandma’s Passionfruit Flummery
Blogging has improved my writing and photographic skills and blogging had broadened my cooking boundaries, but the best thing I found in Bloggerland has been the bunch of like minded people I have met. Thank you. Without you this would be a lonely endeavour.
The beginning of March marks the end of summer in Australia, but autumn is an elusive season in Brisbane. The high temperatures and oppressive humidity continue so our meals still centre around quick cooked and raw foods.
In my kitchen flavoursome dressings make an important contribution to nearly every meal. While I continue to make by own infused oils and vinegars, high quality commercial products are welcome on my pantry shelves.
Cobram infused oils
Recently at Costco I purchased these Cobram oils as a single package. The lemon and herb oils I’ll use to add subtle flavour to raw or steamed greens and I’ll add a few drops of the chilli oil as a garnish on Asian dishes.
Cobram’s garlic infused oil has been certified by Monash University as suitable for the FODMAP diet. Sadly, cloves of garlic both raw and cooked are a major gut irritant for me so I use a little of this oil in nearly every dish I prepare.
Rice Malt Syrup
In My Kitchen I have a jar of Rice Malt Syrup. It’s wonderful tummy friendly approximation for fructose laden honey. The texture is very similar to honey and there is even a hint of honey flavour although it’s not burdened by intense honey sweetness.
Dressed by Maggie Beer
Also at Costco I picked up these quality Maggie Beer products. Maggie is an iconic figure in Australia’s food media. Her warm and generous personality became widely known via “The Cook and The Chef” TV series 2006-2009 which was filmed in her home kitchen. She taught us about the wonderfully gentle acidity of verjuice by adding it to nearly every dish she cooked, both sweet and savoury. Since that time I have considered my pantry incomplete without verjuice.
The Maggie Beer Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Barrel Aged Red Wine Vinegar are also destined for the salad bowl.
Where’s the cheese?
Fruit pastes to match with cheese were an indulgence, but comparing the price per package against the bulk buy we just couldn’t walk away. Mr PPTR loves the contrast of cheese with these sweet and intensely fruity conserves. We’d already eaten the MB quince paste by the time I thought to take a pic, lucky for him there’s Luke Mangan quince paste leftover from a gift hamper.
I Love India
In My Kitchen I have a copy of “I Love India” by Anjum Anand. Unfortunately, this book belongs to my local library, but I’ve added the title to my gift wish list. Meanwhile I have 3 weeks to cook some of the recipes. It’s a wonderful collection of light dishes similar collected from the length and breadth of India, food with strong influences from various communities that have for centuries called India home. While this is the 10th book published by this author, I’ve only just learned of her work through Eat Your Books.
Variations on Jewish Latkes go by many names. When I was a child my Mum called fried grated potato patties mock fish, but hash browns, rösti and latkes are all pretty much the same thing. Those who regularly read my blog know I’m endeavouring to use my cookbooks more frequently so recently I made the latkes recipe from Ottolenghi’s cookbook Jerusalem. The ingredient list was 1/3 parsnip, 2/3 potato with cornflour and egg white added as binding. I was disappointed. The latkes I made tasted of neither potato or parsnip. We much prefer my Mum’s own unsophisticated version of grated potato, squeezed dry in a tea towel then tossed with a little flour. This experience proves to me nothing can beat Mum’s homestyle cooking.
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34 comments on “In My Kitchen March ‘18”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
Happy belated blog-o-versary! We are inching toward spring here. Cannot wait!
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Thank you 🙏🏻
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Many happy returns!
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Thanks Michelle, that time has gone very quickly
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Lovely getting a glimpse into your kitchen this month Sandra! The MB products are dear to my heart as well. It’s almost lunchtime and I’m salivating just thinking of those latkes… not to mention the passionfruit flummery! Happy 6th Blogiversary… such an achievement and a beautiful record of life, love and food! xx
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Happy 6 year anniversary on the blog. What a coincidence – I just made a batch of those oatcakes with walnuts today. The number of times I look up that recipe might have added to the statistics. Looks like you are stocking up the kitchen for more experimentation. I also love fruit pastes with cheese and I can understand the indulgence. Sorry to have missed a number of your posts this past month – the flatbread and (Fattoush) salad looked really nice and I’ve had a quick look now, but definitely go back.
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No apologies needed, life happens! The walnut and oat crackers have been a great hit, I make a batch every other week. All they need is cheese on top
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Happy Blogversary lovely Mrs R! And a lovely post to celebrate it too. 🙌🤗
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Thanks Cheery, your comments always brighten my day
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You have an interesting selection of products this month. I also wish our Costco carried more products from Australia, each store seems to have a different selection. I guess it is good that they are going more ‘local’. The Maggie Beer and Cobram products sound very intriguing.
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The local library is a treasure trove of cookbooks! And I’ve found that in Canberra you can suggest books for the library to purchase, rather easily too. In the past 6 months I think they’ve ordered at least a dozen for me. Been curious to try those Cobram Estate infused oils, but wasn’t sure if buying the pack from Costco was too much of a risk for me. Did you like all of them? Hope you get some relief from the heat and humidity soon – I’m fearing the cold weather days!
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I often get library books that are brand new, all I have to do is reserve a copy and in time it arrives. I used infused oils for many different things, well worth the money I think. Heading south for a holiday and weather relief
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Congratulations on your six year blogversary – 605 recipes! Wow! and now I must investigate the unknown “flummery”. It looks like it might be a pudding or custard creation.
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Thanks Dee, flummery was quite a thing here when I was a kid, perhaps you cal it jelly whip?
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I love those infused oils. So much easy flavour. I’m also toying with the idea of making my own.
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Infused oils just need time and temperature control, but are worth the effort. I have parmesan and lemon oil on the go all the time.
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i like Anjum’s tv shows. she seems like a lovely lady. she was out here making a show a couple of (a few?) years ago. i love flavoured oils too. must be sad not being able to eat garlic. i love it raw or cooked, well, in things i mean not just like an apple. our dad used to grate many potatoes by hand to make potato thingies. i don’t remember what we called them. oh yes this humidity is doing me in. bring on winter. cheers sherry x
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Is she on pay TV? That may explain why I’d never heard of her. I’ve learned to live without onion and garlic, although it’s challenging/impossible when eating out. I heard the heavy humidity descrbed as soup yesterday, very apt. Heading south shortly, I’ll probably be complaining about the cold the entire time. Sx
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Wouldn’t we love it if our Costco started importing those very interesting Australian products! The selection is good here — but different.
Ottolenghi is very original so his recipes vary from any tradition, as I see it.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
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The world is a very small place, it may happen one day. I love that despite their repuation as a cut price retailer Costco has a mixed selection including real local quality products
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I love Cobram, it’s really the only oil I use these days.
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Good choice!
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I’m really not sure where Ottolenghi got his latkes recipe, but I grew up in Jerusalem and can assure you it’s not the recipe used in most Israeli homes. No parsnip nor cornstarch was used. Only grated potatoes and onions, with eggs and some flour, if needed, salt and pepper. Very simple and tasty. 🙂
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I guess most well loved recipes are tweaked by creatives to find a point that makes them standout. IMHO Ottolenghi’s variation is a fail. Our very simple Aussie version still works best for me, no egg or onion, just potato and flour
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I have no problem with tweaking recipes, except when they’re supposed to be authentic, as in such a book. It’s just a shame.
in any case, of course no recipe can ever compete with childhood recipes, full of all those original flavors and fond memories. 🙂
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Just a quick ‘hello’ on a busy evening – Anyone living in Australia who is a Maggie Beer Food Club member (no cost) can get the six-pack of pastes free at the moment if making another purchase . . . as I daily use her verjuice and vinocotto . . . and like her dukkah for cooking and her daughter Saskia’s ‘stuff’ when I don’t have time to make my own . . . . I did not wait to be asked twice! Also anyone else ‘into’ this fabulous doyenne: do become a member of her Foundation if you love food and are interested in the quality served to older people in care. So worthwhile!
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I love Maggie’s vincotto too. My daughter told me she also had 2L bottles of verjuice available, time to stock up. We all have a vested interest in improving the quality of food served to the elderly. I saw today that Fed Pollies daily food allowance is $181, for those in aged care it’s $6. I call that criminal. My Grandmother complained that those cooking in aged institutions treat the elderly as if they know nothing about food and cooking when most knew how to cooked frugally and well, unlike most cooks in nursing homes..
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I also remember fondly the night Mum made mock fish or potato patties- usually on Fridays if fish hadn’t turned up. I loved them so much and now you have reminded me to ask her about her version. I also recall her making passionfruit flummery and will have a look at your recipe- such a lovely, light concoction.
Maggie’s Verjuice is a wonderful condiment to have on hand.
Happy Blogversary Sandra. So pleased I found you and your blog some years ago.
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Thanks Francesca, the feeling is mutual. Mock fish is probably depression food, but made well, oh so moreish.
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What a great first of the month reading.
How not to agree with you that Mom’s food is always the best.
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Thank you, we all love our Mum’s cooking, it’s the best….
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Oh yum, I’m a huge fan of fruit pastes for all kinds of uses, and those flavoured oils look lovely 🙂
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Thanks Kate. The best fruit paste concoction I’ve ever made was a sauce for pork. What else do you use it for?
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I use it for enriching gravy, for when a stir fry needs a hint of sweetness (when I don’t use pomegranate molasses, that is!), a thin slice under cheese on crackers, in tagines for a hint of sweetness, on the side with cold meats, that sort of thing.
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