This Past Month in My Kitchen – March in Review

“You haven’t had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it’s running.”

Jeff Bezos

This month, thanks to Amber for an amazingly scrumptious strawberry and chocolate bunch, for my birthday. How amazing! They came from a delicious shop called Edible Blooms in Hyde Park, Adelaide.

This post is somewhat late I know. Next month I will be on time….

Last month I (re)discovered …

• exercise. I walk into the city each day and have started yoga again.
• making my own paneer. I am gradually getting better at it. Love it pan fried and then drizzled with honey and toasted pine nuts.

Last Month …

• This month, my curry leaf tree in a pot is recovering after nearly dying in the heat of summer. We are still on severe water restrictions here, only able to water gardens by hand and watering can on certain days of the week. Everything everywhere sufferred. And one day, my curry leaf tree curled up its leaves – literally. At the same time, I found that My Culinary Experiment has a wonderful post on Curry Leaves. It made me redouble my efforts to save my little tree and keep those fresh leaves outside my front door. Excuse me while I pop outside and water it again….
• [update] it has lost some of its leaves, but I think it will survive. And Cooking 4 All Seasons let me know that she had a couple of great posts on curry leaves. I am real hungry just thinking about them. Have a look at Spiced Curry Leaf Rice and curry leaf powder and curry leaf chutney. YUM.

Hints, Tips and Useful Blogs Last Month

• The Travellers Lunchbox has a wonderful Maroccan Eggplant with honey, garlic and ginger.
• Seamaiden over at the Book of Yum has posted a wonderful Garlic Roasted Cauliflower, and a very special Ginger Baked Tofu with Peanut Sauce.
• Eggs on Sunday has an amazing toast on Beluga Lentils, and uses them on toast.
• Gourmet Girl makes amazing roast tomatoes and olives to serve on bread, as a Roast Tomato Tantine
• I love herbivoracious’s post on the use of beet greens as a vegetable – a real wonderful dish that once was very common.
• I came across a post on making butter. I did this a couple of times when my daughter was little, just to show her where butter comes from. But this post by Cooking the Hard Way looks so very delicious, and much healthier that preservative laden, salt laden, colour laden shop-bought butter.
• Then, after that, just to stay really healthy, Apartment Therapy has a post on growing your own sprouts.

Popular Posts in March

The most popular posts in March were a mixture of new posts and older posts. Interesting to see how some older posts keep attracting regular hits. From making ghee to cooking rice (2 separate posts), from cooking spaghetti to eating from leaves in India.

Favourites from This Month in previous years

Gradually as this site develops, these recipes will appear. They are favourites from my old old site (see About). If you are desperate for any of them now, let me know and I will send them to you. March is always a low cooking month for me – for some reasons over the years it has been a busy month. Must really learn to take holidays in March . However, the Nth Hemisphere equivalent, September here, is a BUMPER month for cooking as Spring emerges from the robes of Winter.

Southern Hemisphere (Autumn)

• Haloumi Cyprus style 0303
• Lasagne with Fetta, Spinach and Sweet Potato 0303
• Tomato Tarte Tartin (SBS Food and Wine Lovers) 0303
• Beans with Pecorino 0302
• Yemistes Domates (Greek Baked Tomatoes with Nutty Rice Filling)0303
• Saar (Indian Lentil dish) 0302

Northern Hemisphere (Spring)

• Most Heavenly Corn Soup (An “Essence of Corn” dish) (Ayurvedic Cooking) 0903
• Roasted Capsicum, Peanut and Tomato Soup (from Bradley, whom I miss) 0900
• Jenny’s Hot Tomato Cream Salsa 0998
• Roast Tomato Dip, Fresh Roast Tomato Chutney (Indian chutney, great for eating with curries, with ordinary meals that need a spice up, or as a dip) 0903
• Fresh Mint and Radish Chutney (Indian chutney, great for eating with curries, with ordinary meals that need a spice up, or as a dip) 0903
• Spinach Tofu Napoleons with Spicy Miso Dressing(Japanese Influenced :Blue Ginger: Min Tsai) 0901
• Cheesey Raw Vege Dip for eating in front of the tele.0900
• Peynir Kagiti (Grilled Cheese) (Vegetarian Dishes) 0900
• Saganaki Haloumi (Fried Cheese) (Vegetarian Dishes) 0900
• Dal Makhani, from The Oberoi Hotel, Bangalore, India (given to me by the Indian Chef) 0902
• Ta’amia (Falafel) (Middle Eastern spicy fried chickpea patties or balls)(Vegetarian Dishes) 1003
• Congee (Rice Porrige) 0903
• Polenta 0998
• Grilled Polenta 0998
• Onion and Chilli Polenta 0998
• Asparagus Risotto 0997
• Potato Gratin 0999
• Tian de Courgettes, Tomates et Oignons (Tian of Zucchini, Tomatoes and Onions)0901
• Baked Apples 0997
• Baked Apples in Marsala with Crème Fraîche 0998
• Caramelised Pear Tart with Polenta Pastry 0998
• Baked Rice Pudding 0998
• Narasimhan’s Payasam [Kheer] (Indian wonderful wonderful dessert) 0903
• Mascarpone and Gorganzola Torte 0999
• Crème Fraîche Icecream 0901
• Strawberry Syrup 0901
• Olives 0998
• Chermoula 0998
• Amber’s New Tea 0903

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