In My Kitchen February 2022

I’ve been away from my blog for the best part of a year and I’ve almost forgotten how to write up a blog post. WordPress have changed the old editor format and as I hadn’t embraced all the new changes, this has left me struggling with the new format, so a little homework is needed.

Hopefully you are all well and the year has gotten off to a good start. Sherry is still hosting the monthly In My Kitchen posts so thought it would be nice to join in and say hello from my kitchen.

We managed to travel last year and bought this lovely handmade pottery bowl on our travels, I can’t seem to pass a pottery shop without a wee visit. Also, visiting a farmers market is usually on the agenda and a bag of purple garlic among other goodies were packed into the suitcase as well.

Our winter is much cooler this year so found myself deboning chickens for casseroles and rather than throw the chicken carcass out, made batches of chicken stock for the freezer, handy when needed.

Although the festive season with friends and family didn’t go according to plan (covid had other plans for everyone)…managed to bake some festive looking orange and almond canapés for another occasion. Although canapés are a little more work, they always look impressive.

Usually there is something sweet in our household and lemon flavoured cakes are a favorite so made a lemon crumble cake to enjoy with our daily brew.

I do love a good old-fashioned rice pudding but for a change (also for my monthly ingredient challenge over on Instagram), made Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe from his cookbook, Nopi. The farro pudding with caramelized orange, tahini and pistachio was deliciously different and loved the layers of flavor and texture too.

Beetroot cured salmon is one of my favorite ways of preparing salmon and although it takes two days to marinate, the recipe is so worth the effort and guests will agree too. The fillet of salmon in the photo above is already covered with a mixture of sea salt, grated beetroot and other ingredients. You can see the end result in this Beetroot Cured Salmon Canapés blog post. Sometimes I like to serve the salmon slices with the horseradish creme fraiche and brown bread separately.

A stylish and functional salt crock for keeping sea salt accessible while cooking, my daughter likes to visit markets too and though I might like this one…and of course I do.

Made a lovely homemade apple jelly recipe with chili, mint and ginger from an Olive magazine I bought a few months ago. These days I hardly ever buy cooking magazines as I find them full of adds. I did accumulate many over the years but finally parted with them and gave them to a local library.

A very tasty bowlful of udon noodles with a spicy numbing oil sauce, the recipe (from OTK Shelf Love cookbook) got the thumbs up from my son when visiting. I didn’t attempt to make the hand pulled noodles by hand on this occasion but may do next time.

And finally in my kitchen, some homemade dog biscuits for Chico which he was very happy with, the first time every making dog biscuits so had to have bone shaped cutters too.

More cake and coffee, this scrumptious apple and cinnamon cake was first enjoyed at my sisters home and she kindly shared the recipe. Perfect served warm with a little cream.

Although my gardening skills are lacking, the curry leaf plant is coming along nicely and managed to survive our searing hot summer. Although curry leaves are easily available where I live, nice to have one growing near the kitchen.

Hope to see you next month and if you would like to know more about this community of bloggers who love to share some of their kitchen treasures, please check out the link below.

The “In My Kitchen” monthly theme host is Sherry and her blog is at Sherryspickings  where you will also find a list of other IMK participants.