In My Kitchen - March 2026

You know I have to say it!  March?!  What the? ...  I've barely recovered from Christmas - hehehe.  It's interesting lately checking out the early morning and late afternoon sunlight these days though.  You can see that the sun has moved to the north, and the light is starting to change depth and colour.  Autumn!  Oh yes please.

Well, what a week.  Mr P. has had another injection, and I've had my six-monthly dental checkup.  Oh the fun!  We often joke that getting older means having a favourite chemist, and discussing all your ills with your friends.  Ah well, I had bookclub too; I made a Nigella Lawson Quadruple chocolate loaf cake to take with.  I love the chocolate syrup poured over it, and sometimes use the syrup recipe for other cakes.  So good!

    

bonus photo of the sea at Sawtell on our recent roadtrip

In My Kitchen:

you can never have too many (Greek) chilli flakes! 

oh not another (food-related) book?  But yes!  It's Alton after all!

and another tumbler?  Also yes!  But the turtle ... :=)

of course I made more mango chutney!

lots of it!

This was made with gifted mangoes from our new neighbour's dad's garden (I think).  Otherwise, I don't know where he got them from :=) 

a few goodies from Tasmanian Gourmet Online

and I made spicy tomato relish

I bought some condiments (olive jam is great on pizza)

I made savoury mince for a cookbook club post

see those crisps?  Spicy crayfish.  So delicious!

We headed to the local Asian grocery shop, so I could stock up on some of my fave treats.  Pocky is always a winner, though they didn't have my favourite dark and nutty ones. 

and the curveball! - a gorgeous old inkwell with copper feather

This lovely little artwork is by Terina Smith Recycling Artist.  I have a couple of old inkwells so was very happy to add this one to my collection.  Terina created the copper feather (copper? I think so), which sits inside it.  I just love it!

c. Sherry M.

    

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Peanut Chutney - and What to do With It

Chutney?  Interesting word for it.  Nah, I think this is more of a marinade-type thingy.  I made this for Cookbook Club, waaaaay back in August last year.  The recipe is from Everything is Indian by Justin Narayan.  I decided to use it as a marinade for some chicken tenderloins.  I gave half the chutney to a friend (who used it as a marinade for chicken, too), and made this for dinner.  Great minds ...

deliciously nutty

Makes approx. 200g./7 oz:

ingredients:

130g./4.5 oz unsalted peanuts OR 130g. of peanut butter

30g./1 oz white sesame seeds

1/2 brown onion, roughly chopped   see Notes

2 tsp tamarind paste  (or 2-3 tsp lemon juice)

1 Tbs lemon juice

3 small red chillies (or your fave chilli), roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves - yep, roughly chopped :=)

100-125 mL  (3.4-4.3 oz water)

sea salt flakes (1/8-1/4 tsp) and freshly ground black pepper

luckily for me, I don't taste soap when I eat fresh coriander :)

Serves 4:

For the chicken dish:

500-600g./18-21 oz chicken tenderloins (or chop up some breasts)

Peanut chutney - maybe half the jar; just have the chicken well-coated     see Notes

Lemon juice - maybe 3 Tbs

Fresh coriander leaves, torn or chopped - a big handful, or to your taste

sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Rice or rice noodles, to serve

Cucumber and tomato, chopped, to serve

small red chillies

peanuts!

Method:

Grab a wee saucepan/frying pan and toast your nuts and seeds till golden brown (obvs. no need to toast the peanut butter, if  using)

Tip them into a blender or small food processor, with the other ingredients, except the salt and pepper

And blend away till it looks like the consistency of peanut butter

Add more water if you fancy it a bit thinner

Season with the salt and pepper

For the chicken dish:

Marinate the chicken pieces in the chutney for at least 30 minutes

Fry in 2 Tbs of vegetable or olive oil, which you have heated up

Add lemon juice, coriander leaves, salt and pepper

Throw on some white and/or black sesame seeds, if you like

Serve with rice or rice noodles

And chop up some cucumber, tomato and fresh coriander leaves, to go with ...

Notes:

I used peanut butter made from just peanuts and salt

The average brown onion weighs around 150-200g.; I used c. 90g.

I gave half the chutney away to a friend, so I probably used about 100g/3.5 oz for the chicken dish

Throw some mustard seeds or cummin seeds into the chutney (after blitzing to a smooth sauce) - if you fancy!

        brown onion

        cucumber

ingredients gathered

get ready to blitz!

and ... blitzed!  See how smooth :=)

ready for dinner!

Mangoes update: all 200 kilos! (maybe 150 kg.) of fruit has been laboriously picked up (even dug out) from the backyard.  The fruit bats, possums and birds are very sad!  The crows have been indignantly squawking for days about it.  I do love me a crow - so smart, so kind, dropping off gifts now and then.  And did you know? - they absolutely adore fruit.

Mr P. is very slowly getting over his cough, which has lasted for well over 3 weeks!  I can't believe I haven't caught it from him, though he has been politely sleeping downstairs so I don't get it!  Autumn is nearly here, and we have had copious amounts of rain over the last week.  And some flooding out west; it never ends here with the weird weather!!  Hope you are all doing well, my friends.

Guess who?  Yes, moi!  (c. G McKinnon)

Chewy Almond Cookies aka Biscuits

We all like a bit of Donna Hay, don't we? - she is an icon of Aussie cooking.  I've made a couple of her biscuit recipes lately, but these were actually made way back in August last year for Cookbook Club.  This recipe is from Too easy, another of her popular cookbooks.  And there are so many more recipes I want to try ... 

Start these in plenty of time, as the dough has to rest in the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm up, before baking, and then sits for another 10 minutes after you take it out of the freezer, before going into the oven.  Huh?  Seems a wee bit odd to me, but anyways ...  Like many a cookbook, the recipes are not really built for a Queensland kitchen!

golden, nutty, delicious

Makes 20-22 biscuits:

ingredients:

250g./9 oz butter, melted

240g./8.5 oz brown sugar

220g./8 oz caster sugar

120g./4.5 oz almond meal (aka ground almonds)

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

300g./10.5 oz plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

135g./5 oz flaked almonds   see Notes

icing sugar, for dusting

Method:

Into a large bowl go the butter, brown sugar, caster sugar, almond meal, egg and vanilla - and give 'em a good stir to combine

The flour and baking powder get sifted over the top of this mix, and you give all that a good stir

Your flaked almonds are now sitting on a large plate, and you will then roll 2 Tbs of the dough into balls, then roll onto the plate to get covered in almond flakes

Put 'em onto a couple of large, baking paper-lined baking trays (leaving a bit of room around each ball), and whack into the freezer for 30 minutes (or more - till firm)

Turn on your oven to 180C/350F to heat up

After 10 minutes out of the freezer, the trays are placed in the oven, and the biscuits baked for about 15 minutes or till golden   see Notes

Let 'em cool right down on the trays, then dust with the icing sugar

oh yes, vanilla paste

and pecans

Notes:

From my photos, it seems I didn't have enough flaked almonds to coat the dough balls in, so I used some chopped-up pecans to make up the difference!

Dunno why, but they took 20 minutes in my oven to get golden

ingredients gathered

stir together the sugars, melted butter, almond meal, egg, vanilla

and stir in the flour and baking powder till you have a soft dough

onto trays and into the freezer for half an hour to firm up

golden and nutty after 20 minutes baking

onto the wire rack to get really cool

pile 'em up!

don't forget the icing sugar!

Just FYI for anyone following my saga of the rotting, festering mangoes in our backyard: we have now picked up about 200 kilos!  There are still some lurking in the grass, looking like hairy dead rats!  Somewhat ironically, I made some mango/nectarine chutney last weekend - but with mangoes from our new neighbour's dad's garden - I think!  Though perhaps he just conjured them up from somewhere :=) 

biscuits/cookies!

Sydney Roadtrip

This post is a quickie photo essay!  We're still catching up on things after our roadtrip, and Mr P. has been very unwell with this awful cold and cough that lingers and lingers ...  Lots of bugs going around at the moment, apparently.  We think he caught it from being in so many hospital waiting rooms lately.

Mr P. organised our recent Sydney trip, heading down south to visit an old friend, and to hit as many art galleries as we could.  Was it eight or nine we managed?  Job well done, as the English say!  And it was wonderful to catch up with our old mate Jim, whom we have known since we were knee-high to a grasshopper, as the saying goes.

NERAM  (horse sculpture by Tim Storrier)

First off, we hit NERAM - the New England Regional Art Museum.  We try to get here once a year; it's about 5 or 6 hours drive from us, so we take a roadtrip!  And if you're lucky, you get to see some snow here in Winter.  Clearly, not now :=)  

driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge - a few times!

a cute twiggy fella on top of someone's chimney

massive sculpture by Ron Mueck (Art Gallery of NSW)

Ron Mueck does amazing work.  These huge sculptures are very confronting, and fascinating.  I'm hiding the mmm extra-large appendages - hehehe ...

there were carrot pancakes for Mr P. at Archie's Café Co, Dover Heights

there were koi carp at the Gosford Regional Gallery, and Japanese Garden

Mr P. ate fried halloumi and scrambled eggs at The Point cafe, Avoca Beach

we admired a Brett Whiteley sculpture at the newly re-opened Newcastle Art Gallery

we had a gander at Smoky Bay Lighthouse

(By the architect James Barnet Colonial Architect for NSW, 1865-1890.)  He designed various public buildings and a number of lighthouses around New South Wales, including this one.  I love a lighthouse, my friends!  I'm thinking of joining the Lighthouse Society.  

and said hi to a wallaby having his/her lunch

We checked out the Trial Bay Gaol ruins; a "nice" prison, apparently

I ate Bircher muesli at the Hilltop Store

we drove to a sea view at Sawtell, looking north

and captured ourselves in the outdoor Sculpture Garden at the Grafton Regional Gallery

We shared a Black Forest croissant at the Ulmarra Food Co-op

and admired the water dragon in the leafy front courtyard

What a trip!  And probably our last for a while, till Mr P.'s treatments finish.  There are so many wonderful things to see in our big country.  If you can get here, my friends ...