Monday, December 01, 2014

In My Kitchen ~ December 2014


I made my first ever sourdough loaf the other day. I've been making yeasted bread for years, and now I've began what will hopefully be a long sourdough baking journey. I used City Hippy Farm Girl's starter & basic sourdough recipes. My loaf was made on 100% Spelt though, and in the starter I swapped the white flour for spelt too. I was really happy with how my loaf turned out. I loved both the process of making the starter and the loaf itself, and of course the taste too!



Also in my kitchen at the moment is one small jar of what I consider to be very special Chilli Capsicum Relish. I won't buy capsicums from the shop, because I don't like the taste and also because they are a very heavily sprayed crop. We do grow capsicums, however, when the season is right, and all winter we've been saving some capsicums to use in this relish. We de-seeded, sliced and froze them as they ripened and awaited the flowering of our little chilli bush. When the warmer weather arrived of course the chilli flowered and just last week I made up this delicious relish. It was well worth the wait and saving of the capsicums - I tell you this relish is simply divine. It's also easy to make, and I'm going to share the recipe here late this week - so keep an eye out for it* :-)


Speaking of preserves, we've also been enjoying this Green Tomato Chutney. My Mum and I spent a day cooking up a great big batch of it several weeks ago. It's perfect for when the tomato bushes come to the end of production, but still have a few un-ripened fruit on them. It's only supposed to make a jar or two, but with the amount of green tomatoes we had, we had to triple the recipe and so ended up with quite a few jars.


We've got 20kgs of these beautiful, organic locally grown potatoes to use up. They're so tasty and creamy, and far cheaper than purchasing organic potatoes from the supermarket. Plus what we do pay for them goes direct to the farmer, which is just the way it should be. Less food miles, grown organically, more money in the farmer's pocket and tastier than anything else we can buy - what potato could be better? :-)


Also happening in my kitchen at the moment, but which I don't have photos for, are a few homegrown cucumbers, lots of milk from our milking cow and ricotta made from that milk. I'm pretty amazed at all the wonderful things that you can do with milk, and still can't quite believe that we have a very own milk after all this time!
There is also a lovely fresh chicken ready to be roasted for tonight's dinner. We butchered it yesterday along with a few others, which have been frozen. Chicken is such a treat in our home since we decided to grow our own, and one that is always relished with much delight.

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I'm joining Celia for the In My Kitchen tour this month. Make sure you hop over and check out everyone else's kitchens!


Sarah x

Edited: The relish recipe is now available here

36 comments

  1. Beautiful new blog design friend! It is stunning!!! And your kitchen happenings are awesome! Loving that bread up there and those potatoes look fantastic!!! Happy cooking Sarah!! Nicole xo

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    1. Thank you Nicole :-) Hope you have a good week!

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  2. Those potatos look really good. Hard to fid a decent potato at a supermarket- all rubbish. And although you didn't add a photo, I bet the homemade ricotta is sensational too.

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    1. It is hard to find most veggies/fruits of good quality in the supermarket :-) Thanks so much for stopping by!

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  3. Your photos look brilliant! And so does your new blog layout ... fabulous! Love the sour dough and the chilli relish. Yummo!

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  4. Wonderful photos Sarah. I really like your bread and potato shots, such great light and composition. I agree with Francesca that supermarket potatoes are truly rubbish. They are either soft, or green.. or both! I love to buy great potatoes at the local farmers markets. So much more variety!

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    1. Thank-you for your kind comment Kirsty :-) I think the fresher the better applies to most produce :-)

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  5. I love all your beautiful produce as usual.. and your new blog layout is lovely! While I love the fact we grow our own tomatoes... I must say I wait for them to finish so we can make sweet mustard pickles, which require 1 kg of green tomatoes... they get put in the cupboard and we try and make them last for as long as we can :) I have just started a sourdough from Celia... so hear hoping it turns out as beautiful as yours! Thank you for sharing and continuing to inspire me to grow my own food! Liz x

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    1. Thank-you so much Liz, I'm so glad to hear that xx

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  6. Sarah, I will be interested in your chilli capsicum relish recipe. I have loads of chillies in the freezer so when my capsicums fruit I will be set.

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    1. You can find the recipe here: http://chantillefleur.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/recipe-tinas-capsicum-chilli-relish.html :-)

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  7. What a great post of good, wholesome foods! The relish and chutney look so good and so does that loaf of bread. My mom used to make all of our bread, and it was so good. We could smell it when we were dropped off the bus at the end of our very long drive. It would make you run all the way up the drive to the house where she had saved us a small fresh baked bun. Good memories. Wendy x

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    1. Such lovely memories Wendy! Thank-you for sharing them here xx

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  8. I love green tomato relish, your's looks wonderful. And I'm impressed with your spelt bread.

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  9. Well done Sarah...this all looks beautiful, made and produced with love! Your bread looks very impressive. Great new blog design too! I hope you are having a lovely week x

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    1. Thank-you Jane, I hope you have a lovely weekend!

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  10. G'day Love your relish and I have never made chutney! I think now might be the time!
    Thanks for inspiring and also for you kitchen view this month too!
    Cheers! Joanne

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    1. Thanks so much for stopping by Joanne :-)

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  11. Wow. What a busy kitchen. I adore Green Tomato Chutney. I grow tomatoes and love the end of the season when the last of them won't ripen on the bush which gives me the excuse to make some. Thanks for the tour.

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    1. You're welcome :-) Green Tomato Chutney is delicious, isn't it? :-)

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  12. Hello! I love your sourdough. I've been trying to grow some capsicums but they are not doing so well in our tiny vegie patch, I bet that relish is amazing.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Vicki, I hope you have more luck with your capsicums soon x

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  13. Well I haven’t seen the old layout (I just popped over from Celia’s blog) but the new layout is certainly very stylish:)
    I love how you use so much of your own and neighbour’s produce, I don’t yet have a productive garden, but my specialty is using up other people’s excess or stuff that might be wasted, so I love your relishes!
    Thanks for showing us your kitchen...
    Beck

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  14. Well if that's your first sourdough loaf attempt, I suggest that you should be going on the Great Australian/British Bake Off. Great job! And also clever you thinking of freezing the capsicums until you needed them. Thanks for the tour!

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    1. Thank-you so much for your lovely comment and also for stopping by Fiona! x

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  15. Hello Sarah - your IMK post is just so inspiring. How wonderful to be able to "grow" so much of your own. Your bread looks incredible and I love that you froze those chillies until you could use them. Have a wonderful December!

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    1. Thank-you! I hope you have a great December and merry Christmas too xx

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  16. What a beautiful loaf of sourdough, and spelt no less! The green tomato chutney sounds great, I will have to remember that next yer when I run out of ideas for using all of our tomatoes!

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    1. Thank-you Gretchen. Green tomato chutney is well worth the effort :-)

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  17. I'm in awe of your sourdough... I only hope that my first attempt looks as gorgeous as yours!

    Your relish looks amazing... the best foods take a bit of effort I think :) All the better when you grow the ingredients yourself!

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    1. Thanks so much Lisa :-) Sourdough is so fun to make...I made sourdough bread rolls yesterday and they were delicious! The best foods certainly do take effort....I find that what are considered 'simple' foods are the best when most of the elements/ingredients used are prepared or grown by yourself - it turns into quite a luxurious meal that way :-)

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  18. I loved the post and the new look!

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  19. Your bread looks fantastic! And how glorious to have homegrown milk! Really good potatoes are so hard to find, I'm glad you have a great source for them! :)

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