Vanilla and Saffron Pear Compote Australian pear growers are celebrating the start of a bumper season with the launch of the first ever national Australian Pear Month. Williams', Red Sensation, Beurre Bosc and Winter Nelis are in plentiful supply, so pop an armful of pears into your basket at your farmer's markets this month.
'We have rather betrayed the apple. It's the most important fruit in our eating and cooking. It's the foundation fruit of our Western culture. It's the fruit of aphrodite and the Virgin, of earthly and heavenly love, and so on. What a pity, and what a betrayal, that commercial growers have now concentrated on [the] look [of apples] at the expense of flavour and texture and scent'.
— Jane Grigson, on Apple and Quince, Good Things 1971. Kitchen Garden in March: A VignetteWhen Peter arrived home after five days in Darwin, he was amazed at how the kitchen garden had grown. After one or two beautifully warm days, followed by days of steady rain, we now have quite a jungle on our hands. Our main worry is a combination of snails en masse, lack of sunshine to ripen the last of the tomatoes, and the massive amounts of rain that are turning our strawberries to mush and splitting the best of the tomatoes. Still, we keen kitchen gardeners will soldier on. Here's a little vignette of the kitchen garden that we would like to share with you: Left to right: The photo top left illustrates part of the kitchen garden, our latest beds are the corrugated plastic ones converted from a compost bin Peter bought at the recycling depot! He cut it into two, down the middle and voila, two beaut little beds. The strawberry bed still has masses of flowers, bruised by the rain, as you can see. We have several little bunches of celery, which are making good progress.
Middle rows: Our cucumbers have kept us well supplied. The womboks are a little on the lacy side, thanks to snails and cabbage moth, but they are nevertheless growing well. Our mint plants, which are in pots buried in the garden, are giving us lovely leaves to work with. We have chillies, scores of them! Two have already turned red. We are still picking palm sized strawberries, but even as I write this it is teeming with rain out there, so most will turn to mush before they can ripen! Similarly, due to the lack of sunshine this season, the last and best of our tomatoes probably won't get the chance to ripen. Bottom row: In the courtyard in pots, we have (a few) olives, grapes, Vietnamese mint and other potted herbs. I picked the last little bunch of Isabella grapes this morning and they were outstanding in flavour! After being burnt to a crisp during 30 degree days while we were in Sydney in January, the Vietnamese mint has come back with a flurry of growth. How are your fruits and vegetables coping this season? What are you growing and what is your most bountiful producer? In My Kitchen March 2012Cook, blogger and baker extraordinaire, Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, features a monthly segment titled 'In My Kitchen', where cooks from across the miles invite readers into their kitchens. It's delicious... a little What's Cooking, What's Eating, What's Reading, What's Shopping and What's Happening at the hearth. I love participating and wish to thank Celia for this initiative. It's such a good thing! Canberrans usually applaud the arrival of March. With an array of exotic tree plantings, our city is picturesque in Autumn, the weather is usually perfect and at this time we celebrate Canberra's birthday with the Canberra Festival. Emphasis was placed on the word 'usually' in my reference to the weather, because we have had no Summer to speak of and the rain has been tumbling down for what seems like several weeks! While I am concerned about the kitchen garden suffering with way too much water, this wet weather augers well for more time spent in the kitchen. In my kitchen this month are: These beautiful flowers (above), which were given to me by some of our dearest friends, Diana and Bryant, when we caught up over coffee and cake one Sunday just recently. in Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote 'Flowers and fruits are always fit presents ... because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all of the utilities of the world'.
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Welcome...Üdvözölöm
Cooking and writing have been a lifelong passion. Join me as I share with you my favourite recipes; postcards and morsels from my travels; conversations with cookery writers and chefs; and news on food, cookbooks and cooking. - Liz Posmyk
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NB: I use Australian standard measuring cups and spoons in my recipes.
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