Wednesday, June 4, 2014

In my kitchen - June 2014

I am linking this post in to Celia's monthly In My Kitchen event at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.

In my kitchen, there are finally signs of packing. Mr Bite's spousal visa arrived a few weeks ago, and we are set to fly to London next week! There is suddenly lots to do. There is also way too much food for us to eat. It turns out I am not good at running down food supplies.

Around boxes and surplus rice, beans and flours, there are some items worth sharing. Coconut sorbet is amongst them.


This iced dessert reminded me of the coconut sorbet I had in Madrid - in itself a lovely thing. Like the Spanish equivalent, it sat at the slightly creamy interface between sorbet and ice cream. Coconut water and sugar make up the bulk of the ingredient list, but a small amount of coconut cream adds the creaminess and sets this apart from standard sorbets. I highly recommend trying it if you get a chance to do so.

In my kitchen, there are freshly polished red ballet flats. I wish I'd taken a 'before' photo to show how scuffed they were. It took a little while to find red shoe polish of the right shade, but it was worth seeking it out to end up with newer looking shoes.



In my kitchen, I have been using up ingredients in a sometimes haphazard fashion. These black tahini rice crispy bites tasted great, but they didn't quite hold together.

Crumbly crispies

I mixed two cups of puffed brown rice, a quarter cup each of rice malt syrup and black tahini, and one tablespoon of coconut oil. If you would like to make your own version, I recommend increasing the rice malt syrup and coconut oil so your slices don't fall apart like mine did!

In my kitchen, black tahini was put to more successful use in a wrap with sultanas (raisins). Don't mock it until you try it.

Appearances can be deceiving - this tasted great

In my kitchen, there have been small purchases from the new self-serve bulk food sections of Coles and Woolworths. I grew up loving the freedom of 'pick and mix' displays where you could buy as much or as little as you like, and was saddened when they seemed to disappear about 10 years ago. I am pleased to see self-serve nuts, seeds and grains return to the major supermarkets.

The bowl of cereal below was a Woolworths muesli and flakes mix, and cost a grand total of 30c. Despite having too much of some foods, I ran out of cereals outside of oats and weetbix, and wanted some variety! Being able to buy a single serve portion was great.


In my kitchen, I have been reading Cadence while waiting for tradesmen and/or buyers of furniture to arrive. It is written by Emma Ayres, who hosts the breakfast radio show on Australia's Classic FM. From Emma's voice, I had pictured her as a middle aged English woman in long skirts and an elegant bun. I was thus surprised - but a little delighted - to find she is young with short hair and tattoos. Cadence tells of her experiences cycling from England to Hong Kong, and of her childhood and love of music. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also want to head off on my bike for a long distance cycling journey.


Last but not least, my kitchen has a coconut and raspberry cake that I am taking to a final work meeting tomorrow. The top cracked a little, so I plan to dust it generously with icing sugar! I used this recipe on Taste.com.au, with the only adaptation being to use egg replacer instead of egg. The recipe features coconut milk and dessicated coconut in place of dairy, butter or oil. The batter tasted great, and I have high hopes for the finished cake too.


With our upcoming move, I hope you will forgive me if my posting (and blog commenting) has erratic patches this month. I am very much looking forward to sharing our London adventures in time, and of course there will be a few more Australian posts to come too.

What is happening in your kitchen this month?

37 comments:

  1. Thanks for your comments on my blog letting me know how things are going. I can imagine you are in a state of free-fall as you try to organise all the last minute details as well as finishing off everything in your pantry. I love how you have shown us how you are being innovative in using up all your pantry remnants. Best wishes as you head overseas and I look forward to following your UK adventures xx

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    1. Free fall is a good description! Some days have certainly felt like that. Fingers crossed I land somewhere soft next week ;) Thank you xx

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  2. Thanks for sharing even though you are packing to move overseas! I hope it all goes well! I love the fact that your shoes are in your kitchen, it great! I too am loving the new selections of Pick and Mix at Coles and Woolworth's. I have been getting little bit sod the snack mixes to take to work to supplement lunches! I can't wait to hear how everything goes with the move and all your food finds in the UK!

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    1. Thanks Elizabeth! I am excited about the UK food :) I'm glad to have a fellow pick and mix lover too - small serves for work lunches are a perfect way to utilise the selection!

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  3. Glad to hear the visa finally came through. Good luck with your move and settling in. :)
    Looks like you also had tahini to use up... we ran out of chickpeas before the tahini, so we've been experimenting with other beans for our hummus escapades

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    1. Thanks Janet! I have been reading your 'using up' post with particular interest but think you have done better than me in not having a huge library of spices...there is no chance of getting through those! Thankfully we have family here who can inherit the leftovers.

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  4. Didn't the UK govt know that you need some decent amount of notice on the visa to get through all the food in your kitchen! Sheesh! Good luck with your final meeting - am sure the cake will go down well - sounds gorgeous and everything looks great with a generous layer of icing sugar (though I always think cracks just add character to cakes). Cylcing adventures, pick and mix and shiny shoes also sound good to me - I want to try black tahini too but am a bit unsure what I would use it in

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    1. Ha! I do think 3 weeks is not enough time to run a pantry down, but suspect being a food blogger has something to do with that - and perhaps even with 3 months I wouldn't have managed it!

      I have had my jar of black tahini for quite a while, so you may be right in doubting where you'd use it. I have enjoyed it as a spread but found it less versatile for baking / snacks than regular tahini or nut butters.

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  5. Using up the odds and ends can result in some interesting dishes. Have a safe move :)

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    1. It can indeed. I suspect we have more to come!

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  6. That cake looks delicious. Good luck with your move - I can't begin to think how difficult it would be to eat everything in my pantry. There would be some very odd combinations.

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    1. Odd is correct! And to be honest, it's just not going to be possible to get through it all. Thank goodness we have family to donate the leftovers to!

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  7. very excitement, much move, so adventure.

    xoxo

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  8. Lovely to see you imk post. Black tahini is new to me, I'd like to try it. Good luck with the move and using up the contents of your pantry.

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    1. Thanks so much Shaheen. Black tahini is definitely a novelty, but I will confess to slightly preferring the original type :-)

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  9. coconut sorbet looks amazing. good luck with the packing.

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  10. Kari - you can not imagine how envious I am! Four years ago I was excatly where you are now as I ran down the pantry and packed for a 18 month stint in the UK. Yes, there were some weird flavour combinations and ad libs. The thing that gave me the pang though was the comment 'my last work meeting'. Oh Joy! Enjoy!

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    1. Finishing work has been rather joyous :) How lovely that you did your own stint in the UK - from your comment it sounds like you enjoyed the process? I shall think of you when eating weird flavour mixes from the pantry ;)

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    2. It was a lot of hard work to organise but so great. We have been back three years now and still talk about 'when we were overseas'. Though we have been OS many times since, that particular trip is always the one we know we are referring to. All the best. xx

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    3. I am relating to the hard work to organise ;) We fly tomorrow now and it's so exciting to finally be going!

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  11. Good luck with the move!! That is SO EXCITING!

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  12. Wow!! these look like some great eats!! The sorbet sounds amazing!! YUM! As does that bread! So delicious! YUM! I just made some bread the other day! So yummy! Nothing like homemade treats!

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    1. Thanks Cailee - and yes, homemade is always delightful :)

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  13. Kari, you're so nice to do one last IMK post for us before you move! Next week! That's so soon - sounds like exciting times ahead. Those red ballet flats will be perfect for the London summer, and I wouldn't knock your black tahini wrap - I think it looks delicious (as does your cake)! Have a wonderful time, look forward to hearing from you "on the other side"! :)

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    1. I think perhaps I am in denial about moving - possibly IMK posts are not where my priorities should lie! Thank you very much for your moving wishes, and I do like to think of my red shoes on London streets :-)

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  14. You must be excited about your move! Luckily I don't have to say "I will miss you" because you will still be online :) The coconut sorbet looks yum, I haven't seen that before. The tahini wrap looks exactly like something I would make myself :)

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    1. Blogging and online communication does have advantages when moving to the other side of the world :-) I'm glad you like the sound of the tahini wrap too - and do look out for the coconut sorbet, it is delicious!

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  15. Only one week to go?? Wow these past few months have gone quick! You must be so excited! I hope the packing and moving goes super smoothly for you. If you ever visit Bath, you definitely must look me up!
    BTW, that coconut sorbet sounds utterly scrumptious ♥ I've never seen coconut sorbet over here but, if anywhere does it, I guess it would be WholeFoods. Lucky for you, there's an awesome branch in London ;)

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    1. I will definitely let you know if/when we come to Bath :-) And I suspect Whole Foods in London is somewhere I might need to visit in rationed doses...!

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  16. Hi Kari! Good luck with your move. Yay! So exciting!!! And that coconut cake looks AMAZING! Thank you for sharing!

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  17. Thanks for the extra tip on adding rice malt syrup to the crispies! If I were to try it out first, I'm sure my output is the same, lol. Have a great weekend!

    Julie
    Gourmet Getaways

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    1. My pleasure - no need for others to make my mistakes ;)

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  18. Wow, how exciting!!!! Best wishes to you and Mr Bite as you take off on your new adventure. I would love a slice of the raspberry and coconut cake - it looks delicious. I took raspberry and coconut muffins to work today, and they were a hit.

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    1. Thank you Cakelaw! And we're obviously on a raspberry coconut wavelength this week :-)

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