In my kitchen ~ March 2015

Gosh these monthly in my kitchen series roll around quickly!

There has been lots of preserving happening here in my kitchen, and with a new addition of a dehydrator, we are building up our store cupboard nicely.

I've been inundated with tomatoes, like more than half the country I have a guess - but isn't it just lovely.  There is just so much you can do with them, if you are stuck for ideas here's some of my favourite recipes here.  We have also had a bumper chilli crop which we have been making Mr. GW's chilli sauce and pickled hot whole chillis that he is addicted to. 

The chillis we grow are a mixture of birds eye, fire cracker, cayenne, pepper chilli and a heap of self seeded unknown varieties.

I've been making my tomato passata with a new oven roasted recipe I'll post in the coming days if you are after a quick and easy one.  

I dehydrated some of the bounty and then popped them into a jar with some extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil.  So thrilled to be able to do this as it just adds some variety to our preserving.

I used up the end of my peaches but these didn't last very long.

I was totally excited to be gifted these cute and delicious biscuits from Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella as a valentines day give away. I'm going to admit I lived up to my name sake and ate them both while no-one was home with a cup of tea and they were heavenly.  Why do things taste better when they are given to us with 'love' and when you are sneaking them? :)  I actually didn't feel guilty, I savoured every bite.  Glutton, yep!

I received a beautiful but cheeky card in the mail from a dear friend, it's on my kitchen mantal and I chuckle and feel heart warmed every time I read it.

We have been loving the La Nova anchovies in the big jar.  I did a little kitchen experiment  adding them to a potato bake.  It was sliced potatoes, a scattering of anchovies between each layer (there was 3 layers) and then cover with chicken stock and bake at 180c for 30 minutes.  Take out and then micro-plane or grate over some parmesan cheese and pop back into the oven for another 15 minutes or until nice and golden.  What a hit - Delicious!

This is a great chook book but it should be called "The spoilt chook".  Our girls have settled in so well, you can read about their arrival here.

And look what we found yesterday!!! I'm just thrilled to bits :)

So thats me for this month.  If you would like me to pop over to see  your kitchen adventures, leave me a comment :)

Ciao, Jan x

these nachos are making me thirsty

My hubby came in from the garden the other day and said"We've been chilli-napped, someone has taken my habanero chilli seedling!"  Now I knew this wasn't possible but I humored him. "Really darl, why didn't they take the other 9 tomato and chilli seedlings then, you must have put him somewhere." Always the voice of reason, I am.  There is only one thing stopping robbers in our house and its a powered roller door and 10 metre fences, I didn't think anyone was that desperate for some burning love.

Scratching his head he headed back outside...minutes later he returned with a chewed up seedling punnet.  The bloody dog ate it! Lucky there wasn't any fruit on that seedling or we would have heard about it!!  I must stand up for my boy Magic, it seems he was only wanting to nor on the plastic, I found the seedling the next day, a little worse for wear but salvagable.  So he's back in the good books, but he better lay low for a few days.

All this chilli talk gave me a nachos craving, that and a massive amount of coriander that was going to seed and needed using up.  Now, I hate to blow my own trumpet, but these nachos would have to be the yummiest I've ever tasted.  These Mission corn chips (they are not paying me to say this...worst luck!) are fantastic, the lime and chilli even better.  Crisp, crunchy and flavour packed.  We, as a family, haven't had nachos in, well forever.  They are normally too high in cheese and I really don't like too much grease and lets face it, there have been so many Mexican sins created in kitchens~too much sour cream, cheese, refried beans to cause reflux, but I couldn't resist trying nachos with these chippies.

  The secret, I think, is to having a good splattering of cheese, is to mix the grated cheese of your choice(I used a blend of tasty and parmesan) with some good tomato passatta and create the nachos in thin layers, flicking the cheesy tomatoey concoction over it. 

                           

Teamed with this zingy, flavour packed salsa, you will be transported to 

Meh-zi-coh in no time flat! The salsa is just a perfectly ripe avocado diced, 1/2 a red onion very finely diced, a small handful of fresh coriander and mint finely chopped, 1 birdseye chilli or a few dashes of Tabasco sauce (I swore I had some in the pantry but alas....) a good squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper and give it a nice mix.  Test for seasoning don't forget.

Ah-mazing...I couldn't wait for them to come out of the oven, the chips were begging to be dipped in that zingy salsa.  The nachos only need 10-15 minutes on 180c, but I  had to make sure it tasted ok of course!  Couldn't poison the family!  My daughter had her's with just mashed avocado and lemon,  which is a pretty good start and its green!

Do you have a favourite Mexican dish that your family loves?  Do you grow your own chillis? I can't wait for summer to make our super duper hot chilli sauce!

Ciao, Jan