The Kitchen Playground

Father’s Day didn’t start so well here at Chez KP. First problem, was of course the absence of the Bread WInner. second problem was Son and Heir destroying my knitting at 5.30am. Which I didn’t discover until 6.30 when I decided to start yelling at the Ankle Biters whilst in the same room as them, […]

Read Full Post »

Its been a while coming but here are the recipes from our recent dinner party.
chorizo in potatoes
I read about these in a Gourmet Traveller whilst sitting in a cafe in Sydney recently. I didn’t copy the recipe but it’s pretty simple so I probably did the same thing as the original recipe specified.

2 chorizo
1 large […]

Read Full Post »

The pay offs for getting it right are soooo darn good.

ciabatta dough proving for the second time.

ciabatta loaves proving prior to baking

two freshly baked ciabtta loaves

nothing beats fresh bread

except maybe a blue cheese and salad sandwich on freshly baked bread

Ciabatta
from World Breads by Paul Gayler
For the Biga Starter
350g bread flour
10g yeast
200ml warm water
For the Dough
15g […]

Read Full Post »

I consider myself very lucky to have Ankle Biters with quite adult palates. Well there is both luck and good management involved in that. However, I have lately been overcome by a burning desire to throw a good old fashioned grown up dinner party. The Bread Winner is about to vanish to far away ports […]

Read Full Post »

Every night this week I’ve had all the good posting intentions in the world. Life keeps getting in the way though in one form or another. Today has been no different. I will however assuage my non-posting guilt with a series of random images of things we have been eating this week.

Son and Heir has […]

Read Full Post »

However you like to spell it, I love the stuff. You can pretty much shove anything inside a bit of filo and it tastes fantastic and looks good.
What else could you do with 300g mince, one serve leftover kale risotto, 1 small bunch kale, 6 Brussel sprouts, starting to look spotty, 1 small carrot, 1 […]

Read Full Post »

It’s super cold and wet in Melbourne this morning. It rained much of the night and it seems to be continuing into the day. Which is a good thing. Let’s hope it’s raining over the catchment areas and not just here. The only issue with this weather is that it means I won’t get the […]

Read Full Post »

I ordered half an animal today. A 9 - 10 month old grass fed vealer. That’s 60 odd kilograms of dead animal I need to store. So the next couple of weeks whilst waiting for delivery, I will be cleaning out the contents of the freezer. I sorted the contents today and wrote a list […]

Read Full Post »

Sometimes it’s easy to interpret the linguistic leaps of a four year old. Sometimes not. Son and Heir’s request for piggy tail bread was one of the easy ones.

a plait loaf

Read Full Post »

Meat flesh as defined by FSANZ (Food Safety Australia and New Zealand)
“skeletal muscle of any slaughtered animal, and any attached - animal rind; and fat; and connective tissue; and nerve; and blood; and blood vessel; and skin, in the case of poultry.”
Follwoing on from that, the new standard for meat pies is that they
“must now […]

Read Full Post »