The Kitchen Playground

Tonight we are eating Hainan chicken and rice. I made all three sauces to go with it. Sadly I have no cilantro, nor do I have enough cucumber left to garnish. Steamed broccoli with a dash of oyster sauce will do nicely as a side dish. The cost of tonight’s meal? I bought the chicken [...]

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Left over pho noodles. Mmm, something long soup like. Leftover wonton wrappers. Mmm, something short soup like. Or both together. That’s pretty much how my brain works. And reckless abandon week seems to be having more than it’s fair share at the moment. Which is cool. So, fish stock from the freezer, a couple of [...]

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This is an adaptation of a spatchcock recipe from the 2007 Annual Gourmet Travellers Cook Book. Conceptually, I love spatchcock but the reality of all those teeny tiny bones, particularly with Ankle Biters at the dinner table puts me off. I remember in my younger child free days having a dinner party one night for [...]

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The last couple of days have been hot, hot, hot in Melbourne. Which I love but no one else seems too jiggy with it. Having this sudden heat wave in March is, for me, a delicious reprieve from the cooler weather that surely approaches. I don’t do cold. Yesterday was 42 degrees I believe, so [...]

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This is a great way of getting lots of vegies serves into the family with minimum complaints. Good anti-cancer vegetables that practically everyone needs to eat more of too. You could leave the chicken out if you are vegetarian, I’d probably add another leek in that case. Chicken, broccoli and cauliflower soup 1 free range [...]

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My Father in Law is in town for a month. That’s a good thing in case you were wondering. It does mean lots of impromptu family gatherings. Which is also a good thing. A little difficult to manage on a Sunday night though. Difficult because I have one extra, maybe three. I won’t know how [...]

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I’ve been neglecting Into the Vietnamese Kitchen of late due to holidays and the need to clean out the freezer. I couldn’t neglect it any longer though, I was missing those heavenly flavours. So tonight, we had had the grilled chicken with salt pepper and lime dipping sauce served western style with a simple green [...]

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Day Four in Sydney and a continuation of Holiday Meal Planning. We actually had a meal today that I didn’t cook so don’t expect a recipe for lunch! It was delicious. Probably a tad to much chilli though. I like it hot but it killed the actual flavour of the laksa. We ate in the [...]

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So here we are in wet, wet Sydney. Rain is such a novelty for us Melbournites. Courtesy of the Bread Winner’s company, we have free use of a simply divine 3 bedroom apartment right on the Harbour. The apartment is bigger than our house. I could happily sit on the couch for a week just [...]

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I cooked a lovely roast chook the other night and padded it out with lots of salad and baked potato. It was a great big one so I intended to leave myself enough leftovers for a couple of meals. I can justify paying around the $20 mark for an organic chook if I can get [...]

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