Fruitful Kitchen | Personal blog
Fruitful Kitchen
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24.01.2022 This time last week! This Nepalese village (and an inspirational dish called haluwa) popped up in conversation with Richelle Hunt on ABC 774 radio ... We spoke travelling, gardening, and simple but different stir-fries such as the Cambodian pumpkin and egg stir-fry she cooked from the ‘Spring’ book. Thanks to all of you who listened along, subscribed to the website and ordered books! If you missed the interview and still want to listen, follow this link and find Thursday 28th November. I come on after about 20 minutes. https://www.abc.net.au//melb/programs/afternoons/episodes/
24.01.2022 Realised I've never written a recipe for apples! Have just addressed this total oversight with a new blog at www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au It's a good one - an apple and lime 'cake' that is actually just masses of sliced apple and plenty of lime zest, gently baked then chilled and pressed in the fridge overnight. Ultra cool and refreshing (amazing with a Turkish black coffee spiked with cardamom, or a cup of your favourite tea). It's also gluten free and incredibly low in sugar. Right now is peak apple and lime season in Australia - go to it!
24.01.2022 Autumn is here in more ways than one. This mini cookbook bursting with love and seasonal goodness has now found its way into some wonderful Melbourne shops (plus one in Perth!). It follows ‘Summer’ ... Inside you will find favourite recipes for tomatoes, figs, beans, pumpkin, zucchini, mushrooms, limes, beetroot, corn, apples, capsicums and more. Thirteen original recipes roaming the globe, from hand-stretched Chinese noodles to a Japanese soup, family weeknight pasta, Indian sweets and a Mexican salad. Yep, I’ve packed a lot into a mini book of 13 recipes. Words and photos by me. Design and illustration by the amazing Nicole Stewart. These books are printed locally on recycled and FSC paper, and are just $20! See here: https://www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au/books/
23.01.2022 It’s all about loving where you live right now, and I absolutely do our neck of the woods - Footscray, Melbourne A very multicultural suburb with endless inspiration for an adventurous cook. We have Asian grocers in spades, a fantastic market, Ethiopian bakers, the best old school cannoli shop, a long-established store full of spices, pulses, nuts and Middle Eastern ingredients, and oh so many restaurants. I made a little video! With editing help from my husband plus music by his band The Woodland Hunters . I venture out to a few favourite food stores, then head home to make Vietnamese pancakes. Come with me!!
22.01.2022 Getting sorted for Heide Market tomorrow! Just a bit of sign making, as you do 10am-3pm, Saturday 14 September, Heide Museum of Modern Art, 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen, Melbourne. The SPRING book will be making its debut, along with all the others PS SPRING is now up at www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au if you want to take a peek!
21.01.2022 An ode to the cakes of my (and maybe your?!) childhood up on the blog ... Queen of them all was the jelly slice for me - oh that biscuity crust, that wobbly sweet creamy layer, that shiny ruby jelly coating! Only now, as a health-focused grown up, I can't bring myself to make a recipe that combines supermarket biscuits, condensed milk and jelly crystals!! (I'm not a total purist - I could come at one of these ingredients, just not three!) So here is my version, with real raspberry jelly and a creamy layer made of natural dairy. www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au (I originally wrote this recipe for a story in Slow Magazine; now happily joining the blog.)
18.01.2022 Oops I’ve not been here in a while! This is the latest recipe - two, actually - posted at www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au ... Spanish style quick pickled vegetables, which I’m a little addicted to, and my friend’s mother’s humble-but-beautiful chicken liver pate (as much a celebration of onions and nutmeg as it is liver). Mmmm, perfect party food or supper anytime. PS Summer peachy goodness coming soon! PPS For more life and colour, come and follow me on Instagram @thefruitfulkitchen
18.01.2022 Some recent recipes posted to www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au : ~ Broccoli mallum (wondrous quick stir-fry with a jumble of spices and coconut) ~ Lemon and rye biscuits ~ Japanese eggplant with yuzu and bonito ~ Peach and Thai basil granita... If any of this makes you hungry and you visit (and you like what you see), you could consider taking a second to type in your email address and hit subscribe. That way my new recipes (about 1 each month) can reach you via your inbox You could also follow me on Instagram, where I post more regularly. Rachel x See more
15.01.2022 Sending out books for Mother’s Day! If you order by this Sunday, I can gift wrap, add a note if you like, and make sure the books are in the post on Monday. Not sure there was ever a better time to have fun with new recipes!? There are 52 of them across this little collection, written and photographed by me, designed by Nicole Stewart, and printed in Melbourne on recycled paper. Seasonal cooking with a global spin. Simple but interesting, mostly vegetarian, and some beautiful desserts too. For mums, or for you $20 each or $70 for the set (Australian price) including postage. Just email or DM me re gift wrapping. www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au
15.01.2022 The lovely people of Maidstone Community Centre asked me to make a spring and summer cooking video ... So, here we have a beautiful dish for spring! This is one of 13 recipes from my little Spring book (for more about the Season books see below ). CHA CA comes from Hanoi in northern Vietnam, and is the cousin of bun cha, another dish my family is crazy about. It has a magical combination of flavours fish, galangal, turmeric, dill. These all meet sizzling hot oil, and ar...e served on rice vermicelli with extra herbs, lettuce (not traditional but I like it), and the classic Vietnamese dressing. I'm pretty sure this is one of the world's tastiest fish dishes! All the ingredients are listed in the video, but here they are again, to make it easy if you want to cook this: [ingredients] FISH 500600g fish (ideally a white-fleshed variety that is firm, boneless and skinless) 5cm piece of galangal 1 tablespoon dried turmeric 2 tablespoons fish sauce DRESSING (NUOC CHAM) 1 large garlic clove 1/2 small red chilli (or to taste) 2 tablespoons fish sauce 3 tablespoons lime or lemon juice 2 tablespoons sugar about 2 cups of oil for frying 1 small bunch of dill 1 small bunch of spring onions (scallions) 1/2 cup raw peanuts rice vermicelli soft lettuce leaves coriander (cilantro) or Thai basil ABOUT THE FRUITFUL KITCHEN SEASON BOOKS My food roams the globe but is rooted in seasonal produce, and is usually vegetarian. Interesting ways with fruit and vegetables from far-flung corners of our planet get me very excited! Last year I made a series of mini books for each season Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. Have a look here: https://www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au/books You can also find many recipes on my website, and if you simply type in your email address while you visit, I will email future recipes to you (not too often I promise just about once a month).
13.01.2022 NEW RECIPE | Spring eggs are calling and grilled green peppers in this North African salad inspired by Claudia Roden’s ‘Salata Meshwiya’. It’s a beautiful tangle of smokey, still-crunchy grilled peppers, roast garlic, herbs, capers and just-set boiled eggs add tuna or wedges of tomato as you please. (Skip red peppers and head straight for the zingy depth of green ) www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au
10.01.2022 Taking the whole book family to Northcity4 this Friday 9th August for their winter night market. Alongside the studio’s amazing jewellers and makers of small objects, there’ll be plants, ceramics, collectables, and even author Catherine Deveny. There’ll also be tacos! ... I’ll have the three season books so far, plus some freshly stitched Hungry Girls 61 Weston St, Brunswick, 5.30-9 pm
10.01.2022 Going into the ABC studios today to talk about the season books with Richelle Hunt If you are in Victoria and listening to the radio, tune in to 774 around 2pm!
07.01.2022 You have to try this soup. For me it's very happy making - partly because of where it comes from, a remote mountain area of Japan that we visited last year, and partly because I'm chuffed I figured out the recipe! It's has buckwheat kernels, vegetables and tofu, and uses no stock, yet is so delicious. Happens to be vegan and gluten free, and comes together in about 20 minutes! And mmm, the hit of fresh ginger on top. I've just added this recipe to the Fruitful Kitchen after a little time away from the blog. www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au
07.01.2022 I’m running a little giveaway on Instagram - for anyone who sees it here too. Details below ... It felt HUGE to me when (a month or so ago) I finally finished updating all the old photos at www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au, right back to day one (2010!). Note to self: never, ever, consider a site redesign that involves a different image size, because it is *so much work*! But I’m chuffed now old posts feature nice big pics like the new ones, and search results display in a ple...asingly consistent fashion. Ahhhh. What was nice, while chipping away at this over several years, was reliving so many old moments of life past holidays, hard but memorable times when the kids were tiny, renovating, gardening ... A blog can be a wonderful record of life and I hope my kids will enjoy these stories one day. There is still so much I want to do to improve the site, but it’s worth celebrating getting to this point, yes? There are 70 odd recipes there. You can search for key ingredients (say, ’tomatoes’ or ‘pumpkin’), which will usually come up with at least a few different recipes. And there are tags to take you to themes such as ‘Japanese’ or ‘gluten free’. I hope the Fruitful Kitchen just gets richer as I go on adding more recipes and filling in the gaps. It’s quality not quantity, as I generally post new recipes once a month, and therefore have to be patient to watch the site bloom. But it’s starting to get there. I’d love more subscribers! My food roams across the world, and features vegetables (and fruit) heavily, and I like to keep things simple but interesting. Being a subscriber just involves getting an email around once a month. HERE’S THE GIVEAWAY I’m sending a Hungry Girls’ Cookbook to one new subscriber drawn out of a hat. I’m not expecting a deluge, aiming for 20 new subscribers, so your chances are pretty high! It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, and I’ll let you decide if you want the blue spotty book (V1), red (V2) or green (V3). Have a peek at these handmade beauties on the Books page. Go for it; just write your email address into the panel and hit subscribe. Tell friends who might be interested (and get them to follow me on Instagram or here). PS The photo is Italian chickpea bread, very much an oldy but a goody. To find it, head to the site and search ‘chickpeas’.
07.01.2022 New little video showing how I make sweet potato roti! I was going to be presenting this and a bunch of other autumn dishes in a cooking class this May. So, like our kids’ amazing school teachers and my husband’s band, I’m doing it virtually instead. Filmed with so many stops and starts during a day of home schooling - amazingly no mistakes Lucky me, I have a husband who is becoming quite the phone movie editor pro, and he also insisted on recording a drum beat to go with it. Thank you Leroy! These flatbreads are spiked with cardamom and just a little brown sugar, and are perfect with all kinds of curries. Full recipe (quantities) can be found at www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au/sweet-potato-roti
07.01.2022 My ‘Humitas’ recipe (delicious Argentinean stew of corn and pumpkin) is online at Peppermint Magazine with a lovely little blurb about the seasonal cookbooks
07.01.2022 Paneer makhani - Indian vegetarian food to swoon over (or so it is in my house). Cheese cooked in spiced tomato sauce, creamy with butter and cashews. Use fresh tomatoes in the warm months; tinned tomatoes in winter. Here served with cardamom sweet potato roti - though rice is good too (rice makes it a speedy weeknight dinner and also GF). Just posted this new recipe at www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au
06.01.2022 Good reason for a little pot of flowers on the table! I made a mini cookbook called Summer (and the other three seasons are in the pipelines ) The subtitle is ‘Food to make you love the season’ You could say I’m trying to hook you (with love) on my favourite produce-driven food; to spur you to cook and eat in the here and now. While my recipes are mostly simple and achievable (and mostly vegetarian), I always like to sidestep standard things and unearth dishes that are int...eresting, global, eclectic. So there are new ways with tomatoes like a tofu, tomato and ginger stir-fry from Cambodia. A beautiful green bean, yoghurt and coconut salad from southern India. Tortilla soup from Mexico. Apricot pie from my heart ... Some recipes are brand new, others are faves from the archives of the blog deserving a little spotlight. The book has thirteen recipes, one for each week of the season. Words and photos by me. Illustrations and design by good friend Nicole Stewart. I’m so happy to say the little book is now making its way to a few Melbourne stockists (more on that soon), and is also available on my website. Printed locally on recycled and FSC certified paper. $25 including postage in Australia, and just a little bit more to post overseas. Head to fruitfulkitchen.com.au/books where you can find more preview pics See more
05.01.2022 A beautiful dish for spring! This is one of 13 recipes from my little Spring book (for more about the Season books see below ). I made this video for the lovely people of Maidstone Community Centre (a summer video is also in the wings!). Called cha ca, this comes from Hanoi in northern Vietnam, and is the cousin of bun cha, another dish my family is crazy about. It has a magical combination of flavours fish, galangal, turmeric, dill. These all meet sizzling hot oil, and... are served on rice vermicelli with extra herbs, lettuce (not traditional but I like it), and the classic Vietnamese dressing. I'm pretty sure this is one of the world's tastiest fish dishes! All the ingredients are listed in the video, but here they are again, to make it easy if you want to cook this: [ingredients] FISH 500600g fish (ideally a white-fleshed variety that is firm, boneless and skinless) 5cm piece of galangal 1 tablespoon dried turmeric 2 tablespoons fish sauce DRESSING (NUOC CHAM) 1 large garlic clove 1/2 small red chilli (or to taste) 2 tablespoons fish sauce 3 tablespoons lime or lemon juice 2 tablespoons sugar about 2 cups of oil for frying 1 small bunch of dill 1 small bunch of spring onions (scallions) 1/2 cup raw peanuts rice vermicelli soft lettuce leaves coriander (cilantro) or Thai basil ABOUT THE FRUITFUL KITCHEN SEASON BOOKS My food roams the globe but is rooted in seasonal produce, and is usually vegetarian. Interesting ways with fruit and vegetables from far-flung corners of our planet get me very excited! Last year I made a series of mini books for each season Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. Have a look here: https://www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au/books You can also find many recipes on my website, and if you simply type in your email address while you visit, I will email future recipes to you (not too often I promise just about once a month).
04.01.2022 Big market weekend! The book family and I will be hanging out at the beautiful Heide Market in Templestowe this Saturday 14 December. Before that, this Friday, I’ll be at an amazing little twilight market run by an artist’s collective in Fitzroy - Young Street Makers To cap it all off, find me at Kensington Market on Sunday
04.01.2022 So great to have ‘Autumn’ now stocked at CERES Fair Food
02.01.2022 ZOOM COOKING with me this Sunday! I’ll be in my kitchen - computer set up on the bench(!) - cooking two all-time favourite things: paneer makhani and sweet potato roti. People are joining me from their kitchens, and there are tickets left if you want to come too! This has all come about via MakersWindow, the amazing creative community hub in Footscray, Melbourne, where I live. Erin is keeping us all going in lockdown with so many fantastic clay and sewing classes online, and ...now cooking too. Tickets are just $7! The class runs 4-6pm AEST Sunday 13 September, and I will email all attendees a shopping list and recipes in advance. Might see you there!? https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/cooking-together-paneer-mak
01.01.2022 Did you know the Season Series is complete!? Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring - mini cookbooks made in Melbourne, printed in limited quantities on recycled paper. Recipes and photos by me. Design and illustration by the wonderous Nicole Stewart. Simple but interesting, seasonal but eclectic, vegetarian (almost) - this food is pretty much my heart, vying to capture yours. Did I mention these books cost just $20! (You can have all four for $70. Postage is included ... A little more to post overseas.) Head to www.fruitfulkitchen.com.au/books where you can have a look inside each book. The books and I are also going to be at Heide Market this Saturday!
