Friday 6 June 2014

What's in my kitchen, June 2014

In my kitchen is... 

Soup! I do love soup, and it's hearty and delicious and fairly quick. We've had pumpkin (from my homegrown kent) and red lentil lately. Both yummy!


In my kitchen is... 

Bacon flavoured bits! What can I say. They're an odd sort of thing to crave but they are vegan and they just go down so nicely... perfect for when I want something to crunch on or add a bit of salty flavour to salads or as a soup topping. They've been really hard to find lately, but I had a craving and was stoked to see them in my local IGA. I had to be restrained from buying in bulk.


In my kitchen is...


Joong. This bowl contains a small number of these delicious glutinous rice dumplings which my MIL made for me. Sometimes called the Asian tamale, in Cantonese we call them joong, but they are also known as zongzi. Traditionally made to celebrate the Dragon Boat festival on the fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar calendar, this batch was made especially vegan for me, and contains peanuts, mung beans and shiitake mushrooms instead of the usual assorted meats and pork. I have to share them with Ellie, but Mr Fork doesn't care for them at all which just means more for us! I'm torn between whether to devour them all or freeze some to savour later (they're quite labour intensive so I don't tend to make them myself). So yummy.

In my kitchen is...

A rogue baby sweet potato. I found this little guy when the hounds wouldn't stop barking. Investigation found them distressed near my sweet potato mound where I had previously planted slips from a potato which I'd failed to eat and had sprouted. The top of this little fellow was exposed and proved to be the 'intruder' they were perplexed about. I dug him out because he was a bit mauled, but I hope the rest of the batch underground get more growing time. Bread tie thingie there for scale.


In my kitchen is...

Capilano honey infused with ginger. I saw this while grocery shopping and thought, why not? Honey isn't something I generally use, but I do make Mr Fork some hot drinks with it in, and this saves me the effort of cutting up fresh ginger to make him honey ginger tea when he gets his bouts of man flu. By all reports, the flavour is fairly decent. They had some other infusions too, I think lemon was one of them.


This month is quite food intensive in my kitchen, and not many things. Although well into second trimester now, I find my energy levels very low, and am spending less time cooking than usual. I've been making things in large batches and either eating them for a few days straight (Ellie and Mr Fork are not fans of this) or freezing portions to bring out another time. When food cravings hit, I tend to want the same thing over and over but I'm conscious that it's the hormones talking and my family doesn't agree. I'm just so tired - Attila is taking up a lot of energy yet stubbornly not producing a bump I can show off properly yet! Hopefully I get my mojo back next month.

I am linking this post in with Fig Jam and Lime Cordial's monthly In My Kitchen event. Go have a peek through other kitchens around the globe!

What's in your kitchen this month?

9 comments:

  1. Good luck with the rest of the pregnancy! The joong looks intriguing. I would love to see what is inside them! The dogs barking at a poor orphan sweet potato was hilarious.

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    1. Thank you! The hounds certainly have lots of personality! As much as I tried, I couldn't get a decent internal picture of the joong - far too much steam obscured the contents, but believe me that they're delicious.

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  2. Ooh, another IMK baby on the way, how exciting! Congratulations Lisa! And how fabulous to see joong on your blog - we Hokkiens make them in a triangular shape ("we" meaning my family - I don't make them) - and I'm absolutely addicted to them! Lovely to see what you did with last month's pumpkin! :)

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  3. Oh how wonderful!! Love babies! Congratulations.
    I never saw or ate "joong", what is inside it!!!

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    1. Mine have steamed peanuts, mung beans and mushrooms. Traditionally though, they would contain various meats, mostly pork and maybe some peanuts as well.

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  4. I'm just about to start making my winter soups And congratulations :-) I look forward to hearing all about your beautiful baby! Thanks for sharing!!!

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  5. Lots of goodies indeed, I especially like the look of the dumplings. Thanks for the tour!

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  6. Oh, that lentil soup looks so good. I'm inspired to whip up a batch this weekend. Man flu....he he he.. Thanks for the tour!

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    Replies
    1. Oh I love soup! Nothing better on a winter weekend too! The husband does go down like a pile of bricks when he has the flu... tee hee!!

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