A Beautiful Rainbow – All is well

July 21, 2024 / sbaskitchen / Leave a comment

It’s been a whirlwind week – three trips to Melbourne and more…

My final private catering job – and as it turned out, the perfect event to finish this chapter of my SBA’s Kitchen journey. The event, a celebratory afternoon tea in the theme of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, with a fabulous story, and a few unexpected coincidences, and I absolutely know that this event is one that I will never forget! And all the food was Gluten Free!

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I will continue to supply the beautiful café The Pickle Pot, here in Maffra, with my gluten free offerings, and am excited to be out and about sharing my food knowledge at various Neighbourhood Houses/Community Centres, in my Knowledge Sharing Sessions.

A visit with our son and his family at their new home – a move from suburbia to a home with space, room to run, a little wildlife, space to start a vegetable garden, and more. The day finished with an unexpected invitation to a family dinner – a beautiful evening, before making the 2½ hour journey home. Continue reading →

All baking papers are not the same!

July 4, 2024July 4, 2024 / sbaskitchen / 2 Comments

Some may be aware that I run the occasional “Knowledge Sharing Session”/Cooking Class in our region, and one of the most popular sessions is my Gluten Free Sourdough. In these sessions I encourage those attending to line their loaf tins with baking paper – the main reason is because of the long rising time for the loaf – if the tin doesn’t have a non-stick coating, or even if it does, it may be scratched or damaged, then no matter how well you grease the tin, it would more than likely begin the rusting process during the rise due to the moisture in the loaf – not really desirable.

At a recent session, I had forgotten to pack enough of my baking paper, and had to use a different brand to what I usually do. Tins were lined, loaves made and set aside to be taken home for proving and baking, then we started to prepare some dishes using the gluten free soudough discard, as well as a loaf of bread that I had baked at home and brought along.

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More on Zucchinis – Pickled Zoodles

May 3, 2024May 16, 2024 / sbaskitchen / Leave a comment

I know… my last post was about zucchinis – but when one has zucchinis, one must share.

Inedible – Zucchini Preserved in Oil – How can it taste so bad when it looks so good!

Last year I was on a quest to find a way to preserve zucchinis, one that would provide me with an ingredient to use in a variety of ways throughout the year. Canning just overcooks them, dehydrating works well with grated zucchini, but I wanted something a little different, so I turned to a reputed Italian preserving book that I had, it had a simple recipe that I thought would be perfect – the zucchinis were generously salted, weighted down for 24 hours before being drained, white wine vinegar added, weighted down for 12 hours, drained again before being packed in oil. I followed the recipe to the letter, the end result was nothing short of inedible! So salty, I asked others for their opinion, and they agreed, there was no way you could eat it, the salt level was over the top. I tried again, this time heavily reducing the salt, followed the same process, again, inedible! One more time, using minimal salt, and still it didn’t work. I gave up. But they looked so beautiful in the jar. Continue reading →

There’s a Monster in My Garden!

February 22, 2024February 22, 2024 / sbaskitchen / Leave a comment

Most of us know what happens when zucchini is in season… Everyone you know with a veggie patch will be trying to offload their excess of jumbo-sized zucchinis to anyone and everyone they know, even those they don’t know! Oh what joy when our then, little grandson, found a monster lurking in our friend, Maggies’, garden some years ago!

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Dehydrating Zucchini

Dehydrating zucchini is a great way to store the seasonal abundance for use throughout the year! It can be stored for up to a year and used almost anywhere you would use fresh zucchini. All it needs is a little time in hot liquid and it will plump up beautifully. Continue reading →

The Mulberries Continue to Give…

February 14, 2024February 14, 2024 / sbaskitchen / Leave a comment

Continuing from a previous post ‘We have a Mulberry Tree in Our Garden‘, while the harvest finished some time ago, we are still reaping the benefits.

When we were picking the berries I would sort them, for jam/freezer, for our breakfast, to make desserts, and, to make a Sweet Mulberry Vinegar. I poured approx three cups of white wine vinegar into a largish glass jar, and whenever I brought mulberries in, I picked out those that were not quite right and didn’t really suit any of the other uses, and popped them into the jar of vinegar, slowly the jar began to get a little more full and the colour of the vinegar turned the deepest darkest beautiful burgundy/blackish red colour. I just let it sit – I was crazy busy, and I knew that really, there was no rush to move on to the next step.

On Christmas day I needed a non-seafood starter, so decided to use greens from the garden, goats feta, some fresh berries, a little mint and a sweetened reduction of the (yet to be finished Sweet Mulberry Vinegar), I didn’t get to taste the starter, but was told that it was very nice.