1
Oct
2009
Kitchen heros, October 2009
I thought it might be fun to have a monthly segment on my favorite things in the kitchen each month. Utensils, ingredients & so on. So here we go. Right now I am loving:
Delights from the East
Middle Eastern Ingredients:
Pictured above. Pistachios, Persian fairly floss, rosewater, pomegranate molasses & Iranian figs. I would have loved to get some Seville oranges in this shot too but I forgot to get some from the market this week. I adore middle eastern food especially the sweets. I also love bringing a middle eastern twist to traditional baking, such as chocolate cake with toasted pistachios & rosewater cream.
I'm thinking of giving my new spoon a name...any suggestions?
Pretty Candies for decorating & my new handy rubber spatula/spoon
I bought this spoon on the weekend & it is officially my new bff. It is both a spoon & a spatula, it is made of sexy smooth rubbery stuff & it is totally impervious to heat. It is the best thing since the spork, It stirs, it scrapes, it scoops & looks soooo cute! I am also obsessed with buying any pretty candy in sight for decorating cupcakes at the moment. Look how pretty the colours are on those sugared almonds, they look like pastel coloured eggs. I could just imagine a little robin laying them.
If your local organic store doesn't supply this, pester them until they do
Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
I discovered this stuff about 2 months ago at the organic markets & did some research. It has a really low Glycemic Index of 35 (anything under 55 is brilliant) so it’s probably the healthiest sweetener you can get. It is also ecologically sustainable as the tree is not cut down to obtain the sap. The best part is it tastes gorgeous! I have been using it wherever recipes call for brown sugar as it imparts a lovely rich caramel flavour to baking. It is also used in Asian & Indian cooking such as curries & sauces.
I was making sponge cakes on the weekend & it takes a lot of eggs
Organic Free Range Eggs
A kitchen staple. I love working with eggs, it is never lost on me that these are the beginning of life. I love separating them with my hands & rolling the yolk across my fingers, I love the way they take on air when whipped, I love how organic eggs often contain double even triple yolks! I love the crunch of their gorgeous brown shells being crunched in between my hands. Glorious little things…I even love the cartons they come in, all grey & lumpy. There is no doubt free range eggs taste better, you can taste the happy. Do your family a favor & switch to free range right away.
Those are my faves for the month. What are your favorite things in the kitchen?
Popped in to say hello! I love that spatula/ spoon! I wish we could find organic free range eggs, but my S. Texas town isn’t that kind of way…
Hey! Cute blog! I am a fellow baking-lover.
Blonde duck, you should really write to your grocery store about that. Even just regular free range or barn laid is a huge improvement on cage eggs. (both in taste & ethically)
I dare say I am in for a bit of a rude shock when I visit America in December this year. I take for granted the quality of our produce & variety in Australia. It is quite easy for me to purchase organic eggs, free range chicken & pork, fair trade chocolate & coffee ect. What makes me cross is the huge number of people here who can afford & easily obtain these ethically superior products but don’t just out of habit & stubbornness. *sigh*
Fun blog! We have no problem getting organic anything here in Florida- imagine it depends on your location. Also, Whole Foods carries the organic coconut palm sugar- or we can order it from Amazon in a pinch.
Glad you liked dulce de leche post; its’ origins are Argentinean actually. Imagine every country has it’s own name for it. But we use the original South American name here in the U.S.
you’ve got me craving sugar coated almonds now! they remind me of when my parents used to go to weddings and come home and give me that little package of them, yummm!