In My Kitchen ~ December 2014

I made my first ever sourdough loaf the other day. I've been making yeasted bread for years, and now I've began what will hopefully be a long sourdough baking journey. I used City Hippy Farm Girl's starter & basic sourdough recipes. My loaf was made on 100% Spelt though, and in the starter I swapped the white flour for spelt too. I was really happy with how my loaf turned out. I loved both the process of making the starter and the loaf itself, and of course the taste too!

Also in my kitchen at the moment is one small jar of what I consider to be very special Chilli Capsicum Relish. I won't buy capsicums from the shop, because I don't like the taste and also because they are a very heavily sprayed crop. We do grow capsicums, however, when the season is right, and all winter we've been saving some capsicums to use in this relish. We de-seeded, sliced and froze them as they ripened and awaited the flowering of our little chilli bush. When the warmer weather arrived of course the chilli flowered and just last week I made up this delicious relish. It was well worth the wait and saving of the capsicums - I tell you this relish is simply divine. It's also easy to make, and I'm going to share the recipe here late this week - so keep an eye out for it* :-)

Speaking of preserves, we've also been enjoying this Green Tomato Chutney. My Mum and I spent a day cooking up a great big batch of it several weeks ago. It's perfect for when the tomato bushes come to the end of production, but still have a few un-ripened fruit on them. It's only supposed to make a jar or two, but with the amount of green tomatoes we had, we had to triple the recipe and so ended up with quite a few jars.

We've got 20kgs of these beautiful, organic locally grown potatoes to use up. They're so tasty and creamy, and far cheaper than purchasing organic potatoes from the supermarket. Plus what we do pay for them goes direct to the farmer, which is just the way it should be. Less food miles, grown organically, more money in the farmer's pocket and tastier than anything else we can buy - what potato could be better? :-)


Also happening in my kitchen at the moment, but which I don't have photos for, are a few homegrown cucumbers, lots of milk from our milking cow and ricotta made from that milk. I'm pretty amazed at all the wonderful things that you can do with milk, and still can't quite believe that we have a very own milk after all this time!
There is also a lovely fresh chicken ready to be roasted for tonight's dinner. We butchered it yesterday along with a few others, which have been frozen. Chicken is such a treat in our home since we decided to grow our own, and one that is always relished with much delight.

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I'm joining Celia for the In My Kitchen tour this month. Make sure you hop over and check out everyone else's kitchens!

Sarah x

Edited: The relish recipe is now available here