IMK and Boonderoo’s kitchen

What a month it’s been! Open garden day which was a huge success. Our reno has officially begun (yes that means a kitchen is on the horizon), a wonderful day spent with friends on a walk and picnic at Morwell National Park. A new car because Mr ATMT had to hand in the company vehicle when he accepted an early retirement package. A trip to Greece and Turkey booked and a sensational weekend at Boonderoo farm doing a sourdough workshop. Bare with me, it could be long-winded! Thanks to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for helping everyone share their kitchens.

First In My Kitchen are some beautiful ginger nut biscuits I made from Glenda over at Passionfruit Garden’s recipe. They are wonderful, definitely eat with caution if your choppers are dodgy!These are presented on my new little Spode Italian serving plate. Great size for when there are just a couple of you. Big plate =  big eating!

For the picnic we went on, I made a platter of Moroccan eggs (basically scotch eggs with some middle eastern spices), potato, kale, feta and chilli rolls, pork rillette, baguette and some nibbles. This went down very well.

The highlight for me this month was the opportunity to spend a weekend with some lovely, like-minded people at Boonderoo Farm on a sourdough bread making workshop. We worked hard for two full days, learned lots, got a bit antsy about understanding bakers percentages (well I did), ate the most amazing food and generally had a ball. Thomas & Gabi Moritz live on a 600 acre farm in the King Valley. They are self-sufficient, organic farmers, use permaculture practices, are completely off grid and make sourdough which is sold at several local markets. Thomas is a guru regarding wood fired ovens and has built many masonry ovens along with Alan Scott who is considered to be the doyen of brick masonry ovens. The hospitality they shared and the knowledge they imparted is impressive indeed. Thanks Thomas & Gabi, I appreciate you sharing your time and expertise immensely. Here is a sequence of a few things we covered.

A view to the rocky mountain from a mud brick hut.

Our first batch of 100% whole-wheat, freshly ground wheat dough.

Testing for the window pane in the dough. This tells whether or not kneading is sufficient to develop the gluten in the flour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All hands on deck mixing dough here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first of our loaves out of the oven. Topped with poppy-seed and pumpkin seeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing lunch outside.

Back to work, that’s a lot of baskets to fill!

Dinner Saturday night were some sensational pizzas.

Sourdough herb sticks with freshly picked herbs.

Thomas explaining how we should load the oven. Almost worked!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some cheeky bugger stole my camera and took this shot! Peter?

Fresh pitta sourdough to go with the most amazing lunch prepared by Gabi, her daughter and some of their woofing friends. Stunning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, the obligatory group shot. Not sure what’s going on with me but that’s three times lately I’ve agreed to being in a photo!

This is a sample of some of the breads we brought home. The strudel with nashi pear, sultana soaked in rum and spices was a knockout!

Finally, in my kitchen is almost, an Italian. The lovely Francesca from Almost Italian was nice enough to call in on her way to the coast. What a delight it was meeting a fellow IMK blogger. We have lots of similarities including photos going onto our blogs. But here we are, both in my kitchen. I really think she was secretly a little bit jealous of my toy oven!

The Blues Sisters