Category: From The Kitchen

  • Thoughts on Diet, Dieting and Menu Planning

    When I was a lad, back in the 70’s of last century, I was told that my grandfather had a lifestyle crisis when he was 40. Almost blind, alcoholic, and a size 44 belt (…that’s a 44″ long belt.) After “Studying” Pritikin and Davis (she was his pinup poster girl of diet), he then took control…

  • Kitchen Mixers – I think I’ve finally found the one!

    When I started making pies in Hanoi, several years back, I always wanted a kitchen mixer, something robust enough to be a semi-professional item but couldn’t afford to sling for the Profi models, even the Chinese made commercial ones. So I settled for a Bomann KM 348 CB  [looks exactly like this Clatronic KM 3067 here……

  • The Search Goes On – Egg Batter Dough for Chiko Roll & Corn Jacks

    I’ve previously approached this topic, reporting my trials into finding the secret to the ever elusive method of making the dough wrapper for that well known, loved and maligned, Australian deep fried snack, the Chiko Roll. Much of the history and preparation info is summarized at Cooks Info which is a little more sensible and tempered than some…

  • Fowlers Vacola Preservers End of Summer Discount on Pro Model

    Just in Fowlers Vacola are having a 30% Off Sale on their top of the range, Professional Preserving Unit (source) Now, this is part of their End of Summer Sale, that’s right, end of Summer in Australia. This is an all-Australian product from a company that has been around since before my Grandma, well, since…

  • Australia’s Iconic Dim Sim : A Marathon Quest

    Any search of the Internet for “Dim Sims” – an Australian Classic; will pull up no end of recipe suggestions, and lamentations from Expat Australian’s wanting to recreate a little taste of home. That being said, many an arm chair expert frequently chime in to correct those poor Aussie Expats, telling them that what they’re…

  • Chiko Roll Revisited

    In recent days, I’ve been redoing my recipe collection, and I’ve come to the realisation, that I have three types of recipe books: a) printed books, b) hand written notes,  notebooks and a kitchen diarie, and c) my kitchen scrapbooks – that is books for scrapbooking recipes picked up from supermarkets, snipped from magazines and…