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It’s been slightly quieter In My Kitchen this month. I have been avoiding the supermarkets, so there are not many new finds to talk of. This is good, however, as I can finally share my kitchen pride and joy with you – my egg skelter. I saw it on a River Cottage episode a few years ago, hunted it down and had it sent from England. Prior to purchasing it, we didn’t have a great system for storing eggs. The skelter takes all the guesswork out of this. The oldest eggs are used first, and as you take eggs from the bottom new eggs slowly roll down and fill the gap. It is also means that my eggs are always at room temperature.
My new Bruny Island Cheese Club delivery has just arrived for the month, so I am now all stocked up on cheese. This is only my second month of ordering from the club. They send four cheeses, both hard and soft, which means we get to try cheeses I might not otherwise purchase. I have been very impressed with the service and the quality of the product, and even though it comes from the opposite side of the country it arrives cold and in perfect condition.
There is the opportunity to add other Tasmanian delicacies to my cheese club order. This month I selected fresh Tasmanian walnuts and stoneground semolina. The walnuts will be eaten on their own. Fresh walnuts are so sweet that I just want to enjoy them as is. I am going to make fresh pasta with the semolina, seeing as I have lots of eggs at the moment.
The first of this season’s peaches have finally started to appear at the farmer’s markets. We always enjoy the first peaches as fresh fruit. As the season progresses, I start to buy them by the tray so they will be roasted with red wine for dessert or made into individual peach crumbles.
New season potatoes are also beginning to appear. I always do a happy dance in my mind when I find dirty potatoes. Does that make me weird? A little dirt helps them last longer and I am more than happy to scrub a few potatoes before dinner if I know that the product is fresh.
I made a small batch of my favourite Low Sugar Strawberry Vanilla Jam last week. I make my jam in small batches now as I found that I would get bored with larger batches and ended up with a lot of excess jam. Small batches allow me to experiment with different types of jam.
Finally my single supermarket find. I was intrigued by these coconut chips but was in a hurry and didn’t read the label properly. These are very nice but are unnecessarily sweetened with sugar. Thankfully the jar isn’t very big and The Princess seems to have taken a fancy to them. I can’t see the jar lasting long.
Don’t forget to pop over to Celia’s at Fig Jam & Lime Cordial to see what is happening in other kitchens around the world this month.
Your egg skelter is very cool. How long do you keep the eggs at room temp for? I have lots of strawberries in the freezer and am going to try your jam tomorrow.
It is good isn’t it 🙂 I love it. We go through eggs pretty quickly in our house, and when the skelter is full I start giving eggs away to people. But I keep eggs for up to a couple of weeks in winter at room temp and slightly less in summer. I read that eggs are actually OK at room temp if they are not refrigerated. Refrigerating apparently destroys part of the egg that helps keep it fresh. If I ever think an egg has been there too long I will crack it into a separate bowl rather than into any food I am preparing, just to be sure.
I have used frozen strawberries before in the jam with great success. I would love to hear how you got on.
The jam is great! Although maybe lacking in flavour, perhaps due to the frozen fruit? I combined your recipe with one from Tenina and cooked it in the Thermomix, using an apple and a quarter of a lemon (zest and flesh removed) for pectin. Using 400g fruit and 160g of sugar I ended up with 1.5 small jars of fruit spread rather than jam so it was definitely a small batch but I was happy! I still have some of the defrosted fruit in the fridge so will have another go.
I have used frozen fruit before with no problems Jo. Unfortunately with any jams or relishes it will only be as good as your produce, so it would depend on how yummy your strawberries were to start with. You can also loose a bit of flavour if you overcook the strawberries. I’ve not made jam in the Thermomix so I am unsure whether this would affect the flavour. Fingers crossed the next batch tastes better.
I love your helper skelter too – what a fun thing to have out in the kitchen.
I was just looking at the labelling on those coconut chunks – it’s very annoying isn’t it when they make a point of ‘gluten free, baked not fried, nothing artificial’ and then go and add a load of sugar!!
Thanks Nancy. The skelter really is great. I was really quite annoyed with myself over not reading the label. I am usually quite good but every now and then I need to slap myself. This was one of those times. Coconut is so good on its own. It doesn’t need sugar.
I brought back 2 big bags of flour from Callington Mill recently and my bread has never been better! Interesting about the cheese club, I bought some cheese while there and noticed the info but didn’t follow up on it. I may have to now. 🙂
I’m heading to Tasmania early next year Maree and I will be coming back with something similar. Shhhh don’t tell the husband. Loving the cheese club 🙂
the egg skelter reminds me of watching the lotto draws on tv as a kid! Those coconut chunks look interesting, what a shame they’re sweet!
You’re right. It is a bit like that 🙂 I saw the coconut chunks in another store this afternoon, and even the savoury ones had sugar in them. 🙁
G’day! Can I just come and stay in your kitchen? 🙂
Thank you for your warm and welcoming kitchen view this month too!
Cheers! Joanne
The good thing about close up photos is that it hides all the crud in the rest of the kitchen 🙂 But you’re welcome to drop by, just avoid your gaze from the pile of dishes. Thanks for stopping by.
I just love roasted peaches for dessert! Too bad peach season here is over. The egg smelter looks amazing! My host family in Germany always kept their farm fresh eggs at room temp year round it they were the best eggs I ever had.
I think I actually prefer roasted peaches to fresh Gretchen. I love room temperature eggs. They are always the perfect temperature for cooking.
Tania, I love the egg skelter too. I am very interested in Bruny Island Cheese Club, what a great idea.
The skelter is great isn’t it Glenda. I am loving the Cheese Club, right down to the way it is packaged. Highly recommend it.
The Bruny Island Cheese is so delicious – very tempted to order some for Chrsitmas.
It is really very good Francesca. We had some ODO stirred through pasta last night. Very, very good.
Hi there Tania. Isn’t it great to have peaches again! I picked up some today at a market here in Canberra. White flesh, and so so juicy. I love summer fruits. Your egg skelter is just adorable.
Absolutely Kirsty. I have big plans for a summer of peaches 🙂
I remember seeing the egg skelter on RC too! Such a clever idea! And I’m very impressed Bruny Island cheese manage to get their product to you in Perth in such fine shape! I don’t think I’ve ever had really fresh walnuts, I must look out for them – thanks for the inspiration as always, Tania! 🙂
The skelter is a great idea isn’t it Celia. At least it stops my eggs rolling over the bench. I have been so impressed with the manner at which the cheese gets to me. Still very cold and the gel packs still frozen. I am seeing fresh walnuts around a bit at the moment so they must be in shops. Hope you can find some.
What a lovely kitchen this month Tania, I LOVE the egg holder… I need one too!!! Could you give me the address where I can order it, oh and BTW how wonderful is Hugh! I’ve been watching him for 15 years 🙂 my post also has some wonderful Bruny Island cheese that I picked up at the good food and wine show, my fav is the raw milk cheese! anyway, thanks for sharing this month!!!
I just bought mine on UK ebay Elizabeth, but that was a few years ago and they now appear to be available in Australia. Try here, although they only appear to have the one colour whilst I had lots of choice. I love Hugh, and have my eye on his new book. I did like the Bruny Island raw milk, but I m loving the opportunity to try some others as well.
Very interested in how you make your pasta, please share the recipe once you’re done. I’m always looking for a good pasta recipe. The Bruny Island Cheese Co. cheese looks good, I’ll get to try some one day. Thanks for a look in your kitchen, see you next month at IMK.
Generally I just use a proportion of 1 egg/100g flour but this flour appears to be wholemeal. It took a lot to work it into a manageable pasta so I think I am going to have to play with it a bit more before I can share.
Avoiding the supermarkets means lots of $$$ saved I find!
Cute egg storer – though I’d use it for apples instead 😉
How good are the peaches this year!!! I’ve been really enjoying them 🙂