Selectively Juggling

To be honest, I don’t really follow other people’s recipes. I have always been intuitive, and this intuition also lends itself to cooking. I find adherence to challenging and unforgiving recipes a little boring and stressful. That is, I’m not the type of personality who gets excited to try a new recipe, just because it might be the latest trend. I cook and taste to my own palate, incorporating mine and my kids allergies, food intolerances and likes/dislikes. There are some quintessential recipes that I definitely do not tamper with, such as chocolate crackles – a tried and tested Australian kids party staple. My spiced sweet potato and pumpkin soup, always has the same ingredients and processes, after I finally perfected the taste and texture. Even with baking (myself and family are gluten free) we also have dairy and egg allergies, so my baking is always gluten-free, dairy free and egg free. So although I experiment, there are certain recipe variations that I use, or have created. I take a base recipe and make it sing with my own and family’s preferences. I’ll tackle every cuisine, and am quite spice-forward. We don’t do bland unflavoured, non-spiced/spicey food. We love our garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, coriander, paprika, cayenne pepper, garam masala (obviously not all together) We love our Asian flavours, which I usually cook 4 times a week. I’ve learned to make decent sushi, noodle and rice dishes. Have I said how much we love, love, love ginger, garlic and onion? Mmm my mouth is watering, just writing it. Australian produce is brilliant, with so many influences from around the world- not to mention our wonderfully unique Indigenous ingredients, of which I have several growing in my garden.