In my Kitchen: Christine from Bijou and Boheme

I'm very excited to have Christine from Bijou and Boheme sharing her kitchen with us today. Everything Christine shares makes me happy and if the below is anything to go by I can't wait t see Christine's finished kitchen!



Hi everyone, it's Christine from Bijou and Boheme and I'm delighted to be here talking about two of my favourite things...food (always a crowd pleaser) and my kitchen (currently the topic that occupies I'd say...let's see...90% of my brain speak- more about that later:)

Before we delve into all things delicious, I have to just come out and admit, cooking is not really my idea of Christmas morning- yes, I love a glass of wine and the creative art of putting something fabulous together but in reality, dinner time is the witching hour in my house and I'd rather just keep the kids occupied/happy/not melting and wait for hubs to come home- I'd also say that blogging has pretty much replaced any desire/time I may have had for cooking (or whispers...doing the laundry or cleaning the house...but let's stay on topic yes:)

Having said all of that, there's not much I treasure more than my families evening dinner ritual so thank goodness for fresh food, a Whole Foods literally across the street and a husband who loves to cook.

Eat in or Out: eat in

Take Away or Restaurant: restaurant

I cook for: when I do, it's for my husband and three kids.

Healthy food: avocado, berries, yogurt, olives

Indulgence: Friday pizza & Saturday hamburgers - both with extra banana peppers

Weekend meal: steak and bocconcini salad

Date dinner: appetizer- bread, cheese, red pepper jelly; main- Thai chicken curry with green chili rice; dessert- chocolate, caramel, and pistachio crunch; drink- always wine (preferably Toasted Head Chardonnay with this meal)

Quick fix: pasta with marinara sauce

Spicy: banana peppers, chili sauce, hot jalapeno tapenade

Mild: cilantro/coriander

My kitchen is: absolutely the center of our family life and is about to be ripped out in T minus 2 weeks.

Hopefully it will end up reflecting this board of pretty...

...which will make cooking/dining/entertaining even more delicious.

Favourite gadget: my corkscrew...kidding...OK, not really

In the kitchen, I couldn't live without: my gas stove

My cooking bible: I go on cookbook binges- sometimes I love them and other times, I  prefer to just cook with blind ambition...at the moment, I'm rather smitten with Food, Fashion, Friends- and that's pretty much purely based on the aesthetics of the book.  If we're talking pure practicality, I like the Company's Coming series- fast and easy weekday meals that I have a hard time messing up.

My must have ingredients: coriander/cilantro, chili sauce

Spicy or mild: without a second of hesitation, SPICY...I think my taste buds must be getting less sensitive as I age because I find most things somewhat bland unless covered in spicy goodness.

My Recipe: I don't really have 'A' recipe- I would say chili is my speciality, but that's always made totally without a guide and thus, a little hard to pass on...I will say that sweet chili sauce, avocado, sour cream, and a sharp cheese are KEY to any chili concoction of mine. 

In keeping with tradition of this fabulous series though, I'll pass on the one recipe I've actually made from the above mentioned 'pretty cookbook'- it's a definite yum yum!

Ingredients:

300g macaroni

625ml (21/2 cups) milk

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs thyme

3 peppercorns

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

40g (1/2 cup) grated pecorino

40g (1/2 cup) grated parmesan

1 tablespoon chopped chervil, plus extra to garnish

pink of freshly grated nutmeg

20g (1/4 cup) goat's cheese

Directions:

Cook the macaroni in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water until al dente.

Combine the milk, bay leaf, thyme and peppercorns in a small saucepan and bring just to the boil.  Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to infuse for 30 minutes.  Discard the herbs.

Preheat the over to 180C.  Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, sprinkle over the flour and cook, stirring continuously, for 1-2 minutes or until the flour starts to brown.  Slowly whisky in the infused milk until well combined.  Continue to stir for 4-6 minutes or until the sauce thickens.  Stir in the macaroni, pecorino, parmesan, chervil and nutmeg.

Spoon the macaroni into six 250ml (1 cup) capacity dishes and crumble over the goat's cheese.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts and turns golden.  Serve garnished with chervil.

{ in all cases, I used more cheese than what was called for- I'd suggest you do the same;}

Thanks so much to Helena for having me- I love a good food/kitchen chat!!

xo