In My Kitchen - April 2012

This is a very exciting In My Kitchen post. My much anticipated food processor has arrived! A local electrical store had the Kenwood Multipro on sale so I spoilt myself. Isn't she pretty? Beauty is not just skin (or plastic/stainless steel) deep however, she is oh so functional! I could not believe the size of the box when I first saw it. This baby has got every attachment you could possibly dream of. It has two bowl sizes each with their own blade, a glass "liquidiser" (or a blender jug for us commoners), a citrus press, a centrifugal juicer and a grinding mill to name a few. You can also chop your carrots any way you choose with one of four cutting discs, mix dough, whisk eggs and process to your heart's content. I'm sure I won't use ALL of those features, but I could if I wanted to right?


And she has variable speed, so I can do all those things as fast or as slow as I like.


So, as promised, the first thing I made (or possibly the second) was chocolate macadamia nut butter. This is super easy to make. All that was involved was 3 cups of macadamia nuts (I probably could have gotten away with 2 for my first batch as I had a little more than would fit into one jar), 2 tbsp of dutched cocoa powder and about 2 tbsp of honey. Process the nuts until the oil breaks down and they become creamy, no added liquid or oil required. Once the mixture is a paste, add the cocoa and honey and process. I really had no idea how much cocoa or honey to add so I just kept going until I liked the taste. Because there is no sugar, it's not overly sweet, but the macadamias are quite sweet in themselves. It tastes more like a peanut butter than a nutella, but with the cocoa and honey it has replaced nutella on my morning toast and I feel much less guilty.


Also in my kitchen is some lovely basil pesto which until now, I have been unable to make. I have an abundance of basil in the garden so I was very excited to put it to good use. This is great stirred through spaghetti, or even on toast. I am a huge parmesan fan, so this is a big winner in my kitchen. Like the Aussie that I am, I stored my pesto in a Vegemite jar.


I have some muesli bars in the oven, but they're not ready and I've been trying to get this post out for long enough, so I'll save muesli bars for another day. It's kind of nice to dedicate this month's In My Kitchen to the food processor anyway, given how much I have anticipated its arrival. Take a look at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial to see what's happening in some other kitchens around the world!