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Two circles of pita dough rolled out on a floured benchtop.

Sourdough Pita Pockets for Lunchboxes

I make two wholemeal pita pockets fresh every morning for my grandkids’ lunchboxes. It sounds like it entitles me to grandma of the year award, but in fact it’s so ridiculously fast and easy. It’s one of the favourite things of my day. It’s like giving a fresh, warm, soft, wholemeal morning hug. And as a nice little side benefit, it eliminates the problem of getting rid of plastic bread…

A salad on a plate, with lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumber, red onions, mayonnaise, and bunya nut felafels that look like little rissoles crispy brown on the outside with a hint of something green on the inside.

Bunya nut felafels

It’s bunya nut season, and though it’s not one of the bi-or-triennial bumper seasons like last year was, it is worth checking the ground around your favourite bunya pines for fallen cones. Here’s how I process them, and how to make bunya felafels.

Garden Pharmacy – Fish Mint

Our local farmer’s market is a brilliant display of ethnic diversity in food. There’s East Asian, West Asian, Middle Eastern, African, South American, Pacific Islander stalls. I can buy fresh bamboo shoots, banana flowers, yams, red eggplants, cassava, abika, kang kong. It’s where I found fish mint, a little pot of it for a dollar, from someone who spoke so little English that all I got was that it was…

A white bowl with a decorative edge, with fettucini pasta in a sauce. We can see onion, eggplant tomato, basil.

Pasta alla Norma (Eggplant Pasta)

Sometimes I think we overelaborate recipes. Last night I made a Middle Eastern style stuffed eggplants for dinner, and it was good, but when I compare it with tonight’s Pasta alla Norma, I think it was over-elaborated. In-season produce needs so little. Pasta alla Norma does justice to eggplants – so good, so much better than you would think for something that simple.