Tales From Trenna’s Kitchen

By Greg

This post has a connection to the Menu Diaries series.  If you aren’t familiar with the series, a good place to start would be HERE.
Some of the items and practices I discuss here are mentioned in the series of posts in which I explain some of the mechanisms Trenna used to cope with her Marfan’s Syndrome. That series starts here.

Introduction

As I have explained a few times, meals and their preparation were central to Trenna’s very being.  I suspect that sounds a bit over the top, a bit pretentious, but, I think it’s true.  For most of our married life she put more effort into that than pretty well anything else.

Not surprisingly she developed strategies, techniques and ideas to help her do what she (and I) considered to be a very important task.  In this post I am going to go through some of these (in no particular order) to flesh out how things happened in the Mahney kitchen.

I’m not implying that what Trenna did was the best, or the only way of doing these things – just that this was her approach.

Herbs and Spices

When Trenna first moved to my house in Vista Street, Kensington my Mum and Dad came over to help unpack.  As they were unpacking the kitchen items they started making quite a fuss over how many small containers of herbs and spices she had, and remarking on her two level rack to put them in.

They only revealed later that they had bought Trenna a smaller, single level spice rack as a house warming present.  We both appreciated the gesture.  

In later years Trenna’s passion for herbs and spices meant she started using much bigger jars, and I think we probably gave both spice racks away when we went to Darwin in 1994.

Growing Our Own Herbs

Once Trenna moved in with me she started to develop an interest in gardening.  And like our garden, her interest grew and grew.  She became quite an expert and very knowledgeable.  It became quite a passion.

It is not surprising then that we started to grow herbs.  Most of the time we had growing in our garden basil, mint (both spearmint and apple mint), flat leaf (Italian) parsley, Vietnamese mint, lemon grass, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, thyme.  We tried to grow coriander a number of times.  Sometimes it would grow and we could use the plant or the seeds, other times it just wilted.

At various times. we also grew lemons, mandarins, Tahitian limes, kaffir limes, blueberries, curry leaf, loquats, avocados, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflowers, zucchinis, pumpkins, spring onions, garlic, potatoes, and no doubt some other things.

Spices

Lots of Trenna’s recipes call for ground spices.  In her view these always had to be ground at the time of preparing the meal.  It was no good grinding a large load of spices ahead of time, or, heaven forbid, buying pre-ground spices.  In particular coriander, cumin, and fennel seeds were always ground fresh. 

To do the grinding we used a “coffee and spice grinder”.  Pretty hopeless for grinding coffee, pretty good for grinding spices.  At the end, to clean up, a wipe out with a paper towel worked well or you could grind a little uncooked rice or even the paper towel to get rid of the excess spices.

Moulie/Food Mill

Trenna swore by her moulie, although most of the time it was more physically practical for me to operate it.  Almost exclusively she used it for mulching up canned Roma tomatoes (always ones imported from Italy).  Although for many years in Australia you could buy passata, she really valued knowing exactly what was going into her meals.

Not Home Brand

Trenna really felt there was a quality difference between name brand food items and generic brands.  She never wanted the generics.

There was one exception.  She and I both thought the Coles Home Brand cling wrap was as good or better than others on the market.

Mainly the Front Burner

When I publish Trenna’s recipes you will notice that almost all of them say to use the small front burner of our cooktop.  The other front burner is a wok burner. (It is a gas cooktop – another Trenna requirement – although these days she would be having second thoughts about the gas, for environmental reasons).  

The front burner was neither the biggest or the smallest burner of the 5 on offer, it was simply that it WAS AT THE FRONT.  This meant less leaning over, and she had a (small) chance of seeing, or at least hearing what was happening.  

I would say smelling was also a way of telling how the cooking was progressing, but for the last several years of her life Trenna lost her sense of smell, and a lot of her taste – THAT was very sad.

Cloth Napkins

Trenna knew that her insistence that we use cloth napkins at every meal was a hang over from her Craig House days.  It was a nice tradition though, and I still use them today.

Loved Her Esteele Pans

When I met Trenna she already had a set of cookware, pots and pans, made by Esteele.  They were stainless steel with heavy copper bases.  Trenna swore by them.  We did get a second set of cookware when Trenna started making lots of dishes at once.  Those were Arcosteele, which were fairly good, but not as favoured as the originals.

Frozen Chillis

I recently saw a Facebook discussion about preserving Chillies.  If you grow them, as we did/do, it is true you end up with a big surplus.  Some of the preservation methods seemed quite problematic, for a range of reasons.

What we did, and it worked perfectly, was to pick the chillies, put them into a plastic container and pop them in the freezer.  That’s it. We would pick some when they were green, for making Thai Green Curry Paste, and the others we would pick when red.

True to Trenna’s sense of order (and bad eyesight), we had a green container for green chillis and a red one for the rest.

When we used them, we just took them out and used them as if fresh – no additional preparation needed.

Reserved Sign

Trenna stole a “Reserved” sign from a restaurant years before I met her.  I don’t think she even remembered which restaurant it came from.  Anyway, whenever there was a special meal, for example a birthday or special guest, the Reserve sign would be pulled out and put on the table.  It was just a quirky thing we did.

Always Have Beef Mince, Oyster Blade and Chicken Thigh in the Freezer

Trenna always insisted we have on hand were Beef Mince (ground beef), usually divided into 500 or 600 gram lots.  All meat that was frozen was put into a plastic bag, sealed and then that put into another bag and sealed.  

Also Oyster Blade Beef which she would get me to cut into chunks suitable for curries (such as Tren’s Original – see the recipe HERE).  This was usually kept in 600 gram lots. 

She also liked to have Chicken Thighs on hand.  We would buy the thigh pieces and I would spend AGES trying to cut all the fat out.  It’s a very tedious job.  These were then cut into pieces, or often strips, divided into 200 gram lots, double bagged and frozen.

Freeze Basil in Ice Cube Trays

During Perth’s warm weather it is really easy to grow basil plants.  We frequently had really big plants, and in spite of it being a herb we used a lot, we often had a surplus.  In winter it becomes much scarcer.

Some of the surplus got composted but often Trenna could convince me to pick a LOT of basil, wash it and chop it up.  We would then freeze it in 1 Tablespoon measures in ice cube trays. Usually we didn’t bother thawing it before adding it to a recipe.

Drying Herbs

We also used the oven to dry basil, rosemary (we used this particularly in our Pine Nut and Rosemary Bread), oregano and parsley.

Home Made Mint Sauce

We NEVER (I wasn’t allowed to) bought mint sauce.  We used a fair bit as roast lamb was a favourite of ours and we both liked it with mint sauce.  

As we always had mint on hand we would make our own.  Here’s the recipe.

Having Home Made Sun-Dried Tomato Paste on Hand

Another item Trenna always kept on hand was sun-dried tomato paste. Many of her recipes include it as an additional hit of intense tomato flavour, but it also played a hand in her long lunches with friends.  

In the lunches we’d provide fresh, hand cut, loaves of white bread and you could pile on whatever you wanted to eat.  A great base for the bread was to spread it with Sun-Dried Tomato Paste – yum!  I still make it and use it today.  Great as a pizza sauce too.

Here’s the recipe…

Global Knives

Trenna’s hands were weak and prone to fatigue.  So when our niece Liz (Nancy’s daughter) started an apprenticeship as a chef Trenna asked for advice on a suitable Chef’s knife.  Liz asked her boss and he recommended that Trenna get some Global knives.

Now, Global knives are very well known now, but that was not at all the case then (and this is pre-Google).  We hunted out a restaurant supply store “Cut it Out” (or maybe it was Cut it Up).  Trenna got a 15cm Scalloped Utility knife, and I got a 18cm Oriental Cook’s knife, and a 16cm Boning knife.  Soon after we got the 13cm Cooks knife, a Shinkansen Global Knife Sharpener (it actually looks a bit like a Shinkansen) and a ceramic steel.  

Trenna found the knife much easier to use than the heavier one she had been using.  Those Japanese sure know how to make a blade!

A quick tip on sharpening using a steel, for those who don't already know it.  Rather than trying to hold the steel in the air whilst you draw the knife over it, it is WAY easier to hold the steel vertical, with the tip resting on a cutting board.  It then doesn't move at all whilst you push the knife down over the steel.  Thanks to Susan, a work colleague at the Murdoch Student Guild, whose boyfriend was a chef, for that tip.

Rock Chopper

Another great leap forward in food prep ease came for Trenna when she got a herb rocker.  She loved it.  In her recipes it often says “rock chop”.  This is what she is referring to.

Have Brown Onions in the Fridge, and Potatoes on Hand

There were a number of items Trenna always kept on hand in the kitchen. One of those was several brown onions. She kept them in the crisper section of the fridge – a trick we learnt in Darwin. If you take them out of the fridge and chop them straight away, no tears!

She also made sure she always had potatoes on hand. I don’t recall ever finding that I didn’t have any potatoes in the house.

Variation in the Menu

If you read the menu diaries series you’ll notice that Trenna always ensured we had a variety in any week’s menu. Of course, just having the two of us, meant that we would often cook enough of a meal for two days and have it twice in a week.

What I mean is she would always vary the protein. Beef one day, then lamb or fish or pork or chicken. The same applied to other aspects of our diet. One day potatoes, another pasta, then maybe rice.

Using the Bread Maker

We were early adopters of a bread making machine. Again, this came from our time in Darwin. 

When we first went looking for bread in the supermarket in Darwin we couldn’t find it anywhere. After inquiring we found that all of the bread was kept in the freezer. This was to stop it going mouldy within a day or so.

I mentioned this to work colleague and she said “oh you’ve gotta get yourself a bread maker”. I had never heard of a home bread making machine. But sure enough, when we went to the one discount appliance store in all of Darwin, there was a bread making machine – only one model as I recall. We bought the Breville bread making machine, and I still use it today.

When we were in Darwin we used it all of the time. When we returned we used it a bit less often but still there were a variety of loaves we would make from time to time. Trenna and I particularly liked the Rosemary and Pine Nut Bread. Yum!

Worrying About the Mix Master

Trenna occasionally got anxious when using electrical appliances she wasn’t familiar with.  She attributed this to being bullied in school during science classes and warnings about the dangers of electricity.

About 20 years ago we decided that, considering the amount of cooking we do, we really ought to buy a mixer. 

We got a Sunbeam MixMaster one weekend and unpacked it. As Trenna’s eyesight was so bad I read the instructions and then showed Trenna how to put the beaters into the machine, how to remove them, and where the various controls were.  We didn’t have anything in particular we wanted to make so Trenna waited to christen it with her friend Jan when she came visiting one day when I was at work. 

Trenna and Jan worked together to add all the ingredients.

When it was time to switch the machine on Tren was a bit anxious, she hadn’t used this machine before, but Jan was very reassuring.  Trenna turned the dial a notch.  It gave a bit of a grunt, then nothing.

Trenna turned the dial another notch.  The machine sort of coughed and spluttered, the beaters made half a revolution then a slight crackling noise and acrid dark grey smoke started pouring out of the machine!!

Trenna turned off the power and pulled out the cord, and then grabbed our cordless phone in case she had to ring the Fire Brigade.  The smoke subsided, the house wasn’t in danger, but it did nothing to allay Trenna’s anxiety about electrical appliances.

The next weekend I took the fried appliance back to the retailer and got a replacement.  “I don’t think we’ve ever had one of these returned before” they said.

The new one worked faultlessly, and still does, but it was never, ever, a favourite appliance of Trenna’s, and in fact, she very rarely used it.

A Choice of Teas

I talk a bit about cups of tea in the post “”Better than sex” – Earl Grey and Other Favourite Drinks”. 

I already had a variety of tea leaf blends and tea bags when Trenna and I met.  At first I think she thought this was no more than a curiosity.  But before long she became quite discerning about the differences in the teas, and she was always keen for visitors to try different varieties.

Trenna and I favoured black teas, and that is overwhelmingly what we had in the pantry.  But, being the the great host that she was, she would also ensure that she had several different green and herbal teas on hand if guests wanted them. 

MWO for Cuppas

We almost always used the microwave oven to heat up water for cups of tea, or in the olden days, instant coffee.

The advantage of using the microwave is that in the process of heating up the water inside the microwave the mug is heated as well. If you use the kettle, or a boiling water tap, as soon as you put the boiling water in a cold mug the water temperature is reduced. 

That is negated by using the mug to heat the water. We reckon you get a better infusion of the tea through this method.

Cooking Rice in the MWO

When I did a Chinese Cooking course before I met Trenna I learnt how to cook rice perfectly in a saucepan.  When we got married we were given a microwave oven.  This was a big deal in Perth in 1989.

Through reading recipe books (Google was still 10 years away) and experimenting Trenna came up with just the right timings to cook rice for two people in the microwave.  We had slightly different timings for Jasmine rice (mainly to have with Thai recipes) and for Basmati rice (most other dishes).

The Magimix

Once, maybe 25 years ago, I thought I was onto a winner in regards to a birthday present idea.  Chefs often seemed to use food processors to make their job easier, and at the time, there was no doubt that the King of food processors was the Magimix, built in France and tougher than a Parisian waiter.

Well, Trenna was pretty underwhelmed.  The Magimix was designed to slice things, grate things and chomp things up.  She already had a Braun Stab blender that was light weight and easily chomped things up.

And as far as slicing things she felt that we would have more control by using a knife (which is true).  Added to that the Magimix was too heavy for her to easily lift, and it took up valuable bench space.  So overall a bit of a waste.

When we did the second renovation of our house and created a new kitchen we were able to incorporate a cupboard which allowed us to hide the Magimix and pretty well forget about it!

Two Types of Chilli Sauce

One type of chilli sauce is never enough and we always had two.  In effect we often had three because on occasions Trenna would mix both types of chilli sauce to create a further variation.

One type of chilli sauce was a Sweet Chilli Sauce, often Lingham’s Chilli Sauce – Sweet & Spicy.  We used this when making roll ups or hot dogs in bread rolls and we would add it after applying mayonnaise, then American mustard.  Sometimes we would  use this perhaps on meat pies or sausage rolls at lunch time.  I mixed it with tomato sauce (ketchup) and had it with the chips in fish and chips.

The other type of chilli sauce was what we called “Boiled Chilli Sauce”.  We were much more likely to use this with Asian dishes – samosas for example.  Trenna made an excellent dipping sauce that comprised the boiled chilli sauce, chopped up Vietnamese mint (which we grew in our garden), and a dash of mirin.  Really nice as a dipping sauce.

Trenna did have another Chilli Dipping Sauce that also worked well. This is it.

Dishwasher Story

This was an important item, but Trenna rarely did the bending to use it.  I have included it so I can tell a couple of stories.

When we did our first major renovation in 1990 and got a lovely new kitchen we were asked if we wanted to incorporate a dishwasher.  We said “No, there are only the two of us, a few dishes are no problem”. And they weren’t … until we went to Darwin.

Our brand new, rented apartment had all the mod cons, including a dishwasher.  After our first meal we put the dishes by the sink and did something else, probably finished our wine on the balcony watching a spectacular, build-up-to-The-Wet lightning show.

When I returned to wash the dishes they were COVERED in tiny black ants, thousands of them.  Some bits of leftover food looked like furry snooker balls!

After that, all dishes went in the dishwasher straight away.

Of course, when we returned to Perth two years later (or as Trenna put it, 2 years, 2 months, 2 days… too long) we were lost without a dishwasher, so off we went and bought a Dishlex model.  It turned out I could fit it myself and it looked and acted the part until our next renovation, in 2003.

For that we decided to move out whilst the building work was done, and were lucky to find a rental house directly across the park from our place.  BUT, no dishwasher!

We had already decided to upgrade to a newer model so I disconnected the Dishlex and set it up in the laundry of the rental.  Again, it served us well for the six months of building.  

As we were about to move back to our place and the spanking new kitchen, we advertised the old Dishlex and were delighted when we were able to sell it.  We didn’t get much for it.  In fact the buyer did at least as well as us.  

Not only did they get a perfectly good kitchen appliance, but I had left one of Trenna’s favourite, expensive, fine bone China tea mugs in the machine – ouch!

Fine Bone China for Cups of Tea

It doesn’t matter if it is a cup or a mug.  What matters is that it is fine bone china.

Frozen Home Made Green and Red Curry Pastes

Another staple that was always waiting in the freezer door was foil wrapped portions of Green, and Red Curry Paste.  Whenever one type or the other was running low a new batch, which made several portions, was made.  

At first Trenna would do this whilst I was at work, but in later years it was done jointly, and still later, done by me (but not as well).

They were handy and I have made some since Trenna passed away.  Basically by grabbing the frozen Oyster Blade, the Curry Paste and the spuds we always had on hand, you could fairly easily knock up a Red Beef Curry or a Green Chicken Curry.  Microwave some rice and you have dinner for two people for two nights.

Here is the Red Curry Paste recipe.

Fruit Cake for Play Lunch

About the only cake I regularly made before I met Trenna was the Boiled Fruit Cake from the Golden Wattle Cook Book.  Mine is the 27th Edition from 1984 of the classic Western Australian book. I think my Mum gave it to me when I moved to Kensington.

When Trenna realised how much I liked fruit cake she took it upon herself to make it often, and for many years we always had some fruit cake on hand.  This was particularly useful when guests popped in for a cuppa.

But Trenna also started packing two small pieces per day into a tiny lunch box so that I could take them to work for “Play Lunch”. She’d often also slip a little love note in with the cake. I looked forward to morning and afternoon tea.

Always Warmed Plates

All hot meals at our place were served on pre warmed dinner plates (or pre warmed bowls).  If the oven had been used to prepare the meal 2 or 3 minutes in there would do the trick.  If it hadn’t been used we would turn it on for a few minutes for that specific purpose.  Probably not all that good for the environment, but it helped keep the meal warm, longer!!

I later devised a method where I put a tablespoon or so of water on each plate, stacked them together and gave them about a minute in the microwave.  A quick wipe and they were warm and ready for serving.

Wooden Boards After Paris

In 2009 we went to Europe and whilst in Paris went to a café where they served the food on a wooden board.  We hadn’t seen that in Perth so as soon as we got home we acquired some small cutting boards and from then on many lunch time meals were served on the boards.

It wasn’t long before the idea caught on in a big way in Australia and it became very common to have meals served in that way.

There is Probably More

This has just been a grab bag of items I have thought of. I’m sure there are others. In fact I’m pretty sure that everything I do in the kitchen, or indeed, anything related to meals, is influenced by Tren.

I hope the above list has given you just a few more insights into this important part of Trenna’s life.

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