Essential Items for a Kiwi Station/Farm Kitchen

A well equiped kitchen is vital, especially if you live remotely. It’s just not easy to whip down to the shop for milk and a bag of bread when you run out. You have to think ahead and stock the freezer and shelves up when you can.

These are some of the items I find key for filing a smoko or lunch, even if the cupboards are beginning to look a little bare.
With these staples you will be able to make most of the recipes in my book ‘A high Country Life’, on my instagram page @whats_for_smoko, or on this blog.

Butter
Cheese
Eggs
High grade flour
Baking powder
UHT cream
Milk powder
Tinned food
Jam
Relish

Butter

I choose to use two types of butter in the household . . .

First I choose which ever 500 gram block is on sale at the store for baking (and I always choose salted – don’t ask why, as there’s no reason why – I just do)

Secondly I choose the Lewis Road lightly salted butter for spreading scones, loaves and Sammies.
I leave the butter in a butter dish on the bench and the room temperature makes the butter perfectly spreadable.
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I like to use butter for spreading because there are no unnecessary plastic containers being introduced into the home (despite being recyclable it is still unnecessary waste – the ideal situation would be no plastic single use containers). And for the fact that it just tastes sooooo much better.

If you are dairy or lactose intolerant there are many great dairy alternatives for baking with or spreading. A quick google will point you in the right direction.

Cheese

I keep a range of cheeses in the fridge. The reason why is that a cheese scone or a cheese roll may call for a strong flavour, but a mild cheese is nice inside a sandwich or wrap.

The three cheeses I buy are the kiwi classics – Mild, Colby and Tasty.
I choose to not buy the grated cheese, as it takes no time at all to grate a specific amount of cheese, but also because grated bagged varieties have unnecessary amounts of additives, which stop the cheese from sticking to each other. I like to keep it simple and as unprocessed as I can (without buying a house cow).

Have you tried Pappy’s Scones yet?
Try the recipe here.

Eggs

We keep chickens, which helps with the supply of eggs in the kitchen, but it’s not to say that I don’t buy eggs from time to time. When I do buy eggs I like to support road side stalls in our local area when possible.

They are always good quality free range eggs, and it supports families in our communities.

Chickens are great to keep, not only for the eggs they provide, but they eat our food scraps from the kitchen too. I don’t like to put food scraps into our open compost bins, as it invites rats and other vermin close to the house.

Remember food scraps should not go in a rubbish bin that is destined for the landfill.
The food scraps do not break down in landfill and are a large cause of methane gas, which is harmful to our climate (you can read more about that here)

High Grade Standard Flour

I like to support local farmers as much as I can, and one way I can do that is purchase grains and flours grown here in New Zealand (or your country).
I use self raising flour in a lot my recipes, but I always have high grade standard flour in the pantry.

If I run out of self raising flour I simply add 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder to each cup of flour needed.

I like to support Farmers Mill flours as they are a South Island business, owned by farmers who grow and mill 100% of their product here in New Zealand.
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Baking Powder

Baking powder is a rising agent that you will find in most baking recipes. If you have run out of self raising flour simply add the ratio of flour and baking powder I discussed above.

I remember my mum having this can in her cupboard as a child. She would always buy new baking powder and pour it into her vintage tin. It did a gr

If you run out of baking powder you can make a substitute using 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar and 1/4 tsp of baking soda

UHT Cream

It is always handy to have a few cartons of UHT cream on the pantry shelf, and one in the fridge.

I use the pantry supply to bake my sweet soda scones, my cinnamon scrolls and my date scones.

If you need pouring cream and don’t having any fresh then simply use the one in the fridge.

Milk Powder

Milk powder is such a versatile item to have in the kitchen pantry.

I use it in my bread recipe to create a nice crunchy crust.

Four tablespoons of milk powder makes a cup of milk.
Perfect for when you run out of milk and need to make smoko.

You could even calculate how many tablespoons of milk powder you need in a recipe, add to the dry ingredients, and just add the correct amount of water when the recipe call for you to add the wet ingredients.

Tinned food

You have flour, butter and water . . . and a can of salmon.
Woolah

You can make my quick salmon quiche.

Jam

Essential for piklets and scones.
But also a great additive for sweetening casseroles.

Also to use up the end of a jar of jam – squeeze a lemon into the jar, with the same amount of a good quality oil. Place the lid on and shake. You will have a sweet acidic dressing for a summer salad.

Relish

Got four, baking powder, milk (or milk powder), cheese . . . and relish

You can make my savoury scrolls

1 Comment

  1. Really I enjoyed that post from over here in Canada! Love seeing the different recipes. My partner is from Auckland and I have tried to make a few classics he misses. I loved the bit on the refilling of vintage tins. I’ve been looking for an Edmonds for this exact purpose. We settled for a small plastic one the last time we were back. Hope we get back soon for me to track one down!

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