How far I've come

I just ate a toasted sandwich made from homemade bread, cheese and an anchovy fillet. Although a simple snack, it made me realise just how far I've come in terms of cooking.

To begin with, it was a bread I had made using my new toy, a banneton and a lame. The banneton is the cane bread proofing bowl which gives the nice concentric circles on the crust, and the lame is just a razor blade on a plastic handle.

Artisan bakery!

Apart from the bread though, I do find myself using and eating a lot of new things that I possibly couldn't have imagined years ago. When ever I cook, there are always two things I have on hand. Firstly, my sea salt. Currently I'm using the pink Murray River salt but when this runs out I'm going to buy some Fleur de Sel because I'm a little bit fancy. The second is extra virgin olive oil. I've used a number of brands over the past two years, including the Coles available Moro (meh), Bertolli (too strong for me), Red Island (pretty good), and Cobram Estate. I've also used Maggie Beer's brand once and that was my favourite. Recently I have been using Cobram Estate after hearing about their world topping olive oil in 2011, however as expected, this winning crop isn't sold in the supermarkets. Hence when I stumbled upon bottles of the winning crop, I couldn't help but buy some, even though it was four times the cost of what I usually buy. And it is worth it. By far the best extra virgin olive oil I've ever used and it'll be a sad day when it runs out.

On top of these two staples, I've got some other less common ingredients floating around the kitchen.

• Indonesian long pepper, bought this when I first went to Simon Johnson because I saw it on The Cook and the Chef;
• Dried red chilis, got these after watching enough Asian episodes on Food Safari;
• Anchovies, about time I tried these and they are starting to grow on me;
• Juniper berries, another spice I bought after watching the Cook and the Chef;
• Paella pan and rice, for paella obviously duh;
• Parmesan, I only buy Australian parmesan because I like supporting Australian producers, however at some point I know I need to try Reggiano; and
• Pickles, because I love pickles.

I sometimes sit and think of how much money I've sank into cooking, and I'm sure it is probably somewhere near $1000, but every dollar is totally worth it because I finally have something in my life which I can call a passion.