Bruno table top plancha

It is time to take Bruno out on the dinning table, cooking while eating, easier this way to have hot meal. 

Simple to sear meat/scallop, or make vegetable pancakes. 

Pumpkin dishes

Have a good harvest of Pumpkin Futsu, one of the last home grown vegetables to enjoy in November. 

Easy to turn into soup, and cook a lot in air fryer, as crispy chips (20 minutes) and to soften by air frying 10 minutes, keep inside to let the residue heat to soften and moisten, an even more energy efficient cooking method.

Then simply mix with homemade pesto sauce, or tomato sauce and ready to serve. 

Tuna belly with seaweed flakes

Being very nutritious, I have been finding ways to use more seaweed in cooking. It is good to pair with seafood, imparting a umami savoury flavour. This seared tuna belly coated with seaweed flakes is delicious and pretty on the dish too. 

Season tuna belly with salt and pepper for a couple hours, cover with seaweed flakes just before cooking. 

Seared all sides of tuna at medium high heat, rest a short while to warm through the middle but still raw for a juicy result. Seaweed flakes becomes crispy after searing. 

Apple desserts

Harvested a lot of cooking apples and have to use them up whenever people come for coffee or meal. Served the small apple rose muffins for coffee and the frangipane apple cake for dinner dessert. 

The trick to make the apple rose one is to cut the apple very thinly, mix with lemon juice, brown sugar and cinnamon powder, bake at 150˚ to just soft, around 10 minutes. Line the apple slices up horizontally and roll up like a rose. Gently push into muffin tin half filled with any cake mix. 

I used sourdough discard, equal amount of almond powder, an egg, thick yogurt, baking powder and honey to make the muffin mix. 

For the frangipane apple cake, the apple slices are thicker, the frangipane mix is simply equal quantities of almond flour, egg, butter and sugar to taste. 

Steam pork head meat with pumpkin

For the remaining meat strip off from pig head, the real pork cheeks, neck muscles and tongue, I seasoned for a day with salt, pepper and 5 spices powder, then steam for an hour on top of pumpkin. All the meats are tender, pumpkin sweet and broth tasty. 

Air fry pork neck on cauliflower

13 minutes in the air fryer and a simple meal is ready! First season pork neck meat with salt pepper and 5 spices powder for a couple hours. Place on top of cauliflower florets (shaken with salt for half an hour), air fry for 13 minutes turnover pork neck half way. 
Mix hot cauliflower with homemade pesto sauce and serve with sliced up pork neck. 

2025年11月5日 豬頭骨

在香港常常買豬頸肉，快煎後嫩滑爽口，但在愛爾蘭未見過，問相熟肉店老闆，說只買豬身，豬頭留在屠房，並沒買下。

終於找到有機農場，直接出售，但來晚了，豬肉已經賣光，只剩下豬頭，一場來到，也就買下自己切割，什麼都試試。

去皮去雪白油脂層後，終於看到面頰肉的結構，看到有兩層不同的肉質，外面那一片顏色淺油脂多，就是喜歡吃的「豬頸肉」，原來不在頸上，只是面頰外層的肉，油脂多，保暖為主吧。

切走後看到下面的深紅色肌肉，有白筋，這才是用以嘴嚼的肌肉，要燜煮軟後才能吃。

買下小豬頭，原來頭骨頗大，就只有薄薄面頰肉（兩種）、細小脷頭和些少頸肉和豬油可吃，而工夫頗多，覺得以十歐羅買這豬頭，蝕本了，但終於知道「豬頸肉」在那個位置，明白「豬頭骨」這形容詞、和支持那有機農場，算是值得啦。



 

Llangollen tour, Wales UK 2/2

Llangollen 的另一個特色景點，是兩位愛爾蘭女士在十八世紀末的居所。其中一位來自名門Butler 家族，二人都喜歡文學藝術，互相欣賞，相約逃離家園，在威爾斯遊走一圈後在Llangollen 小鎮找到房子住下。

有花園河流，環境美好，開始種植蔬果，養殖豬羊雞等自給自足，是當年代半公開的同性伴侶，因為名門背景和文學修養，吸引不少文友畫友到訪，朋友圈子很大。

她們瘋狂的喜歡十七世紀初流行的Jacobean 橡木雕刻，因為太浮誇而逐漸被較簡約的設計取代。四處尋找、收購被放棄的舊傢俬、裝飾，朋友亦樂於捐贈。把喜歡的雕刻部份切割，重新安置在屋內各處，慢慢房屋四壁內外全部填滿木雕。

最動人處，是那Jacobean 時期的雕刻，人物動物都活潑、生動兼有趣，看時覺得似是南美土地著、印度教的作品，多於英國設計！

難得是兩位女士，勇於面對自己的選擇，在家人經濟支持下，共同生活三十多年，活出精彩人生。

Crucis Abbey

Another impressive site in Llangollen town is Plas Newydd, meaning New House, inhabited by 2 Irish ladies in the late 18c.

They love art and literature, and seriously fascinated by Jacobean oak carving popular in the early 17c, being very intricate, lively and flamboyant with a lot of human and animal motives.

The ladies collected them as discarded old furnitures and furnishings, cut the interesting parts out and upcycle as decoration on walls. Gradually they collected so many that the house is fully covered inside and out.

Very impressed that they dare to live the life they chose and left behind their good taste.

Nearby a short drive away is an Crucis Abbey built in the 12c. Most of the roofs are gone and walls collapsed, but the huge footprints, the sheer height and big arches can still be easily appreciated.

From the town it is easy to see the ruined fort at the top of the hill . A good steep path leads to the fort with a panoramic view of Llangollen and nearby countryside, well worth the effort.
It was a site of early habitation over 2000 years ago, with subsequent modifications.

It is a short trip mainly to meet friends in a convenient location, turns out that Llangollen has much more to offer than we have expected.

Llangollen tour, Wales UK 1/2

來到北威爾斯Llangollen小鎮和英國友人一年聚會一次，威爾斯山勢起伏河道多，風光秀麗。知道小鎮有名列UNESCO 的運河，可以沿河步行看風景，那時沒有細看有什麼特別之處。

運河建於十八世紀，有近二百五十年歷史，較歐洲的窄身，只能用瘦長的船行走，以前是用以運送煤、木材等，走了一會才見到有兩段運河建在高橋上，越過峽谷，當地的古老形容是有四個半雙層巴士的高度。看到運河船在半空中行走，真的有點古怪。

約五十年後，蒸氣火車出現，以運河作運輸開始息微，現在是遊人的玩樂地方。第二段架空運河，隔鄰就是架空火車，建得高一些，用以突顯優越。

Came over to Wales via car ferry to have once a year meet up with friends living in UK. Chosen to stay near Llangollen this year as it is not too far for both parties to drive to. On top, Wales countryside is pretty and there is are a few interesting sites and hiking there.

Llangollen town is very pretty with roaring river Dee right in the middle. The old part has a few well maintained 17c wood beam houses, some have beautiful door knockers.

The town is bordered by a canal that run to the sea. Built in the late 18c to transport wood, coal and lime down to the coast.

What makes this canal to be on the UNESCO list is that being a hilly area with valleys in between, there are 2 sections of the canal being built on top of aqueducts, to cross the valleys. It was an important engineering project in that era. They proved to be a sound design as they are still standing and in use, by tourists rather than for transport now.

Roughly 50 years after the construction of the canal, steam trains arrived and quickly proved to be more efficient than canal. One aqueduct has a viaduct next to it, for train, and intentionally built a few more metres higher up to show the domination of train travel.

Grilled cheese dish

Really happy with my little glass air fryer, using scrap pastry, topped with some tomato sauce and goat cheese, just 15 minutes and it is beautifully golden. Super fast and good result. 

Lahinch beach

 

到海灘小鎮Lahinch 閒逛，是在1880年建成的西南火車線的其中一個站，長闊寬的金黃細沙灘，成為早期最負盛名的海灘度假勝地。

現在沙灘依舊美好，陰冷而滑浪人仍多，但更吸引度假人到來的，是在1892年落成的哥爾夫球場，因地勢自然起伏而受歡迎，是世界知名的球場之一。

走進鎮內一家gallery，賣的畫以愛爾蘭風景為主，亦自然以海景最多。往後到沙灘走走，眼前看到的風光，全是畫家的題材！

Blue fin tuna collar

 

Fish collar is a popular dish in Asia, most of the time well seared. There are a lot of different textures of meat hiding in between bones, some oily, some gelatinous, some firm, all delicious.

 

 

This blue fin tuna collar is far too big for my pan, so I bake it with a lot of scallions. First time to have it, a memorable delicious feast.