Bitter melon

大山苦瓜

冲繩苦瓜

After eating bitter melon in the trip to Okinawa early this year, I am hooked to its flavour. I bought a pack of local seed back and a friend gave me another Japanese variety called Big Mountain.

Both are planted in green house and they looks like a cucumber plant, with thinner leaves. Similar yellow flowers and in mid June, I spotted these baby bitter melons, they look so cute, already with all the lumps like the mature fruit, amazing. 

Clare Glen hike

Weather has been consistently cloudy and drizzly in June, not great for outings. But still, feel the need to spin the legs and get out. 

Chose this hike near a roaring peaty colour river, the riverside stone path is wet and slippery, but the higher up path is manageable. Wonderful loud bird songs and tumbling water noise, the whole trail is left in beautiful natural state.

Lamb saddle

Baked lamb saddle with a lot of mint, jotaberry as sauce and parboiled potatoes and beetroots. Bake at 200˚C for 35 minutes and rest with door ajar for another 10 minutes. 
Meat is pink, but it is better suited to be fast cooked on barbecue, tastier. 

Cherry and fig

Planted cherry tree Regina next to barn wall last year, a few nice big cherries to have this year. Not bad to be able to grow cherry in Ireland outdoor!

Start to enjoy the first fig variety Brown Turkey from the dwarf tree in the green house, only a few every year, but so nice to have home grown exotic fruits. 

Fresh cheese, and cheese pancake

Bought in the organic shop the last 2 bottles of organic unhomogenised milk from the well known 3 ladies farm. They are near the expire date and I don’t want them to suffer lost. 

The simplest way to use them up quick is to turn into fresh cheese, using rennet or lemon juice. I keep a small bottle of rennet in the fridge, less heating up then using lemon juice. 

First, warm milk in water bath to around 37˚C, add some yogurt to add probiotics, rest for a few hours. Still at 37˚C, Stir in a few drops of rennet diluted in 1/4 cup of water, more rennet make the cheese harder. Let it rest for half an hour without moving. 

It would have curdled, cut into big cubes, bring back to 37˚C and gently stir to loosen the curds. Whey will start to ooze out, keep  gently stirring for at least 10 minutes, longer will make the cheese harder. At this moment it is like soft tofu.

Remove from heat, ladle curd into cloth lined sieve or cheese mould, whey continue to come out, after a day, the fresh cheese will be ready to eat. The texture will be like cooked egg white. The whey is nutritious and easy to drink too with a mild sweetness.

Fresh cheese will soften on heating, a good protein source to be used in omelette/pancake, like this one with a lot of fresh herbs. 

Kailan 3rd growth

I sow Kailan seeds in late February, planted the seedlings out in green house in late March, spacing them well apart, 50cm. With more space and in the cool weather, they can grow big, thick stem and big leaves. 

First harvest in early May, cut the steam leaving behind 2 big leaves. Side shoots keep coming back, as 2nd and 3 growths, with the weather warming up, they are thinner then first growth, still delicious, and precious to have in the earlier veg growing season. 

By end June when weather is generally warm, side shoots grow fast but so thin, then it is finally time to remove the plants. 

Jotaberry

Finally jotaberry is turning dark blue, this is a hybrid of blackcurrant and gooseberry. The plant is bushy and much bigger than both, the berry is similar size to gooseberry with a dark skin like blackcurrant. 
The flavour is a bit of each, less sour than blackcurrant and more fragrant than gooseberry. Took 4 years to start fruiting, being a taller bush, it is easier to pick fruit standing up. 

Sourdough pizza and biscuits

I have improved my recipe of sourdough discard biscuit, making it lighter and more crispy. 

1 part sourdough discard

2/3 part olive oil
pinch of salt
seeds like sesame, flax, caraway etc
enough wholemeal Spelt/Buckwheat etc flours to knead to a not very sticky dough

Roll dough between baking/silicone papers until very thin, use pizza cutter to cut into biscuits size. Rest for a few hours to rise the  dough slightly and for seeds to have time to soak to deactivate Phytic acid. Bake at 170˚C until dry, around 30 minutes, if very thin.


For quick garlic pizza:

Pour sourdough discard on baking sheet, spread to even thickness, spread gently mixture of garlic blended with olive oil, salt and miso. Bake at 200˚C until golden, around 15 minutes. 

2025年6月22日 手工小禮物

 

蒜頭，在我的種植經驗中，工夫最少，又有最穩定的近十倍回報。

只需要在十月中，把一瓣蒜頭插進泥中，任其發芽生長，冬、春季有足夠雨水滋潤，初夏若少雨時才需要澆水，然後，在長成一整頭時就拔出來，完成！

近年每次收成近二百棵蒜頭，清洗修剪後，分開幾組風乾，嚴選最大粒、又瓣瓣大小差不多的廿五頭，作年底種植的種籽。

中大粒又好樣的約六十粒，將會化作黑蒜。

然後，六粒一組有大有中不最企理的，做幾份綁好，風乾後可送人。

有破損、太細小、或長得太老已經張開的蒜頭，即時剝皮放進自家蜜糖，作發酵蒜頭，半年後爽口又沒有蒜味，可拌沙律或作前菜享用。

其餘的乾後煮餸慢用。

家中兩個人自然吃不了這麽多蒜頭及轉化食物，但一抽蒜頭、幾粒黑蒜、一瓶發酵蒜頭，是很好的小禮物。

Squid

Got some local squids from the online fishmonger, good size, 3 pieces amount to 1kg. Wings and legs cut into thin strips for soup, body into strips, blanched for cooking later.

Season squid strips with olive oil and soy sauce, grilled to slightly charred, very fragrant. 

A whole lamb

Every year, we buy a whole lamb from the farmer we know, and choose to cut it up ourselves instead of the abartoir. This way, we know how we like the cuts, and have all the trimmings. 

This one is 22kg and divided into 40 portions, each for a generous 2 persons meal. There is a big bag of bones for soup, liver to make pate, kidneys to enjoy, fat to render for cracklings and the oil for making soap. The lamb costs Euro 240, plus our 1.5 hours work.

half of lamb

seared lamb's kidneys

lam

Lamb crackling on squid wing strips mix bean soup

rendered lamb fat

lamb 's liver pate

seared lamb's liver, very tendder

Sourdough seaweed sandwich and gnocchi

2 simple ways to use sourdough discard:

Seaweed sandwich - place a sheet of  seaweed on baking tray, pour sourdough  discard on top, spread even, place another sheet of seaweed on top, bake at 170˚C until cooked, around 20minutes.

Gnocchi - make a broth as you like it, here is with veg and meat, while simmering, add small spoonful of sourdough discard into broth. Simmer until it cooked through, around 5 minutes, this gnocchi has  a soft texture.

Summer vegetable

Approaching the time when there are more variety of vegetables to harvest, pea, mangetout, kohl rabi, Shungiku, 3rd growth of Kailan, spinach, beetroot, lots of fresh coriander, basil, Vietnamese coriander and dill. Tomatoes are formed, eggplant, pepper and bitter melon is flowering well, all looks promising.

 

khol rabi pickle in miso

third growth Kailan

third growth Kailan

bitter melon

khol rabi

coriander

pea

 

Beara Peninsula

Another weekend away on campervan down to the south west coast at Beara Peninsula, to visit our friends living there. Very rugged and varied landscape on this peninsula, with many hills and valleys to explore, can easily spend a week just to hike all the trails here.