I have been pickling wild Rugosa rose petal in cider vinegar, lovely colour and perfume. I take some out to mix with raw honey to make shrub, as a handy gift to see a friend. To be mixed with water to make a beautiful pink fragrance drink.
Wild rose shrub
Cucumber plum basil salad
This is my favourite way of cooking, using all seasonal produce from the garden. Pickle cucumber in salt and vinegar for half day, then mix with plum basil and oil to make a tasty and colourful salad.
Clare Glen
又來到這段叫 Clare Glen 的行山徑，沿着Clare river 兩岸行一圈，慢行兩個小時，剛剛好，駕車四十分鐘到達，十分方便。
愛爾蘭前人一向以地方的特色用作名字，Clare Glen 是清澈河水的山谷。
山谷狹窄，綠樹成蔭，就是整個七月未曾下雨，各處仍然濕潤晶瑩，易走小上小落的天然石頭、沙泥路，加上如畫風景，我最喜歡的那類行山徑。
Rib eye steak from Pat Barry
I do enjoy occasionally a good piece of steak, have been tasting between striploin, rib eye and Denver steak.
Rib eye comes with a bit of fat in the middle, and there are 2 types of muscles around the eye. It is much easier to separate into the 3 different parts as the centre muscle take less time than the other two. However, the muscle on the top is more juicy and tasty, the one on the side is tougher.
Purple and orange carrots
Colour and pattern so beautiful I just like to pick and eat them raw, to enjoy their sweetness and crunch.
Victoria plum
The 2 Victoria plum trees are, as usual, producing loads of dark purple skin, juicy sweet sour plums. We have been eating them instead of drinking water but still a lot needs to be processed.
I made plum liquor, simply adding halved plums in Gin/Vodka, sweeten with honey, spiced with star anise ginger and black pepper.
Also lacto-fermented some, by mixing in 2% its weight of salt, pack in a jar and hold down with a weight. In the second day, the plums will ooze out enough juice to cover itself. After 7 days of fermentation, the plum are savoury and sour, like a mildly salted plum with a firmer crunchier texture. Nice to go with meat dishes.
Another way is to make a shrub, infusing halved plum with 1:1 raw honey cider vinegar mixture. After a week, there will be be crunchy pickled plum to eat and a nice syrup to use in drinks or in vinaigrette dressing.
Finally have also been baking them as dessert, half them and place in baking dish, sprinkle freshly grinned cardamon powder and drizzle honey on top. Bake at 200˚C for 20 minutes and rest in the oven until cold, seriously delicious with yogurt.
Rosemary roast potato wedges
Very good harvest of potatoes, both white and blue varieties, all dug out as I prefer them not too big and floury. It is more efficient to bake a big tray of potatoes and freeze the excess, just a quick reheat for future meals.
I shake potato wedges with garlic koji, olive oil and lots of fresh rosemary, bake at 180˚C until golden, around 35 minutes.
2026年7月28日 收成蜜糖
蜜蜂的巢，精巧細緻，百看不厭，看似單薄，一扇滿載蜜糖約2.5公斤，負重能力驚人。
四月至七月底，是蜜蜂在愛爾蘭的主要採蜜時段，我們的悠閑養蜂方法，是在這幾個月份，隔兩、三星期查看箱內情況一次。主要是看看是否已建滿了蜂巢，再沒有空間。那就會在兩旁取走一至兩扇滿是蜜糖的蜂巢，令她們有地方繼續存放花蜜。
今年分別在五月和七月初取出蜂巢兩次，今早查看，見到仍然有空位，相信今年收成工作，到此為止，箱內蜜糖，留給蜜蜂過冬吃用。
兩個蜂箱，不太盡取的收成方法，已經夠用兼送人（朋友不多）有餘。喜歡切一小份連蠟的蜜糖吃，在口中蜜糖流出，滋味豐富，不同時段隨花蜜而有不同色澤和味道，較吃百花蜜精彩。
Basil shrub
Shrub is a new infusion I learn to do this year, the base is a mixture of equal parts of raw honey and cider vinegar.
Made a basil shrub as the Sabertooth basil is very vigorous and there are a lot to harvest. After 5 days infusing as much basil leaves as I could push in, in the honey vinegar mixture, it is ready to bottle.
Shrub can be used in making vinaigrette dressing or diluted with water to make a refreshing drink, tasty and subtle basil fragrance.
Slow cooked lamb shanks
Place all shanks in a big pot, cover with water, season with tomato sauce, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, dried pear for sweetness, ginger, garlic, mix spices like star anises, cloves, coriander, mustard seeds etc, bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Transfer to baking dish, slow cook in the oven at 130˚C until tender, around 3 hours.
Pistachio tofu mousse
Pistachio is one of my favourite icecream flavour, though I often wonder how much pistachio is inside. So right after making chocolate tofu mousse, I immediately tried making pistachio mousse.
I used 2 part of puree silken tofu to 1 part finely grinded pistachios, sweetened with honey, keep in the fridge, the texture is just like soft gelato. Really great to be able to eat ‘ice cream’ knowing that there are only healthy minimum processed ingredients, also another vegan/ high protein dessert.
Grilled venison on Bay tree cuttings
Since I need to prune the bay tree, might as well use the cuttings to grill meat, as seen in the holiday in Madeira. There is not much flavour coming out of the sticks, but a handy use of materials.
Served with carrot mango basil salad.
Silken tofu chocolate mousse
For the vegan friend who came over for dinner, I look up on ideas for vegan dessert. Found this super easy chocolate mousse, simply 3 parts of blended warm silken tofu with 1 part dark chocolate. So easy to make, and so ‘creamy’, super healthy high protein dessert!
Vegan pizza
Easy to make vegan pizza, grated cheese added on half of the pizza when used.
1. pizza with garlic paste, sesame and spring onion
2. pizza with tomato sauce and after cooking add semi dried tomato with basil
High protein seaweed crisp
Created this crispy high protein snack for a vegan friend. Super fast to make and tasty.
Make a paste with mashed up chickpea, mix with peanut butter and season with salt/spices.
Cut seaweed into 1 by 2 inches rectangles, put a small tsp of stuffing in the middle, fold over seaweed at both ends and flatten stuffing, brush with oil and bake at 170˚C for 7 minutes.
Myoga ginger flower
After having new lealf shoots in April, I have been looking forward to harvest summer flower blossoms. Hard to spot as they grow under soil next to the stem, best to get them before they bloom, and before slug attack. But only possible to spot when you see one white flower tip stick out from the soil.
Best to fast cook or pickle in miso to enjoy the crunch and a mild gingery flavour.
2026年7月23日 夏香薄荷 Savory
五月到保加利亞旅遊前，查看地道食物資料時，知道當地的燜煮菜式，常用savory 香草。
對這個薄荷科的香料完全不認識，也是首次知道，原來表達好味道的形容詞savory，源自這香草。看資料，味道複雜，帶薄荷、百里香、牛至香草和些少辛辣味，好奇心大起。
旅遊時努力在所吃的餸菜中尋找這savory 香草味道，但吃不出頭緒。
在超市買了乾的香草，味道亦不特出。好高興在園藝店找到種子。回家即刻種下，異常細粒的種子，埋下十多粒，只有四粒發芽，苗葉亦細小，最後有兩株長大，可以種下。
細小的植物，葉片細碎瘦長，好特別，摘下頂尖葉片令其分枝，那新鮮葉片的味道，又的確如資料上的形容，複雜多樣性，似集合數種香草的滋味，唯一容易形容的，是後來的微微辛辣味道，真的精彩。
今早看到，種下才一個月，仍然細小，已經長出兩朶粉紫色，兩側對稱的花朶。一年生的植物，希望仍然繼續長大，有機會收成多些新鮮葉片用。
Blooming artichokes
After eating a few flower buds in May to eat when there are not much harvest from the garden, I stopped cutting them in June to let them bloom. Magnificent flowers well liked by bees.
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