Camellia

There is a big camellia bush in the south side of the house, with a nice show of red flowers in spring. I notice that there are fruits, the size of a small kamquat, formed. Then they become dry and split open to reveal the 3-4 big seeds inside. 

Needless to say I collected the seeds and plan to propagate them. 

Cider

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Picked all the pears and apples from a few old trees around the house. They are partly eaten by birds and hornets, leaving big and small holes everywhere.

using a shredder to chop fruits into very small pieces

 The best way to use them is to make cider, by pressing the juice out into a demijohn fitted with an airlock, add wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and keep at around 15˚C for a couple of months, or until fermentation is finished. 

a traditional press to squeeze the juice out

keep the juice with yeast in demijohn, fitted with airlock

Acorn

There are a few very old oak trees near the house, they are dropping their fruits now, acorns. I picked a big bag of acorns, if I have pigs, I should be feeding them acorns, like the Spanish in making their famous ham.

The plan is in December, when the ground will be soft, I drop them into holes along the forest edge, gradually enlarging the forest. 

Sloe jam

One part of the forest has a number of sloe bushes (wild plum), and had fruited very well. The fruit is sour and sweet with a mild astringent taste. Traditionally sloe is used to infuse Gin to make Sloe Gin.

 I picked a bag and mixed in 1/4 brown sugar and a big pinch of salt. It is not a juicy fruit, and does not need cooking to thicken it like making other jams. I leave it for a couple of days to extract the deep red colour from the skin, then scrap the mixture through a fine sieve to get the stones out.

Finger food

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Invited some friends for an evening drink, made some mini short crust pastry tarts with different fillings.

1. Smoke salmon

Fill the tart with sour cream mixed with a little lemon juice and finely cut chives, place a cube of smoke salmon on top.

2. Goat cheese and sloe jam

Place a cube of goat cheese in the tart, heat in the oven until slightly soften, put a spoonful of sloe (wild plum) jam on top.

3. Fig and walnut butter

Blend toasted walnut with salt and olive oil to make a thick paste, walnut butter. Spread a thin layer of walnut butter in the tart, then half of a fig on top.

Chestnut

Took a walk along the forest edge and notice that chestnuts are ready and falling down. The thorns on the shell are sharp and painful to touch, but the nut inside is shiny and big. I like roasting chestnut in the fireplace.

 

Another pizza dinner

Invited some friends for dinner, the pizza prepared are:

1. Pizza bianca

Brush rolled out pizza dough with olive oil infused with rosemary and salt, and a handful of sesame for extra texture and flavour.

2. Pizza bruschetta

Brush pizza dough with olive oil infused with rosemary and salt. When cooked, spoon tomato salsa on top (remove skin and seed of tomato, cut into small cubes, marinate in salt, black pepper, basil leaves and olive oil).

3. Pizza with smoked salmon

Brush pizza dough with tomato sauce, place green pepper, mushroom (seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil) and grated Gruyere cheese on top. When cooked, arrange small slices of smoked salmon on the surface.

4. Pizza with goat cheese, apple, walnut and honey - this was rated the best flavour of all the pizza made that night.

Brush pizza dough with tomato sauce, place red pepper, thin slices of apple, cubes of goat cheese on top. When cooked, sprinkle walnut and a thin drizzle of honey on pizza.

5. Pizza with chorizo and rocket leaves

Brush pizza dough with tomato sauce, place thin slices of chorizo sausage, green pepper and grated Gruyere cheese on top. When cooked, sprinkle a handful of rocket leaves for flavour and colour.

Sweet potato

The sweet potatoes that I have planted in June are growing very well, spreading to cover a huge area now.

This year, I have enough plants to be able to cut a lot of young shoots off, enough to make a dish.

A quick stir-fry in a little salted water and mix in olive oil before serving.

Fig

Came back from holiday to find figs have ripen. There are two fig trees in the garden, one bearing purple figs and one light green figs, the inside are both purple. As the green ones ripen earlier and are being dried by the sun, they are sweeter than the purple ones.

Alaska, more cooking in campervan

King Crab

Alaska is famous for King Crab, this is how it is served in Totem restaurant in Valdez. The crab is harvested in December, cooked and frozen for use during the rest of the year. It is not the same as eating freshly cooked crab, and is very salty.

I bought a frozen King Crab, pour boiling water on it to melt the outside frozen ice. Then I soak it in a cooled broth of onion, ginger and sugar for 3 hours. It is refreshed, more juicy and lost the salty taste.

Ninilchik razor clam

Clam digging is one of the activities in this area, but best to do it on days with super low tide. It is called razor clam but is very meaty.

1. Use a knife to release clam from shell, remove sandy gut. Cut body in halves and wash off the remaining sand.

2. Sweat ginger and onion in butter, add clam and stir-fry at high heat for maximum a minute. It is very sweet and crunchy, over cooking will make it tough.

Pan-fried Halibut filet

At Deep Creek Sport Shop near Ninilchik town, I saw this fisherman cleaning halibut after a day out with his customers. I wanted to buy some fresh halibut, but as sport fisherman it is against the law to sell his catch, but he could give it away for free. I was happy to have the chance to taste fresh halibut, in this country, most seafood are frozen and packaged at the harbour.

Sprinkle a light coating of flour and salt on filet, sear at high heat in butter until slightly golden outside.

Coconut focaccia

1. Mix 200gm flour with 200gm shredded coconut.

2. Mix 180gm mildly warm water with 2 eggs, 80gm brown sugar, a pinch of salt, and 1 sachet of active dry yeast, fold in flour coconut mixture.

3. Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured baking tin, let mixture rises until double its original size. With wet fingers, make dimples on the surface and spoon melted butter all over the surface.

4. Bake at 180˚C until golden, around 30 minutes.

Seared scallop and silver salmon filet

Bought a packet of frozen Alaskan scallop at Homer, huge ones. Cooking in the campervan is the only and best way to enjoy the wonderful produce in Alaska.

1. Dry scallops and salmon filet, sprinkle salt on both sides of scallops and salmon filet, then dust a fine layer of flour on top.

2. Heat 1/3 oil and 2/3 butter in a frying pan until hot, place scallops & salmon in, cook for a minute each side for scallops and 2 minutes each side for salmon. The scallop is best when the middle is warm but still transparent.

Alaska, still cooking in campervan

Watermelon berry

What an interesting looking fruit, and indeed tasted very mildly of watermelon!

Red salmon in coconut sauce

1. Sweat red onion and ginger until soft, add button mushroom slices with a big pinch of salt and pepper, stir-fry until soft. Add water and coconut milk to reach a thick consistency, season with soya sauce.

2. Add salmon, cut into 2 inches pieces, poach for 1 minute, turn over and switch off flame. Serve in a minute.

Parsnip sweet potato soup

Root vegetables can store longer and so is good to have when travelling in campervan, sometimes it is not easy to get supply.

1. Sweat red onion and ginger slices, add diced parsnip and sweet potato, stir-fry until corners slightly brown.

2. Add a tin of tomato, in chunks, 100gm of coconut milk, season with salt, pepper and soya sauce.

Salad with peanut butter dressing

When a jar of peanut butter is reaching the bottom and becomes very thick, use it to make a simple salad dressing. Add a little hot water to soften remaining peanut butter, mix in lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Smoke salmon

Salt filet of salmon with 10% of it own weight of half salt and half sugar for a day, smoke in covered barbeque with wet wood chip.

Bacon and salmon bake

Wrap salmon filet with slices of bacon, bake at high heat until salmon is just cooked and bacon is golden.

Coconut Cake

1. Mix 200gm of flour with 200gm of shredded coconut, 1 sachet of baking powder, 80gm sugar and a pinch of salt,.

2. Mix 2 eggs with 180gm of coconut milk, fold in flour coconut mixture.

3. Bake in lined shallow tin at 180˚ C until golden, around 30 minutes.