Rice with lard and dry fish

Rice with lard and dry fish

This is sort of a recreation of childhood favorite dish, rice with lard and pork floss. I substituted pork floss with little dry fish, which has been lightly fried in oil to make it crispy.

Chives cut into small pieces are added for colour.

Memory of childhood taste - home rendered lard

Organic Monte Frio Iberico jamon

The organic Iberico jamon has a good layer of fat, the outer part is yellowish and rancid, whereas inner part is beautifully pinkish white, tasted sweet. 

Organic Monte Frio Iberico jamon crisps

It is too much a waste to throw it away (and very expensive to do so too), so I cut them into strips and rendered the fat out, at low heat. 

Organic Monte Frio Iberico jamon lard

The crisps are mildly salty and flavorsome, the lard is pinkish and very soft, beautiful aroma.

Broad bean, rice and kaffir lime leaves

Broad bean, rice and kaffir lime leaves

I started to harvest broad beans, it is a time game, need to pick them before they mature and turn floury (I like them green and sweet), and to beat the aphids that feed on the plant and eventually killing it. 

This rice dish is very satisfying with pleasing colour, taste and aroma. 

broad bean

1. Cook broad bean in a little water and salt until just soft, around 2 minutes. 

 2. Cut kaffir lime leaves into small pieces, I use young leaves that come out now and are still brownish, they are tender and can use the whole leave.

young kaffir lime leaves

 

3. Mix cooked broad bean with cooked rice and kaffir lime leaves.

Another version is to cook rice in coconut milk, then mix with 

cooked broad beans and kaffir lime leaves, even better aroma. 

Broad bean, coconut rice and kaffir lime leaves

Orangerie

Bergamot

I bought various citrus plants for my Orangerie nearly 4 years ago, so far I harvested one Buddha hand fruit and a few Kamquats. 
 

pomelo

The big mistake must be changing into much larger pot, apparently citrus plants like to have very dense root ball to stimulate flowering, and heavy fertilizing in early spring. 
 

finger lime/ lime caviar

This year, I am delighted to find most of the plants burst into flowers, the smell whenever I step into the Orangerie is intoxicating. 

lemon

Hope most of the flowers will turn into fruits later on, fingers crossed.  

calamansi

kaffir lime

Buddha hand

lime

 

Asparagus with tuna sauce

Asparagus with tuna sauce

This is peak time for asparagus, the white ones are more expensive because of extra work to shelter them from sunlight, and so more juicy and sweet.

1. Peel the tough outer skin of asparagus, hold the end part and use the peeler to slice thin strips of asparagus. 

Asparagus with tuna sauce

2. Season with salt and white pepper, stir well and rest for 15 minutes. Then cook in its own juice until just soften, couple of minutes.

3. Warm tuna (pre-cooked) in some oil with chives, serve on top of asparagus.

Vegetable gardening

broad bean

Broad beans sowed last October are now maturing gradually and I have started picking the first time last night, they are so green and sweet. 
 

garlic

Garlic planted at the same time with broad bean is very tall now, around another 2 months to harvest. 

potato

Potatoes that were buried in end March has grown into little plants.

lettuce

lettuce

Salads seedling planted also in end March is now fattening up, another month before harvesting the whole head. I may not be able to wait that long and will probably consume the outside bigger leaves gradually.

Vegetable seedlings

Vegetable seedlings

I sowed vegetable seeds in propagators before going away on holiday. Coming home after 3 weeks away, I am relieved and happy to see that most of the seeds had germinated, and have not suffered in the heat. 

The good germination rate this year is due to exceptional constant warm weather for a whole month.

Asparagus tagliatelle

Asparagus tagliatelle

Plan to serve green asparagus as starter for dinner with friends. Thought of this simple and fast way to prepare asparagus, very pretty and tasty.

1. Hold the tough end of asparagus and use a peeler to slice asparagus from the tender part onward thinly.

Asparagus tagliatelle

2. Season with salt, white pepper and olive oil for 15 minutes until soft. Can keep asparagus as such until cooking time, this softening with speed up cooking without changing texture or colour.

3. Place soften asparagus with all the juice in a pan, bring to boil to heat up.

4. Serve on a plate and grate a savory sharp tasting hard cheese on top, like Parmigiano.

A memorable lunch

Some Italian friends organised lunch at Volley Ferata, Rovinj, Croatia, for their signature local dish - charcoal baked lamb and potato. 

 

Volley Ferata

Big chunks of lamb are being cooked inside giant pot with charcoal below and above, for 2 hours.

 

Volley Ferata baked lamb

The slow cooked leg is moist and tender, the potatoes below have absorbed all the juice is most delicious, unfortunately the ribs and other parts are overcooked, too dry.

 

Volley Ferata

The meal is special not only for the cooking, but more for the location. Eating outside on the green field, next to deep blue sea, with the old town of Rovinj at the background, under the balmy sun and cool wind ...... what a great experience. 

Lobster and soup

Lobster

In the quite rare occasion that the fish stall in the market has a lobster, I will happily buy it, to support them and to enjoy a treat.

1. I like to plain cook the lobster, meaning bring a big pot of water to boil with ginger, spring onion and salt. Put the lobster in, upside down, head first and put the lid on. When the water is back to boil, switch off heat and let it soak for 10 minutes (this is a one kg lobster). 

plain cooked lobster

2. When it is cool to handle, cut lobster head off carefully, pour the juice and uncooked green fat into a pan.

3. Take the flesh out from the tail, serve as such, it is sweeter cold than hot. Or cut into slices and sear in butter.

4. Place the lobster shell (remove gills and stomach sac in the head) in a baking tray and bake at 180˚C for 30 minutes, or longer for a more roasted taste.

lobster shell stock

5. Put the roasted shells (easy to break into smaller pieces after roasting) in a pan, cover with water, add slices of ginger, tbsp of Sichuan pepper, couple of star anise, peppercorn, salt and tbsp of brown sugar, feel free to add meat bones to enrich it.

6. Simmer for 2 hours with lid on to extract all flavors.

7. Sieve out shells and spices, add the lobster head juice and fat, bring to boil, season to taste. 

lobster soup

Frankly, I like lobster for the taste of lobster soup more than lobster meat.

Picking wild greens

Lim Fjord, Croatia

Lim Fjord walk, Croatia

To me, walking in the forest in Rovinj, Croatia in spring means picking wild asparagus or these purple new shoots of a Holly like spiky bush, "Pungitoppo" in Italian . 

 

Holly like spiky bush, "Pungitoppo" in Italian

Whereas wild asparagus is thin and mildly bitter, pungitoppo is crunchy and juicy, just like home grown green vegetable. Simply stir-fry in oil and salt until soft is enough.

wild asparagus

spring new shoots of pungitoppo

Little cakes (Madeleines)

One of my favorite little cake, very fast to make and wonderful when fresh from the oven.

 

Madeleines

2 eggs

70gm sugar

20gm honey (for a moist texture)

a pinch of salt

90gm white flour

2gm baking powder

zest of a lemon

90gm melted butter

1. Whisk eggs, honey, salt until thick, mix in flour, baking powder and zest, then fold in melted butter.

2. Pip the mixture into small non-stick cake moulds. Bake at 200˚C until lightly golden, around 7 minutes.

Wild greens

 

wild greens

At the moment, other than salad greens, there is not many local vegetable available in the market in Rovinj, Croatia, still too early in the season. Other than selling various green leaves, local people will collect wild edible greens from the land. Normally mixed in a big bag, I just buy a big handful of mixed varieties to cook.

Use a bit more oil than normal, because wild greens are normally quite rough and need to be cooked longer and with more oil to be tasty.

Start will garlic and ginger, gently sear to golden before adding leaves, salt and pepper, cook over medium heat until soft. 

wild greens

Most of the wild greens are mildly bitter, apparently good for liver cleansing, whatever, great to eat some wild food.

Dumplings with scampi and pork

scampi

This spring, there is a very good supply of super fresh scampi in the market (Rovinj, Croatia), not cheap, but really a treat.

For the big ones, I blanch them until the tail coils up, then hold the body and cook the head and claws longer. The flesh is translucent, firm and sweet.

 

cooked scampi

To make them last longer, I shell the blanched small ones, cut into cubes, mix with a little pork sausage meat, cooked spring onion, to be used as dumpling filling.

 

Dumplings with scampi and pork

To make dumpling skin, mix white flour with around 30 % its weight of boiling water, stir, then add another 30% of cold water to combine to form a non sticky dough.

Take around 10gm of dough and roll into a thin round sheet around 10cm diameter. Put a spoonful of scampi pork filling in the middle, wet the rim of the sheet with water, fold the sheet, press gently to remove air from around the filling.

 

Dumplings with scampi and pork

To cook dumplings, in a pot half full with boiling water, add a tbsp salt, at medium heat, add dumplings in one by one. When they float to the top, add 2 cups of cold water, wait for the water to boil, and dumplings float to the top again, another minutes and dumplings are cooked.

Dondoli (cockle)

Saw this diver coming back from his daily catch, the friend of a friend in Rovinj, Croatia. 

 

Called the friend to check what he got and bought 3 kg of cockles, or Dondoli in local language. 

Dondoli (cockle)

Hand dived from a clean area far from the city, the cockles are pried open and eaten raw, SWEET. 

Dondoli (cockle)

Fast braised fish

fast braised fish

Got this half kilo silvery fish similar to Sea bream, used the fast braised technique (in the last post), adding 2/3 glass of water and cook at high heat for around 3 minutes and rest for at least 5 minutes.  The flesh is again juicy and tender.

The result is equally good for big and small fish, basically this is a fast way to cook fish, and could rest in the hot pan for a while without changing the texture much, very useful when inviting friends for dinner