Showing posts with label 2017-06. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2017-06. Show all posts

Lamb shoulder with lemon and cumin



This is a quick way to cook lamb shoulder, in a pan on the stove, always faster than baking in the oven. 

Lamb shoulder with lemon and cumin

1. Make a few cuts into the bone of the shoulder to speed up cooking, season with salt, pepper and cumin grain, for 2 hours if possible.
2. In a large pan, sear lamb shoulder until both sides golden.
3. Turn to medium heat, add carrots around and stir-fry with the oil for a minute, add half a cup of water and cover with lid, cook for 5 minutes each side of lamb.
4. Add juice of half a lemon and some sour cream to make a tart sauce, stir in handful of coriander just before serving.

Pumpkin flowers



Pumpkin flowers
I am growing pumpkin Baby Bear this year, a small size pumpkin, they are doing well and already form more than a dozen fruits. 
 I remove all the flowers now so that the bees will not bring their pollen to confuse my zucchini plants. 
The flowers can be just blanched quickly and eaten with other vegetable, they shrink a lot, have a mild sweetness and adds colour to the dish.

Baby grey wagtail


Baby grey wagtail

The bird nest under the roof was empty, but found this baby walking around in the yard waiting for parents to bring him food.

Apricot in different forms


Apricot
 
With a surprisingly good harvest of apricots from 2 trees, enough for the birds to leave some for us, I am eating them fresh everyday. As they came off the tree within one week, I have to conserve a lot in different ways. 

dry apricot

1. Dry them in the fruit drier in halves, very intense flavor but quite hard on the teeth. 

semi dry apricot

2. Take them out when semi-dry, freeze for use in tarts later on. 

apricot puree

3. Cook into puree and keep in jars in the freezer, goes very well with yogurt and sponge cake.

Growing pea sprouts 如何種豆苗



Growing pea sprouts 種豆苗



pea sprouts 豆苗


Recently, it is very popular in European restaurants to use them as garnish. It is actually a common vegetable in Asia for quick stir-fry, very tender and sweet, for me more tasty than eating raw.



1. Prepare a large tray with potting soil, 3 inches deep, push in peas  (green pea, sugar snap, mangetout) 1/2 inch deep, very closely together. To make a small dish you will need to put in over 200 peas. 

Growing pea sprouts 種豆苗



2. Water well, in a few days, young leaves will come up, and in around 2 weeks, they are long enough, around 5 inches, and with more leaves, to harvest. 

Growing pea sprouts 種豆苗


3. Cut above the last leaves, keep watering and in another 2 weeks, you can harvest again. 

If being looked after well, there could be a few rounds of harvest.  

Mini fruits



pomegranate tree
baby pomegranat

The pomegranate trees that I grown from seeds collected in Ispica, Sicily many years ago had started to bear flowers last year, just a couple, and no fruit was set. This year there are more flowers and so far I counted 5 fruits.

  
persimmon tree

baby persimmon

Persimmon is another fruit that matures in autumn. Similar to pomegranate, I like to plant it near the house, so that I can easily see the big orange fruits dandling on the tree for some fall colour. On top, it is a beautiful decorative tree, with thick shinny green leaves.

chestnut tree

chestnut flowers and mini fruits

Had a walk down the forest and found chestnut trees flowering, some spiky fruits formed. 


Pickled dry figs



Pickled dry figs

A way to use my dried figs from last autumn's harvest is to soak them in vinegar for use in salad, or to go with cheese, salami/ham.
 
Pickled dry figs
1. Warm cider vinegar with some honey/brown sugar, to cut the sourness, and big pinch of salt. Just heat enough to melt the sweetener, no need to boil. 
Pickled dry figs

2. Place dry figs, whole if they are small, or cut into bite size pieces for easy use later. Pour vinegar to cover figs. Keep for 2 days and can start using it.

Today's basket of vegetable




Carrots, beetroots, lettuce, sugar snaps, mangetouts and coriander, the vegetable garden is doing very well this year.

Apricot


Apricot tree

Among all stone tree fruits, apricot is the one that tasted the best from your own tree. The flesh is dense and the taste intense, of course not as strong as a dry apricot, but in that direction.  

Apricot

Zucchini dry shrimp soup



Giant zucchini is more fibrous but also has more flavor, slightly longer cooking in the form of a soup is a good way to use them up.
Zucchini dry shrimp soup

1. Use a julienne peeler to shred the outer part of zucchini into fine noodle like pieces, discard soft seedy heart.
2. Rinse and cut dry shrimp into small pieces, cook with some oil until fragrant.
3. Add zucchini noodles, stir and cook until soften, add water to cover, season with salt and pepper, simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Serve into bowls and add a good handful of lemon basil.

Garden salad


Garden salad

With good harvest from the garden and being so hot, salad is the most appetizing dish.

1. Cook sugar snaps and mangetouts in a little oil and salt until just turned soft.
2. Make a dressing using sesame paste, dilute with water and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.
3. Wash lettuce and lots of coriander, add in cooked beans, mix well with dressing.
4. Decorate with pieces of sun dried tomato soaked in vinegar, for flavor and colour.

Heat wave



The hottest June in record, very lucky to come back from holiday in time to water everything that is not on auto-watering system. 
veg garden 10 days ago

Obviously vegetable loves the hot weather, the garden looks so different just in 10 days. 

veg garden now

Found 2 giant zucchini, there are sugar snaps, mangetouts, lettuces, carrots, beetroots and lots of coriander ready to harvest, a very good year. 

giant zucchini


sugar snaps


soy beans formed


Wild flowers in Zagoria, northern Greece



 
Wild flowers in Zagoria
There are many hiking trails in Zagoria, to Gorge viewpoints, from one hill village to another, to churches, to stone bridges etc. 


All of them have some uphill and downhill but easy to walk. What fascinated me most, on top of the view at the end, is the amount of wild flowers around, bursting from every crack. 

 
Wild flowers in Zagoria

Wild flowers in Zagoria

Bee keeping is popular and hives are everywhere. 

beehives, Zagoria

Rogovo pools Zagoria, northern Greece

Rogovo pools Zagoria


From description, I thought it is just a rock pool in the high mountain. 

 
Rogovo pools Zagoria
What a surprise to find this mini gorge like series of pools, stretching for a few hundred meters long, or that was how far I managed to walk. 

Rogovo pools Zagoria

Vikos gorge, Zagoria, northern Greece



Vikos gorge, Zagoria

One of the world's natural wonder, there is a 5 hours hike along the bottom of the gorge from one end to the other, which is quite hard work. 

Vikos gorge, Zagoria

There are many shorter trails that lead to various viewpoints along the gorge, for impressive views.

Vikos gorge, Zagoria

Vikos gorge, Zagoria



Zagoria stone bridges, northern Greece


Zagoria stone bridge, Kokkoris

This area is also famous for the many stone bridges built around 2-300 years ago. 

 
Zagoria stone bridge, Platikidas
They are graceful simple structures, serve the function without extra decoration, eternally pleasing to the eyes. 

Zagoria stone bridge, Misou

There are many hiking trails, long and short, that bring you to these bridges.

Zagoria stone bridge, Kiri

Zagoria stone bridge, Dilofo

Zagoria hill villages, northern Greece



 
Zagoria hill villages
Zagoria is at the northwest end of Greece, very mountainous, very few farmable land, easy to see herds of cattle and goat. 

Zagoria hill village, Mikro Pagpigo

The area is famous for lost hill villages that seem to blend well with the surrounding. This is because they were built with stone, for the wall, floor and roof tiles, that were taken from the hills behind.  

Zagoria hill village, Megalo Papigko

Zagoria hill village, Megalo Papigko

stone roof tile