Pork chop with garlic rosemary and brown sugar

Pork chop with garlic rosemary and brown sugar

It is an interesting way to use brown sugar to give a browned look without overcooking these pork shoulder chops.

1. Rub all over pork chops minced rosemary, garlic and salt, then sprinkle a teaspoon of brown sugar on each side. 

 

2. Over medium heat, sear pork chops a few minutes each side, they will have a browned look faster, but that is the sugar caramelised. Rest in the pan before serving for a juicy tender result.

Baked potato dominos

Baked potato dominos

Read this recipe in Argentinean chef Francis Mallman's cookbook, the photo of huge stacks of thinly sliced baked potato is eye catching. Very easy to make and is a presentable dish, the top edges crispy and the bottom soft. 

Baked potato dominos

1. Cut potato into thin slices, 1mm, keep together and transfer to baking tray lined with baking paper.

2. Slightly angle the stack of potato, using the cut ends to hold the shape.

3. Brush melted butter on top, bake at 200˚C until the edges are golden, around 40 minutes, serve immediately.

Pumpkin apple fig salad

pumpkin baby bear

This is pumpkin variety Baby Bear, forms beautiful small size fruits early, around July, and have been lying there, looking exactly the same, maturing. Now and then I will cut one off to check if it is ready, of course not yet, and sort of wonder what is the sign to show that they are ready. 

pumpkins baby bear, one ready to eat

melon Edmir, ready to eat

Sure the old saying is correct, pumpkin or melon is mature when the stalk goes dry and looks like falling off.

This salad uses 3 fruits that mature in the same time. 

Pumpkin apple fig salad

figs

1. Scoop seeds out of pumpkin, bake at 180˚C until soft, around 25 minutes.

2. Cut pumpkin and apple into cubes, mix with fresh basil, dried figs soaked in vinegar and some of the vinegar (or fresh ones), season with salt, pepper and olive oil.

Lamb tenderloin in parsley tomato and cumin paste

Tenderloin is lean and so is easy to cook dry, this is a way to keep it moist, add flavor and colour.

 

Lamb tenderloin

1. Season lamb tenderloin with salt and pepper.

2. Mince fresh parsley, dry tomato and green pepper into a coarse paste, season with salt, cumin powder, oil and a tbsp of cornstarch. 

Lamb tenderloin in parsley tomato and cumin paste before baking

3. Spread the paste on baking paper as long as the tenderloin and double its width.

4. Place tenderloin on top of vegetable, use the paper to wrap paste round the meat. 

Lamb tenderloin in parsley tomato and cumin paste after baking

5. Bake at 180˚c for 15 minutes, rest for 10 minutes with the oven door open for a pink result.

Black & white glutinous corn 黑糯玉米丶白糥玉米

Once I heard older farming people in Hong Kong mentioned this old variety of corn that they used to grow, saying that it has a good taste and texture much better than modern varieties. The name with the word glutinous fascinates me. 

Black & white glutinous corn - before cooking

When I visited Taipei in Spring, I found a seed company and indeed found these corn available, black glutinous corn and white glutinous corn.

 

Black & white glutinous corn

I sow them together in my garden, beautiful tall plants, and after 2.5 months, ears started to form. It is not the modern sweet corn that I used to grow and eat, which are super sweet and juicy.

 

Black & white glutinous corn

When they are harvested in time, before becoming hard and starchy, they are pleasantly mild sweet. It is the texture that is unusual, chewy and how to describe it ... glutinous!

Black & white glutinous corn- after steaming

Instant tomato soup

beef tomato Mendigorria

beef tomato Mendigorria

Excellent weather for tomato this year, even this type of giant beef tomato from the Basque area is maturing well, without splitting or brown spot. It is a juicy soft meaty sweet tomato at around 800gm each. It is the best variety to make instant raw tomato soup.

Instant tomato soup

1. Blanch tomato and remove skin, cut into big cubes, season with salt and black pepper, stir well and juice will ooze out.

2. After 10 minutes, mix in some fresh basil leaves, serve and sprinkle a few roasted pine nut for texture.

Sloe jam

sloe

Sloe is the fruit of wild plum, a vigorous tree root on which most of the orchard plum, cherry, peach, nectarine trees are grafted on.

sloe

The fruit is small, bluish, like mini Damson, with sharp sour rich taste.

This is the second time in 6 years here that there is a harvest. The sloes are fully ripe and I could not stand not collecting them. The jam has a deep ruby colour and intense flavor.

sloe jam

Sloe 3kg

brown sugar 600gm

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1. Mix sloes with sugar and salt and rest for a day in the fridge to soften.

2. Pour sloes into baking dish, add boiling water to just cover all fruit.

baked sloe

3. Bake at 180˚C for 45 minutes, stir half way through.

4. When cool enough to handle, pass sloe mixture through sieve to remove stone.

sieving out sloe stones

5. Re-boil, check sweetness, cook to desired thickness. 

Pressing apple and pear to make cider

cutting apple /pear

Everybody this year have huge crops of apple and pear, on top of our own harvest, we are given apples from friends who could not manage to use them all, looks like we are going to make a lot of cider this year. 

crushing chopped apple/pear

We invited friends and their kid/grand kid to help chopping, crushing and pressing apple and pear in the traditional wooden press, in return they take home super fresh and natural apple pear juice.

traditional wooden press

apple/pear juice

Dried fruits, fruit liqueur

 

Such a good year that all fruit trees are loaded, and fruits ripen earlier than usual. After eating a lot and turning some into jam, the rest are transformed for storage.

yellow peach

dried yellow peach

  

dried yellow peach, Agen plum, nectarine violet, damson

1. Dried fruits - peaches, nectarines and plums are cut into halves then dried in the dehydrator machine, smaller size damsons are dried whole, wonderful flavor.

fruit liqueur

2. Cut mix fruits into quarters, pack in preserving jar, fill with rum, add brown sugar, 10% the weight of rum used, a few cloves, a vanilla bean, keep for 6 months before enjoying the fruits and liqueur.

Steam eggplant with semi dry tomato sauce

Steam eggplant with semi dry tomato sauce

A popular Turkish dish is to cook eggplant for a long time in tomato sauce. I simplify by steaming eggplant, for keeping its flavor, and use semi-dry tomatoes to make a tasty sauce.

semi-dry tomato basil sauce

1. Cut semi-dry tomatoes into cubes, season with salt and black pepper, add olive oil and a big handful of fresh basil, mix well and rest for half an hour.

steamed eggplant

2. Cut eggplants into cubes, steam until cooked, around 20 minutes.

3. While eggplant is still hot, stir in tomato sauce.

Roast beetroot and potato chips

Roast beetroot and potato chips

Looks like steak and chips, but is beetroot instead. Normally I bake beetroot whole in aluminum foil, takes about 45 minutes to soften. I tried roasting beetroot cut into chips, amazed by the intense concentrated flavor, very fulfilling taste.

1. Peel beetroots and potatoes, cut into 1cm thick pieces separately.

2. Mix with olive oil and roast at 180˚C until potatoes soft, around 20 minutes. Sprinkle salt and black pepper before serving.

Damson 3 ways

damson

A friend's damson tree is loaded with beautiful ripe fruit, too many that they are happy to give away. Damson is a type of plum, with a satin bluish purple skin and a good balance of sour and sweetness.

I took 6kg home and converted them into Damson jam, sorbet and liqueur.

  

Damson ginger jam

3kg damson

300gm brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

ginger (optional)

A fast and easy way to cook down fruit with water is to bake in the oven, no need to watch and stir non-stop over the hot stove. They will thicken beautifully and no need to add pectin at all. 

damson after mixing with sugar for a day

1. Cut damson into halves and remove stone, add sugar salt and ginger, mix well and rest for a day to let juice come out.

damson after baking for 1/2 hour

2. Pour damson with all liquid into baking tray, bake at 200˚C, take the tray out after half an hour to stir the fruit and check dryness, bake until less watery, around 1/3 less in quantity with these fat juicy damsons, around an hour. 

damson after baking for an hour

3. Stir and mix skin and pulp well with remaining juice, leave to rest until cool down for the fiber to soak up juice. 

damson ginger jam

4. Re-boil and check sweetness before bottling.

Damson cardamom sorbet

 

2 kg damson

200gm brown sugar

a big pinch of salt

7 pcs cardamom (optional)

baked damson before blending

1. Proceed as about, substitute ginger with cardamom. 

damson cardamom sorbet

2. After finish baking and resting, blend into puree and churn into sorbet in ice cream machine. 

damson cardamom sorbet

Damson vanilla liqueur

1kg damson

1kg vodka

200gm brown sugar

one vanilla bean cut open into pieces (optional)

a pinch of salt

damson vanilla liqueur

Poke fine holes on damsons, place in airtight jar with all the ingredients, stir and keep in a cool dry place for at least 6 months.

Yellow and blood peaches

Yellow and blood peaches

More peaches maturing, the yellow variety is more fragrant, where as blood peaches are juicy, has a mild herbal back note. 

Yellow and blood peaches

Confit pork chop with thyme

Pork chop is a lean meat, except the ring of fat on the outside, so quite easy to cook dry. This is an easy way to cook pork chop (around 1cm thick) at low temperature in its own oil to get a juicy effect. 

Confit pork chop with thyme

I like that the thyme used in marinade stays green and aromatic even after cooking.

1. Trim the fat off the outside of pork chop , cut into small cubes. Season pork chops with salt, some 5 spices powder and a lot of thyme for an hour. 

Confit pork chop with thyme

2. In a small frying pan at medium heat, render oil out of the fat, the aim is to have a thin layer of oil at the bottom of pan. Or just use olive oil if there is not enough fat around the chop.

3. Still at medium heat, place pork chops in the pan, quickly turn over to heat up the other surface. 

Confit pork chop with thyme

4. Remove from heat, the residual heat of the frying pan and oil should be enough to slow cook the pork chop, turn over half way. For such a thin chop, should cook through and no more pink juice coming out in about 2 minutes each side.