Vendage lunch

During vendage, refreshment and snacks of caramelised figs and fig nut bars were served.

Late lunch is served to well deserved friends who came to help.

1. Pickled cucumber - pickle cucumber in a marinade of salt, sugar, vinegar and chili, for a day.

baked garden vegetables

2. Baked garden vegetables - cut butternut squash, zucchini, green pepper into cubes, season with salt, pepper and olive oil, bake at 180˚C until soft, around 30 minutes. Mix in semi-dried cherry tomatoes and parsley when hot.

Baked cheese potato

3. Baked potato with cheese - pre-boil potatoes until cooked, cut into wedges, mix with salt and olive oil, place in baking dish, sprinkle grated cheese, bake at 180˚C for 30 minutes.

barbecue chicken

barbecue chicken

  

4. Barbecue chicken thigh pieces - de-bone chicken thighs and cut into big pieces. Season with a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, mustard and rice wine for a day. Grill on charcoal.

drunken apricot tart

5. Drunken apricot tart - Blind bake pie crust, when cool fill with pastry cream, then arrange dried apricots, that are soaked in grappa honey mixture, on top.

Red grape harvest

a good grape year

There is a very good crop of red grapes this year, for both the Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat varieties.

beautiful bunches of grapes

After careful measurement of sugar and acid levels, combined with consideration of upcoming weather condition, the home wine master decided to have vendage on 28 September.

cutting off bunches of grapes

Aiming at finishing by early afternoon, with the serving of a late lunch, the harvest day started early, with friends came to help. It turned out to be a good day, cloudy cool with intervals of sunshine, great outdoor working weather. 

removing stems from bunches of grapes

grape berries

 

Cutting off bunches of grapes followed by hand removing stems, then cracking grapes with roller, just like in the old days, before pouring into stainless fermenting tanks. 

cracking grapes with roller

fermenting tank

A good solid 5 hours work, thank you friends. 

red wine production in progress

White grape harvest

white grapes petit mensang and gros mensang

  

white grape vines

This good fruit year extends to grape, all the 5 years old white vine plants have decent bunches of healthy looking and very tasty grapes. 

harvested white grapes

As for white wine, we like a bit more acid level compare with red wine, decided to harvest white grapes first, leaving the red grapes to acquire a bit more sugar.

de-stemmed white grapes

Grapes are harvested by hand, de-stemmed to reduce tannin, then cracked by a roller. A small quantity of neutral wine yeast is added into the small tank of crushed white grapes to kick start fermentation. Expecting to have 70 bottles of white wine.

cracking white grapes

punching down fermenting white grapes

Rice wine lees and pork chop dish

rice wine after fermentation

Last year I fermented a kg of rice to make rice wine. Simply cook rice as usual, when cool to around 30˚C, mix in rice wine yeast. Keep in the oven to kick start fermentation for 2 days. Transfer to a preserving jar and keep in a cool dark place to finish fermentation. I normally leave it until the summer to filter to use. 

rice wine

This home make rice wine, or in Japanese Sake, is very fragrant, at an alcohol of nearly 20˚. Sake is always diluted with water to around 16˚ alcohol.

I use the wine in cooking or in macerating dry dates.

rice wine lees

The wine lees filtered out is being kept in the fridge, great to use in enriching soup, or as a base in seasoning fish and meat, like this pork chop dish. 

pork chop marinated in rice wine lees

Mix wine lees with soy sauce, brown sugar and 5 spices powder, spread on both sides of pork chop, rest for an hour. Bake at 200˚C until golden, around 18 minutes. 

pork chop in rice wine lees before baking

pork chop in rice wine lees after baking

Pork satay with hazelnut curry sauce

Pork satay with hazelnut curry sauce

 

Satay is great, simply to prepare, fast to cook for a dinner party, and easy to please.

1. Cut pork into strips and thread on soaked bamboo sticks, brush a marinade of soy sauce and olive oil, rest for half an hour.

Pork satay with hazelnut curry sauce

2. Mix hazelnut paste (or peanut paste) with soy sauce, curry powder, brown sugar and mustard, dilute with some water to a pouring consistency. Cut kaffir lime leave into very fine pieces and mix in, for an extra fragrance.

Hazelnut curry sauce

3. Grill pork on charcoal until edges slightly charred. 

Watermelon Sugar Baby

Watermelon Sugar Baby

 

I like the name of this variety of watermelon, so cute. I grow various types of melon every year, but not always with good result. Sometimes the weather is not hot enough and melon does not end up sweet. Also bees may pollinate melon flowers with pollens from cucumber or pumpkin and end up with strange new fruits.

 

Watermelon Sugar Baby

This year, I planted 3 watermelon plants in May and got only 3 fruits set. They gradually grow big and by early September, I can't wait any longer and tested the first one, red and sweet.

This is the last of the three, very pleased that all three are tasty.

Cucumber noodle in umeboshi sauce

Cucumber noodle in umeboshi sauce

Another flavorful sauce to go with cucumber Pooner Kheera noodle, using umeboshi, sesame paste, brown sugar and goji berries for colour, excellent hot summer dish.

Hairy cucumber 節瓜

Finally this is a year where hairy cucumber plant grows well, with a fruit ready now and then.

Hairy cucumber 節瓜

I like to use it to make a soup, my mother's traditional dish, with dried shrimp and salted egg yolk.  

Drunken apricot clafoutis

Drunken apricot clafoutis

 

In July when there was an abundant harvest of apricot, I stored some in grappa. Simply cut apricots into halves, remove stones, mix with honey to sweeten, place in a preserving jar and cover with grappa (or other strong liqueur). They are ready to use in a months time.

apricot mixed with honey

With this drunken apricot available, it takes only a few minutes to make clafoutis, a presentable and light dessert, with delicious aroma of apricot alcohol.

1. Place apricots with some juice in a baking dish.

2. Prepare a mixture of 2 eggs with 2 big tablespoons of sour cream, and sugar to sweeten.

3. Pour on top of apricots, bake at 160˚C until set, around 30 minutes.

Seafood feast

Restaurant Elkano squids

Went to Restaurant Elkano in Getaria Spain for a seafood dinner, most impressed with the super fresh squid that was just cooked on charcoal, so tender and sweet. 

I could see squid boats out in the sea at night, so must be a good season for it.

very fresh squids

The next morning on the way back, stopped at San Sebastian market to look for such squids, indeed found them. The eyes are still bright shinny black, the skin sparkly red. This quality is 1/3 more expensive than the less fresh squids, but worth it.

Also bought cockles, razor clams, sardines to be cooked on the barbecue.

 

Squids

squids and sardines

- the side wings and part of the legs are marinated in soy sauce and olive oil to be eaten raw, to enjoy that unusual texture, and sweetness.

raw soy sauce marinated squid wings

- the body and leg are grilled on very hot charcoal to slightly char the outside and leave the inside still semi - raw, my favorite combination of texture and flavor.

squids on charcoal

grilled squid

 

Cockles

cockles before cooking

cockles after boiling water treatment

 

- rinse and place in a sieve, pour boiling water on them slowly until shells start to open, remove and serve. Lovely marine and umami taste.

Razor clams

razor clam before cooking

razor clams on charcoal

 

- rinse and place on grill to just cook through.

Sardines

- rinse without cutting open and removing the inside, dry and sprinkle salt on top. Grill on very hot charcoal until skin just browned.  

Wild Job's tear or wild coix seed 野意米

Wild Job's tear or wild coix seed 野意米

My few wild job's tear plants have grown big and produced most interesting and unusual greyish black shinny tear shaped seeds, very hard and more like beads. 

Wild Job's tear or wild coix seed 野意米

This wild variety with the hard shell is hard to crack, as there is naturally a hole through the seed, it has been traditionally used as beads for decoration. 

Wild Job's tear or wild coix seed 野意米

I will try to find the cultivated version to grow next time.

Cherry tomato raisins

Cherry tomato raisins

As weather turns cool in the early morning and evening, tomatoes on all the plants are maturing fast. With suddenly a large harvest of ripe cherry tomatoes, the best way to store them is drying. 

cherry tomatoes cut into halves for drying

The most time consuming job is to remove skin, then either half the tomato for faster drying, or drying them whole, to end up like a fat raisin. 

drying cherry tomatoes whole

The explosive flavor when chewing into one of these cherry tomato raisin is worth the work.

drying cherry tomatoes whole