Roast lamb rack

Rack of lamb is my favorite meat to have, tasty and easy to cook, and to please. 

Roast lamb rack

1. Score the top fatty layer, season with salt, pepper and cumin powder (optional) for a few hours.

2. Place on baking tray, surrounded by parboiled potatoes, cauliflower or other fast to cook veg, bake at 210˚C for 10 minutes, reduce to 130˚C and bake for another 15 minutes, should be still pink inside.

Gluten free oat peanut butter biscuit

Gluten free oat peanut butter biscuit

Oat biscuit has become a favorite snack at home and have been making batch after batch. Removing flour from the recipe makes it more light and crispy, and this time I used peanut butter to replace butter, for a different flavor.

Rolled oat 600gm

salt 1 teaspoon

sugar 1 tablespoon

boiling water 600gm

peanut butter 200gm

1. Pour boiling water into first 3 ingredients, mix well to let oat swell up.

2. Mix in peanut butter to forma dough, form into thin biscuits or roll to 1/2 cm thin and cut into pieces, bake at 170˚C until slightly golden, around 40 minutes.

Raspberry treat

Raspberries in cream

Spent 2 half days clearing an overgrown corner near the house, full of brambles, wild roses and nettle, all nasty plants with thorns and stings. 

Bright red raspberries started to appear, first guessed that they are wild plants. 

More clearing revealed a purpose built giant square high bed used to grow raspberry. Now only 1/3 of the area was taken up by young and few years old wooded tall raspberry plants, the rest are invaded wild plants. 

raspberry bed

The raspberries are big, sweet sour and in excellent condition. It was hard work to deal with neglect but really rewarding.  

Chicken in Mala peanut sauce

In both chicken meals, part of the breast is left behind because it is less tasty than the rest. It can easily be used torn up in noodle or mixed with a Mala peanut sauce.

Chicken in Mala peanut sauce

1. Warm oil in low heat, add a heaped tablespoon of Sichuan pepper for a minute, keep aside.

2. Sweat red bell pepper until soft, add water, peanut sauce, soy sauce, and chili to make a sauce.

3. Add shredded chicken breast, Sichuan pepper and oil, green herb, mix well. 

The flavor will develop stronger after resting for 15 minutes.

Chicken in rice wine and ginger sauce

Chicken in rice wine and ginger sauce

Bought a chicken from the nearby organic farm, roasted half the first day and salted the other half to dry in the fridge for 2 days.

The roast chicken is good with crispy skin, but I like the more firmer meat texture after salting and drying treatment. Cooked in rice wine and ginger is fast and give a very nice aroma and tasty sauce.

1. Salt chicken and dry in the fridge for at least 2 days, turn over after a day.

2. Sear chicken in a dry pan until slightly golden, put in a pan with slices of ginger and a cup of rice wine, bring to boil and simmer until cooked, around 10 to15 minutes depending on size of chicken.

Chicken feet and congee

Organic chicken, pork and raw dairy

Found an organic farm nearby that I can buy direct, they have 13 dairy cows, 8 sows, chicken and ducks. They sell offal at a low price, like one euro for a bag of chicken feet, liver or pig ear, trotter. I can't resist buying a few bags of chicken feet as I love the gelatinous texture, good for the skin and joints. The broth after cooking is great in making congee. 

chicken feet with hard outer skin

chicken feet blanched, with hard outer skin removed

 

1. Cut nails, blanch in boiling water for a minute, peel off hard outer skin.

2. Cover with water, add a few slices of ginger, garlic cloves, a couple of star anise, a piece of cinnamon, fresh zest of a lemon, rice wine, salt and white pepper, bring to boil and simmer for half an hour. Cover with lid and let it rest.

chicken feet after slow cooking

3. Bring to boil again and cool down, should be soft enough to eat.

4. Pick out the hard spices, add rice and cool until soft. 

chicken feet broth congee with green pea

Line caught wild Irish salmon

Line caught wild Irish salmon

Asked fishmonger what he can recommend, and got presented with this line caught wild salmon from the Irish Atlantic Ocean. The company has a quota for a certain number of line caught wild salmon every year, hence this is sold at Euro 40/kg! It has beautiful orange flesh, very lean, unlike the farmed ones, very good flavor and juicy texture.

Line caught wild Irish salmon seared in butter

1. Season with salt overnight, sear in butter with some slices of ginger and stalk of parsley, when butter is bubbling and before turning brown, add sweet corn, season with salt and white pepper.

Line caught wild Irish salmon, with sweet corn

2. Cover with lid, when top of filet changed to opaque, remove from heat and rest for another 2 minutes. The remaining heat is enough to warm through to the middle.

Lamb in smoky spicy sauce

Lamb in smoky spicy sauce

Using tomato sauce as base, it is very easy to add spices to make a colourful and delicious sauce to go with meat.

1. Season lamb leg chop with salt, cumin powder and pepper.

2. Sear lamb chops, with red bell pepper strips around, until both sides golden, take them out of the pan.

3. Add tomato sauce, season with soy sauce, smoked paprika, chili or mustard, and cumin powder.

4. When sauce is tasty, return lamb chops into the sauce to warm up.

Elderflower cordial, vinegar and liqueur

elderberry plant

In Ireland, elderberry is a very common hedge plant, and very noticeable now as it is blooming magnificently. The flower has a sharp fresh green aroma, and has antibacterial and arthritis relief benefits.

elderberry flower

Since it is so easy to collect a lot, I try my hands in making syrup, vinegar and liqueur, for use in drink, salad, and dessert.

1. Give the flower heads a good shake to remove bugs, pull off flowers with least stems possible. 

elderberry flower in water and lemon juice

2. To make syrup, press the flowers into a pan to compact them, add boiling water to just cover flowers, and juice of lemon, around 2 lemons per litre of water. Cover with lid and wait for a day. Sieve out liquid and add equal weight of sugar and zest of the 2 lemons, bring to boil and keep in clean bottle, when cooled down, keep in the fridge. 

elder flower syrup, vinegar and liqueur

3. To make elder flower vinegar and liqueur, add flowers directly into vinegar and alcohol (vodka, gin etc) and wait for a month.

Oat almond apricot cake

Oat almond apricot cake

After the success of making oatcake, I used the remaining rolled oat to make this moist cake, a gluten free cake. From now on I will use more rolled oat in baking, as a way of eating different grains, not just wheat.

 

Rolled oat 200gm

Boiling water 100gm

100gm ground almond

A big pinch of salt

30gm brown sugar

1 tea spoon baking powder

50gm butter

2 eggs

Oat almond apricot cake

1. Soak apricot in liqueur to soften, cut into pieces.

2. Pour boiling water into oat, stir to mix, let the oat swell up .

3. When cool to handle, add remaining dry ingredients and butter, rub to mix in.

4. Add beaten eggs and soaked apricot, mix into a thick pourable consistency.

5. Bake at 170˚C until golden, around 40 minutes.

Oat cakes

Oat cakes

Will be moving to Ireland soon and made this typical Irish snack for the journey. Super easy to make and like that it is savory, you can taste the flavor of oat.

500gm rolled oat

100gm whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons brown sugar

200gm boiling water

120gm butter

Oat cakes, before baking

1. Mix dry ingredients, add hot water, use a wooden spoon to stir ingredients to let oat to swell up.

2. When cool enough to handle, rub in butter, mix well into a dry dough consistency.

Oat cakes, before baking

3. Roll out in between 2 baking paper to 1/2 cm thick. Cut into round or squares.

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

Pork belly with salted apricot and couscous

Pork belly with salted apricot and couscous

  

A traditional Chinese dish using broken rice to cover pork before steaming, for the look, to thicken sauce, and for the rice to absorb flavor from fatty pork. I modified using couscous, and place vegetables below, a one dish balanced meal.

1. Cut pork belly into pieces, season with salted plum (I used homemade salted apricot), rice wine, soy sauce, sugar and pepper for half an hour.

Pork belly with salted apricot and couscous, before steaming

2. Cut vegetable into cubes, mostly eggplant, some fennel, carrot or bell pepper.

3. Place vegetables in baking dish, mix pork belly with couscous, layer on top of vegetables. Steam until cooked, around 25 minutes.

Pork belly with salted apricot and couscous

4. Place fresh coriander leaves on top and mix well before serving.