Peat bog

Clara Bog visitors centre

 

 

Sometimes when driving pass the central lowland, I saw behind hedges areas of flat land that are not cultivated, nor used as pasture, quite surprise with this rare waste of land resources in a farming based economy.

Last week visited the Clara bog visitors centre, there is a boardwalk into a peat bog field. Then I understand why the land is left uncultivated, because there is a thick layer of peat, too acidic and swampy to grow anything, other than specific moss. 

 

Clara Bog visitors centre

 

In the past, locals used to drain the field and cut up peat to use as fuel. Now the practice in this part is stopped, to keep a piece of virgin peat bog, for generations to view.

Fresh squid season

 

line caught squid

 

 Last week's seafood delivery continue to have fresh line caught squids, this time in a kg there were 4 squids, one big and 3 medium.

 

thick squid noodle

 

I used the big one with thick body to make squid noodle, thick noodle this time. Fast cook in salt, olive oil and a little rice wine, until outside cooked and inside still raw, lovely texture, sweet and full of flavor. 

 

stir fried squid

 

The rest were cut up and quick stir fry with celery, ginger, chili pepper, coriander and soy sauce, also delicious.

fresh brown shrimp is available too

 

 

Wild Rugosa rose petal and hip jam

 

wild Rugosa rose hips

When I saw these rose hips in the wild, so big and beautiful, like giant cherry tomatoes, sort of shouting to me to make rose hip jam. I heard of rose hip jam but never made one, because rose hips are usually very small, until I saw these wild Rugosa rose hips in Ireland. 

 

Wild Rugosa rose

After googling to learn more about rose hip, I decided to split them open, remove the top hairy part, and put the rest in a pan. Rose hip is actually full of seeds, with just a thin layer of flesh, even for these giant ones. 

 

 

 

 

wild Rugosa rose hips after cooking in equal part of water

I cover them with water and bring to boil, until the flesh soften, around 15 minutes, press them a bit to break the structure. Leave to cool down and extract pectin from seeds. 

The next day, the bright orange paste is set, pass through a vegetable strainer or Kitchenaide to remove seeds.

wild Rugosa rose petals in sugar

 

The colour is beautiful but unfortunately rose hip has no special flavor or perfume, just mildly sour. Really not worth the effort of all the work, except that it is probably very nutritious.

 

Wild Rugosa rose petal and hip jam

 

Then I remember the wild rose petals collected last year that have been stored in sugar, it is ready to use. The sugar smelled of wild rose, the right thing to sweeten the rose hip jam. Best of both world, the perfume of rose petal combined with the thick pulp of rose hip, perfect.

 

Heywood Garden, Ireland

 

Heywood Garden, Ireland

 

I like to visit gardens and be inspired by the beautiful plants and flowers. This Heywood garden is wonderful, not that much for vegetation, but for the layout design. 

 

pleached lime trees alley

 

There is a walled garden, that slopes down to an oval fountain at the bottom, so quiet and calm/windless once you are inside the walled area. Then you walked along a grand pleached lime trees alley, to a couple of hedged small areas with seating, sort of secret gardens in the garden.

 

artificial lakes

 

Down the slope to the lower field next to 2 lakes, then you look up to see the follies of castle ruins among the trees. So beautifully thoughtful. 

follies of castle ruins

Restaurant Thyme, Athlone, Ireland

 No star, just a knife and fork rating in Micheline guide. All dishes are beautifully presented without fancy decoration, properly cooked, delicious, using a range of quality ingredients, and is a menu at euro 55, well done.

seared scallop in pea puree

chicken pate with pickled vegetables

pork loin with shitake mushroom

deer loin with pickled walnut

very delicate mandarin cheesecake

Baked pear compote

Baked pear compote

 

Normally I cook pear in spices and sugar to make compote. with a lot of pears harvested, I started baking them for storage. I then combine the half baked pear, with spices, lemon juice and just bring to boil and compote is done. This baked version, is faster to make, do not need any added sugar as flavor of pear is concentrated, and has a more pleasant firmer texture. Great with yogurt or ice cream.

Re-wilding

upper pond with spring

 

The field in front of the house has a couple of springs, and some parts have reeds growing and are easily boggy after rain, a sign that there must be clay layer below. The dream of having ponds in the garden for more biodiversity can be fulfilled. 

 

 

Hiring a big digger for 2 days to carefully remove top soil in the wet area down to clay layer, which is just a meter below, and 2 ponds are formed.  The top soil will be used in my vegetable raise beds. A channel is dug linking the upper one with the lower one, then to the lake. The upper pond has a spring and filled up with water overnight, then overflows and fill up the lower one in no time. Very pleased to see the water stays in the ponds as we wished.

Fresh herring

 

fresh salted herrings

 

Herring is a beautiful fish, in the oily fish family, between the size of sardine and mackerel. It has a lot more fine and soft bones but the flesh is more delicate. I prefer to season with salt and dry in the fridge for a day before searing, in its own oil, skin goes crispy without splitting and meat is more tender. 

 

seared herring

 

Thursday seafood delight

Fresh seafood delivered on Thursday, through on-line order to the fishmonger on the west coast near Galway. This week I tried live velvet crab, Connemara clam, on top of the wonderful shrimps in season now and herring.

Velvet crab live

Velvet crab cooked

 

Velvet crab - same species as Necoras served at the north west coast of Spain, and again most of these crabs found in Irish coast are shipped to Spain. It is a small crab, but shell very thin, meat full and sweet, female crab fat delicious. Need a lot of patience to enjoy this dish.

Baked whole at 200˚C for 15 minutes

 

 

Connemara clam

Connemara clam cooked

 

Connemara clam - really umami savory sweet, will order again to make other dishes.

Grill at 200˚C until shell just pop open, around 5 minutes.

 

 

shrimp

 

Shrimp - steam for a minute.

Baked apple and apple tart

With a good harvest of cooking apples, I have been converting them to puree for future use. Using the oven to prepare apple puree is much faster and less work. 

 

 

green apple

 

green apple after baking

 

1. Peel and cut apple into chunks, shake in a bowl with some olive oil, bake at 200˚C until most water evaporated.

2. Freeze in portions for later use.

 

 

apple tart

 

Apple tart

1. Mix puree with sugar and cinnamon, place in baking dish.

2. Prepare a tart mix:

 

2 eggs

30gm sugar, pinch of salt

60gm almond flour

20gm flour

 

Pour on top of puree, bake at 170˚C until cooked, around 25 minutes.

Smoked herring on rice

 

Smoked herring on rice

 

Learned this recipe of smoked Ma Yau fish on rice from a Hong Kong restaurant, sounds and looks good, makes my mouth waters. Ma Yau is an oily fish and so is herring, which I can get cold smoked one locally, so I can test the recipe. It is indeed a presentable dish, the mild salty smoky fish goes well with plain rice and the rice absorbs the fish oil, but need to be eaten hot.

 

cold smoked herring

cold smoked herring on rice, before baking

 

 

1. Put cooked rice in baking dish, add fresh coriander leaves, place smoked herring on top, bake at 180˚C for 15 minutes to warm up herring.

2. While hot, remove flesh from herring and mix with rice.

Crab with fresh pea on toast

 

Ordered some fresh crab meat to try, a good ingredient for a tasty and easy to prepare lunch. Very nice to couple with sweet fresh peas, vegetable of the season in Ireland, for both colour and flavor. 

 

Crab with fresh pea on toast

 

 

1. Cook peas in a little water until the raw taste is gone.

2. Add a good tablespoon of butter, reheat crab meat, season with salt and white pepper, pile on toast.

Pear chips

 

Pear chips

 

Continue harvesting pears, found another way of enjoying them. Cut into chips, shake with melted butter, bake at 180˚C until golden, around 40 minutes. Most delicious intense pear flavor, can eat a lot as such, or serve with yogurt, or use as pie filling.

View of fields at Knockanroe loop walk, Silvermine mountain, Ireland

 Knockanroe loop walk, Silvermine mountain

 

Went for a hike on the mountain on other side of the lake, a loop walk at the height of heather, then a short steep hike to the top, around 300m. The view of the farm land around the lake is gorgeous, small fields surrounded by hedges.

 

 View of fields at Knockanroe loop walk, Silvermine mountain

 View of fields at Knockanroe loop walk, Silvermine mountain

Most of the fields are for raising animals, cow, sheep, racing horse, only very few are cultivating crops, like wheat.  

 

Line caught squid

 

Irish line caught squid

 

Same as the live shrimps, season for line caught squid also started. Ordered 1kg and there are 6 medium size squids, again delivered 48 hours after being caught, super fresh and no smell at all.

Squid noodle- sort of cooked in its own juice, very sweet and tender

 

squid noodle

 

1. Cut squid into very thin strips, season with salt and olive oil.

2. in a pan bring to boil half a cup of rice wine, add squid noodle and stir around until just cooked, less than a minute.

 

Squid grilled, more concentrated umami flavor, still tender

 

grilled squid

 

1. Cut cirss-cross pattern on squid, cut into portions.

2. Turbo grill at 200˚, grill squid until lightly golden, around 10 minutes

Live shrimps

 

Live shrimps

steamed shrimps

 

The season for this shrimp in the Irish coast started a week ago, it is the same species that I first tasted in restaurants in Geteria, Spain, where they are kept alive in giant tank. Now I learned that a lot of the catch in the Irish coast is sent to Spain as Irish are not into eating shrimps! Lucky with on line order, these shrimps are available locally.

I ordered on line from fishmonger, to be delivered within 48 hours after being caught, they came in a box with seaweeds, still very alive.

The shrimps are simply steamed for a minute, very sweet flesh.

Tomato and rosemary focaccia

 

Tomato and rosemary focaccia

 

After a hike on Sunday morning, there was a wish to eat focaccia, crispy hot bread with nice fragrance.

1. Make a bread dough with flour and  80% weight of water, 2 tbsp olive oil, 10gm salt, fresh rosemary and cut up dried tomato. 

2. Knead well and spread out 1cm thin on a lined baking tray, poke dimples on the surface and drizzle olive oil on top generously, add more rosemary.

 

 

3. Let it rise to double thickness, bake at 220˚C for 20 minutes.

Ox heart

 

Ox heart grilled

 

Bought from the organic farm Dexter ox heart, a bit surprise to receive a whole one, without being cut up by the butcher first. There is always the first time, really deep red meat of very dense texture, a bit like duck breast. 

 

Dexter ox heart

Dexter ox heart

 

I season it with soy sauce, pepper, brown sugar, sear it on all sides, then sprinkle roasted sesame on top, pretty good.