A quick lunch for 2, and love that it is kept hot in Bruno.
Mix vegetable quiche Mix vegetable quiche Mix vegetable quiche Mix vegetable quiche
1. Cut vegetable into strips (carrot, celery, fennel etc), and any left behind meat or bacon, season with salt and olive oil.
2. Sweat in multi-function plate until soft.
3. Pour in batter of egg, cream and a little rice flour, cook until set, flip over to brown the other side.
This is half of a lamb leg, good for 2 meals for 2, first one baked and second one stir-frid, both easy to make and delicious.
Bake lamb leg in a rich sauce Bake lamb leg in a rich sauce
1. Make a thick sauce with miso, mustard, blended wild garlic in oil (or herbs), seaweed flakes, rice wine, salt, brown sugar and pepper.
2. Sear lamb leg until golden all sides, place on a large sheet of baking paper, spread sauce all over, wrap into a tight parcel. Place in a baking dish, bake at 200˚C for 30 minutes, rest with oven door ajar for another 15 minutes.
3. Open parcel, let sauce run into dish, carve slices of meat and serve with sauce.
For the stir-fry second round:
stir-fried lamb leg with cumin
1. Toast cumin seed until fragrant, add oil and celery, cut into strips, stir-fry to soften.
2. Add remaining lamb leg meat, cut into strips, warm up with cumin and celery, add tomato sauce and left behind sauce from the baking dish.
Planted seedlings of khol rabi, beetroot, golden beetroot, endive, shingiku (Tong ho) and mix kale last autumn inside green house, to test if they can grow. Well it is my first year growing veg in Ireland, and found that it is too cold for them. They survive but did not grow much, until this month when leaves started to come.
Home grown mix green leaves Home grown mix green leaves
Now I regularly harvest the leaves to make a mix stir-fry, still wonderful to have home grown veg in these cold months.
Dropped a couple of buckets of frogspawn collected from nearby stream into 3 locations in our ponds, just before the storms.
Have been watching them everyday, worry that the weather is too harsh for them. Saw white dots develop around them and fear that somehow molds are attacking.
Finally saw that tadpoles are formed and those white dots are actually air bubbles, probably formed as they 'breath'.
From frogspawn to tadpole From frogspawn to tadpole From frogspawn to tadpole From frogspawn to tadpole From frogspawn to tadpole From frogspawn to tadpole From frogspawn to tadpole
River walk at Castlekernnel River walk at Castlekernnel
River walk at Castlekernnel
After 3 storms, it is the first dry sunny morning, went for a walk along Shannon River at Castlekernnel, water roaring past, 2 to 3 meter higher than normal.
wild garlic at Castlekernnel
Found a patch of wild garlic, first leaf just came out, this is the closest source of wild garlic from home that I have identified, so far.
yew tree yew tree yew tree yew tree yew tree yew tree
The old yew forest nearby is so pretty, it is a tree with a lot of energy to survive, twisting and curing to gain more light.
Raisin stem ginger almond cake Raisin stem ginger almond cake
Easy and fast to make individual cakes in Bruno multi-function plate, they are ready in half the time if using the oven, and in very presentable form.
2 eggs
90gm almond flour
30gm flour
80gm cream/milk
30gm sugar
1. Soak raisin and stem ginger in brandy/whisky to soften.
2. Make cake batter, adjust to pourable consistency.
3. Brush butter on plate, when hot, pour in batter to 2/3 full, add raisin, stem ginger with liquid into batter, cover with lid.
4. When solid, flip over to cook until golden.
A savory version using takoyaki hot plate, fun to make, crispy outside, tasty and is kept hot by the machine, great for winter meals.
Bacon tofu wild garlic fried rice balls
1. Cut bacon, tofu into pieces, mix cooked rice with eggs, season with salt and pepper.
2. Warm up takoyaki hot plate, place bacon, tofu and wild garlic sauce into holes, sweat until fragrant.
3. Fill with rice egg mixture, turn over and mix with fillings. Turn around regularly to make round balls, serve when golden.
The takoyaki hot plate need a bit of patience to arrange, but the result is pretty. Also find it fast to cook/bake/fry small servings of savory or sweet dishes. Took 20 minutes to cook.
Apple almond cake balls Apple almond cake balls
cooked apple compote, or soaked raisins/dried fruits
cake mix:
1 egg
60gm almond flour
60gm flour
100gm cream
30gm sugar
1. Warm up takoyaki plate, brush with butter.
2. Pour in 2/3 deep cake mix, then the filling of choice, cover with more cake mix to reach the top.
3. When bottom is hard enough to manage, turn the balls over while the cake mix at the top is still liquid.
4. Cook until golden, turning over regularly.
Can't stop thinking of ways to use this new toy, this time using turnip rice cake recipe but replaced with mix vegetables. So fast to cook, steam and seared ready in 20 minutes!
Mix vegetables rice cake Mix vegetables rice cake Mix vegetables rice cake
1. Cut carrot, celeriac and celery into thin strips, add sesame, season with salt, white pepper and olive oil.
2. Mix rice flour, 1 tbsp light miso with water to form a pourable batter.
3. Warm up hot plate, place vegetables into the individual space, sweat to soften.
4. Pour batter into each dish, cover with lid to steam sear the cake. Turn over when the bottom is golden.
Playing with my new gadget, this multi-functions hot plate is most versatile and my favorite, very fast to heat up, good for small quantity of food instead of using the oven, save time and energy.
A modification of sausage roll, using sticky rice flour mix with almond flour instead of bread dough, lovely texture and fragrant filling.
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| Sticky bun with Chinese sausage |
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| Sticky bun with Chinese sausage |
1200gm sticky rice flour
60 gm almond flour
1tsp baking powder
100gm water
Chinese sausage in cubes
celery in cubes
scallion minced
1. Mix first 4 ingredients to form a dough, split into portions.
2. Wrap with filling to form flat buns.
3. Add water to 1 or 2 of the dish, brush the rest with oil, warm up and place buns inside. Cover with lid to sear the bottom of the bun, and steam to cook through. Turn over when the bottom is golden.
Quite a smart cooking gadget, a relaxing way to have fried egg and pancake for breakfast, making while eating, so that pancakes are always hot.
pancakes and fried eggs pancake pancake
To improve biodiversity on our land, we would love to have frogs living in the two little ponds dug 1.5 years ago.
Told by a friend that he saw frogspawn in a small pond nearby, went with 2 buckets to bring some home, hope they will like our land.
Frogspawn Frogspawn Frogspawn Frogspawn Frogspawn
First time to see it in real, frogspawn are so beautiful, big clumps of glassy beads covering the whole surface of the little pond.
our pond Frogspawn in our pond
Last year, I tried to grow sweet potato in the green house, harvested some leaves but failed to have decent tubers. Concluded that summer here is not hot enough to grow sweet potato.
white yacon red yacon
Learned from a local on-line veg growing course that yacon can be grown here, very productive and is a healthy veg/fruit. It is the first time I came across this plant, quick search found out that it is from South America, in the daisy family, and is a pre-biotic.
Very interested, I ordered some to taste and some growing tips to grow. There are two varieties, one white and one red skinned, both white inside. They are runchy and juicy, only mildly sweet, like a cross between pear, sugar cane and water chestnut, with the red skin one having a denser texture. Nice to eat raw as fruit or quick cooked, like water chestnut, but much easier to peel.
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| roast duck |
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| roast duck with sauce |
