Showing posts with label 2023-02. Show all posts

Apple almond cake

Huge harvest of apple last autumn, still a lot in storage and need to be eaten. Made this cake with maximum load of apple, which gives a lot of moisture and softness to a fat free and carbohydrate free cake.

peeled and diced (1/2cm cubes) apple, 3 cups
juice of one lemon
sugar , only if green apples are used
150gm almond flour
1 tsp baking powder

3 eggs
50gm sugar

1. Whisk egg and sugar until sugar dissolved.
2. Combine apple with lemon juice, flour and baking powder.
3. Mix with egg, pour into well buttered baking dish, bake at 170˚C until brown around 40 minutes.

apple almond cake, with cinnamon glaze

Yacon 雪蓮果 harvest

yacon plant

yacon small bright yellow flowers

yacon reaches 2m tall

First time to grow this South American plant, planted in May, and ready to harvest in winter when the plant died.

Super easy to grow, not demanding at all, just regular watering, nothing to do, no pest. Harvest is relatively easy with loose soil, many good size tubers at the base, looks like sweet potato.

yacon plant died

yacon underground

yacon from one plant

It is pure white inside, watery and crunchy with mild sweetness, like giant water chestnut or 沙葛.

I like to eat it during the day instead of drinking water. Can also use in cooking, stays crunchy.

cooked yacon 'noodle'

Forage wild garlic

wild garlic

Went for a walk along the river at Castleconnel, knowing that it is a spot to forage for wild garlic. Indeed the leaves have just came up, bright shinny thin leaves, with mild smell.

Use them as topping in pizza, and rough chopped and mixed with olive oil and salt as a sauce to drizzle on Pollock fish cake, adding colour and fragrance.

wild garlic on pizza

wild garlic pesto on Pollock fish cake

Garden in Spring

garlic

broad bean

frog spawn

So happy to be back, and that there is no problem in the garden. Garlic planted in November have all germinated, 5 more months to wait before they are ready to harvest.

Only 1/3 of broad beans were germinated, have to resow, hope to harvest in 3 months' time.

bee flowers bed

The bee flowers bed is doing well, achieved the target of having flowers all year round.

Most exciting is to see a group of frog spawn in the lower pool, the spawn introduced last year worked and adult frogs have started to lay!

Lei Garden dim sum

Never tied of eating dim sum, because they are delicate, small mouthfuls with a lot of different flavour, and on top I don’t make them.

Have tried a few new restaurants this year, but the Lei Garden at Kowloon Bay never fail to please, and at very reasonable price.The following 2 are the best of their kind among all the restaurants I have eaten.

蘿蔔絲酥餅

潮州粉果

Tofu, ginkgo and coriander

Good combination, in terms of colour, texture and fragrance, easy meal and filling. Tofu is always more tender when lightly cooked, season with soysauce and sesame oil.

Hike from Quarry Bay to Mont Butler

Fantastic view at Mont Butler, around 450m, panoramic view of the city with mountains behind. This hike is straight up with non stop steps up to the top, guess at least a couple thousands, bad for the knees and hard work on a warm humid day, pouring sweat.

Ma Lam Wat hike and Loaf On restaurant seafood dinner

Ma Lam Wat Grand Design villlage house

Pak Sha Wan

It is fun to take the short boat trip from Pak Sha Wan to Ma Lam Wat village, then hike to San Kung Village, easy around an hour hike with some up and down. There is a well renovated village house near the harbour, in my mind the best Grand Design project of village house.

Went to the wet market at Sai Kung to buy seafood, much better value than order at the restaurant. The cooking is wonderful, very mild seasoning that allows the delicate flavour of seafood to come through. The cooking cost is pretty steep, probably because there are only 3 persons and have to pay the high minimum charges, seafood costs $800 and cooking cost $1800.

lobster head congee

ginger stirfry lobster tail

geoduck with garlic and vemicelli

steam abalone with mandarin peel

low temperature cooked scallop in congee

deep fried tofu

Ho Lee Fook dinner 口利福餐廰

After the very memorable once a month Sunday lunch special, I am keen to eat there again. Partly to see if they can keep the standard, and also in case they get a star and become very difficult to book a table in the future.

Went with a group of 4 to taste more dishes, we were so pleased with all the dishes. Concluded that all are common dishes in Hong Kong, they just manage to think smartly what make the dishes taste good and work on achieving the result. Well done chef Ah Chan and her team.