wild Atlantic abalone

 

First time to taste wild Atlantic abalone!

Steam for 4 minutes, a bit firmer that those I had eaten in Hong Kong, from warmer water.

Some are cut into thin slices, sear on plancha for less than a minute, tender and has a charred flavour.

Eating abalone is more about texture, for the quality collagen, and appreciate the mild nutty sweet umami flavour.

Maldives snorkelling trip - Oblu Sengali 3/3

 

Joined an snorkel excursion to see manta ray, the biggest ray with wing spans up to 5m.

They flip the wings and glide pass gracefully, big and black but not menacing at all. The mouth is wide open while moving to swallow plankton. 

 

After a few rounds getting in the sea to watch manta ray, as we just get back into the boat, the marine biologists shouted: get back in, whale shark in front.

 

Everybody turn round and jump back in. It is the biggest cold blooded fish in the sea, but only eat plankton too, not dangerous at all. What a shape, huge head and slim long tail, with sparkling spots on the body, beautiful beast.

 

Found out afterwards that it is not that easy to see whale shark as they only come out to feed, spend most of the time at the bottom.

Maldives snorkelling trip - Oblu Sengali 2/3

 

There is a ring of reef around the island, one part of it is close to the buildings. It is shallow and flat on the inside, steep slope down to unseeable bottom the outer side. 

 

In front of the sandy beach, there is another shallow area with a lot of coral, like a sunken garden.

Colourful coral fishes swim around, plus silvery pomfrets, trevally, turtle and reef sharks. All calm and peaceful in the underwater coral garden, it is such a pleasure to hang effortlessly in the sea to watch the spectacular display of forms and colours.

 

 

Maldives snorkelling trip - Oblu Sengali 1/3

 

Blue blue blue, the many shades of blue, is the first impression of arriving at the resort in Maldives.

 

We picked this resort after a lot of research on internet. Top priority is having a good house reef, where you can swim to see easily, without needing a boat transfer, like in the previous resort we went to many years ago. 

The water is so clear, and calm, a bit cool if you are just floating there watching the beautiful underwater world. There is not a piece of rubbish. 

If the main aim is to snorkel for 2 hours at a time, the advise is to wear long sleeve and ankle long swim wear, save using sunscreen, as no amount of sunscreen cream will stop from burning the back of the body.

Comfort food

Brought a bag of preserved liver sausages from Hong Kong, it is most appreciated on a cold wet night, over sticky rice, accompanied by stir-fried cabbage with dried shrimps and garlic.

Hazelnut chocolate spread

 

 

 I have the habit of making nut butters, normally walnut butter and black sesame cocomus butter. I bought a bag of hazelnut and found that it is the least eaten among pecan, cashew and almond. 

So I plan to use it up by turning it into a spread. Pure hazelnut butter is very mild in flavour and very drying. Hence have to do something to make it more palatable, then I realise why it is always mixed with chocolate!

So I melted some dark chocolate with 75% coco mass, mix it in, and indeed lifted the flavour, and only mildly sweet.

Tahini black bean roasted swede

 

 

 Swede is one of the few winter vegetable grown locally, but it has not much flavor. So I mixed with tahini, black bean sauce and soysauce to bake it, 180˚ around 25 minutes, good result.

Peach Melred

 

 

Bought two scions of this dwarf peach tree Melred last year, only grow to 2 m tall, perfect for planting inside polytunnel. 

It flowers beautifully this year, amazing deep red double petals big flowers - relative to other peach  trees' flowers I have grown before. A bit worried that this is a peach tree for viewing blossoms and not for the fruit.

Lucky that after checking the variety Melred, it indeed produces edible fruits, just have exceptionly magnicicient blossoms too. 

Since it is still cold and wet, my bees are not out often, to help pollination, I dabble a soft paint brush on the center of flowers. 

Mone Frio organic iberico Bellota ham

 My yearly one plate a week treat, still as good as before, mildly salty, very nutty sweet aroma.

Warm scallop in congee

 

 

買到生猛帶子，學西貢六福餐廳，用粥浸到溫熱吃，好容易，仍然似sashimi, 但暖的，冬日吃較舒服。

Spring flowers

Saw the sun comes out and sky turns blue, invitation to go out for a walk round the garden, to check the trees.

More blossoms opened on the cherry trees

 

 

female hazelnut flower

male hazelnut catkin flower

After the male catkins appeared, now I can see many tiny deep red female flowers

Magnolia is magnificent 

Peach Melred is flowering beautifully, with deep red double petals, unusual for peach fruit tree, suspicious that it may be a flowering type peach tree. Have to wait to see if fruit sets and how is the taste.

Kinsale staycation

Ice cold weather, not much to do in the garden, slightly better weather down south at the coast, so packed a bag and off we go to Kindle for staycation. 

A small colourful town at non tourist season, great walks along the coast, with 3 forts to view, a relaxing place.

Finns Farmcut grilled bone marrow with ox tail meat

Finns Farmcut Persiana spiced lamb saddle

Fishy FIshy squid

Fishy Fishy black sole

Supper Club slow baked pork chop

A few decent restaurants, small menu, better meat dishes than seafood, surprisingly, not a scallop in sight, at peak scallop season!