Wild rose shrub

I have been pickling wild Rugosa rose petal in cider vinegar, lovely colour and perfume. I take some out to mix with raw honey to make shrub, as a handy gift to see a friend. To be mixed with water to make a beautiful pink fragrance drink.

Cucumber plum basil salad

This is my favourite way of cooking, using all seasonal produce from the garden. Pickle cucumber in salt and vinegar for half day, then mix with plum basil and oil to make a tasty and colourful salad.

Clare Glen

 

又來到這段叫 Clare Glen 的行山徑，沿着Clare river 兩岸行一圈，慢行兩個小時，剛剛好，駕車四十分鐘到達，十分方便。

愛爾蘭前人一向以地方的特色用作名字，Clare Glen 是清澈河水的山谷。

山谷狹窄，綠樹成蔭，就是整個七月未曾下雨，各處仍然濕潤晶瑩，易走小上小落的天然石頭、沙泥路，加上如畫風景，我最喜歡的那類行山徑。

Rib eye steak from Pat Barry

I do enjoy occasionally a good piece of steak, have been tasting between striploin, rib eye and Denver steak. 

Rib eye comes with a bit of fat in the middle, and there are 2 types of muscles around the eye. It is much easier to separate into the 3 different parts as the centre muscle take less time than the other two. However, the muscle on the top is more juicy and tasty, the one on the side is tougher. 

Purple and orange carrots

Colour and pattern so beautiful I just like to pick and eat them raw, to enjoy their sweetness and crunch. 

Water melon

 今年三株山椒鳥西瓜長得好茂盛，一直花多小果子多，今早意外找到一隻已經開始長大 😁

 

 

Victoria plum

The 2 Victoria plum trees are, as usual, producing loads of dark purple skin, juicy sweet sour plums. We have been eating them instead of drinking water but still a lot needs to be processed. 

I made plum liquor, simply adding halved plums in Gin/Vodka, sweeten with honey, spiced with star anise  ginger and black pepper. 

Also lacto-fermented some, by mixing in 2% its weight of salt, pack in a jar and hold down with a weight. In the second day, the plums will ooze out enough juice to cover itself. After 7 days of fermentation, the plum are savoury and sour, like a mildly salted plum with a firmer crunchier texture. Nice to go with meat dishes. 

Another way is to make a shrub, infusing halved plum with 1:1 raw honey cider vinegar mixture. After a week, there will be be crunchy pickled plum to eat and a nice syrup to use in drinks or in vinaigrette dressing. 

Finally have also been baking them as dessert, half them and place in baking dish, sprinkle freshly grinned cardamon powder and drizzle honey on top. Bake at 200˚C for 20 minutes and rest in the oven until cold, seriously delicious with yogurt. 

Rosemary roast potato wedges

Very good harvest of potatoes, both white and blue varieties, all dug out as I prefer them not too big and floury. It is more efficient to bake a big tray of potatoes and freeze the excess, just a quick reheat for future meals.

I shake potato wedges with garlic koji,  olive oil and lots of fresh rosemary, bake at 180˚C until golden, around 35 minutes. 

 

Basil shrub

Shrub is a new infusion I learn to do this year, the base is a mixture of equal parts of raw honey and cider vinegar. 

Made a basil shrub as the Sabertooth basil is very vigorous and there are a lot to harvest. After 5 days infusing as much basil leaves as I could push in, in the honey vinegar mixture, it is ready to bottle. 

Shrub can be used in making vinaigrette dressing or diluted with water to make a refreshing drink, tasty and subtle basil fragrance. 

Slow cooked lamb shanks

Place all shanks in a big pot, cover with water, season with tomato sauce, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, dried pear for sweetness, ginger, garlic, mix spices like star anises, cloves, coriander, mustard seeds etc, bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes. 

Transfer to baking dish, slow cook in the oven at 130˚C until tender, around 3 hours. 

Pistachio tofu mousse

Pistachio is one of my favourite icecream flavour, though I often wonder how much pistachio is inside. So right after making chocolate tofu mousse, I immediately tried making pistachio mousse.

I used 2 part of puree silken tofu to 1 part finely grinded pistachios, sweetened with honey, keep in the fridge, the texture is just like soft gelato. Really great to be able to eat ‘ice cream’ knowing that there are only healthy minimum processed ingredients, also another vegan/ high protein dessert. 

Grilled venison on Bay tree cuttings

Since I need to prune the bay tree, might as well use the cuttings to grill meat, as seen in the holiday in Madeira. There is not much flavour coming out of the sticks, but a handy use of materials. 

Served with carrot mango basil salad.