Yummy Yum Cha

Another favourite thing to do in Adelaide is to go to Yum cha, something that doesn't exist in Poland, and I fell in love with it in New Zealand. As you may, or may not, know it is a system where waiters walk around the restaurant brandishing their wares and if you want them they place them on the table and mark a card to say that you have had it. You get free jasmine tea and it is a non-stop roller coaster ride of fun. It is probably the only time you want to be sat near the kitchen door, so that you can get first choice of anything that comes out.

This time we ventured to Ding Hao on Gouger St.

pork bun

there was pork and also prawn dumplings

Crispy Duck

Spicy spinach fried wantan

Sticky steamed pork buns

Crispy Chicken

Fried Oyster

Sweet custard buns for desert

More chinatown right next to the markets

After a hearty meal we decided to stroll about town a little, as it is nice and quiet on a Sunday

Adelaide is after all called the city of churches....

The states bird emblem, a Piping Shrike

Plates and glasses made to look like flowers

more churches

We stopped off at a market to see what was about

Strolled past the Rhino room

Saw a wild owl

popped into Urban Cow Studio to do some shopping, which I can suggest to all

maybe buy a few chickens

Wandered along the beautiful Adelaide Arcade

And said good bye to the town hall and GPO as who knows when I will see them again......

Osteria Dell'Ignorante, Lucardo, Tuscany.

The Osteria Dell'Ignorante is a gem. A little, unrefined, hidden, sweet, delicate, gem. It is a restaurant run by an eccentric man Stefano in Lucardo about halfway between Siena and Florence. It isn't always the easiest place to find, as many locations are in Italy, but it is well worth the drive. We were lucky enough to be recommended it by an excellent little winery in the area that we had stopped at to buy wine and olive oil from Poggio al Bosco. A great little family run business with well priced quality wines and a great family reception.

couscous and veges

Lamb, lamb, lamb

The cholesterol bomb that is fresh burrato. Insanely big portion, and insanely stunning.

Ravioli

The chocolate dessert of the day

Washed away with some jolly coffee

Heck, Stefano will even take photos for you.

Time to finish the day and plow through the photos in a great location.

With a little liquid help.

Get in my Belly

Here is a question: What has 19 ingredients yet is still good for you?

Answer: My muesli. Well, I say mine, but I stole the idea from my wife, who incidentally makes a much better muesli than me, but she doesn't write this blog!

I am always banging on to anyone that will listen to "know what is in your food", which is relatively easy for me as I tend to do the cooking in our house. Also most of our things come from "base form" even when we buy chocolate, which is quite often, we try to limit the ingredients it has in it to as few as possible. As an example, my most recent purchase of chocolate contained 72% cocoa mass, cane sugar, cocoa butter and ground vanilla pod! Now, that is a simple block of chocolate, and damn tasty too.

Muesli was my scourge as a child, it tasted like cardboard and smelt like a dog's bed. But now there are lots of healthy ones out there but many do contain excessive sugar and fats. By making muesli myself I know exactly what is added and can tailor it to my taste. It is ridiculously simple and seriously takes about 20minutes (to use a very Australian saying) from go to whoa, or should that be wow....

Here is the muesli family. As I can't eat nuts, this is great for me as most mueslis now contain them in some form but I am sure you can add them to this recipe.

 Four types of rolled grains: Rye, Wheat, Oat and Barley along with wheat bran

 Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, linseeds, and coconut

 Dried cranberries, sultanas, apricots, plus cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg powders

 What is this? Well, it is honey, treacle and canola oil. Cool pattern, no?

 Mix it all up and spread it on a tray

 Bake away until it is brown and crunchy

And there you have it!

Full recipe here:

150ml of each of the rolled products Oats, Rye, Barley and Wheat also the same of bran.
150ml of pumpkin, lin and sunflower seeds
100ml of coconut
1.5 handfuls of each (or as much or little as you want realistically) of dried fruits here is sultanas, apricots and cranberries
5ml of both cinnamon and salt
1ml of ginger and nutmeg
25g of canola oil
10g treacle
70g honey

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then heat the liquids together till they blend well.
Add the liquid to the dry and mix thoroughly, making sure that all the "dry pockets" change colour with moisture. This ensures an even bake.
Spread this on baking paper on a tray to an even thickness
Put into an oven, it can be preheated or not. I tend to use a not preheated one, it just saves on electricity (at 100C).
After about 5 mins when the colour starts to change open up the oven and quickly stir the contents around especially moving the edges into the middle and vice versa. Close and keep an eye on it as the fruit can burn really quickly. When the fruit starts to change colour, pull out the tray closing the oven not to lose heat and mix the contents again. If the fruit is still some way from getting really dark and the rest of the ingredients appear a little light in colour, add it back to the oven only for a few minutes.

Take out and cool. Then store in a sealable container.
Add milk or yoghurt for a great breakfast, I also love to add in some fresh berries too because they are in season now.
It will be nice and crunchy but not to sweet and sickly, and never boring with all the fun things in it.
Bon App
etite.

You should respect your Elders. I do.

It is elderflower season here in Warsaw, and they are everywhere! They are only out and in the best state for about 2 weeks so, I encourage people to get out pick some and use them (don't pick them all from one tree though as the bees need something and there will be berries later on). Pick the ones that look consistent in colour and "creamy". Your hands should get a good covering of the pollen, and if you are like me, it will bring on a wave of sneezing, running eyes and boogers to the extreme, but it is worth it in the end. You can add the flowers to drinks, pancakes or jellies. Or even make a syrup, or champagne. You might remember two years ago I made the champagne in glass bottles....(here), I am not making that mistake again! This year it will be plastic bottles so there are no explosions in the middle of the night.

So what is this?

Well it is part of a gummi making session. I really enjoy eating gelatinous masses and so have always wanted to make good elderflower flavoured ones.

These were pleasant, but my wife wanted me to make them without pig trotters. So, we had a think about it and came up with alternative.

In the mean time I needed to bottle my syrup. I have made 4.5L so far this year as last year it was used up by about the end of August!

As I could convince my wife to allow me to make champagne again, I thought I would try a different method from last time.

flower plucker

A long day of flower plucking a head

With the champagne I am not as fussed about a few stems getting in there as they don't soak for very long.

But for the jellies they need to be more delicately worked. Some people use a for to take them off, but I find fingers are more effective and more fun.

Sometimes you need some respite, so some gin, lime, and tonic are good friends. Even without the lime you get a really lovely floral hint in the glass.

The delicately plucked for the next syrup which will use lime instead of lemons.

The second bath of lemon based elderflower syrup.

Some flowers that will dry to make elderflower tea.

Drying in the winter balcony

The lime based syrup will steep for 3 days.

The new jellies are based on Agar Agar a seaweed based gelling agent.

they actually set more firmly than the standard gelatin agent

And they are pretty tasty too.

So the recipes:

Jellies:
a full cup of flowers only (no stems)
5-10g of citric acid (it is up to you how tart you like it)
130g sugar
250ml water (post boil)
45g powdered gelatin or a tablespoon (14ml) of agar-agar.

It is really simple. Boil your kettle. While that is boiling away, mix together the dry ingredients, including the flowers. Let the kettle boil and sit for say 5-10 minutes, in this time use a light vegetable oil to very lightly grease your molds (you can just use a baking tin if you want and cut into squares once it is cooled). Then simply mix together the hot (not boiling) water until there is no graininess in the mixture and the spoon moves easily though it. I use a bowl that has a spout in it to make the pouring into the molds easier. You can either let these sit to cool, or if you want them quickly put them in the fridge. This makes enough to last me about a week.

Syrup 2.5L
2 Lemons washed, rind removed and then juiced.
as many heads as you want, I use around 20-30 depending on size.
25g Citric acid
950g sugar
2.5L water

Combine the sugar, acid lemon rind, juice and add to a pan along with the water. Bring this to the boil. Let it boil away for about a minute then add the flowers and continue to boil for a minute or 2. Then put into a large sterile preserving jar (it is best to pre-heat this with warm water so that the jar doesn't break when the boiling liquid is added). Seal this quickly so as to prevent contamination. Let it sit to cool, I normally put mine on the window sill on a towel. Once cool, put in a dark environment for 2-5 days (the longer the stronger the flavour of the flowers and lemons) shake it every time you walk past where it is kept just to get the steeping to be most effective. Then when you are ready to bottle, sterilise all your equipment, funnel, bowl, bottles and lids of course. I normally just wash all my bottles in the dishwasher, when I am finished and then when I want to use them again just sterilise with boiling water quickly. When bottled they will last about a year (but you WILL drink them before then.)

With pancakes, we normally make spelt pancakes and just make a slightly wetter batch to add 2 or 3 large heads of elderflower to them. Easy peasy Japanesey.