St. Nicholas is arriving - Sta arrivando San Nicola - Dolazi nam Sveti Nikola

St.Nicholas is announcing Christmas gift giving season. He is the first one that arrives in December, quietly, during the night and leaves simple presents to children and to some adults too.

When I was a child I was happy to receive St.Nicholas gifts: some tangerines, some candies and cookies, but all of us children feared to receive thin whip as a sign of bad behavior. Every 5th December eve before going to bed I readily cleaned my largest boots and placed them on the window sill with the hope to find them full of gifts the morning after.

These sweet memories make me still think that St.Nicholas will remember my home address again and again, and he does, maybe not every year, but from time to time he stops at my window sill and leave a simple gift for me.

This simple and perfumed sugar candies are for you, St.Nicholas was so busy this year and he asked me to help him. He trust to see smilie on your faces, because we all need St.Nicholas special gift in these days!

Rose-water poached peaches with quinoa – Pesche schiacciate sbollentate nell’acqua di rose con quinoa –Pljosnate breskve poširane u ružinoj vodici s kvinojom

I was so attracted by this recipe that I couldn’t wait even for the weekend, so I did it the day after I read it. And I did well, because it is absolutely the “summer desert” I was looking for.
If you like peaches and flavour of red roses this dish will surprise you with the sweetness and its exquisite taste. This is a top season for peaches and it was not difficult to find doughnut peaches – small, flatten and sweet fruits with a white pulp. The combination with the rose-water is the perfect one, there is no need to add other spices to it, it is already so naturally perfumed and flavourful. Replacing the rice from the original recipe was a good choice, because I don’t like sticky rice and quinoa has grainy texture that I prefer. What about the smell? It’s beyond words, you must try it!

Rose-water syrup – Sciroppo di acqua di rose – Sirup od ružine vodice

The temperature in these days is so hot and last week it was even worse. I’ve tried to avoid cooking complicated stuff and staying long time near to the burner. Nevertheless I haven’t lost the appetite! But during hot summer days my preferred food is something fresh and ready to go (out) from the fridge. Now the fridge is full of fruits, vegetables and water. Everything must be fresh and almost icy. I usually don’t prepare ice – now I have ice in deep freezer too!
Despite of the big heat I haven’t lost the will to prepare something new and interesting. And despite of big heat, my red rose is full of flowers again. I’ve decided to use some blossoms and to prepare the rose-water. Rose-water is so fascinating to me and it’s incredible how many recipes you can prepare with it. My red rose is so perfumed and so red that the rose-water has very good flavour. Its coloure is deep and almost dark violet. I like to prepare it and to smell the beautiful scent rose’s petals give off while immersed into boiling water. This year I’ve decided to make something very easy (last year I’ve prepared Lokum, do you remember?), so the syrup was the perfect choice.
I’ve read several recipes of rose-water syrup and I’d like to share the recipe that I’ve used (I’ve adjusted a bit and combined more recipes). So the idea of making rose-water syrup is not mine, but this one is prepared the way I like it. It is so exquisite and refreshing, I’m sure you will like it a lot, it’s worth to do it homemade.

Acqua di rose e storia di una rosa

Desideravo avere una rosa bianca con fiori grandi e profumati che si arrampicasse sulla parete del nostro terrazzo. Ho acquistato la pianta, l’abbiamo interrata e ho aspettato che crescesse e fiorisse. Il primo bocciolo avvolto nel verde guscio non ha fatto intravedere la sorpresa che si nascondeva al suo interno. E giorno dopo giorno mentre il bocciolo si gonfiava io aspettavo di vedere fiorita la mia rosa bianca!
Puff . . . i sepali hanno cominciato ad aprirsi, notai una sottile linea rossa, ma pensai che fosse il bordo del petalo che col tempo si sarebbe schiarito. E ho aspettato ancora, ma il rosso dominava sempre più prepotentemente e del bianco neanche il segno.
E così la mia rosa bianca fiorì di rosso, ma di un rosso carico e del profumo antico e l’amai dal primo istante in cui la vidi splendere sotto i raggi del sole di maggio.
Ora la mia rosa fiorisce abbondantemente ogni primavera e durante tutta l’estate di tanto in tanto ci regala qualche fiore grande e profumato. E con grande soddisfazione sono riuscita a creare altre due piante giovani, di cui una fiorisce già da un paio di anni e l’altra più piccola finirà nel giardino vista mare a casa dei miei genitori in Croazia.

Con i petali delle ultime tre rose ho fatto l’acqua di rose, delicatamente profumata e di un rosso scuro tendente al bordò che ho usato per aromatizzare il Rahat Lokum, la delizia Turca, soffice come le gelatine e allo stesso tempo esotico per il suo profumo di essenze e per la sua consistenza morbida.