We always had in our garde-manger some medicinal herb my mother used to harvest in the meadow or in the bushes at the edge of the forest. I don’t remember we have ever used infusion bags to prepare a chamomile tea or other herbal teas, like lime or rose hip tea. My mother used to cook various dishes with first young spring herbs and she still does it, she knows very well when to collect different herbs and wild plants and how to dry them and preserve them in the best way. Our family loves the nature and every time we went somewhere for a picnic, we returned home with paper bags full of plants, fruits and flowers. If you picnic in the wild nature, you need to be well equipped, we never went picnicking without the pruning shears or the knife, or without the basket and paper bags. At that time plastic bags were not so common as they are today. Think about it, there was not all that dirt around and our land was not so polluted. Sometimes we got the baskets as present from my uncle, he used to do basketwork at home using the elastic willow branches he gathered from the trees that were growing between different lands and properties. Other times some neighbor brought us nice baskets as present. In all these years we have gathered a small collection of baskets. Once upon a time there were many people able to create these simple woody wonders...
My parents still have these old baskets and despite they use them every day for the harvest of vegetables in our garden, these baskets are even more beautiful than the new ones.
Every time I go home I like to inspect my parent’s cellar looking for something to take away with me. I always bring with me something old, something that reminds me of my old life. Once my life was simpler and more calm without all those running and agitations. Now I also have various baskets, some of them I bought, some of them I brought from home...I’ve started to fill up even a closet I have on the balcony, because the space in the apartment is limited. But every time I return home, I can not resist not to fill our car with every possible thing that could be useful to me for some reason. Everything can be useful, never threw away anything!...and so my house is full of things more or less useful, but full of importance...all those things are important to me!
Last time I was at home in Croatia was at the beginning of June, I wandered around in our garden and I was pleased to see that everything remained as it always has been, every plant, every tree, every flower grows quiet and well in front of a magnificent view, the most beautiful and most desired view for my eyes! And so do the nettles too, growing year after year in the same place, in the shadow of the old and majestic fig tree. In only few weeks the fruits will begin to ripe. And I'll be back home again, to observe the summer mutation of the nature that offers to all this richness.
For nettle pancakes:
50 gr blanched nettles
50 ml of cold milk
130 ml of cold water (if necessary, add more water)
1 whole egg
1 tablespoon olive oil + more for cooking
4 full tablespoons of flour
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt
Harvest the nettles with gloves and use only leaves. Boil briefly nettle leaves, drain them and cool them.
Chop nettles with the immersion hand blender, add milk, sugar, olive oil, egg and salt and continue blending the mixture until you get liquid and homogeneous batter. Add flour, one tablespoon of flour at a time, continue to whisk. Finally add the water as much as needed to get the batter liquid and not too dense.
Heat the pan, add a drop of oil in the hot pan, warm up a little the oil and pour into the pan enough batter for an thin pancake. Extend the batter over the entire surface of the pan and cook the pancake for 2 minutes on one side, then turn the pancake and cook it for another 2 minutes.
(PS: I have used only the immersion hand blender for all steps of this recipe and it worked very well - the batter was without any lumps!)
For strawberry and rose petals jam:
petals of 3 big perfumed red roses (to fill 1,5lt casserole)
sugar to cover completely rose petals + 2 tablespoons
1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 handfuls ripe wild strawberries
Harvest rose petals early in the morning only from freshly opened flowers. Quickly wash petals and drain them. Put rose petals in 1,5lt casserole, cover them completely with sugar and let them macerate in covered casserole for 24hours. The sugar will start to melt. After that time let the mixture boil for 15 minutes on low heat and whisk from time to time. Let the mixture cool down and repeat the boiling for another 2 or 3 times until the mixture becomes dense. Add lemon juice and wild strawberries and 2 tablespoons of sugar into the mixture and let boil all together for another 15 minutes, the jam should be dense and strawberries entire, not smashed.
Pour the jam into clean and dry glass jar. Close the jar and let it cool, jar cover will produce vacuum closure after few hours (no need to turn the jar upside down!).
Per le crepes all'ortica:
50 gr di ortiche sbollentate
50 ml di latte freddo
130 ml di acqua fredda (se necessario, aggiungere più acqua)
1 uovo intero
1 cucchiaio di olio d'oliva + il altro olio per cuocere
4 cucchiai pieni di farina "00"
1/2 cucchiai di zucchero
1/2 cucchiai di zucchero
pizzico di sale
Raccogliere le ortiche con i guanti e utilizzare solo le foglie. Far bollire le foglie brevemente, scolarle e raffreddarle.
Tritare le ortiche con il frullatore ad immersione, aggiungere il latte, lo zucchero, olio d'oliva, uovo e sale e continuare a frullare il composto per ottenere una miscela liquida e omogenea. Aggiungere la farina, un cucchiaio alla volta continuando a frullare. Infine aggiungere tanta acqua quanta servirà per ottenere un'impasto liquido e non troppo denso.
Scaldare la padella, aggiungere una goccia di olio nella padella già calda, riscaldare poco anche l'olio e versare nella padella tanto impasto quanto basterà per una crepe sottile. Allargare l'impasto su tutta la superficie della padella e far cuocere la crepe per 2 minuti da un lato, poi girarla e cuocere la crepe per altri 2 minuti.
(PS: ho usato solo il frullatore ad immersione per tutte le fasi di questa ricetta ed il risultato è stato ottimo - l'impasto e stato completamente privo di grumi!)
Per la confettura di fragole di bosco e petali di rosa:
petali di 3 grandi rose rosse e profumate (riempire una casseruola da 1,5lt)
zucchero abbastanza da coprire completamente i petali di rosa + 2 cucchiai
1-2 cucchiai di succo di limone fresco
2 manciate di fragoline di bosco mature
Raccogliere i petali di rosa la mattina presto solo da fiori appena aperti. Lavare rapidamente i petali e scolarli. Sistemare i petali di rosa in una casseruola da 1,5lt, coprirli completamente con lo zucchero e lasciarli macerare nella casseruola coperta per 24 ore. Lo zucchero comincerà a sciogliersi. Trascorso questo tempo far bollire la miscela per 15 minuti a fuoco lento e mescolare di volta in volta. Lasciare raffreddare il composto e ripetere la bollitura per altre 2 o 3 volte fino a quando il composto diventerà denso. Aggiungere al composto il succo di limone e le fragoline di bosco e 2 cucchiai di zucchero e lasciare bollire tutti insieme per altri 15 minuti, la confettura deve essere densa e le fragole devono rimanere intere, non spappolate.
Versare la confettura nel vasetto di vetro pulito e asciutto. Chiudere il vasetto e lasciare raffreddare, il coperchio produrrà la chiusura sottovuoto dopo poche ore (non c'è bisogno di girare il barattolo a testa in giù!).
Za palačinke:
50 gr kuhane koprive
50 ml hladnog mlijeka
130 ml hladne vode (dodati još po potrebi)
1 cijelo jaje
1 žlica maslinovog ulja + koliko treba za prženje
4 pune žlice brašna
1/2 žlice šećera
1/2 žlice šećera
prstohvat soli
Koprivu nabrati rukavicama i upotrijebiti samo listove. Kratko prokuhati listove, ocijediti ih i ohladiti.
Usitniti koprivu štapnim mikserom, dodati mlijeko, šećer, maslinovo ulje i jaje, posoliti i nastaviti miksati da bi dobili jednoličnu tekuću smjesu. Dodati brašna, žlicu po žlicu, uz neprestano miksanje. Na kraju dodavati vode koliko treba da se dobije tekuća i ne previše gusta smjesa.
Zagrijati tavu, dodati kap ulja na toplu tavu, lagano zagrijati i ulje i uliti u tavu toliko smjese koliko treba za jednu tanku palačinku. Jednolično razliti smjesu po cijeloj površini tave i peći palačinku 2 minute s jedne strane, pa ju okrenuti i peći još 2 minute da se palačinka ispeče i s druge strane.
(PS: koristila sam samo štapni mikser i to za sve faze u pripremi ovog recepta i vrlo sam zadovoljna rezultatom - smjesa je bila potpuno bez grudica!)
Za slatko od šumskih jagoda i ružinih latica:
latice od 3 velike crvene i mirisne ruže (zapremina posude od 1,5lt)
šećera koliko je dovoljno da se potpuno pokriju latice ruže + 2 jušne žlice
1-2 žlice svježeg soka od limuna
2 šake zrelin šumskih jagodica
Nabrati ružine latice rano u jutro samo od svježe otvorenih cvjetova. Latice kratko oprati i ocijediti. Stavite latice ruže u posudu za kuhanje zapremine 1,5 lt, potpuno pokriti latice šećerom i ostaviti da odstoje 24 sata u pokrivenoj posudi. Šećer će se početi topiti. Nakon tog vremena prokuhati smjesu 15 minuta na laganoj vatri uz povremeno miješanje. Ostaviti smjesu da se ohladi i ponoviti kuhanje još 2 ili 3 puta dok smjesa postane gusta. Dodati u smjesu sok od limuna, šumske jagodice i 2 žlice šećera i kuhati sve zajedno još 15 minuta, slatko treba biti gusto, a jagodice trebaju ostati cijele, a ne zdrobljene.
Ulijte slatko u čistu i suhu staklenku. Zatvorite staklenku i ostaviti da se ohladi, poklopac će napraviti vakum nakon nekoliko sati (ne morate okrenuti staklenku naopako!).
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