Fritule s bazgom - Fritters with elderflowers - Frittelle con il sambuco

Neka digne ruku tko nije radio sok, tj. sirup od bazge. Ja svake godine berem bazgu i radim sirup od bazge po starom receptu (možete ga pročitati ovdje). Radim ga u malim količinama, jer Mr. M. nije ljubitelj ni mirisa niti okusa bazge. Uvijek imam sirup od bazge u hladnjaku, jer mi je bolji od najboljeg soka i baš mi osvježi dan u ove ljetne sparine! Bolje i od najboljeg klimatizatora!

Možda ste vi svoj sirup i potrošili, jer je poznata stvar da sok od bazge brzo nestane, on nestane istom brzinom kao što se brzo njegovi cvjetići pretvore u bobice. Kad pripremim sirup, teško mi je odoliti, a da ga odmah ne isprobam, ali bi ga trebalo ostaviti da barem malo odstoji prije upotrebe, barem dok se ne pojave prve bobice na grmovima bazge, i dok zadnji grozdovi cvjetova još uvijek opstaju na najvišim granama. To čekanje traje samo par tjedana...
Do tih zadnjih mirisnih cjetića može se doseći samo uz pomoć dugačke kuke privlačeći grane polako i nježno da ih ne biste slomili, jer će vam se sigurno i druge godine brati bazga za sok i za čaj, a i da vam osvježi dan bez da uključite klimatizator.
Znači, kad vam sirup odstoji par tjedana i postane najbolji za upotrebu, a još uvijek uspijete nabrati i najzadnje cvjetne grozdove koji krase vrhove grmova bazge, onda si pripremite ove fritule. Zapravo su cjetovi samo fora, tako su minijaturni i nježni da se niti ne osjete u fritulame, pa ako ih  napravite i bez cjetova biti će vam odlične!

Cheers to the New Year with pomegranate syrup - Brindisi all'Anno nuovo con lo sciroppo di melagrana - Nazdravimo Novoj godini sa sirupom od nara!

Folk custom says to eat food in form of many grains on New Year’s eve, it should bring you prosperity and wealth in the new year! I offer you many grains to drink, a healthy pomegranate syrup that will be a treasure for your soul!
During this year and especially during its last month we have baked so, so many perfumed cookies and tasty pastry, we have invented and tasted plenty of new recipes, we were surprised by excellent skills of our colleagues and friends bloggers, we have shared our simple and complicated recipes and suggestions….it was very rich year and all our work and dedication to our hobby deserve a toast. Because our hobby is beautiful, we cook, we take pictures, we enjoy doing it, we comunicate with each other, but it is also demanding and requires a lot of time and commitment.
Therefor we need a lot of new energy and serenity. We need another interesting year that will inspire us more and more, because at the end we create the beauty and we offer it to the world!

Have a wonderful and very happy New Year!

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.