I'm back!

When, back in May, I said how I'm busy I didn't think it will take me soo long to come back to this blog. Yes I was really busy, I'll post about it, but after some time away from blog it was hard to start posting again.

But, what is better time to start something if not this season when we all make plans for our new year's resolution!

For the beginning I have to show you my "alternative Christmas tree". I got inspired whit some great suggestions from Apartment Therapy and I simply couldn't resist try to do something myself.

Hope you like it! I'm completely proud of myself!

Lazy Fresh Adriatic Fish

How young and naive I was on that January 1st. I woke up full with energy and hight hopes of better me. I was sure I'll change, that in 2008 I'll be more discipline and diligent, I'll post more regularly. I decided that I do not need new year's resolution to make a positive change in my life, I need to decide what I want and just do it!

Well... you see the date, you can figure out yourself.

You do not need me to tell you...

...I'm in mess. It's always like that when I come back from Split to Zagreb, I always need at least two weeks to "get together".

That shouldn't surprise me or you if you know that only few weeks ago this was my breakfast in sunny Split...

and this was my breakfast in foggy Zagreb few day ago...

Don't get me wrong, both cakes were tasty, but the scenery was quite different... you know.. sun and sea on one side, and fog, rain and asphalt on the other...

Today, finely, it was sunny in Zagreb too so I feel like I have "wake up" after two weeks of fog and rain and I'm now ready to dedicate some of my time and energy to bloging!

Orange Pudding: for boosting energy and beating hangover!

Here it is, a delicious vitamin bomb to boost the bigging of the new year!

Enjoy it!

PS: it will help to beat hangover too!

Orange Pudding

¾ cup water

½ cup orange juice

Rind of 1 small orange

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 egg separated

A few grains of salt

Rind the orange. Make it finer then on this image. They were too big.

Mix orange rind with fluids: water, orange and lemon juices. Cook on the light heath to a boil.

Carefully mix sugar and cornstarch.

Pour the boiling liquid into the sugar and cornstarch mixture. Stir until smooth.

Return it to the heath, stir until comes to a boil.

Beat the egg whites.

Slowly pour the fruit miture into the beaten white, beating lightly. Mix well.

Wet the cupcakes pots.

Pour into molds and let cool

Custard Sauce

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon zests

A few grains salt

Save out one tablespoon of the milk.

Heat the remainder of the milk together with lemon zests.

Mix together sugar, cornstarch.

Stir in the tablespoon of milk and the egg yolk.

Stir this mixture into the hot milk, and cook till thicken.

Pour over orange pudding.

Inside the Town's Belly

just a few photos of the inside part of the Dolac market. Please look the photos of the outdoor part here.

As I said before this photos were taken with no intention to be published, all this photos are taken with mobile phone camera, so they are not too good and I promise to try to make some more appropriate with much more detail soon....

My own Shopping Mecca!

Let me introduce you Dolac - the belly of the Zagreb, one of the oldest and biggest (so they say, I wouldn't know for sure) European open air farmers market. It was open in 1930, it works 7 days a week, in the very center of the town and offers wide selection of fresh, local products, fruits, vegetables....

Outdoor part of the Dolac seams like big square but actually it is the roof of the indoor market where you can find dairy products like meat, milk, cheese, nuts...

These photos are taken during my several visits to Dolac. I did not take them with intention to publish them so they are not too good, some of them are taken with my mobile phone camera, but it will give you at least a bit of Dolac charm and beauty....

The outdoor part:

Eat like Nicky Hilton

Yes, less famous of notorious sisters Hilton visited Croatia and sailed around Dalmatian islands. Big deal. I did too!

But I do not see my beautiful butt on the cover of the local newspapers.

Nevertheless, diligent, so called, journalist accompanied by fearless paparazzi followed every step of poor little rich girl so that we, inpatient agitated public, can catch a glimpse of the wonderful life of shamelessly rich heiress.

So, we could read where did she party, when did she pass out, where did she lost her money gambling, and, at last but not least, where and what did she eat!

Luckily, best things in life are free and we all can enjoy our life as much as Nicky Hilton and her kin! All we need is little bit of sun, drop of sea and pinch of talent and one can prepare fast that even both sisters Hilton would die for.

But, let as start with treating ourself with dinner Nicky Hilton had on Island of Korcula (42° 58'N; 17° 08'E).

According to local newspaper on the menu for Nicky and her gang were:
for appetizer prawns and octopus salad; for main dish they enjoined grilled lobsters and they did not take any desert which is pity since Korcula's cookies are delicious.

I'm starting with the recipe for Octopus salad and hope to bring you all recipes as soon as possible!

Grandma Medicine

I got cold and as soon as my parents heard it they sent me huge amount of of lemons, oranges, grapefruits and tangerines from their garden.

That's because they deeply believe that mixture or lemon and honey can cure anything!

I have to admit that I always first try with "grandma medicine" before I run to antibiotics, pills and similar. And it usually helps just fine!

So it was this time too. Few days of overeating vitamins from this delicious fruits and I'm feel much better now. Maybe aspirin would be faster, but this was testier for sure!

Although I did eat and drink lots of these vitamin bombs I still have too much that I'm afraid that we will not succeeded to eat them before they start to rotten. So within next few days you can expect my posts, recipes, StepBySteps... for lemon cakes, lemon/orange/tangerine curds, candied lemon and orange peels...

Any suggestions?

Fresh Adriatic Fish - going crazy!

We came to Zagreb few weeks ago and I needed some time to adjust to "Zagreb state of mind" which is quite different from "Split state of mind". I wanted to see so many dear places and people, and then there were so many obligations I had to do... uf! And all that time I was thinking how I should write a post about about Sunday coffee on Gornji grad, visit to Museum of Zagreb, power breakfast, visit to organic food market, my latest culinary creations... but somehow it all stayed in my head since I couldn't stop for one minute, concentrate, and put it all in writing.

I hope I finally got tuned and I promise to catch up with my backlog. Well, I have to since we are going beck to Split very soon and than it will be all crazy again!

Photo - an advertisement for rye bread from year 1936 which we saw in Zagreb Museum.

I wish I was Hercules to do all I need to do these days. I'll make my self one big healthy sandwich with rye bread. Maybe it will help!

xoxo

FreshAdriatcFish

Picture of the thousand flavors

This bunch of old, yellow, grassy papers is my parents' cookbook collection.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousands words. Well, I don't know about words, but I know that between these shabby pages, all tastes, smells and senses of my childhood are hidden.

And we are not talking about delicate Proust's Madeleine, but about rich, savory domestic food, prepared in domestic traditional way of our grandparents. It is Mediterranean, it is Balkan, it is Dalmatian. So many flavors… so many different cultures and histories... all hidden in the food.

The backbone of the collection is The Bible of Dalmation cuisine called "Dalmatian cookbook" written by Dika Marjanovic - Radica. The book is the equivalent to "Silver Spoon" in Italian cuisine. It's the book that was usually gifted to newly married, to new cooks, young wifes...

If Dika's book is backbone of my parents cookbook collection, my mother's wonderful, handwritten private collection of recipes is the flash. These recipes are collected for almost forty years and they are mostly named after the source of the recipe, so we have Ana's yellow cake, Nardeli's tart, Margi's fritule, Nada's krostule...

The sources are my mothers friends and her clients from her hairstyle saloon that she runs for more than 35 years. And you know there is some serious "recipe traffic" going on in hairstyle salons.

This summer I'll spend with my parents in their wonderful house in my hometown Split in Dalmatia (coastal part of Croatia). My plan is to explore their recipe collection and to use Internet and blogging to digitalize it, so that I have them at disposal wherever I go and that I can share it with my friends who all like my parents cooking.

I decided to write this blog in English for several reasons. The first one is my "broken English" that desperately craves for some practice. So, feel free to correct my grammar and wrong spelling.

The second one are some of my "international" friends that I keep neglecting, so this seams as a good way of "keeping in touch".

At last, but not least, since I noticed that there is a small number of cookbooks about Dalamtian, and Croatian cuisine in English and I decided to make my humble contribution to change this regardless my "linguistic limitations".

That it's for my first post!

I'll be back!