Dugi Otok – Croatia 2010
Aug 17th
Here are some impressions from Dugi Otok in Croatia (Long Island).
The Island Mežan off the coast of Dugi Otok
Serenity
I used to be a model for Half-Life
Going Nowhere
View of the Kornati Islands
The Azure Cave near Brbinj
Cicadas make your home their's.
Chasing the dark side
If you happen to know the name of this flower, do comment.
Quiblets – Interesting bits of information
May 26th
To start the quiblet collection, here’s a couple of interesting bits I stumbled upon lately regarding Flavor, Taste and the like.
Temperature affects the sensitivity of taste. The colder it gets, the less we taste, thus a Coke tastes much sweeter when lukewarm.
All substances, including foods, release more odor molecules when warm or hot than when cold, so their smells are much stronger. That’s the reason garbage is so much more revolting on a hot day and the reason warm or hot foods tend to smell so much stronger than cold foods.
The odor molecules can reach the receptors either through the nose or up through the pharynx, the passage connecting the mouth with the nose, which is why one of the best ways to detect the aromas of our food is to exhale with the mouth closed as we’re eating – it forces the air up through the pharynx.
There’s more to enjoying food than just smell and flavour, since our taste buds also convey information on temperature, pain and mouthfeel (texture).
Salty taste heightens flavor and Sour taste sharpens it, but when in small enough quantities you won’t taste the salt itself. Thus salt and lemon juice or vinegar are great for bringing out the flavor in dishes, unleashing their taste on our taste buds.
Milk (due to fat) or watered sugar (10%) help against chilli burn.
Recipes: Caprica Pizza & Yoghurt Salad Dressing
Mar 31st
Here’s a tasty little lunch recipe for a home made pizza and salad.
Pizza ingredients:
-
Dough:
- 130g Flour
- 15g Yeast (Fresh or dry)
- ~3g Olive Oil
- Dash of salt (by taste, less is better)
- 70g Water
- ~5g Honey (optional)
- 20g Sliced ham
- 70g Edam cheese
- 135g Canned pelati tomatoes (peeled)
- A couple capers
- A couple olives
- Pizza spices (basil, oregano, …)
- Chilli powder (optional: Spicey)
- A garlic strobe
- Bit of parsley
- ~3g Olive Oil
Toppings:
Trieste sauce:
Salad ingredients:
-
Dressing:
- 125g ~1.5% Plain yoghurt
- Dash of Salt
- Pepper
- Onion salt
- Sweet pepper / bell pepper spice
- Bit of parsley
- Fresh lemon juice (optional)
- Bit of freshly diced tomato (optional)
- 50-80g Lettuce
- 50g Sweet canned corn (Important for the overall sauce flavour)
- 50g of either Tomatoes / Cucumbers / Grated Carrots
Veggies:
The ingredients
Preparing the dough.
Find a bowl and put in the flour, a bit of salt, a minor amount of olive oil, about 3/4 of a tea spoon of honey and sprinkle the yeast around evenly.
Slowly pour in water while mixing the dough with your other hand. Continue kneading the dough for a minute or so, until it’s seemingly uniform and doesn’t stick much to your hands. If it sticks too much, just add a bit more flour until you feel it’s just right.
Then cover the bowl with something like a plate for the yeast to do its thing. Leave it at a room temperature for 1 to 4 hours.
When you feel the dough has risen enough, oil up the pizza pan with some margarine and spread the dough. Let the dough rise for a while in the pan (~30+ mins) if you want a soft puffy pizza crust.
Top of the pizza.
When you’re ready set your oven to ~200-225 degrees and start adding the toppings. First spread the tomato sauce which you mix with a hand held mixer beforehand.
Distribute the spices evenly and chop up your ham to smaller pieces and top them up.
Phase 1
Phase 1:
At this stage you can put the pizza in the oven if you’re going for a 2 phase system which assumes you’ll be adding the cheese a bit later.
Phase 2:
Grate the cheese and after 5-10 minutes pull the pizza out of the oven and spread the cheese evenly. Also add the olives and capers at this point and put the pizza back in the oven to finish. This 2 phase system ensures your cheese and capers are still moist at the end.
Ready the Trieste sauce:
Chop up or mince a garlic strobe and about an equal amount of parsley leaves and put them in a cup. Add a little bit of olive oil and mix it all up.
After about 10 more minutes, depending on how well done you like your pizza, remove it from the oven and spread the Trieste sauce evenly over the toppings.
The salad dressing.
Find a bowl or a cup and mix in the yoghurt, salt and all the other spices you desire. Mix it up good and pour it over the veggies you sliced up and prepared on a plate.
All done!
