Island Life - Hvar

Just as Autumn arrives (my absolute favourite time of year), I am finally getting down to telling you about my amazing week spent in Hvar, Croatia. Five of us got together at the end of September and waved goodbye to a slightly cold and grey London and hopped on the plane to a very sunny Croatia.

We arrived early evening, and having missed the last Ferry over to Hvar, our first night was spent in Split. The ancient buildings were all beautifully lit and the place had a bit of a feel of a film set. Stunning. 





The next morning, we got up early, had our first of many pastries for breakfast (each street seemed to have at least 3 pastry shops and not necessarily much else), and hopped onto a ferry over to Hvar.

Sadly, although we were greeted with this stunning view, things didnt go all to smoothly to begin with. As we got off the boat, there were hoards of locals with signs trying to pedal their accomdation. We very smugly declined - we had booked the beautiful Palace Hotel (an actual palace in the 16th century), right in the centre of the town. We had wanted to be right amongst the buzz, and this place certainly was. It overlooked the harbour and was a stones throw from the bustling main square.



Unfortunately, the receptionist had some very bad news for us. The online agent that had made our booking on behalf of bookings.com had gone bust, and cancelled our booking. Over a month ago. Why had no one told us?! All the hotels were fully booked so we had no choice but spend the next few hours trawling tripadvisor to try and find a good alternative. We settled on an apartment in the centre of Hvar and waited in the square with an Aperol Spritz (an Italian drink of Prosecco and orange liquer)and tried to find the funny side of it all, while our apartment owner's Auntie came to collect us to show us to our new home for the next week.



After ditching our luggage in our decidedly strange accommodation, we headed back out to explore, and ended up in Hula Hula bar, which turned out to be one of our favourite places of the holiday. The bar was built into the rocks on the beach and had 180 degree views of the sea. The sunsets here were to die for, and we spent most of our days here soaking up the sun and then watching the sun set as we tucked into our cocktails and prosecco.

Hula Hula was in a bay, just tucked around the corner from the harbour and the main square, so we had a little walk back each day, and look how amazing the view was.

Oh wait, sorry, those are my friends (still an amazing view though, although I am biased).

Here it is.

Back at Hula Hula bar the next day, we watched the boats sail in and out of the harbour from our sun beds on the rocks. Look how beautiful and clear the water is. Despite being told it would be lovely and warm in the sea, it wasn't, but it was wonderfully refreshing, you just had to watch out for the pesky sea urchins. I am a bit of a wimp in the sea, but they didn't put me off, just make sure you're armed with some shoes for protection. I definitely came to the conclusion that week that shoes and a bikini is not a great look!

All of the beaches were pebble beaches, which I thought would be a pain, but actually it was quite nice to not be covered in sand the whole time, and there were always sunbeds where ever you went, so there was no need to snooze on the rocks.

This beautiful bar had day beds over looking the sea. We thought about hiring one for the day, but they were about £150.00 each and no one else was ever there, so we thought it might be a bit lacking in atmosphere. Later in the week, the bar was the venue for a wedding reception, and having been spotted having a nosy by the bride's Uncle, he insisted on showing us around and having photos taken. We didn't stay too long since we were getting some scowls from the rest of the bridal party.

Many an afternoon spent playing cards...

... and watching the sun set.

And drinking more Prosecco.

And Daiquiris.

We knew we wanted to do a boat trip to one of the beautiful local islands, and were recommended Palmižana so one morning we got up early and headed down to the harbour to find ourselves a water taxi. 

We were'nt disappointed with the recommendation. Palmižana is a small island, and we were dropped off on a jetty in a small bay, with shallow, crystal clear waters, and even a bit of sand.



After some sunbathing we stopped for spot of lunch at Laganini (Lounge Bar). It was a bit Robinson Crusoe esque, seats built into trees, all on different levels. The staff were friendly. The food was divine.

We had tomato bruschetta with local cheese and balsamic glaze. Honey, local cheese and beautiful freshly made bread.

But, my highlight was the Octopus Bruschetta. So simple and fresh, the flavours spoke for themselves.

The presentation was pretty spectacular too I think you'll agree.

All polished of course with a Pina Colada. So naughty, but so good!

Our lovely water taxi driver came back to collect us before the sun began to go down. I don't whether it was anything to do with the Pinas we'd been drinking, but we laughed all the way back to Hvar, bumping over the waves, trying not too get soaked.

He even let us have a little go at steering (brave man).

The food was amazing in Croatia, particularly if you are a lover of sea food like I am. We ate so well, fresh tuna steak, mussels, sea bass, and of course lots and lots of lovely squid. I think we ate this every day. Delicious.

Look at the delicious crispy tentacles. Yum.

We had a fabulous week, met some great people, and are making plans for a reunion next year. 

See you at Hula Hula!

Hvar - a taster

While I do some catching up on my upcoming blog posts, here's a little preview of my recent time in Hvar, Croatia.

 

 

 

 

Let us eat cake

In my book, you can't have a birthday without a slightly over the top cake to celebrate (as if anyone ever needed an excuse to eat cake anyway!). Since it was my wonderful Dad's birthday recently, I offered my services as the cake provider and decided to make one of my old favourite recipes.

If you took me to out for some cake, Victoria sponge wouldn't be my first choice. I'm usually persuaded by some kind of naughty chocolate treat, or something more unusual than the traditional Victoria sponge. However, this recipe stands out from the others. For me, it ticks all the boxes - its moist, full of flavour, great contrasting textures, and above all, looks fantastic. The difference between this recipe and others is the deliciously sweet vanilla mascapone and fromage frais and fresh raspberry filling, which it is also topped with rather than the usual dusting of icing sugar.

Before I go any further with the cake, can I just say, when I was picking up my ingredients from Waitrose, I got a little bit excited in the baking aisle. Just look!

This was just one section of THREE of baking and decorating goodies! They had a whole shelf dedicated just to different types of vanilla, all in gorgeous packaging. Baker's heaven!

For the sponge: 350g self raising flour
2 round tsp baking powder
6 large eggs
350g caster sugar
350g softened butter
1tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:
450g raspberries
4 tbs soft set rasperry jam
500g mascapone
400ml fromage frais
2 tbs caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
icing sugar for dusting

Pre heat oven to 170 degrees C

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. The large bit is important, this is quite a lot of cake mix and you'll struggle with all the mixing if the bowl is too small. Throw in the remaining sponge ingredients and mix together with hand whisk for about a minute.

 I love the ribbons made in the batter mix by the hand whisk.

Gently pour the batter into lined and lightly greased 9" tins and bake on the middle shelf for 35 minutes. Don't you dare open the oven door early to check on it's progress or you'll knock all of the air out of the sponge and end up with something very flat and sad looking. Take it out of the oven and let it cool before you attempt any form of assembly.

Layer up the jam, followed by the filling mixture of mascapone, fromage frais, vanilla, sugar and fresh raspberries.

The second layer of sponge can now be added, and on top of this, a few dollops of the cream mixture, which can be spread over the top of the cake to form a base for the loose raspberries to bond to (don't go too near to the edge, it looks nice to have a bit of a border going here.

Scatter the whole raspberries, and dust with icing sugar. Ta da!

The only other known improvement to this cake are candles :)

5 1/2 hour lamb

I love to cook. But what I love even more is feeding people. No, I am not that kind of feeder, but what is better than sharing a meal with friends and family? Having been to a few fantastic roasts with friends lately, I thought it was about time to repay the favour and invited some of my nearest and dearest over for a Sunday feast.

Now, sometimes we have all day to slave over a stove, but sometimes we don't, and sometimes, we simply don't want to. So if that is the case, but you want to serve up something gorgeous and tender and full of flavour, I'd highly recommend this super easy dish. A tiny bit of prep before, pop it in the oven, then head off to the pub for a few hours (5 1/2 in this case), while it looks after itself.

Yes, the potatoes, carrots, yorkshires and gravy may require a little more of your attention, but not a lot really, and with a bit of planning a prep before hand, it really won't matter how many gin and tonics you've had. Honest.

Now, since the lamb takes the longest to cook, it would make sense to get this done first, but I had lots to do that day so started to prep first thing in the morning and it would have been a really long roast if I had put it in then.

Desiree potatoes

whole bulb of garlic

bunch of fresh rosemary

butter

olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground  black pepper

I went for good old Delia's recommendation of the Desiree potato, though you could also go for a King Edward or Romano. Desiree are usually used for mashing, but this fluffy quality is actually what makes these the best to use for deliciously crunchy roast potatoes.

Chop into decent sized chunks and boil for 10 minutes. You'll know when they are ready to come out of the pan when you scrape one with a knife and a fluffy trail is left behind.

Drain, put back in the pan, lid on and shake. Really shake.

This fluffy edge you are creating is what will hit the hot fat and turn your potatoes into wonderful crispy, crunchy, golden roasties.

At this point I put the potatoes to one side, ready for later, and moved onto the lamb.

2kg shoulder of lamb

a generous bunch of fresh rosemary

1 whole bulb garlic

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees C / gas mark 3

Take a large, sharp knife and score in both directions across the fat on the top side of the shoulder of lamb. Drizzle olive oil all over and season with the sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The whole garlic bulb can be broken up into it's individual cloves, skin on, and wedged into the deep scores you have just created. Lastly, lay on top your whole sprigs of fresh rosemary, tightly wrap the roasting tin in foil and pop in the oven.

You can leave this now until 1 hour before serving, when you can remove the foil to crisp up the skin.



Now for the Yorkshire puddings. These actually benefit from having the batter made in advanced. See, even more reason to wait patiently in the pub while the meal at home is slowly getting better and better.

140g plain flour

4 eggs

200ml milk

sunflower oil

Flour goes in to a large mixing bowl, and here you create a well in which to crack the eggs. Using a whisk, very slowly and carefully begin to mix the eggs, gradually incorporating the flour from the edge, bit by bit. This is a sure fire way to avoid lumpy batter. Nothing worse.

Once all mixed in, you'll want to slowly pour in the milk whilst continually whisking. If all goes to plan, it should be the consistency of double cream, maybe a little runnier.

I like to pour the batter into a jug as it makes pouring to the baking tray later on a whole lot easier. For now, put it in the fridge, ready for later.

I can't resist anything caramelised, sticky and sweet, which is why I love to roast my carrots in honey. The addition of fresh thyme and a splash of balsamic vineger ties it all together very nicely.

carrots

honey

fresh thyme

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

Cut the carrots into halves or quarters lengthways, depending on how big they are to start off with. Mine were already long skinny ones, so only needed cutting in half. Put in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes.

Drain the water and let the carrots dry of the steam in the colander for a good 10 minutes before you attempt to do anything else with them. If you get excited and rush ahead, they'll have too much moisture and you'll end up with soggy, rather than sticky carrots. Be patient.

Once drained, cooled and dried, placed in a baking tray and toss in a mixture of the honey, balsamic and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and the fresh thyme, and put aside.

Next, choose which ever activity you so wish to pass your time, but whatever it is, you can leave all this for the next 4 hours.

On your return, you'll want to take the foil off the lamb and move it to the top oven, also on 160 degrees C, and turn the main oven right up to 190/200 degrees depending on your oven.

Take a heavy based baking tray and melt 50g butter and a good glug of olive oil by putting it in the oven. Once melted, take it out and but you want to keep the fat really hot, so pop it on top of the stove. The fluffy potatoes can now be added. I do this one by one, tossing them in the hot fat to make sure they are coated all over. Thow in some garlic cloves and rosemary and put back in the oven for about 45mins. The carrots can follow the potatoes in about 10.

15 minutes before serving, take out the lamb and cover with foil and a tea towel to let it rest.

Meanwhile, pour a little sunflower oil into each dip in a muffin tray and put into the oven to get hot. Again, the fat needs to be really hot. After 5 minutes of heating, take out the tray and quickly pour the batter mixture into each dip. Return to the oven. And don't you dare think about opening the oven door until they are done. You don't want flat Yorkshire's now do you.

All that's needed now is to put on a pan of green veg, and to finish off the gravy with some red wine, lamb stock, a little plain flour and some redcurrant jelly.

Now. Unfortunately, at this point I got a bit carried away with the serving, and then the eating that I never managed any photos of the lamb after its 5 1/2 hours in the oven. I'm hoping that the fact I became distracted by eating it will say enough about how it turned out.

We devoured the roast with a lovely Rioja, followed by my good friends home made meringues and semi-fredo, topped off with a cheeseboard. Oh, and some truffles. I didn't eat much the following day.

While I didn't manage a photo of the lamb that day, I did have plenty left over, which turned into some fantastic sandwiches that saw me through to Wednesday. Seeded bread, cold roast lamb, leaves, mayo, mint sauce and redcurrant jelly.

I'll try and remember to take a few snaps before I devour it next time.