Rain! Tropical rain and the promise of a ruined dinner party…

Once again we had to set the table inside. But, astonishingly, half an hour later, the sky was crystal clear, no wind blowing and it was hot!

We quickly moved the table outside and it was amazing! It came out to be a great night under the stars.

Here is the recipe for the main course:

Ingredients

Deboned ribcages of pork - 2

Herbs: Thyme, rosemary, mint and fennel – 1 bunch

Roasted pine nuts – 75 g

Preserved lemon – 1 ½ lemon

Garlic head – 1

Lemons – ½

1 - Emerge the preserved lemon rinds in cold water for a few hours to rinse the excess of salt.

2 - Scrub the meat with the lemon and the garlic head inside and out.

3 - Chop the herbs and the pine nuts and cover the deboned meat with it.

4 - Cut the preserved lemon rind into stripes and spread on top of the herbs and pines.

5 - Roll the meat up and seal it with strings.

6 - Roast in the oven for 1 hour at 180 ºC. Turn the rolls over and cook for another hour until it’s brown and crispy.

7 - To serve, remove the strings and cut two fingers width slices.

This time, the dish was completed with roasted sweet potatoes seasoned with olive oil, sea salt and oreganos and artichokes hearts with a lemon and butter sauce.

Lisbon, the city of light and the violet blue trees

Lisbon is dressed in violet blue because of the Jacaranda trees. It’s the best time of the year. And when it’s windy, we’re presented with a blue flower shower over our heads! These will only last until the end of June. So let’s celebrate the glory of the beautiful Jacaranda trees next Saturday at Hush-Hush Garden! We’re waiting for you. Join us!

HUSH-HUSH GARDEN MENU

4^th June 2011

To Start

Porto Tonic

Tapenade, Beetroot hummus & Guacamole trio

Lagoinha bread

To Continue

Algarve fresh figs and Porco Preto ham with lemon and olive oil dressing, sprinkled with toasted pine nuts

Duck liver pâté bonbon with tangerine jam

Caldo verde -

Traditional soup with Hush-Hush Garden’s cabbage leaves and home-made chorizo crackers  

Organic pork belly stuffed with fresh herbs, roasted pine nuts and preserved lemon with artichokes & roasted sweet potato from Aljezur

To Finish

Hibiscus and wild flower jelly

Carob cake with lemon curd

Coffee and Hush- Hush Garden’s tea and

Almond pie cubes

Hush-Hush Garden prefers organic or sustainably produced ingredients.

Exotic Lemon

This is the 3^rd year in a row we’re lucky to enjoy the generosity of the lemon tree.

Every year we’re surprised with beautiful and juicy lemons and our biggest concern is to make good use of these gorgeous fruits!

Besides sharing with friends and family, preserving is the best alternative. The sweet version: Lemon Curd. The salty version: Lemon preserve, Moroccan style.

Here are the recipes:

Lemon curd

This recipe was given to my mother from her good friend Ana Paula and it’s very easy to make. I use it with toasted bread or to pair with cakes.

But other great idea is to use it as a filling of pre-baked sweet mini-tartlets shells to serve with coffee or tea!

Ingredients:

6 eggs

500g caster sugar

250g unsalted butter

Juice of 3 lemons

Zest of 2 lemons

Beat the eggs and mix with the other ingredients in a stainless steel pan.

Keep a low heat in the stove and stir all the time. After a while, butter melts and the mixture gets thicker. When it reaches honey consistency, it is ready to pour into previously sterilized glass jars.

Lemon preserve - Moroccan style

It’s perfect in stews or tagine dishes. I’ve tried with roasted rabbit and it was an amazing combination, boosting with fragrant lemony flavor!

It’s very easy to prepare but requires patience hence it has to be forgotten for a few months in the pantry before use. But it pays back once you put a peace in your mouth and the strong lemony fragrance invades your palate.

Ingredients:

Sea salt

From Rui Simeão. This family production started over 100 years ago and uses artisanal technics to produce one of the world’s best salts.

Lemons

Prefer organic lemons to guarantee they’re not treated.

Glass jars with hermetic closure

It’s important to sterilize the jars to avoid any sort of contamination (I wash it in hot water and soap and dry in the oven for 20 min at 110 ºC).

Wash the lemons in hot water and cut into quarters.

Fill the jar with a layer of salt. Then start layering the lemon alternating with salt. Make sure to push down to compress the lemons and release the juice. The lemons must be submerged in juice and topped with salt.

Monitor the jars for a few days before storing thus the lemons tend to collapse and often is need to refill with more salt or lemon juice. When the lemons are tight inside the jar is time to store for, at least, 3 weeks.

Use it wisely:

The first time I tried cooking preserved lemons, was a total failure hence I used the lemons directly from the jar!  I got a salt kick that my heart almost jumped out of my body.

Only the skin is used. After rinsing the excess of salt syrup, peel the rind off to add to any recipe you choose.

New dates at Hush-Hush Garden!

At first we thought a dinner party a month would be enough. But as the warmness of the last nights conquered us, we decide to open Hush-Hush Garden at least twice a month!

So join us under the moonlight and the stars. Next dinner party: 4th June.

This time the menu was inspired on recent Easter and upcoming Spring. Fresh vegetables and flowers had to be present to recreate the season. So we came up with a fresh artichoke salad with Azores cheese thin slices and organic bacon from Freixo do Meio, sprinkled with fresh celery and mint from the garden and seasoned with olive oil, lemon (just picked from the tree), sea salt and some roasted almonds and pistachios on top.

The evening was inviting and drinks were served outside with a trio of dipping sauces.

The table reached its limit– 12 guests and 3 hosts as we deliberately choose to seat with our guests to enjoy and participate in these truly magic moments that happen when a group of people share good food, good wine and great conversation!

The artichoke salad was followed by a home-made duck liver pâté bonbon, covered with Green&Black's Trinitario chocolate, sea salt and Hush-hush garden’s tangerine marmalade which grabbed an echoing applause! Fantastic!

A frugal fresh coriander soup shot prepared the palate to the “Easter Rabbit” with herbs and Hush-hush garden’s lemon preserve sided by baked sweet potatoes from Algezur and sautés Swiss chards.

Casa da Carvalha 2008 was a perfect companion.

To reset the palate, rose petals jelly before a slice of moist carob cake sided by a dollop of Hush-hush garden’s lemon curd.

We drank Bacalhôa Moscatel de Setúbal 2004 with the desserts. Great combination!

Almond pie cubes (Rita’s grandmother’s recipe) disappeared in a blink, just before coffee and Hush-hush garden’s lemon verbena tea were served. Huge success!

 The guests, as always, were fantastic. Jane is British and decided to celebrate her birthday with us (Thank you Jane!) and she brought a Mexican friend, a Canadian friend and her boy-friend. Also her mom Jo and her husband John.

Renata , her husband Severino, Laura and Guido came from Italy for a vacation in Lisbon and included a visit to our supper club.

Iris and Vitor are starting their own supper club and came in a 007 mission! Once again, due to the generosity of our guests we experienced a wonderful evening!

HUSH-HUSH GARDEN MENU

7th May 2011

To Start

Porto Tonic

Tapenade, Beetroot hummus & Guacamole trio

Mafra bread

To Continue

Artichoke salad

Duck liver pâté bonbon with tangerine jam

Fresh coriander soup shot

 

Roasted rabbit with herbs and preserved lemon with roasted sweet potato from Aljezur & sauté chards

 

To Drink

Red wine: Casa da Carvalha, 2008, Dão

Dessert wine: Moscatel de Setúbal, Venâncio da Costa Lima

 

To Finish

Rose jelly

Carob cake with lemon curd

Coffee and Hush- Hush Garden’s tea and

Almond pie cubes

 Hush-Hush Garden - Officially open for the season! 

After publishing the menu for last Saturday, inspired by the warm spring days and the upcoming Easter, we went to the Herdade do Freixo do Meio shop to buy all the fresh products we needed to prep the dinner. We bought season vegies like turnip, leeks, beetroots, smoked bacon and oranges. The quails came from the local store as well as the eggs, the watercress, the almonds and the raspberries.  From the HH Garden we got lemons, all the aromatic herbs and LOTS of flowers!

Friday was an intensive working day in the kitchen and also in the back office with last minute cancelations from the guests or last minute reservations or even annulments of the last minute cancelations… totally crazy! But it turned up ok in the end when we gathered an amazing group of guests!





Bruno from We Hate Tourism Tours and his partner Damian, manager of an hostel in one of the most beautiful spots in Lisbon (Stª Catarina) were the first to arrive and were immediately greeted in the garden with a Porto tonic. They were followed by Chris, an American in Lisbon, and his friend Markus from Salzburg.

Ten minutes later was the time to Carly, an English yoga teacher and her good friend Bell, a Portuguese who lived in Germany, to arrive.

The group was completed with me, Rita, João and Ricardo, the hosts!



Tapenade, beet hummus and broa de milho (corn bread)





Turnip soup with home-made Azores cheese crackers



    The wine Casa da Carvalha, from Dão, was a perfect companion throughout the dinner and the dessert was sparked by a great Moscatel de Setúbal from Venâncio da Costa Lima followed by the exquisite Moscatel Roxo from Sivipa which pared with the almond pie made by Rita, a winning combination! 






Rose jelly



Wet orange sponge cake with HH Garden tangerine ice cream







Almond pie in cubes



    It was a great dinner, with perfect company and very interesting people. We loved it and hope our guests loved it to! 

The next adventure will be the 7th of May, hopefully with a warmer night so we can eat outside under the stars.