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Mussels (Dagnje in Croatian) na Buzaru is my all time favourite Croatian seafood dish. So I figured it was probably the best place to start for the first post! While some may see mussels as a winter food, in Croatia you’ll find mussels all summer long at most coastal restaurants. The main ingredients in a buzara are olive oil, garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs and white wine. With these five key ingredients you have a ‘white’ buzara and the addition of tomato passata, tomato paste or fresh tomatoes will give you a ‘red’ buzara. Once you have the base down, you can use either white or red for any type of seafood including scampi or crab. The most important ingredient for a good buzara is fresh seafood, so I went down to the Sydney Fish Market to find myself the best Australian mussels money could buy, and sure enough it didn’t take long. I stopped along the way for some Scallops Mornay and got in serious trouble for taking a seat at a bench that didn’t belong to the restaurant I bought the scallops from. I left (still eating), as a group of women took up my cause and started yelling at the floor runner to let me stay. I thanked them and told them not to worry, I had a recipe to cook! One of the vendors at the Sydney Fish Market I highly recommend this recipe! And please let me know how it went for you? Did the recipe work? Did it fail? Do you have any hints to make it even better? Zivjeli! (Cheers and let’s live!)

Croatians love their liqueurs! Pre-meal as an aperitif (to stimulate the appetite and open the digestive system), post-meal as a digestiv (to aid in digesting the meal), first thing in the morning (to aid in 'cleansing th e body') or really any time of the day (or night!) when people come over (to sho w off how much better and stronger your liqueur is than the one they have) or when alone (aids in sleeping). To make any flavoured liqueur, you start with a clear rakija (brandy) most often made from plums. You can of course leave this as is, or add fruits, nuts, herbs and in this case honey, to layer in the flavour. All these brandies are served neat. The hardest part of this recipe is actually getting your hands on the clear brandy to start your flavour experimentation. If you know a guy who knows a guy, who possibly knows a guy, get some from him. Or you can do the proper thing and buy some from the international section of your liquor store. Just as important as the base are the ingredients you're using to add to the mix. Only use organic, fresh, blemish-free fruit, nuts and herbs. For this recipe use organic honey and a honey that you already like the taste of. You can also mix it up with lavender, eucalyptus or other flavours of honey to layer the taste. Let me know if you tried this sweet, strong liqueur and what you thought? Zivjeli! (Cheers and let’s live!)

This variation on an ice cream cake tastes amazing. The roasted almonds and the Maraschino give it a warm, almost soothing flavour and it's perfect for a dinner party where the dessert is made the day before so you can get on with other parts of the meal. The only thing I'd say is beware the mould you use and make sure you can get the Mandulat out of the mould, in one piece. I used a simple mould and it did get stuck. This first attempt definitely needed teasing out with warm water and a knife. So I recommend if making this for the first time use a simple mould and then work your way up to more fancy moulds. And of course you can hide all the misshapen bits with the sugared almonds. Ingredients: Four large egg yolks (use five if you have small eggs) 40grams caster sugar One tablespoon Maraschino 40grams roasted ground almonds 200grams thickened cream One tablespoon vanilla extract Crushed sugared almonds (for decoration) Ice water Method: Place the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract and Maraschino into a large metal bowl and beat until the mixture is creamy. Set the metal bowl over a saucepan of hot water and continue beating for five minutes. Immediately place the metal bowl into ice cold water and continue beating until the egg mixture has cooled and thickened slightly. Add 40grams of ground, roasted almonds. In a separate bowl, beat the cream and when strong peaks have formed, gently fold it into the egg mixture Place the mixture into a mould, either plastic or metal, and freeze overnight Remove from the mould and sprinkle with crushed sugared almonds to decorate. Let me know if you tried this creamy frozen dessert and what you thought Dobar Tek! Zivjeli! (Bon Appetit! Cheers and let’s live!)