On tour in Croatia - Part 1

Mr Vegan Man and WOTVM are on our holiday in beautiful Croatia. We've been staying  in a small town called Podstrana, about 10k south of central Split. So far, we've eaten out twice and have cooked in our apartment three times and we thought we'd offer you a quick round up of our home-cooking adventures to date. No recipes this time as the dishes were somewhat thrown together but hopefully they will give you an idea of what you can put together in a strange kitchen with limited equipment and ingredients. We will bring you a review of our dining out experiences in Part 2 later this week.

On night one we opted for a quiet night in and a quick and easy dinner; we'd been up since 3.15am in order to get to Stansted for our 7.30am flights so by early evening we were starting to droop. WOTVM had the excellent idea of grabbing some pre-made pizza dough from Lidl, where we stocked up on supplies on our way to the apartment from the airport.

The dough is the sort that is now readily available in most supermarkets and is similar to readymade pastry in that it is pre-rolled on a sheet of greaseproof paper and you just have to unroll it to get started. We simply smeared some passata over the base, added our toppings - mushrooms, fresh peppers, jarred roasted peppers, green olives and capers - then on one half of the pizza WOTVM tore up some mozzarella and added some small slices of gouda, whilst Mr Vegan Man made a small well and cracked an egg into it for a take on a Fiorentina style pizza.

It turned out really well and was exactly what we needed at the end of a long day. We were lucky to have a nice new kitchen with an oven that was good and hot, just what you want when cooking pizza. The base was crispy and although it lacked a bit of the flavour of a freshly-made base, it was still decent. The toppings were fresh with a nice bit of saltiness and a slight bitterness from the olives and capers against the sweetness of the peppers. Th egg was well cooked and helped to hold together the cheeseless half of the pizza for Mr Vegan Man whilst WOTVM enjoyed the creaminess of the mozzarella alongside the rich gouda. We topped the pizza off with a generous helping of fresh rocket which added a nice peppery zing.

On Saturday, Mr Vegan Man cooked up a tasty dish using some of the lovely fresh asparagus tips that we'd found in the supermarket. Asparagus is bang in season at the moment so it's a great time of year to cook with it. On top of some toasted bread - the fresh breads over here are lovely by the way - we went for the classic pairing of of asparagus and egg.

The eggs were poached and retained an unctuous runny yolk whilst the asparagus spears were simply blanched for a few minutes. We made a lemon and caper butter to drizzle over the top and once again topped it off with some fresh rocket and, in WOTVM's case, some local prosciutto. The balance of flavours was really good, the sharp and salty caper butter cut through the richness of the egg and both worked really well with the gorgeous, fresh asparagus. The toasted bread absorbed the lovely juices and the rocket once more added some freshness and peppery bite to the dish.

Our final home-cooked dish meal of the holiday was a take on pasta primavera. We still had plenty of lovely fresh asparagus, mushrooms and peppers to use up as well as our jarred peppers, olives and capers as well as half a carton of passata. This is a really good way to use up any leftover bits and bobs you might have.

We simply cut up the fresh and jarred ingredients into small chunks or thin slices, fried off the peppers and mushrooms in a little butter before adding the asparagus tips. We then added the passata and a little water, the remaining vegetables and left to simmer on a medium to high heat for around 10 minutes whilst the pasta cooked. We made enough to last us for two meals and it was very fresh and tasty, and WOTVM used up some more of her mozzarella to add a bit of extra flavour and dairy richness to hers.

We feel we've managed to eat pretty well away from the comforts of our own kitchen. When you're away you don't necessarily want to spend much time cooking and you don't want to buy lots of different ingredients that you might not use up. These three dishes are a good way to make three very different meals using the same range of ingredients. This is useful for when you are cooking at home too, especially when cooking for two as it can be hard to make sure that you use up fresh ingredients before they go out of date. Having a few off the cuff recipe ideas up your sleeve to create unique meals using a smallish range of ingredients can help to ensure that you always feel you are eating well and not getting bored of having the same old things.

If you'd like to know more about the dishes we've cooked then please contact us via e-mail or leave a comment at the bottom of the article.