Saturday, March 14, 2009

Helicopter Accident, Niagara,

Sadly we had a helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland this week and they haven't been able to find more than one survivor. Considering how cold the water must be, he was very lucky. The chopper was ferrying passengers to two oil platforms in the area. There were actually 18 people on board, a body was also recovered. Matt always says he wouldn't go up in a chopper if you paid him, makes you think doesn't it? They actually do helicopter rides at the local airport and I have often thought about going. There are also helicopter rides over Niagara Falls. That was another thing that happened this last week. A man went over the falls. It appears, from the news reports, that he might have been trying to commit suicide. That isn't definite, but its what I read into the story. He didn't want to be rescued. Incredible that he survived the falls at all. Mind you, isn't that typical, if you want to die by doing that, you can't, if you go over the falls as a dare devil, you probably won't survive. There is an Imax Theatre in Niagara which shows a film all about the different types of attempts people have made to defeat the falls. A lot of people seem to have come through it alive by accident. In the theatre they also have some of the various barrels or other containers people have used. One of the original stories was of a school teacher who went over in a barrel and took her black cat with her: in the movie, they opened the barrel and a white cat came out *G*. We are cooking again today with friends coming to dinner tonight. Thought we would do the Bobotie again as we enjoyed it so much the first time. Unfortunately one of our guests doesn't like lamb so we will be making it with beef. I know at least one reader who will be heartily concurring with this. There are a lot of North Americans who do not eat lamb. In my opinion they are missing a wonderful treat, but obviously they would never agree. I first gave you my recipe in January click here but I have since found the recipe my friend in South Africa uses. Its a much simpler one and sounds pretty good. I just read that it is pronounced 'ba boor tea' don't know if that is correct. Mary's Bobotie 1 medium onion, finely chopped 1 slice white bread soaked in milk 28 g stoned raisins, finely chopped 500 g lean minced beef 28 g chopped almonds 10 ml vinegar 15 mL brown sugar 15 ml curry powder 2 eggs - separated each well beaten 1 Fry onion gently. Add squeezed bread, raisins, meat, almonds, vinegar, sugar, curry and egg. Stir well, turn into an ovenproof dish. 2 Beat another egg with 140ml milk, season and pour over the meat mixture 3 Stand dish in a bain marie with hot water halfway up and cook in the oven at 180C for about 1 hour until nicely set. 4 Serve hot with rice and chutney or cold with salad. (I think a salad goes well with it when hot too otherwise it's all very dry with just the rice and chutney. Although I suppose green beans or some such would be good too)

2 comments:

  1. Unusual spot for suicide. Here in Paris the Notre Dame Cathedral and Eiffel Tower were once top favorites. The areas on both where one could jump from have however now been fenced off. One Sunday a few years back a woman jumped from the cathedral and landed on two Canadian tourists standing down below on the sidewalk. They were two sisters. One died. So of course did the woman who jumped.

    I like the idea of you liking bobotie so much - one can say that I grew up on bobotie. Bobotie and biltong. Biltong's dried meat, a little like beef jerky but it's salty and not sweet like jerky.

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  2. I must admit my bobotie wasn't quite so successful last night. The egg was somewhat overcooked. My friend's recipe specifies a bain marie, think I will do that next time. The melk tert was even better than last time.

    Nobody left anything though, so I guess they enjoyed it.

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