Of Birds and Fish,

My apologies, in my treatise about eastern North Carolina, I misnamed the bird which was in the picture of the wild pony. As our sinlaw Mike (bird expert that he is) told me, it is, in fact, a White Ibis. Thanks for pointing this out Mike. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can definitely see it is NOT an Egret.  Coincidentally, we went to Beaufort again on Monday and saw a pony grazing on the banks of Carrot Island right across the water from where we were sitting. He was wandering and grazing at the same time kicking up splashes of water as he walked. I love to see them. I say he, could have been a mare I suppose.

We actually didn’t do a lot of anything the last couple of days. We did go to Bogue Pier partly to see the waves rolling in from Igor but we were apparently too late to see the best of them. We were also too late to see a lot of fish being caught. The Mullet had been running and when they do the waves are absolutely black with fish. We saw them the first time we ever came to North Carolina in ‘78, thousands of fish. Sometimes there are more than others of course. I love to sit on the pier and gaze out to sea or look at the beach and occasionally catch sight of a pod of dolphins. We used to fish as well but don’t have rods any more. A friend told me that a lot of effort had been put into saving Bogue Pier by the locals. Developers had bought and pulled down several piers. What a pity, they are/were such a feature of the island. Emerald Isle that is.

Last night we had some Trigger Fish for supper. That is such a tasty fish although it is an absolute swine to skin. I retold the story of when Matt and a friend went out on the Carolina Princess fishing and caught a lot of fish including Trigger Fish. Matt skinned the Triggers for our friend and found it so difficult to do he buried his own in the back yard. Later he cooked some of the friends Trigger Fish and we discovered what gorgeous fish it is. I could have murdered Matt who had buried 5 large fish. Subsequently he learned the proper way to skin them, but never had a catch to practice on. The skin is so tough you can barbecue the fish right on the coals. Some of them come quite a bit bigger than this picture. Las night Matt just dipped the fillets in egg and breadcrumbs and sautéed them in olive oil. Gooood.

Today, hopefully a couple of our friends will be over for supper. They missed the party last Tuesday because of illness, so I hope the woman of the pair will be well enough to cope with the visit today. Matt is doing a London Broil for supper, it is already in the marinade – we bought it during our first shop down here. I talked to the butcher and discovered that the butcher we get this cut of beef from in Canada is, in fact, using the same cut as is used down here. In case you have forgotten it, I give the recipe for London Broil below, it is Matt’s specialty. We got the recipe originally from some neighbours in NC. The picture shows it marinading in the fridge.

London Broil

5 Cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup veg oil
1/4 cup of oregano
6 slices ginger, slivered
2 tsp hot sauce
salt and pepper
4 lb London broil 2" to 3" thick

1. Mix up marinade. Marinate meat for several hours, minimum 8 hours,  the longer the better, store in fridge and turn frequently.

2. Light barbecue and get it good and hot then reduce heat to medium to cook. Suggest you  remain with meat initially to reduce flare ups. Give it 10 mins on the first side, baste and then turn , then 5 a side until you have cooked for a total of 25 mins.

3. THINK PINK

4. Let the meat stand 10 - 15 mins before carving. Carve at a bias across the grain, not straight up and down.

Have a great day.