Royal Troops, Snow, The Great Lakes.

A headline which caught my eye yesterday, apparently the government is planning to change the names of our military groups to add the world Royal as in Royal Canadian Air Force etc. This is apparently to tap into Canada’s military heritage. If you would like to read more about this go here. I thought Canada was trying to break away from Britain, but apparently not. Some Canadians seem to enjoy the royal connection and others couldn’t care less. This became evident when Prince William and his wife Catherine were here although it seemed thousands were certainly in favour of the Duchess of Cambridge.

Matt and I spent yesterday feeling bored, we both miss our bowling leagues which start again on August 29. Of course, almost as soon as we start bowling again, we will be off on vacation anyway.

Another news story, in Wellington, Auckland, NZ they had snow on Monday, a once in a lifetime event apparently, the first time in 30 years anyway. They have lots of skiing in NZ, so I hadn’t realised that Wellington didn’t normally get the white stuff.  We would be delighted to send them a heap of it every year.

Matt was watching a programme last night about the Great Lakes. I didn’t know that the lakes are shrinking particularly because we aren’t getting the rain we need. The wetlands of the lakes are being lost in large areas. The lakes have probably gone down about a metre in the last 10 years. This does not bode very well for the region which actually covers a vast area. Not only that the lakes are being polluted by the human populations surrounding the area. From what they were saying it is becoming dangerous to enter the waters anyway. Europeans have a hard time visualising the vastness of the lakes and the vastness of the countries here. Its still difficult for us to conceive even after 36 years. The programme was called Waterlife and went on to describe that most of our water comes from the lakes and although it is treated by filtration plants which break up some of the pollutants, i.e. PCBs, the constituents of the chemicals are still present in the water. In other words we are drinking and bathing in polluted water. One comment when you get a prescription from a pharmacist they tell you not to take your pill with this that and the other and all these things are in your water anyway. I didn’t watch the whole programme, I wish I had. Here is a trailer from the documentary.

Because its getting near to our vacation time, I am beginning to think shrimp. Then this recipe popped into my inbox. I notice in all these recipes that no-one really seems to know how to spell chillies – I am not even 100% certain I have spelt it right either. So I Googled and this is a quote “The three primary spellings are chili, chile and chilli, all of which are recognized by dictionaries”. My programme seems to prefer chilli.

Grilled Shrimp with Mango Salsa

Source: Casual Cuisines of the World - Cantina

Serves 4-6

Perfect for a hot summer night, this tropical dish partners grilled seafood with the exotic sweetness of mangoes and the punch of cilantro. Although mangoes are native to India, they came to the New World via Brazil in the 1700s, and are now widely available all over Mexico (here in Canada too). The salsa complements fish or chicken as well.
INGREDIENTS

2 cups olive oil

8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Juice of 2 limes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined (20-24 shrimp)

For the Salsa:

2 ripe mangoes

6 green onions, including tender green tops, thinly sliced

2 fresh jalapeno chilli peppers, stemmed, seeded (if desired) and finely diced

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

Juice of 2 limes

1 teaspoon salt

Lime wedges, optional

DIRECTIONS

In a frying pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 3-5 minutes. Remove from the heat, pour into a shallow non-aluminum dish and let cool. Add the lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Using bamboo skewers, thread 4 or 5 shrimp onto each skewer, passing the skewer through points near both the head and tail sections of each shrimp. Place the skewers in the olive oil mixture, turning to coat evenly. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to 12 hours.

FOR THE SALSA:
Peel each mango and cut the flesh from the pit. Cut into 1/4-inch dice and place in a bowl. Add the green onions, chilies, cilantro, lime juice and salt. Stir to mix, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Prepare a fire in a charcoal grill.

When the fire is hot, place the skewers on the grill rack about 3 inches from the coals and grill, turning once, until the shrimp turn pink and are opaque throughout, about 3 minutes per side.

TO SERVE:
Arrange a bed of salsa on each plate and top with a skewer of shrimp, or remove the shrimp from each skewer and arrange atop the salsa. Garnish with lime wedges, if desired, and serve

Have a great day.