Monday, March 16, 2015

Medical/Car. Dangerous Rice, Bowling, Weather.

I’ve already written two blogs today – oh well, April is still a couple Smart Carof weeks away I suppose. This morning Matt has to go see the specialist and from what he said on the phone, Matt should be able to go for his colonoscopy on Thursday. It means the car repair will have to be put off for a week. Matt can certainly not drive after his procedure and it would be too much hassle picking him up from the hospital and also changing/collecting cars etc. We are supposed to be renting a Smart Car for the three days we will be without our own vehicle. Mind you I am not sure Matt is going to be able to drive a Smart Car. I don’t know but I suspect their dashboards are computerised. I suppose it will be OK for 3 days.

WARNING: You may already know this - I didn't, but you should be extremely careful about My Guilty Pleasures - and who is/was a chef. I was a mite doubtful at first but tended to believe because of the source. Needless to say, I Googled and yes, she is quite right. The main warnings seem to come from the British National Health Service and state the following:
reheating cooked rice. I found this out through Viveka, a Swedish woman who writes
  1. Uncooked rice can contain spores of bacteria that can cause food poisoning. When the rice is cooked, the spores can survive. Then, if the rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores will multiply and may produce poisons that cause vomiting or diarrhoea. Reheating the rice won't get rid of these poisons.

This afternoon we have our league bowling. I have a nasty suspicion I will not manage another 300 game. Pity, our team needs it having fallen from first to fifth place.

Saturday, having had so much sunshine, we had fog all day. Sunday back to sunshine again. There have been murmurs, on the weather channel, in which the word snow was heard. Everybody is hoping not of course, but we have had bad snow storms in April so it’s too early to say it’s all over.

Matt and I both love lamb so when I came across this recipe I was immediately interested. I had never heard of eating hemp seed but nothing ventured…..

Roast Leg of Lamb with Hemp Seed Pesto

Contributed to Food & Wine by Michael SchwartzRoasted Leg of Lamb A140910 FW Most Requested Recipes + Jams201
  • SERVINGS: 8 to 10
This exceptional yogurt-glazed roast lamb from Miami chef Michael Schwartz gets extra flavour from a vibrant pesto made with healthy, nutty-tasting hemp seeds.

LAMB

  1. 1/2 cup full-fat plain Greek yogurt
  2. 6 garlic cloves, minced
  3. 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  4. 2 tablespoons minced rosemary
  5. 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  6. Kosher salt
  7. Pepper
  8. One 6-pound whole bone-in leg of lamb, excess fat trimmed
  9. Lemon wedges, for serving

PESTO

  1. 1 3/4 cups lightly packed basil
  2. 1 3/4 cups lightly packed parsley leaves
  3. 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  4. 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  5. Salt
  6. 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  7. 1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds
  8. Pepper
  1. PREPARE THE LAMB In a bowl, whisk the yogurt with the garlic, lemon juice, rosemary, olive oil and 1 tablespoon each of salt and pepper. Rub the mixture all over the lamb and set on a large rimmed baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Let the lamb stand at room temperature for 1 hour before roasting.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375°. Season the lamb lightly with salt and pepper and roast for about 1 hour and 50 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the meat registers 140°. Transfer to a carving board and let rest for 30 minutes.
  3. MAKE THE PESTO In a food processor, pulse the basil, parsley, garlic and lemon juice with a pinch of salt until minced. With the machine on, gradually add the olive oil until incorporated. Scrape the pesto into a bowl and stir in the hemp seeds. Season with salt and pepper. Carve the lamb and serve with the pesto and lemon wedges.
  4. Make Ahead The hemp seed pesto can be refrigerated overnight.
Have a great day
Jo_thumb[2]

24 comments:

  1. Hi Jo - hope you can sort out the car story .. but more importantly help Matt get things worked out ... and I too doubt he'll want to drive .. but he might be ok - check with someone. It's the time for lamb isn't .. and hemp seed pest sounds interesting .. cheers Hilary

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    1. He won't be allowed to drive Hilary because of the anaesthetic. He has had colonoscopies before. We have a large lump of lamb in the freezer but no hemp seed.

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  2. Good luck at the doctor's today! I never knew that about rice....but then again I also use instant rice so that's probably safe. I've never been able to cook 'real' rice very successfully.

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    1. Thanks JoJo. I don't know if instant rice is safe or not. You do miss out with not using 'real' rice. The taste is so much better.

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  3. I just wouldn't want to drive a Smart Car because I'd look like a huge dork. But I guess that's just me. :)

    Also, I love leg of lamb... usually over rice. And when I make rice, I usually make a huge pot and save the rest. I guess no more.

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    1. I think they are dorky cars anyway, but at $20 a day, it's not a bad deal. Next week now though.

      I guess if you save the rice it's OK so long as you make sure it's well refrigerated. I don't think I will be saving rice any more though.

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  4. Seems like if you followed proper food safety rules with all your food, this problem with rice would not be an issue. Spores release toxin supposedly after four hours at room temperature. Who does that?

    Good luck with that Smart car. I would not ride in one.

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    1. Yes, but not everyone does follow food safety rule Denise.

      I don't particularly want to ride in one either.

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  5. We usually only make enough rice for one meal.
    Hope Matt finally gets in to see the surgeon today!

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    1. Us too. But in the past I have made more than I needed for one meal.

      We have seen the surgeon and he is booked for Thursday at 1:30.

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  6. Those Smart Cars are so tiny. There are a couple in our town and ironically, really big people drive them. Not sure how they get in the car in the first place.

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  7. I'd love to drive a Smart car. Hope Matt is up to it, but is he allowed to drive right after that procedure? Here they don't let you because they knock you out for it... That lamb sounds delicious! I wonder if I can find Hemp seed around here anywhere...

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    1. No, you're right Lisa, he can't drive after the procedure so we have postponed the work on the car til next week. Try a health store maybe.

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  8. Jo! Check my blog tomorrow and see what I did for St. Paddy's Day!

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  9. I always make too much rice ... and use leftovers for egg fried rice (or similar) next day. I always get the rice into the fridge very quickly and have never had a problem in 30+ years. Sometimes a little bit of common sense re. food goes a long way doesn't it .... like not throwing out perfectly good fruit/veg because its reached its sell by date. We love fresh pineapple but when you buy them in the UK supermarkets they really aren't ripe and ready to eat till they've been stored for couple of weeks it seems!

    and ... don't start me on lamb!! We rear wonderful lambs here on the Marshes in Kent but in the last decade or so the price has soared and its a real luxury now. We don't have it very often because of the inflated price (rant over)!

    Hope Matt's 'procedure' goes well.

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    Replies
    1. The thing is Sue, I didn't even know it could be so dangerous. I don't worry too much about sell by dates, depending what it is of course.

      Lamb is very expensive in Canada, always has been. But you should see the price of ducks and geese are out of sight.

      Thanks.

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  10. Hi Jo. Timely warning, not that I've ever had a problem with rice. However, Australia has just had a huge Hep A scare, the source being frozen berries. The flight miles is staggering--Chilean berries, Chinese berries, packed in New Zealand, sick in Australia. So now Aussies are carefully sourcing as many natural Aussie products as they can.

    Hope Matt mastered the Smart Car. And hope the bowling went well.

    Hmm. Love lamb. It should be dirt cheap here where we grow our own, but the giant supermarkets make sure we pay premium price.

    Denise:-)

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    1. Smart car is next week now. It's amazing what can make you sick.

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  11. I never knew this about rice. We have been dodging a bullet. An average frozen goose costs about $60 or more. Lamb? I don't even look at anymore--the last time gave me sticker shock.

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    1. Goose is that kind of price here, lamb not as bad as that.

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  12. I have read about rice and its dangers before. It shocked me too. It's not the sort of thing you expect to be dangerous. We used to reheat it all the time when we were kids and eat it cold with milk and sugar. Left over rice was plentiful at our house. I think I'd be stumped trying to drive a smart car too just quietly :)

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    1. I never had heard about it before. Now I think about it, I always eat cold rice pudding. I think the key is refrigeration, refrigeration, refrigeration.

      Yup, I don't think I want to drive a Smart Car either.

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