Off Colour, Birthday Lunch, Family Tree, Supper,

Sorry no blog yesterday, was a tad under the weather and didn't feel like it. Not too much better this morning, my IBS playing me up I guess. As I said to my cleaner today, I now know what a pain in the ass is really like. I had to go to the grocery store in the middle of it all this morning. However, things were improved somewhat by then. The cleaner came and took the groceries upstairs for me. She is very good. At least the water wasn't turned off this morning leaving us with wet sheets. I used to have lots of sheets but they gradually wore out in one way or another and I have never bothered to buy more. When we had the Mobile Home in NC (before we moved down there) we had sheets there as well as in Canada. Amazing how we go through so many. Hadn't thought about that before.

I didn't make it to exercise class today either, not up to it. Won't get to go Friday either. Taking ladydog out for lunch as it's her 70th birthday on Saturday. A milestone. At this rate she might catch up with me! We are going to Mandarin where we haven't been for some weeks. Not since our other friends had their accident.

By the way, I received my family tree. It came in a long tube and I had no idea what it was. It is a large roll of paper. One thing I discovered was why my father was named Geoffrey Frederick Charles, he had an ancestor who's name was Frederick Charles. I need to study it a bit more. I always believed we had Danish ancestry. Nothing to tell us  that on this tree. I also believed one of my ancestors wed a Jewish woman from Portugal. These may only be stories of course, but our family name - Duttson - could well have been Duttsen. Wish I were famous I could go on "Find Your Roots" and they could do research for us.

Been having lousy dull weather the last couple of days, however this afternoon the sun is popping in and out. So much better. I am busy cleaning the coffee pot and then I am going to have a nap.

We had samosas for supper - no not home made, but they are delicious and so easy to cook in the air fryer. For a dipping sauce I decided to use the Gochujang. Worked very well. I also  made a Triple Spiced Cole Slaw. Not a pasta in sight. Have you noticed just how many recipes there are using one form of pasta or another. Not helpful if one doesn't want to gain weight. Especially in my case, I always enjoy pasta. I must have Italian blood in me or something.

This can obviously be served with pasta or rice, but I think I would just do vegetables. I don't use my air fryer nearly enough, especially since I got the Instant Pot.

Brazilian Chicken

Impress your friends and family with this delicious Brazilian Chicken recipe! Only you will know

how easy this air fryer chicken dish is!

1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp dried oregano leaves
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup lime juice
2 Tbs oil
1.5 lbs chicken drumsticks

1. In a clean coffee grinder, blend together the cumin, oregano, parsley, turmeric, kosher salt, coriander seeds, peppercorns and cayenne pepper.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the ground spices with the lemon juice and oil. Add the chicken drumsticks and turn them, coating well with the marinade. Allow the chicken o marinade for 30 minutes or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

3. When you are ready to cook, place the chicken legs into the air fryer basket, skin side up.

4. Set your air fryer to 390°F for 20-25 minutes for meaty chicken legs. Halfway through, flip the chicken legs over.

5. Use a meat thermometer to ensure that the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165°F. Remove and serve with plenty of napkins.

Servings: 4

Source: TwoSleevers

Have a great day
 

Restaurants, Kedgeree,

Until our friends mentioned the Mandarin free birthday lunch, I had kind of forgotten that it was Matt's 84th birthday on the 4th. My hospital stay has kind of skewed my thinking lately. They said they wouldn't be able to make it because they fly on the 1st, but Mandarin gives you one week either side of your birthday. I have a coupon to use at Red Lobster too, nothing to do with birthdays, but just $3 off lunch or $4 off dinner for the next week.

Unfortunately the fish store phoned, they received smoked cod although smoked haddock is available. Apparently she can have the smoked haddock in for me on Monday afternoon. I wasn't in any hurry so that's OK. Another way we used to eat smoked haddock was with a poached egg on top, the yolk and the fish really melded well. I'm salivating LOL. I would never have let the yolk run onto the plate though. When I was a kid, I used to eat all the white and then put the yolk, whole, into my mouth so I didn't lose any of it!!!

Meanwhile I looked up my father's recipe for Kedgeree. I have no idea where he got it from and from all I have learned over the years, it isn't very genuine, but I always loved it. The picture is not how we served it, we sieved the yolks, but I have never taken a photo myself. Will have to do so when I get this smoked haddock.

Kedgeree

1 lb smoked haddock (smoked cod can be substituted)
Milk to cover
1 cup long grain rice (Basmati is best)
Butter
seasoning
2 hard cooked eggs.

1. First poach the haddock in the milk until the fish flakes easily. Remove the fish,  break it up and make sure there is no skin or bones left. Meanwhile cook the rice as directed on the package. Melt a large knob of butter (2 oz.) in a saucepan and add the rice and fish and cook, stirring, til warmed through. You may need more butter, I use lots when making this. Taste for seasoning and add if required. Slice the eggs and remove the yolks. Turn the fish and rice onto a serving dish, decorate with the slices of egg white and then sieve the yolks over the top. As a variation you can add a dash of cayenne and/or a teaspoon of curry powder blended into the butter. You can also add thick cream at the end, if you wish and don’t care about cholesterol.

2. You can decorate the final dish with more hard cooked eggs and even parsley if you wish.

Source: Daddy

Have a great weekend.
 

Year of the Horse, Olympics

I certainly had my fill of dumplings and buns at the Mandarin. I also had a green tea cookie and a special custard tart for New Years as well. Everything was delicious as usual. Our waiter wasn’t terribly good though unfortunately, but not enough to spoil things. Some old boy (like we aren’t old) at the next table walked past and started chatting to us. He was quite funny. He told us he and his wife were in the iron and steel business, I got it straight away, she irons he steals. When we left he told my friend and I to look after the kids we’d brought with us. He was a cheerful soul. I had bought Matt a pair of driving gloves which we had to return because they were too small, they came back today just as we were going out. Good timing. I meant to take a camera, but guess what? I forgot. This is just one type of dumpling, shrimp I think, there are many types of course and I tried as many as I could.

Just caught a news brief about the Sochi Olympics costing $50 billion and therefore being the most expensive winter Olympics ever. The article goes on about widespread stench of corruption and says the Olympics is a costly distraction. Don’t know about that, but with all the threats and suicide bombing, I am glad I am not going to be there in any capacity whatsoever. I didn’t know where Sochi was so I googled the other day and see it is on the Black Sea. Somewhat European venue it seems.

Here is a recipe for green tea cookies. They are flavoured with matcha which is apparently a green tea powder which can be obtained on line – it is very expensive I am told, but you only need a small amount. The ones I ate were not shaped like leaves, just little round cookies. They have a shortbread texture and I enjoyed them.

Green Tea Cookies

Caroline Russock


[Photograph: Tara Straino]

Matcha lends these vibrantly green cookies both color and delicate green tea flavour.

2 dozen cookies

This recipe appears in:
Bake the Book: Green Tea Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure matcha powder
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter,at room temperature
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch salt
• Sugar, for dusting (optional)

Procedures

1. Mix together the powdered sugar and matcha powder. Add in the butter and beat it all together until smooth and spinach green. Add the egg yolks and beat until mostly incorporated, scraping down the green, sticky stuff off the side of the bowl, as needed.
   
2. Pour in the flour and pinch of salt, half at a time, and beat to combine. It will take a minute for the flour to absorb into the dough, so don’t rush it. Once all the flour is in, use your hands to check for particularly gooey or dry sections of the dough (it will still look very crumby); if you find any, keep mixing.
   
3. Use the warmth of your hands to pull the dough together into a ball. Lay out the ball onto a piece of plastic wrap, seal it up, and form the ball into a flattened disk. Chill it until firm enough to roll, about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
   
4. Preheat the oven 350°F.
   
5. When you're ready to bake, roll out the dough to about 1/2-inch thick. Cut out cookies using a leaf-shaped cookie cutter, or any other shape you'd like. Drop the cookies in the sugar, if using, and flip them to coat both sides. Set them on a parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet and bake 12 to 15 minutes, until barely starting to turn golden. Cool on wire racks.
   

Have a great day