Tigers, Weight Watcher Soups, Asparagus.

I learned this from How to Geek this morning. The country with the most tigers is - the United States. I quote: This staggers me.

The country with the largest tiger population isn’t India, China, Russia, or any of the Eurasian countries that currently occupy the ancient ranges of the massive cats. The country with the largest tiger population is the United States.
It’s not because there is a secret enclave of feral tigers deep in the steamy Everglades or snow tigers lounging atop the Rocky Mountains, but a result of zoos, conservatories, and private ownership of tigers. The private ownership is so extensive that the estimated population of tigers within the United States (5,000 animals) is significantly higher than the total global population of wild tigers (3,200).

They asked their readers to pick out the country with the most tigers and both China and Russia were on the list. It would never have occurred to me to pick the USA. Zoos and conservatories are one thing, but private owners in the States worry me, there have been quite a few reported accidents. The latest being the zoo where the town has been flooded out and there are now wild cats roaming around free. OK, not a private ownership, but that was a tad unusual.

I joined Weight Watchers for the first time in 1973/74 and at the time acquired a couple of

cookbooks. I made several things from them but one we both really liked was a Cream of Celery soup. Trouble was, these days I don't have dried milk in the house. However, I chopped up a whole bunch of celery, having washed it first of course, cooked it in stock with 3/4 pint water (that's an English pint which is 20 oz.) and once it was very tender whizzed it up in the blender and then added a little skim milk. Tastes fine and we had it for supper on Monday followed by some Brie. The hardest part was getting it tender. I thought it wouldn't take long, I was wrong, I simmered it for at least half an hour, maybe more. One thing I did forget was to peel the celery. The soup was delicious but a tad stringy. There are other simple soups so I will have to have a go at some of them. Dried milk occurred in a lot of WW recipes in those days. There is also a delicious recipe for Skate, but I have never seen that fish here.

Tuesday I will be going for my asparagus run with orders from a lot of friends. Then only two more trips and that will be the end of it for this year. Boo hoo. I've learned a couple of things about it such as storing it, standing, in water like flowers because it is related to the lily. I am assured that asparagus love water. Not sure I have mine long enough for them to need it.

I have no idea where this recipe came from and I don't have a picture for it. Perhaps I had better make it so that I will have one in the future, although, knowing me I would forget to take the picture. I wouldn't use white asparagus because it wouldn't be fresh enough. There isn't anywhere close to me that grows it so buying it in the store I would end up with woody stems. I have only tried white asparagus once and was very disappointed. I am told it needs a sauce, yes it does, regular green asparagus can be eaten plain and enjoyed. I choose green. The picture below is exactly what it looks like when I buy it from the farm.

Asparagus Hors d'Oeuvres

Tomato concassé is very easy to make, peel tomatoes by dipping them in boiling water for a few seconds, the skins will slip off. Then de-seed them and rough chop the rest of the tomato flesh. Chop some shallots and gently sauté the tomatoes and shallots together in some butter. Set aside until ready to use.

1 lb White asparagus

1 egg, hardboiled
tomato concassé
chervil
olive oil
lemon juice
blanched chives

1. Peel ends of asparagus, tie and boil til tender. Cut off tops, chop up bottoms having removed woody bits. Mix bottoms with tomato concassé, chervil, sieved egg white, olive oil, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

2. Sprinkle spears with lemon juice and olive oil, season. In a piping tube stand up spears all round, fill with salad, tie up with blanched chive then gently remove piping. Sprinkle with sieved egg yolk. Decorate with chervil leaves.

Servings: 4

Have a great day

Wildlife, Movies.

Last Thursday morning I received my regular newsletter from World Wildlife Fund spreading the good news that tigers, in India, are apparently recovering due to good management and conservation.

A roaring success for India's tigers


Tiger numbers are up! In 2006 it was estimated that there were only 1,411 wild tigers in India. In 2010 there were 1,706, and we’re really pleased to say that the 2014 survey counted an incredible 2,226

Directly copied from the newsletter. Unfortunately with that good news comes the news that more rhinos were poached in 2014 than ever before despite all the efforts being made. 1,215 rhinos were slaughtered last year.

We finally got the DVD of the movie The Dish. I loved this film from the first minute I saw it. I had it on my PC, from iTunes, but decided to buy the DVD for Matt so he could see it again. In fact he had more or less forgotten the movie. We watched it Monday night and both enjoyed it. A friend in Oz tells me if I love this movie I should watch The Castle. I will have to check it out. I learned a great word, drongo, and then my friend, Michelle, who writes Pinky Poinker’s blog used the word in her blog which I found amusing. It means a fool basically. Of course today, Tuesday, I am going to see Paddington Bear and will be telling you all what I thought of it. From everything I have seen, it looks hilarious.

A lot of people have been saying how much they hate Valentine’s Day and particularly because of it’s commercialism. I can see where you are coming from, but it doesn’t have to be commercial. Arrange a nice dinner at home, or even a lunch if you prefer, with your sweetie and just practice some togetherness. Even easier this year as it falls on a Saturday. Here is a dessert you could serve to your special someone. If you want to be lazy you can always buy the wafers rather than making them yourself.

Chocolate-Butterscotch Icebox Cake

Melissa Clark

• Yield 8 to 12 servings 

With homemade chocolate wafer cookies and a maple-laced butterscotch whipped cream, this recipe takes icebox cake to a more sophisticated level without sacrificing any of its lusciousness. You can build the cookies and cream into any shape you like — a round, a rectangle or a heart, which is what we do here. If you have cookies and cream left over, you can sandwich them together, whoopee-pie style. The wafers can be made up to a week ahead of when you’d like to assemble the cake. Store them airtight and try not to eat them all before you make the rest of the cake.

Ingredients

For the chocolate wafers:

• 1 ½ sticks/170 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons/230 grams granulated sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons/30 milliliters milk
• 1 teaspoon/5 milliliters vanilla extract
• ¾ teaspoon/3 grams baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon/5 grams kosher salt
• 1 ½ cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup/88 grams unsweetened cocoa, preferably Dutch-process

For the maple-butterscotch cream:

• ½ cup/100 grams firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons/30 milliliters maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons/28 grams unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• Pinch kosher salt
• 3 ½ cups/840 milliliters cold heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon/15 milliliters bourbon
• 1 ounce/28 grams semisweet chocolate, for serving
• 1 teaspoon/5 milliliters coconut oil, for serving

Preparation

Make the chocolate wafers:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract; mix until smooth. Whisk together baking powder, salt, flour and cocoa, then add to mixer bowl and mix until combined. Roll into a 10-inch-long log, wrap in plastic wrap or parchment paper and chill for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Slice dough into 1/8-inch rounds and place on parchment-lined baking sheets. You should have about 48 cookies. Bake for about 12 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool.

Make the maple-butterscotch cream:

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine brown sugar, maple syrup, butter and salt. Stir continuously until mixture is combined and sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking without stirring until mixture bubbles, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/2 cup cream, then stir in bourbon. Let butterscotch cool completely.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine remaining 3 cups cold cream and the butterscotch. Whisk until stiff peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes.

Assemble the cake:

1. Divide wafers into six batches, about eight cookies per batch. On a serving platter, arrange one batch of cookies into a heart shape, breaking into pieces to fill in gaps if necessary. Top wafers with about 11/4 cups butterscotch cream, smoothing into a heart shape with an offset spatula. Repeat layers until cookies and cream are finished, ending with a layer of cream. (There may be extra cookies and cream; build the cake higher if you like.) Cover with plastic wrap and chill cake in the refrigerator until cold, at least 1 hour, before decorating the top.

Decorate the cake:

1. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Stir in coconut oil. Let chocolate cool until lukewarm but still fluid. Drizzle over cold cake. Return cake to the refrigerator and let sit overnight or up to 2 days before serving.

Have a great day

Skating, Tiger and Tigers.

The men's figure skating last night was a joy to watch. Evan Lysacek won with an absolutely flawless performance which was really fabulous. Evgeny Plushenko didn't land his quad perfectly although otherwise he gave an excellent, if not so inspired, performance and was obviously very disappointed not to win although he didn't take it all that well and proceeded to criticise the marking sytem. Lysacek had to skate first in his flight and I have often debated how good or bad that is, at least you don't know how well the others have done, but then because you don't know, you don't know what you have to compete with. Evan Lysacek skated his heart out and it paid off.

Well Tiger Woods made an unrevealing statement to the world - to me this business of "sexual addiction" is a cop out. Now every man who is unfaithful (or every woman I guess) can say, so sorry darling I am addicted to sex. Balderdash and I am actually thinking something a lot stronger. None of it has really got anything to do with golf, if he is going to continue to play, get out there and do it and sort your marital problems out on your own.

Something I was surprised to learn this morning, there are more tigers in the US, not all of them in zoos, than there are in the wild. In fact only 6% of the 5,000 tigers in the US are in regular zoos. Below is a web site from World Wildlife which talks about the tiger distribution in the US. I, among many, love to see these animals and would hate for them to disappear, but I am certainly not sure private ownership is advisable. http://www.worldwildlife.org/enewsletter/1002answer3.cfm?enews=enews1002c I recently saw a programme about a guy who owned a stack of tigers and who had quite a few taken from him - I don't remember all the details but it was considered unsafe - he said he had a better safety record with tigers than a lot of zoos. There was another man who fought for his right to keep tigers last year and then ended up being killed by one of them. I wonder what he thought when it was happening "oops I was wrong". World Wildlife Fund are concerned that privately owned tigers contribute to the world wide market in tiger parts for medicinal purposes amongst other things. Something I read a lot about in a recent article in National Geographic. I wrote about it at the time, regarding a lot of animal smuggling which is headed by a syndicate based in Malaysia.

I didn't watch much of Good Morning America today, but Matt was particularly interested in this cauliflower dish which Emeril Lagasse did as an accompaniment to his pork loin recipe. I am always interested in different vegetable recipes. For Matt as much as anyone, here is Emeril's recipe.

Oven Roasted Cauliflower with Roasted Shallot-Garlic Butter A Veggie Dish Your Family Will Love From the Kitchen of Emeril Lagasse Servings: 4 "The caramelized edges bring out a sweet, nutty flavor and theshallot butter that it's tossed in at the end. ... Oh, baby, don't make me talk about it." -- Emeril Lagasse Ingredients 4 large shallots, halved lengthwise 3 tablespoons olive oil Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), at room temperature 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 large cauliflower, cut into large florets Directions Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a small baking dish with aluminum foil. Place the shallots in the prepared baking dish and drizzle them with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Season with kosher salt and pepper. Roast until they are soft and caramelized, turning them if necessary to promote even browning, 15 to 20 minutes. Set the shallots aside to cool. When they have cooled, finely chop the roasted shallots and transfer them to a small bowl. Add the butter, garlic, lemon juice, 1 /4 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 /8 teaspoon pepper, and mix well to combine. Set the shallot-garlic butter aside while you grill the cauliflower. Brush the cauliflower with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and place the florets on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the oven and cook until the florets are golden on the bottom edges, 4 to 5 minutes. Continue cooking, turning occasionally, until they are evenly browned around the edges and crisp-tender, 5 to 7 minutes longer. Transfer the cauliflower to a large bowl, and add the shallot-garlic butter. Toss to combine. Season to taste with kosher salt and pepper, and serve either hot or warm.

Have a great day