Notes from a bemused canuck
We have found two Italian restaurants in town where, not only can I eat stuff, but where I can actually stuff myself silly on really good food! This one is a pizzeria where (gasp!) they don’t put garlic in the tomato sauce. I shared Katy’s bresaola, rocket and parmesan pizza today. Bean always charms the server dude that is always working on the days we happen to go by telling him in incredible detail what he wants to eat and how it needs to be cooked :-)
At the Flon metro stop, there are LCD publicity screens. Interspersed between the various adverts are clips of this guy, usually in weird or funny situations. I have no idea who or what he is, but I like him :-)
Original picture here. Can you do better?
Cause I don’t think it’ll be as kick-ass as Bean’s idea of being a pirate astronaut.
Ingredients:
500g red jalapeño chiles, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons palm sugar
Directions:
Place all the ingredients except the sugar in large glass bowl, loosely cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit overnight. This brine helps mellow the heat of the peppers.
Place the mixture and sugar in small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Blend with an immersion blender (or a food processor/blender) until a smooth, orange-red mixture forms. Run through a strainer and smush out as much juice as possible.
Refrigerate to store.
Notes:
I haven’t tried this yet, but I want to experiment with adding roasted red peppers, or fresh ginger and lime juice, to see how that changes the flavour profile.
Once in a while, I check my website usage stats. It never fails to amaze me. This website is, for lack of a better description, an I-Love-Me affair where I post things that I want to remember or stuff that I like. Yet, on average, 635 people visit daily, which means over 2000 daily page views, or 12000+ daily hits. Now slashdot this ain’t, but it’s still fairly impressive :) Also, considering that the blog is crossposted to FB, the actual usage stats might actually be higher. People stumble onto my website from all over the world.
What’s even more interesting though, are the google search terms that people use to wind up on my blog. I did a quick check and, for the last year, the top search term has consistently been “porn”. Which is odd, considering that there isn’t any. Other perennial favourites are:
and for reasons that I don’t get, “michel roux lemon tart” is always somewhere up in the top 5.
There are also some really random ones:
dalek porn
canadian beer
debugging is a state of mind
keep calm and drink wine
and a new one for me: nyotaimori The link is rather NSFW.
Ingredients
1 red onion, quartered
1 lemon, juice and zest
1 tablespoon yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 pound chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
Directions
Mix all of the ingredients, place them in a sealed container along with the chicken and let marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes to overnight.
Skewer the meat, and grill over medium-high heat until cooked, about 2-4 minutes per side.
Ingredients
4 pitas
1 batch chicken souvlaki, warm
2 tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cup red onion, sliced
1/4 cup tzatziki
1/2 cup feta, crumbled
2 roasted red peppers, sliced (optional)
Directions
Assemble the gyros and enjoy.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
2 slices rye, lightly toasted
1/2 cup swiss cheese, shredded and at room temperature
1-2 slices roast turkey, warm
1/4 cup coleslaw or sauerkraut, squeezed, drained and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon russian dressing or thousand islands dressing
Directions
Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.
Butter the outside of each slice of bread, sprinkle half of the cheese on the inside of one slice of bread, top with the turkey, coleslaw or sauerkraut, dressing, the remaining cheese and finally the other slice of bread.
Add the sandwich and grill until golden brown and the cheese has melted, about 2-4 minutes per side.
Notes
You can use either rye or sourdough bread. The bread should be slightly tasted to help absorb moisture.
Try and remove as much moisture from the coleslaw/sauerkraut to avoid a soggy sandwich.
The roast turkey can also be substituted for corned beef, to make a proper Reuben sandwich.