Christmas left me with a whole lot of tomatoes in the fridge. Half a container of small red cocktail tomatoes, most of a container of mixed red and yellow cocktail tomatoes, and a whole unopened bag of Roma plum tomatoes.
And with Tanya and the kids off to Knysna for a week, I figured I would make tomato bredie (Tanya hates mutton, Jessica’s a vegetarian, but Tamsyn might have liked it, except I put a whole lot of chili in).
Found an Ina Paarman recipe online, used a whole lot less mutton, and three whole green chillies from a packet that I stuck in the freezer a couple of years ago.
Used this nifty Christmas present to reduce the sauce. Ain’t it cute?
We invited Tanya’s folks over for supper on Saturday. I had to do some tech support for a friend in Somerset West, then went back via Bellville to get an O ring from the hardware store and a bunch of supplies from the Fruit & Veg.
Found a rather large (it was still the smallest on the shelf) hunk of marinated pork loin roast. Which I had to cut in half to get it to fit my black pot.
I also went via the Constantia Aroma (for bubbly) and Pick & Pay, where I found a large bunch of beetroot for R5.99.
Tangent : As a kid, I didn’t understand why my mother liked asparagus from tins or beetroot from jars. Then I met fresh asparagus and beetroot, which both really rawk. I suspect my mother was searching for that taste, the canned stuff being a weak shadow.
So I cooked the beetroot according to the first recipe I googled. Topped and tailed them, rubbed the skin off, sliced and stuck them in the fridge. (First time I used the electric domino, works well).
Back to the roast. I followed a recipezaar recipe I’d used before, except that with the pork being pre-marinaded, I skipped step 3. I also made mustard-roasted potatoes, which were excellent. Persuaded Tanya to steam some veggies, and skipped making the braised sauerkraut (in hindsight, probably a mistake). But nobody noticed, because the pork was excellent. And then some.
I wanted to make gravy from the juice in the pot, but it was very fatty, so we skipped that in favour of the ready-made stuff. And I must say, the Denny brand gravy is excellent.
So, on to the reverse risotto. After the juice cooled down, I removed most of the fat (and threw it away, I should have kept it, but right now space is an issue — I need to get a chest freezer organised). Heated the pot up, and fried rice in the oil, added wine — you know, classic risotto recipe. Except then I added water only, figuring that all the tasty bits were in the pot already.
I’ve been browsing through Lex Culinaria, which is not something to do while hungry. The Tomato and Beef Kofta recipe looked good. So I made that (first time I’ve made meatballs, would you believe it?). Also tried my hand at Farmgirl’s pita bread, but slipped up, used too much water, had to add flour, and basically ended up with something closer to naan. No worries, it was great.
It’s easy to lose track of the fact that the house is far from finished when you’re having fun in the kitchen. I suppose I have to start from one side, and since the kids’ rooms are almost there (Jessica has a mirror that still has to go up, and the notwork and computer power points still have to go in) the bathroom’s high on the list.
I don’t know how one is supposed to keep the bath apron in place (note strategic use of batten and screwdriver) but I’m hoping that copious amounts of silicone will do. (I had to cut the tile on the far wall in a curved shape to fit, which is why this took so long. That, and the bath was leaking.)
Jessica (the 13 year old) had a friend over, and they wanted to bake. Chocolate cake. So I found a recipe and let them loose in the kitchen.
I had to intervene to explain that 350 degrees was Fahrenheit and our oven works in Celsius/Centigrade, and I had to explain that “baking soda” is probably what we call “bicarb”, but for the rest all went well and nobody got poisoned.
If you found something this colour in the Amazon rain forest, you would do well to avoid it…
We had a black south easter blowing — lots of rain, from the south, which showed up at least three leaks that were not there with the prevailing rain from the north we’ve been having all winter. Soup weather.
Normally I would make snert, but I needed a quick recipe, and it also needed to be vegetarian.
I bought the Jungle Oats on Tuesday already, figuring I want to make either oatmeal cookies or bannocks. And then I read the posting by Laura-Jane, about how she can’t bake, yet, because of not having a kitchen. I feel for her, and I realise how much we’ve actually accomplished in the past seven months.
So I made oatmeal cookies. Simple, nothing like what Laura-Jane is capable of, to judge by her pictures, but a first for me, and we ate them all. The thermofan oven works well.
I then went on to make a lentil chili, without the chili (OK, I put in about a teaspoon of Tobasco sauce). I also added a bit of vegetable stock.
Comments from the omnivores :
Tamsyn : huh-uh, gimme some Marsala-less Marsala Chicken. (Tamsyn avoids vegetarian food on principle).
Tanya : It’s OK. Maybe a bit too tomato-ey.
Me : Yea, not bad.
Followed the recipe until I started looking for my bottle of Marsala — the one I’m sure I had, but couldn’t find. Either Tanya drank it while I wasn’t looking (or I helped her drink it and can’t remember, which is entirely likely) or I misremember (also entirely likely).
Substituted dry sherry and a bit of port.
With mash (three potatoes, one turnip), brussels and broccoli, it was great.
Friday was a stuffup. I had to go through to Kommetjie, drop off the double mattress (we decided that Jessica would get the two single beds, not a double, so the mattress got sold back to the new owner of Tanya’s old place), pick up three bags of books and a wooden box, pick up the last of the kithen counters from Lumber City, and drop off the books at Tears animal shelter (they sell them for funds).
Got to Kommetjie, cleaning lady told me that the vacuum cleaner has a two pin plug and we took all the adapters with us. So I went to the cafe, spent an exorbitant amount (R26) on an adapter, went back to Tanya’s place, modified the adapter with my trusty Swiss Army knife (the vacuum cleaner uses the Euro two pin connector, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, consider yourself fortunate).
Got to Lumber City “You’re going to cut these yourself then? asks sales fellow”. “Erm, no, I ordered it cut”. “Oh yes I see, it’s written down here” “Indeed, make it happen, varlet!” (Well, something like that anyway). So I pay, ask a few questions, figuring they’re cutting the thing so I might as well learn stuph. Hah. Turns out they’re picking their noses waiting for me to come breathe down their necks before they’re going to do anything. Which I proceed to do, which they proceed to do, we eventually leave Lumber City after 9. Note that I do have a boss, and while he’s very understanding, the work doesn’t do itself.
Friday evening we went through again, picked up even more stuff, including Tanya’s clothes rack exercise bicycle. Also picked up Tamsyn’s bed from Tanya’s folks’ place.
I had to [1] go silhouette shooting on Saturday morning, and I took the opportunity to take the trailer back to Bellville. Came back as soon as possible, and fitted the short counter. I used an aliminium strip to join the two counters at a right angle, this is much easier than cutting the two counters (It seems easy with a jig, but I don’t have the jig, and with only one joint, there’s no sense). Liberally applied Woodoc 50 marine varnish to the cut particle board, and used lots of sealant.
On Sunday we bade Tanya’s brother Clive farewell at the airport, he’s off to the land of Oz to look for gold. Or at least a steady employment and a place to stay :-) After that we went to Makro where we spent *mumble* lots on all kinds of house-ey stuff. If you’re looking for curtain rails and the like, start here, not at Builders Warehouse or Hyperama — which is where we got the toothbrush holders, shower racks, toilet brushes & holders, towel rails, a bath mat and so forth and so on from.
Sunday evening I fitted the side panel by the kitchen entrance. It was 4mm too large at the top (the wall is skew) so I screwed a guide to it and used the router with the trim bit (the one with the bearing at the bottom) to trim the panel to size very neatly.
After this I attacked the shelves that are supposed to go in the top cupboard in the corner. They were a few millimeters too wide, the belt sander worked well. I also connected the washing machine to the outside tap and with an extension lead plugged in Tanya could do her first load of washing at the new house.
While I made the first cooked meal at the new house. Lentil and Rice pilaf with stuff.
Two small onions, sliced.
One green pepper, sliced.
Two medium carrots, sliced.
1/2 cup lentils, examined for sticks, stones and small furry creatures, and rinsed.
1/2 cup brown rice.
1 tomato.
Stock powder.
1 teaspoon dried thyme.
Salt & pepper. Hoisin sauce (ran out of Worcester).
Fry onion, pepper and carrot in a bit of oil. Remove from pot. Bring two cups of water to boil, add stock powder, add lentils, cover and cook 5 minutes.
Add rice and onion, pepper and carrot mix. I added just a bit of Hoisin, since the kids are not as tolerant to chili as I am. Add pepper, thyme.
Simmer for as long as it takes to get the rice done (20-30 minutes). Check and add water as required.
That’s what Jessica had. To Tanya and Tamsyn’s portions, we added some diced pork chops we had left over from Friday’s braai. To mine, I added some shredded pork ribs also left over from Friday. Very nice smokey flavour, worked well.
Found during the move. A friend gave me this, years ago, saying that it reminded him of me.
Tanya and the kids think it’s hideous. Which obviously proves the friend’s point.
Suggestions please
This is the view of the kitchen from the living room. Ignoring the fact that it looks like a hurricane hit the place, what should we put over the sink? Or rather, we’re putting a cupboard with a built-in drying rack over the sink, what should the cupboard look like (all suggestions will most likely be ignored, but I’m looking for ideas).
And on the downside, the bloody bath drain is still leaking. I’ve asked Frank to chip the pipe out of the wall, this calls for Drastic Measures.
[1] Had to, because to keep my licences I need to be a dedicated sport shooter, and to be dedicated I have to shoot a lot. ‘stroo.
So I’m spending an hour or two each evening at the house. Which means that I don’t have time to cook, much. But we’ve already done pizzas and fish&chips this week, and Tanya had to go collect the kids’ reports, so… I decided to slap something simple together.
We had most of a roast chicken in the fridge (supper-in-a-hurry from earlier in the week) as well as mushrooms and red peppers so we decided to do a risotto (something I make often).
So I sliced some meat off the chicken and fried that in my black pot. Also cut op one small turnip that was lurking in the back of the fridge, added that. Took the chicken out, fried the mushrooms. Took that out (the turnip was also done by now) and started frying the onions.
This is where one would add the rice and then start slowly adding the stock, but I figured that all of this was going to take too long, so I stuck the rice in a separate pot, added some turmeric (some? Eish, Idunno, prolly about a level teaspoon, I didn’t measure. How much rice? Didn’t measure either, 3/4 of a cup I’d guess).
Added the red peppers to the pot, stirred a bit, deglazed the pot with some Petit Chenin, and put everything I’d taken out earlier back in. Added some water and a bit of chicken stock powder (won’t do that again, next time I’ll put the rice on sooner). Added some frozen peas.
When the rice was done, drained it, stuck it in the pot, stir, serve. My only complaint? Not enough chili. Figures, since I didn’t put any in.
It even looks nicer than Barbara’s Hillbilly Fried Rice. But she writes better than I can. And I bet her Hillbilly Fried Rice is divine.
