Lake Houston Texas - July 30, 2019.
We truly enjoy our role as educators.
Our friend Al contacted us and said, "Wow, I thought I already knew how to jerk my meat! Boy, was I wrong!" Then he asked us "What type of wine shall I bring?" (for a dinner of Jerk BBQ.)
The rule of thumb is heavier wines and beers for heavier foods. So A Merlot or other Bordeaux wine, or a Running Walker Stout is as heavy as we would go. That is what we would pair with a heavier greasier meat like brisket. We try to be healthy and cut away the fat if possible so we tend more towards just a little lighter beverages like White Zin or a Shiner Bock (a pilsner).
P.S. We have not stated it before, but all of our recipes are for nine. Being older, Gabe and Katherine are over ninety, the rest of us over sixty-five. It probably works out to six servings or so for those half of our age.
We recently conversed with a sweet young lady on Trinidad, and so our thoughts turned to being naked on a beach, and about Roti and Buljol. Therefore today we made both. Traditionally Roti is a bread, separate from any filling, and that is the way we make it. But modern society is rushed, too rushed in our opinions. Roti wraps are popular street foods in the Caribbean.
Most of the roti available on the street consists of a curry stew folded up in the wrap like a burrito, and we will post a couple of curry recipes soon. Those stews generally contain potatoes, peas, and sometimes a meat. We love goat, but today we are doing fish. Beef, chicken, conch, duck, pork or shrimp are viable options as well.
Roti was originally brought to the islands by the indentured peoples from the Indian subcontinent (slaves by another name). It is popular in the Caymans, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Like we said, roti is the bread or the wrap, the traditional way of eating roti is to break it up. To use it to sop up the spicy curried sauce and the pieces of meat from the curry.
To make ten roti we use eight cups of wheat flour, and eight teaspoons of baking soda, a teaspoon of salt, and four cups of water. You use about six ounces or so of vegetable oil, we use Canola, to fry the dough.
To make the buljol you need three pounds of fish, we use cod, three quarts of water, three lemons, a cup of diced tomato, two cloves of sliced garlic, half a lime, two tablespoons of olive oil, a diced medium, a diced yellow bell pepper, a diced orange bell pepper, a teaspoon of fresh parsley, and a bit of fresh ground black pepper.
The roti takes longer to make, an hour for the dough to rise twice, then seven or eight minutes a bread to cook, but even I uncoordinated as I am, can keep three pans going. So It's an hour and a half or two total time commitment. The buljol takes half of an hour so we start that part in an hour.
Making the roti you use a large bowl, and in it toss the flour, baking soda, salt, and water together. Mixing it until it's a coherent dough. Then you separate the dough into ten balls, and cover them with cheesecloth, or a light cotton towel so that they might rest for half of an hour.
Dust the balls in wheat flour and flatten them out into circles, let's say six inches or so across. Spread oil on them and then cut them from their centers out to their edges, and roll them into cones, before flatten them. Let the dough rest another half hour. Roll each ball into a circle nine inches across.
You can use any fish you like for the buljol, we used cod. Break the fish into chunks, removing any bones that are big enough to notice. Put the fish in a large saucepan with water and lemons, and boil over medium to high heat for ten or fifteen minutes.Then you shred the fish using your fingers.
Toss your bell peppers, garlic, onion, parsley, scallions, and tomatoes, into a skillet with the vegetable oil and cook over medium heat for a minute or two. Add the fish and cook for another five minutes or so. When it is done you toss in the black pepper and lime juice
Coat each circle of dough with vegetable oil and cook 'em on the stove in a pan over medium to high heat. It takes about five minutes, watch them carefully, you want them to be a very light brown. Flip them and repeat, the second side is much faster.
The result is totally yummy, and should be eaten naked, With your lovers between rounds of loving, intense, life affirming sex.
"After reading that I think I'm going to get fat! Ha! Delicious. Thanks!" Our friend Al wrote.
Done properly sex is an aerobic exercise. Burn those calories then have seconds.
Lake Houston Texas - July 31, 2019
(Lisa)
It's 90* and 55% humidity which is more comfortable to us than yesterdays 85* and 80%. We have the panels set up for a naked dinner on the deck as soon as we are all ready. Punch looks really cute wearing nothing but a heavy apron as he grills some steaks. At 67 he still has a great ass. Except for the steaks everything on the table came from our garden, yams, lettuce, radishes, carrots cherry tomatoes, and three kinds of peppers.
Counter intuitive as it seems, eating spicy foods in the heats does make us feel cooler. Mexican foods, Spanish foods, Sicilian foods, and today's recipe, an Indian curry...
(Jamie)
Of course we don't go overboard, we have lots of iced tea and watermelon (it's from the garden too). After the steaks and vegis, we can drip sticky watermelon juice all over each other, and then lick it off. Food and sex are sensual delights, we enjoy them just as we enjoy one another. And the great thing about having hot, sweaty, sticky sex out on the deck is that we can hose everything (and everyone) off afterward. Then warm up together inside.
Potato and Chick Pea Curry
You need three pounds of cubed potatoes, a pound of rinsed garbanzo beans or chick peas, two cups of broth (we have successfully used vegetable broth, or chicken broth and even just water), half of a cup of chopped scallion, half of a diced white onion, two sliced garlic cloves, two tablespoons of yellow curry powder, a little canola oil (maybe three teaspoons), a pinch of flour and of black pepper.
It only takes about forty-five minutes to make. In a large pot over medium to high heat coat the bottom with a bit of canola oil and sauté your onion and garlic, maybe three minutes, just until soft. Mix the curry powder with a teaspoon or so of water and add it to the pot. Mix a cup (half) of the broth, potatoes, and scallions. Season the mixture with black pepper, and cook it until thick. It takes about twenty minutes.
Mix in the chickpeas, and rest of the broth, mix a pinch of flour with a teaspoon or so of canola oil and stir it in. Decrease the temperature to medium to low heat, and cook the mixture for about twenty minutes. Just until the the sauce thickens, and the potatoes and chickpeas are tender.
Typically it is eaten with Indian breads such as Roti, Paratha or Naan.
"I reread the instructions about the watermelon. Hmmm I guarantee I will be chuckling the next time I see one in the store! Thanks for the recipe!" wrote our friend Al.