Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I started this blog so I would get back in the habit of writing then lo and behold, I stop bloody writing. Curses. Fear not all ye' fans of pathetic, amateur blogging, I'll be back soon with many more interesting little sonnets and stories of simplified pablum for your enjoyment. On tap I have the thrilling conclusion to my Global Warming... hmmmm series, my recipe for Butter Chicken, some more political spewage as well as some travel vomit to expunge from my brain. I may even regurgitate a few stories from the past in case you think that hot dog actually does taste better the second time.
So stay tuned, there's lots on my plate and I got a rum chaser to make sure it all washes down smoothly.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Paul's "Perfect" Roast Beef Dinner
For the potatoes, I cut them into about golfball sized pieces then parboil them for about 10 minutes--that is, keep them in a slow rolling boil. I take them out and let them cool while I prepare the roast. For the roast, I cut small slits in the top of the roast then push whole garlic cloves into the roast. I drizzle the roast with olive oil (regular--not extra virgin), slather on some dijon mustard, then salt and pepper it. (For an alternative that has been gaining favour with me, coat the roast with a blend of salt, pepper, roasted garlic and whole fennel). The key to cooking the roast is to cook it on 400 F for about twenty minutes, then turn it down to 225 F for the rest. This cooks the outside quickly and seals in the juices. I always use a meat thermometer as well; too many over-cooked roasts.
Put the potatoes in a small pan with about a 1 1/2 cm of regular olive oil and add to the oven when you turn the roast down to 225 (depending on the size of the roast of course, if the roast is small add the potatoes at the start of the roast cooking time). Turn the potatoes sporadically so they cook on all sides in the oil bath.
After the roast and potatoes are in, start the Yorkshire pudding. For 12 cupcake sized puddings mix together 175g white flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 medium eggs plus 1 egg yolk, 150 ml milk and 150 ml water. Whip extensively with mixer so that it's bubbly and smooth. Put it aside and leave at room temperature until the roast is ready.
Once the roast is ready, put it on a hot plate over the rear oven exhaust element and cover with foil. It's important for the meat to "relax" before eating. (Use tongs instead of a fork to handle the roast to keep the juices inside!) Crank the oven back up to 425 F and leave the potatoes inside to brown.
Get your cupcake pan and add about 1 tablespoon of regular olive oil (again NOT extra virgin) in each of the twelve cups and put into the oven for about 5 minutes after the oven has reached 425 F. Pull out the hot cupcake pan and start adding the pudding mixture. It should sizzle into the hot oil when added and evenly distribute the pudding mixture throughout all the cups. They should be about half full. Put back into oven and they should take about 25 minutes to rise and brown.
In the meantime, make your gravy. Use the residule juices and baked on scum from the roasting pan. Gently heat it on the element. Add about a 1/2 cup of butter (again, depending on how much gravy you want to make) and melt it gently in the pan. Add flour to the butter and juice mixture until it's pasty. Keep cooking and stirring this paste until it turns a light brown color. Start adding sodium reduced beef broth slowly to the mixture while whisking until the gravy reaches a desired consistency. Some red wine, fresh cracked pepper or sautéed mushrooms to the gravy would be a welcomed companion.
Once the gravy is ready, slice the meat and both the potatoes and pudding should be pretty much done. This recipe comes courtesy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at www.rivercottage.net, except the gravy which is courtesy of a friend of mine, Ray Yuen, and the roast preparation which is mine, though I see Emeril has now copied me!
Put the potatoes in a small pan with about a 1 1/2 cm of regular olive oil and add to the oven when you turn the roast down to 225 (depending on the size of the roast of course, if the roast is small add the potatoes at the start of the roast cooking time). Turn the potatoes sporadically so they cook on all sides in the oil bath.
After the roast and potatoes are in, start the Yorkshire pudding. For 12 cupcake sized puddings mix together 175g white flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 medium eggs plus 1 egg yolk, 150 ml milk and 150 ml water. Whip extensively with mixer so that it's bubbly and smooth. Put it aside and leave at room temperature until the roast is ready.
Once the roast is ready, put it on a hot plate over the rear oven exhaust element and cover with foil. It's important for the meat to "relax" before eating. (Use tongs instead of a fork to handle the roast to keep the juices inside!) Crank the oven back up to 425 F and leave the potatoes inside to brown.
Get your cupcake pan and add about 1 tablespoon of regular olive oil (again NOT extra virgin) in each of the twelve cups and put into the oven for about 5 minutes after the oven has reached 425 F. Pull out the hot cupcake pan and start adding the pudding mixture. It should sizzle into the hot oil when added and evenly distribute the pudding mixture throughout all the cups. They should be about half full. Put back into oven and they should take about 25 minutes to rise and brown.
In the meantime, make your gravy. Use the residule juices and baked on scum from the roasting pan. Gently heat it on the element. Add about a 1/2 cup of butter (again, depending on how much gravy you want to make) and melt it gently in the pan. Add flour to the butter and juice mixture until it's pasty. Keep cooking and stirring this paste until it turns a light brown color. Start adding sodium reduced beef broth slowly to the mixture while whisking until the gravy reaches a desired consistency. Some red wine, fresh cracked pepper or sautéed mushrooms to the gravy would be a welcomed companion.
Once the gravy is ready, slice the meat and both the potatoes and pudding should be pretty much done. This recipe comes courtesy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at www.rivercottage.net, except the gravy which is courtesy of a friend of mine, Ray Yuen, and the roast preparation which is mine, though I see Emeril has now copied me!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Whither Adventure Travel
Tonight Julia and I went to see a presentation by a guy from Trek adventures supposedly discussing the benefits of these "Adventure Travel" excursions. So adventure travel, what is it? Well, basically it means you travel to a specific city then hook up with a tour group. These groups are general about 10 to 15 people and within this group you supposedly go "off the beaten track" in your country or countries of choice. They take care of all the planning for you, but most of the tour utilizes local transportation and local accommodation so you keep your tourist dollars in local communities instead of hotel chains with head offices somewhere in the U.S. or other wealthy countries. We've been sort of leaning towards this experience for some time, virtually since we became aware of them, but we did manage to get around Thailand quite well on our own after I did some deft research and haunted the travel forums for several months. Do we really need this sort of thing?
There was one rather obvious characteristic of this presentation last night: virtually everyone there was a senior. The presenter even said their average age was in the 50s, so it appears as though these adventure tours are geared towards blue hairs. Of course, this could be deceiving because seniors may opt for specific tours to specific places and may choose a comfort tour over a more rugged tour, but one cannot make that assumption. Given that the baby boomers--the wealthiest demographic ever-- are now seniors and retired, it would make sense that tour operators covet this vast market. The baby boomers themselves also seem more adventurous that many people our age (let's say late '30s) and I cannot forget that most of the people we hung out with in the Cook Islands were seniors and we had a blast.
On the downside, there were a lot of really annoying people there. You know the people, the ones who sit at the front of the class and monopolize the teacher's attention--you know who you are Mr. Zaidman (3rd year World History--ooo, I'm still mad). It reminded me of the Ian Wright lecture we attended while I worked at the University of Winnipeg. Many people, fans of his Lonely Planet television show, were more obsessed with HIM than his travels. One woman at the presentation last night kept saying "Wow" at every damn slide! It was like someone saying "Mmmm" after every bite of food at a cheap Chinese buffet. God forbid we end up with annoying woman on our tour--sorry for bumping you off the boat. The presenter also had this way of deflating anything interesting he had to say about these amazing places he'd been. None of his anecdotes were funny, though clearly they were funny situations. He couldn't string together a punchline then finished each sentence with... "well anyway." (Silence) We were wholly underwhelmed by the evening and left there less sure about the Adventure Travel option. So what to do?
I think it's going to depend on where we decide to go. A trip to Central America, when you don't speak a lick of Spanish, may be somewhat challenging. Likewise, a trip in the back roads of China could prove more frustrating than enlightening. But I think for our next trip, we may do a combined tour and individual experience. First we'll do a tour of no more than eight days, to get a lay of the land and feel comfortable, then strike out on our own for the next ten days and see where we end up. That way we can try this travel experience but still leave an element of surprise to the trip. If you'd read my blog post "Bamboozled" you'd know I get my jollies planning travel excursions and to this day, I think I've been fairly successful doing so. I got many other itineraries ready to go: Turkey, Costa Rica, Belize, Dominica and even Gabon. At this point we're thinking Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam or Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala (maybe Panama) so I have a lot of research ahead and about six months to put it all together. No problem.
There was one rather obvious characteristic of this presentation last night: virtually everyone there was a senior. The presenter even said their average age was in the 50s, so it appears as though these adventure tours are geared towards blue hairs. Of course, this could be deceiving because seniors may opt for specific tours to specific places and may choose a comfort tour over a more rugged tour, but one cannot make that assumption. Given that the baby boomers--the wealthiest demographic ever-- are now seniors and retired, it would make sense that tour operators covet this vast market. The baby boomers themselves also seem more adventurous that many people our age (let's say late '30s) and I cannot forget that most of the people we hung out with in the Cook Islands were seniors and we had a blast.
On the downside, there were a lot of really annoying people there. You know the people, the ones who sit at the front of the class and monopolize the teacher's attention--you know who you are Mr. Zaidman (3rd year World History--ooo, I'm still mad). It reminded me of the Ian Wright lecture we attended while I worked at the University of Winnipeg. Many people, fans of his Lonely Planet television show, were more obsessed with HIM than his travels. One woman at the presentation last night kept saying "Wow" at every damn slide! It was like someone saying "Mmmm" after every bite of food at a cheap Chinese buffet. God forbid we end up with annoying woman on our tour--sorry for bumping you off the boat. The presenter also had this way of deflating anything interesting he had to say about these amazing places he'd been. None of his anecdotes were funny, though clearly they were funny situations. He couldn't string together a punchline then finished each sentence with... "well anyway." (Silence) We were wholly underwhelmed by the evening and left there less sure about the Adventure Travel option. So what to do?
I think it's going to depend on where we decide to go. A trip to Central America, when you don't speak a lick of Spanish, may be somewhat challenging. Likewise, a trip in the back roads of China could prove more frustrating than enlightening. But I think for our next trip, we may do a combined tour and individual experience. First we'll do a tour of no more than eight days, to get a lay of the land and feel comfortable, then strike out on our own for the next ten days and see where we end up. That way we can try this travel experience but still leave an element of surprise to the trip. If you'd read my blog post "Bamboozled" you'd know I get my jollies planning travel excursions and to this day, I think I've been fairly successful doing so. I got many other itineraries ready to go: Turkey, Costa Rica, Belize, Dominica and even Gabon. At this point we're thinking Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam or Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala (maybe Panama) so I have a lot of research ahead and about six months to put it all together. No problem.
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