Currying the Chicken...STAGE 1

See the things I do for you Bear?!
This is the prep stage
Thaw the Chicken (I like to use bone chicken, rather than deboned chicken)

Get your seasoning ready. The lemon concentrate (to cut the 'fresh chickeny' smell and taste), salt, pepper, garlic, seasoning salt, red pepper flakes.

Get your curry ready (some of the curry goes in at the seasoning stage).
I showed the various types of curry.
If you don't have Chief Brand curry, McCormick's makes a decent one in the tiny bottle. If you make a lot of curry, you want to get the curry in bags because you will use a lot!

Wash your chicken and de-skin it if you wish. ( I de-skin and cut off extra fat)

Add your seasonings starting with the Lemon concentrate first, add the curry last.

Let that sit for a couple hours to marinate. In the fridge.

Bleach is very important here because chicken is a very germy affair. Clean up of the sink and utensils will require a water and bleach mixture wash your hands (with soap and that bleach and water mixture), everytime you handle chicken, and before you touch your spice bottles

Mummy's brown stew chicken

I think hers is better than mine and I make good brown stew!
She has DE REAL POT and everything in Trinidad.
Sis sent me thse pics.
I should cook for more Americans...
They are so picky though and dont like to try new things :(

The real Pommceythere Chow

I will say Pomme because I am sure I spelled it wrong in the title.
Sis made this with half ripe Pomme, salt and pepper.
I used to love this when I was growing up!

Lunch....Dinner :)

I like salads

In the fridge and freezer

Freezer packed.
I keep a lot of frozen veges, meat, and other perishables there.
The fridge is kinda bare :)

The pantry

Is right out in the open.
Easy access.
Huge.
I can see everything so I never forget anything.

My Kitchen

I borrowed this from Nikki's 'Welcome to my Kitchen'
Its small but I like how much cupboard space there is all over and the pantry is wide open.
I really like it a lot.

I can't eat from this...

It's just way too pretty!
Sis bought this the other day. I think I would just want to look at it.
I prefer my black plates and cups and mugs.
I like how they look with food on them and I don't mind using them
Plates can be art but I would feel weird using them.
Till I ran out of my black plates cuz they are piled high in the sink hahahah
Then I say "ART BE HANGED"

Once in a while

I will show you the books that I really enjoy going through.
Two of my favorites (I own all my favorites) are EGG and Butter.
They show all the great food you can cook and produce using egg, and using butter.
Of course all my favorite cookbooks have to have great pictures and these books deliver.
I love food!
Bear and Sis are gone so I don't have anyone to cook for, but I'll still putter around for myself and show you what I am up to :)

The Credit goes to

My Neighbor's parents who went back to China.
They planted and grew peppers and tomatoes and herbs.
I loved that.
They also sang in the walkway every day.
So I ventured out and looked at it all.
I really like looking at different gardens, no matter how makeshift they are.
This morning I saw an infomercial for a hydroponic garden that you can keep in your kitchen.
Of course there is less devotion to one of those than to the ones you have to dig the dirt for, but I suppose if you don't have the time or inclination for dirt.....

Spice Traders

I went to the Old Florida Spice Traders store in St. Augustine
Inside was like an alchemy shop.
I expected the traders to look like monks in robes. I loved it there seeing the spices in glass jars and barrels.
The owners were so nice to me and stood there answering questions and measuring out the peppercorns I bought.
I got the corns and the mini peppermill.
I love those buys.
I love that store!
Check them out HERE at www.oldflaspicetraders.com

THE BOOK

The Naparima Girls Diamond Jubilee Cookbook is a local favorite that we use to get our local dishes done.
I haven't used mine much but I am going to keep it.
I am making this post because I feel ashamed that Nikki uses her book and I do not!

Sorrel

Bear got the dried stuff and I am scared I won't do it justice.
I am used to fresh sorrel.
So I am thinking I will make the sorrel and taste it.
If I hate it I wont let bear get any at all.
If a foreigner gets turned off of sorrel it is hard to get them back, so I want to do it right. I have to formulate my methodology hahaha

Percolating

I don't drink coffee so I don't have a clue as to how to make it.
I have this percolator now because I had guests who drink coffee like it was water :(
The percolator I have seen before when I was younger and in Tobago on the farm for holidays.
I am not sure that they had the percolating mechanism on the inside or if it was just a tall pot for boiling water.
But it looked just like this thing here sitting on my tiny gas stove :)
Well maybe it was more antique and rusty looking.

This ended up being

A great salad
MMMMM...Bear made it and I helped.
See the big chunks of Feta that I cut up? hmmmm annoying :(
Then the spinach and other greens :)
Then we added raisins and dressing and anything else we wanted. Remember what I said about the raisins (they make everything taste better).

Whole and Crumbled

Feta Cheese
No comparison
Use the pre-crumbled for salads.
The whole, you have to cut then TRY to crumble and then it never looks quite right. You have to LIFT the block of cheese OUT of the container and just so much handling made me just a little bit annoyed.
If you want to have the feta on a cheese spread for a wine and cheese thing then of course the whole is perfect (except that bits of it crumble on you but whatever).
Take your pick.

Currently Trying Out

LITE HOUSE Red Wine and Olive Oil Salad Dressing.
I usually make my own dressing but Bear got this at the store.
It's alright.... I mean It's not my favorite dressing for the amount of calories per serving.
It is 130 calories per 2 TBSP.
Even though the bottle says Olive Oil, the ingredient list shows that Canola oil is the largerst quantity of oil in there.
I wasn't pleased about that at all.
I love canola oil but I wondered if this was a misrepresentation for commercial reasons :(

Microwave the cake

I like cake. it's become my favorite dessert. I was a donut freak for a while but now it's all about the cake.
The thing is that when you low carb it for a while, cake tastes like a kitchen sponge...so you have to plow though it.
This is my favorite though 1 minute and ten seconds of chocolate heaven in the microwave hahahaha. This is the right serving size too!
I can make a whole cake but then I have to freeze what I don't eat etc etc....

Coffee liquer

Copa de Oro
I like this one a lot.
24% alcohol. I don't drink coffee but this stuff is good!

Valentine Food?

So about two days or so after christmas, the Christmas gift aisle went away at Walmart and now the Valentines Day aisle is up.
I had to buy something from there to show the commercialism of it all.
I got the body pens.
They come in chocolate and Strawberry.
You write on your body parts and I assume someone else licks it off of you.
I thought it would taste nasty, but the strawberry one tastes like Strawbery QUIK!
I think I will just eat it straight from the pen hahahah :)

Thai and Kaffir

Kaffir Lime Leaves are very important in Thai cuisine.
I have some which I have frozen till I am ready to cook with it.
A co-worker brought some in and distributed to upward of 10 people who requested it.
I am going to add some to an asian chicken dish I am going to make, AND maybe to a new dressing I will devise for salad.
The aroma of the leaves fades in the freezer till they are thawed and crushed.
I just love the limey pungency.
I think I will try to grow this when I have some yardage :)

Tilapia

I jerked it.
That means I used the Jamaican Jerk Seasoning in the bottle. I added ONLY 1 tbsp of canola oil to cover the skins of the fish. Then I baked it at 350 F for 38 minutes covered and then 10 minues at 400 F uncovered for that browny crust to form.
I used the whole fish because I like the bones.
Americans have to be careful though, because I think they are more used to bonless fish fillets.
A bone in the throat is not a nice thing to have to deal with.

Egg rolls with "A Sauce"

Ok I make my stuff my OWN way.
So I made BEEF eggrolls and Pepper Cottage Cheese eggrolls.
THE SAUCE is the special thing.
I start with Mango Amchar, which in and of itself can be used as a side but a lot of people don't really find it THAT appetizing.
So I changed it into a chutney by boiling the amchar in water with sugar and garlic.
I also add Apple Jelly for an exotic type flavor.
It is soo good. I like my chutney jus slightly runny, but thick enough that it stays on the eggroll when you dip it.
That is what we will have for lunch today! :)

The Holiday Food

We cooked early so we could sleep in tommorrow hahahah
The turkey is done.
We seasoned it UNDER the skin and in the cavity yesterday with a special seasoning mix that we made.
We baked it with the foil on the breast to seal the juices in and when we were all done, the meat was falling off the bone.

We made the christmas pastries stuffed with seasoned ground beef and raisins...YUM

The Stuffing is also done.
Although it looks a little dry, we did that on purpose because tommorow we add turkey drippings and reconstitute it! hahah

Of course our fried eggplant is ready and waiting.

Sis is making the chocolate cake (low carb be hanged for tommorow)

The vegetables, we will do tommorow.

Today for lunch and dinner we may have salad and fish :)

Fried Eggplant

This is a really good way to cook eggplant.
When people don't really care for eggplant that much and you want to cook for them but have something you like yourself, then fried eggplant is the way to go.
Cut the eggplant into thin strips (1/4 inch thick), salt them and leave them to drain. The salting and draining I did for one hour but longer is ok too!
I wash off the salt quickly then squeeze each of the strips to get excess liquid out. You will see a lot of liquid coming out, looking a little brown in color.

They crumple but don't fall apart.
Dip into a seasoned egg wash and some breadcrumbs (VIGO BRAND) and fry till golden brown or a little past that.
They get all crsipy and goooooood.
One eggplant (large) serves 4 people

Of course the shake

With Irish Cream and Ben and Jerry's neopolitan icecream :)
Yeh it's goooooooddddd

The Cream of Irish Creams

I know that everyone likes Bailey's Irish Cream. That is all we ever really hear about. So I decided that I wanted to be different and try O'connor's Irish Cream.
I tried it and it is JUST as heavenly as Bailey's.
It's 17% alcohol by volume (hahahahha)
AND most importantly..a FRACTION of the cost of the same size bottle of Bailey's.
It was 8.99 for the O'Connors and 21.99 for the Bailey's!!!!!!!!!
Guess branding really makes a difference. :(
So for future reference everyone, here goes.
I highly recommend O'Connors for Taste, Alcohol content, and price.
YEAH!!!!!!!!