Tag: cooking

Big Tuna

Right along the beach in the previous post is a small cove where fishermen dock their little wooden fishing boats and sell freshly caught fish to people driving or walking by. Yesterday morning Lucy brought us this beautiful Tuna that she bought from the fisherman the day before.

I was skyping with Wendy at the time so I was able to show it to her live, but I took photos for the rest of you. It was longer than the width of our counter — I’m rough guesstimating that it was 2 – 2 1/2 feet long? 

Hello, beautiful fish! Lucy filleted it like a professional. I asked her where she learned how to do that and she laughed and said they have lots of fish at home in Goa. You are spared from any butchering pictures because I was too busy watching her take the fish apart. I wanted to take pictures of the heart, liver, and stomach to show the boys when they got home, but I thought she might think that was a little strange.

After the meat was separated from the bones Lucy used the bones to make fish stock (which will probably be turned into chowder later) and cut the dark red meat (it would have made beautiful sushi) into large pieces which she seasoned, dipped in flour and pan fried.

Baby girl ate a bunch of it. I have no idea how Lucy got all the bones out. I left the kitchen for a few minutes and missed that part. While the fish was still whole Camille kept gasping in surprise and wanting to get a closer look at it as if it were a cat or a dog. Now I want to take her to the fish sook to see what she thinks of all the fish there. 

coffee group

Baby girl and I hosted the embassy spouse coffee group this month. While we were setting up for the the party we took some photos of ourselves.

Showing off her ability to climb up on the table, stand up, and crouch back down. 

Super proud — right before she took a tumble off the table. 

No blood, no foul.

On the menu: Fruit salad with melon, apples, grapes, oranges, and mint.
Chicken salad sandwiches (in the croissants)
Molasses cookies
Chocolate Banana Bread
Drinks: coffee, tea, orange juice, champagne

Nothing fancy — good food served on paper plates with wooden forks and paper napkins. And I was able to put my large collection of Starbucks mugs to good use. The fanciest part of it all was my new tablecloth from the Syrian wood guy in the sook. I figured as a grownup, I probably should own one tablecloth so I bought this one last week. It’s a latte colored fabric with slightly darker embroidery thread.

There were 15 or 16 women in attendance and we had a fun time chatting, eating, and shopping. (A woman was there who sells shirts that she imports from India). Camille partied right through her naptime. She was too busy “trying on” the clothes and eating bites of cookie to feel tired. She strutted around the room like she  was one of the the girls instead of my baby.

Why cookie baking is always an adventure

The recipe calls for 3/4 cup of butter. Hmm, the butter here comes in 500 gram blocks. What is 3/4 of a cup? Isn’t that a stick and a 1/2? How am I supposed to figure out how much butter to add?

eyeball big block of butter. cut off estimated amount. add to mixer with 1 cup sugar. turn on mixer. 

Woah!  as sugar goes flying over the edges of the bowl. The super slow speed here is way faster here than at home. Sweep up sugar. Add molasses. I only need 1/4 cup, that’s about one glug from the jar, right? Better add a second glug to make up for the lost sugar.

Add one egg. Add dry ingredients to wet. I know you’re supposed to mix all the dry ingredients together first, but that dirties up an extra bowl and take an extra step so I just stop the mixer and add all the dry ingredients on top of the wet before turning it on again.

Add 2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger. At home I always add a full teaspoon because I like them extra gingery, but I don’t have any powdered ginger in the house. I do have plenty of fresh ginger. I bet that will work. Get out microplane and ginger root. Grate into bowl. I wonder how much ginger I should add? Taste dough. Try not to freak out about possible salmonella exposure. Needs more ginger.

Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 tsp ground cloves. Look through cupboards. I guess I don’t have any ground cloves in the house. Nutmeg is one of those Thanksgiving-y spices. I’ll add that instead. Grate part of a nutmeg over the mixing bowl. Hope it’s the right amount of the wrong ingredient. 

Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Cinnamon is easy because I never have to measure it. You can never have too much cinnamon. Turn on mixer. Dodge flying flour. Hope you added enough at the beginning to make up for the loss. 

Hmm. The dough looks wetter and less brown than last time. Is that because I was out of white sugar last time and subbed brown? Or because I actually added the full amount of butter instead of cutting it in half like I usually do? Oh well, no turning back now.

Roll balls of dough in sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. My oven here measures the temperature in Celcius. 220 is high so 180 should be close enough, right? Put in oven. Forget what time you started baking them. Hover in front of the oven until they are browned and the tops start cracking. 


The verdict?


They were perfect.

Chicken every Wednesday

I didn’t have anything in mind for dinner tonight so Lucy suggested I get a chicken and she would cook it in white wine. “It’s very nice, Madame.” Hmm, chicken in white wine sounds very nice. So off I went to the store in search of a chicken, celery, and parsley.

The difficult ingredient to get, the white wine, comes from a small stash that Josh bought from the embassy soon after we arrived. Yes, we can only buy alcohol at the embassy. There are a few unmarked stores around town that sell alcohol (when I say “unmarked” I mean the glass on the windows is covered with brown paper and there is no signage — they look abandoned), but you need a special permit saying you aren’t Muslim to in order to buy alcohol there.

Anyway, back to the chicken. I brought the groceries home to Lucy and she chopped away, cut the whole chicken into pieces like a professional and then worked her magic. She had things browning and simmering and when it was done the whole house smelled like something I wanted to eat. She left the pot on the stove to cool so I could put it in the fridge to heat up for dinner.

Before I put it away I had to try it, you know, to make sure it was good. Then I had to try some more and Camille needed a few bites and before you knew it we were huddled around the pot like a couple of hobos around a campfire. The white wine with the mushrooms and the chopped parsley and onions and celery . . . I think I’m going to have to make this a regular fixture on our menu. It’s a foodie version of heroin. I hope I left enough for everyone else for dinner tonight.

***Josh and I managed to polish off the rest of the Meth Chicken by 4:33. I guess we’ll have to figure out “plan B” for dinner.