gsquared

Indeed. I sort of like the idea of a blog from Wisconsin, Cusina.......

Now now, Adaxograph. Best draw a veil over the details lest I offend your no doubt delicate Chicagoan sensibility. Allow me, however, to rub it in. We are lounging outside in shorts and T-shirts discussing Victor Frankel and other obstruse things. Its is a balmy 22C. The wife and one sleep-in guest is still swanning around town. I have more or less regained some equilibrium (must be the pipe). It is difficult to remain cantankerous when an African peace enfolds you. The Hennesy helps!

I remember the original Three Nuns. Currently on a circle cut Escudo Navy Flake. There is no greater pleasure after a good meal to pour a cognac or single malt and prepare a pipe. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: "A woman is a woman, but a pipe is a good smoke."

Now there is a thought! Lateral thinking required. My friend, Willem Boshoff, is a renowned sculptor known for doing things out of the box. Maybe he can help. But yes, I am now determined to maintain the relationship, albeit in another guise. Thanks, Toliver.

Thank you! Funny you should say that. As I read your post, I was firing up my meerschaum....

A Kudu is a large antelope with striking, curved horns. Pic here. It is a sought after trophy by hunters and is relatively plentiful. Hence the meat is fairly widely available - trophy hunters are generally, bless their little hearts, not interested in the parts behind the neck. The meat is gamey yet finely textured.

Small hotel near Cape Town: "Shake Dry" and "Drip Dry"

Not a good food day at all. My business lunch went well, business-wise. Food-wise, it was less good. Fortunately the food was a side issue. The house red came from a box (I saw it) and was a particularly vile representative of the species. The pasta was forgettable but the lemon meringue was, given what went before, surprisingly good. I was late getting home and the wife and guest were putting on the glad rags to go to the theatre. They were hungry. I Wandered around the kitchen with that Bleh! feeling. Looked in the fridge without really seeing what was in it. Looked in the veggie drawers. No inspiration. Do you ever have those times when you know you will produce something, but it is bound to be so-so, simply because you are Bleh!? Were it not for the guest, I would assuredly have phoned Mr. Delivery. This is a service that allows you to order from any one of 25 or so restaurants for home delivery. Not an option. Soldier on and be brave, mon cher. These are the times that are sent to test our mettle. So: Pan fried breaded pork cutlets on cream corn made using Keller's technique - remove the corn from four cobs, reserve half, blend the other half with two tablespoons of water (to get the blender going). Push through a sieve and place the liquid with the reserved corn over a low heat and simmer. The starch in the liquid thickens the corn liquid. Season. Corned cream with nothing but corn. Accompanied by caramelized fennel. Cook strips cut from the fennel head in water until softish but still with some crunch. Drain. Three tablespoons of sugar into pan. Melt and colour slightly. Add three tablespoons unsalted butter. Stir. Add fennel. The caramel with clump up because of the residual water on the fennel. Stir (or toss) well until the caramel dissolves. Cook over medium heat until the fennel acquires some colour. Just to add colour, a fine diamond dice of tomato. The camera's batteries were on their last legs - the flash did not go off and hence all I can offer is a sort of orangey coloured effort with the food only vaguely discernable. A goodly splash of Hennesy VSOP in the hand, he contemplated his navel pensively. "There is always tomorrow", he muttered and sighed the sigh that only the frustrated cook can understand. (I think I must grow a beard. It seems to me that there is nothing like being able to stroke your beard pensively.)

Interesting technique for the naan. Thanks for that. Welcome to eGullet!

Very interesting. Thanks, Michael. It seems as if the presence of alcohol renders food haram and the fact that it evaporates in the cooking process does not change that state.

Always! That is probably the mantra for my meals the past few weeks - "Got room for one more?" I headed up the software development team for an investment bank.

Early hours of the morning - 5 am. Old habits die hard. This is the time of day when our energy levels are high and the creative juices are flowing. The wife is working furiously on her new Africa series and I am trying to plan the rest of the week. My other activities are intruding on the even tenor of my cooking today and I have to put on my consulting hat. Literally. Why do so few men wear hats these days? I seldom venture forth without donning one of my hats. The current favourite is a brown Acubra from Aus. For the rest we have another sleep-in guest arriving today, and yet another tomorrow. So, tonight there will be two guest for dinner and tomorrow night three. That is, of course, if nobody else drops in. I will think about dinner whilst braving the traffic this morn.

Success at last! This blog, Katie, is a fiendish plot to lure susceptible (and preferably nubile) young women to Africa where they will be kept in durance vile. Phone me for your plane ticket.

When I retired last year, Jenny, the wife and I decided on a sort of role reversal. She wanted to launch a career as an artist and we agreed that I would take over the household and provide the support for her that she did for me when I worked full-time. Cooking started off as part of my chores and quickly became a passion.

Thanks, Squeat, for the kind words.

The "m" here must be the colonial influence! Thanks, Jack.

sarmie=sandwich. Both here and, I think in the UK.

No volunteer yet for next week's blog.........

Dinner was, well, ok. I had planned on having to prepare it only for the sleep-in guest, but two friends showed up unexpectedly and I had to expand a bit. Did the stir fried pasta thing with chicken, and I am not driven to desperation with the result. Not ecstatic either. Did a quick dessert - mango sauted in a little butter with Cointreau added after 3 minutes. Served with vanilla ice cream. The mango was great and carried the dessert. I could have been more generous with the Cointreau. The marriage between mango and orange deserves further exploration.

Pan, I do have a reasonable knowledge of Cape Malay cooking. As does practically everyone in S.A. The Malay influence has permeated our cooking to such an extent that is is almost ubiquitous. I am fairly confident that alcohol in any form, overt or covert, is shunned. Please post when/if you get more clarity on this issue.

Dinner for the guest will be stir fried spaghetti (I have some fresh, not dried spaghetti that should be good) with stir fried chicken (strips of breast). Maybe some ginger, garlic, lime zest and lemon grass into the oil in the wok, with a few pinches of Chinese 5 spices. Stir fry the cooked pasta until coated, add in some soy sauce and Nam Pla. Keep warm. More oil into the wok. Add lots of ginger. Stir fry the chicken. Generous amount of coriander over the pasta topped by the chicken. Hmmm...this is sounding sort of Thai-ish. I am very, very weak on oriental cooking and just have no idea of the flavour balance of Thai food. Maybe less of the orient. I dunno. Maybe I'll just make it up as I go along. I really do not agonize lengthily about every dish I make. But this is, after all, a blog and I am honour bound to share my thoughts. The above thought process would normally occupy only a few seconds in real time. In any event, something will be cobbled together and duly reported upon.

No problem, Jake. A lemon grass stick is not exactly a firm skewer - you need to take care when threading the prawn and sort of coax it onto it.

I guess it will be the gewurtz jelly and mussel jelly. Not really a dish, I know - more of an amuse, but it is one of the first things I thought up all by myself. It has probably been done in various forms, but I devised it without outside reference. Hence my pride, albeit perhaps misplaced. But, what the heck, when you are learning how to cook, small triumphs like that feature large. One other dish I make regularly and can make some claim to originality, come to think of it, is tempura prawn on lemon grass. The innovation (at least I think it is an innovation), is to sharpen a fresh lemon grass stick, scrape the end with a sharp knife to leave curls of lemon grass on it, impale the prawn on the end and then tempura and fry. The lemon grass flavour permeates the prawn to some extent - sort of prawn and lemon all in one.

Thanks to you all. Welcome to eGullet, OrmIrian!

Hot toddys. Lots of them. Get better soon!