But this isn't fish, it's eel... ;) ok, quibbling... ;)

Eel is a proper subset of fish. Doesn't much look
right, I admit.

Yes, I know that... which is why I said I was quibbling... Mentally I
put eel in a category all of its own, as I like it so much... ;)

Now I'm the one who's quibbling.

The can itself is primarily red and gold, and the picture of the Old Fisherman is rather small and tucked into a corner of the flat side of
the can, with a red and yellow checked background for that corner...
I've not seen it in any regular grocery stores, and not even at all
the different Asian markets around here....

Still not sure I've seen the brand. The ones I have
noted tend to have pictures of fish on the cans.

The other half of that side shows a couple pieces of eel, with
garnish(es) and a fork...

Not a pair of chopsticks? Now you know what side the
bread of the Chinese is buttered.

That sounds quite yummy.... :) There was a nice bowl of cut-up peaches as a possible sundae topping last night after the evening service... we had an ice cream social to send off one of our young men to a new job in Harrisburg PA...

Turns out they also have a yellow peach tree - we
later had a compote that had both colors, mixed.

That sounds pretty, and, I trust, also very tasty... :)

Since she makes her compote out of drops, it was less
pretty than tasty, and the fruit were very soft.

+

Ehh, my idea was to make life easier for the girl,
who seemed to have enough to do.

True, it was a fairly busy night at the restaurant, too... :)

If it had been a low night, I'd have asked for at least
some of the dishes to have been made natively hot and
possibly with some additional hottener on the side.

I keep forgetting that many people spend too much time
sweating the little things when they cook. Bonnie (mine,
not yours) made a dish that required over an hour of
constant work and said that even though she liked it (it
was from Bon Appetit), she'd never make it again. After
reading the text I told her that I'd teach her to make it
and better in 10 minutes.

Always a good thing in my book to make recipes less fussy... :)

If the difference is negligible. My issue with most
semi-homemade things is that they are almost never as good.
This recipe seemed to be an attempt to get sort of Thai
flavors but use less oil. I think the result was not as
good, and the procedure was irritatingly complicated.

I had been hoping for a bigger dose of gored gored,
but it's just as well, because there were people over
[i]there[/i] who didn't eat any of it, so I figure
those who liked it got enough.

Hopefully... :)

Since I had some to finish after everyone else had
essentially stopped eating, that was my tentative
conclusion.

It was an interessting experiment - perhaps life would
have been easier for everyone but the dishwasher if we
had the dishes served in dishes. The way we were actually
served made for more of what we have come to think of as
authentically Ethiopian, though, not that any of us has
ever been there.

No, but, the proprietors came from there, and they state that that's the
way it's traditionally done, so I'll take their word for it... :)
Serving it that way, even though a bit of a confusion, probably did
allow for the most thorough tasting of all the different items... there
would have been more plates passing around if each was on a different plate... ;) With a smaller group (like when it's been 3 or 4 of us), getting the sampler special plate seems to work out pretty well for
getting a lot of different tastes, and sharing the meal... :)

It wasn't the ordering but the presentation that I
thought would have been better otherwise. As the
table was a long one and the platters unwieldy,
lots of smaller dishes always passed in the same
direction would have facilitated things.

Of course, I would not have sniffed at a
meal of raw gored gored, rare gored gored, and
cooked gored gored.

Now that sounds quite intriguing... an interesting study in the
contrasts and all... :)

Not only that, with a little study and effort we
could do it ourselves.

I certainly wouldn't put it past your capabilities... :) That could be
a picnic deal... :)

You're planning picnics for the next forty years,
seems like - or at least beyond my lifespan. Gored
gored I could do, once I figure out how to make a
rancid but not too rancid niter kibbe.

Possibly, in which case I might well have left it for
those who were not so enthusiastic about raw meat.

Possible... seems that almost everyone had at least a taste of the kitfo and the gored gored, though... :)

... those who wanted it ... .

I suppose.. :)

Redundundancy, part of old people conversations.

Ethiopian Spiced Clarified Butter (Tegelese Tesmi)
Categories: Ethiopian, Eritrean, fat, ingredient
Yield: 1 batch

500 g unsalted butter
1 md onion
2 md garlic cloves
2 1/2 cm ginger
10 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
h - Optional ingredients
cardamon
cloves
cinnamon
cumin
nutmeg
turmeric
other herbs like oregano, basil, thyme, etc

If the butter is cold, cut it into large cubes. Place
the butter in a medium heavy based saucepan. Add all
the other ingredients and heat on medium-low heat to
melt the butter, about 5 min.

Lower the heat down to low and continue cooking. You'll
immediately start seeing a thin white layer forming on
the surface. These are the milk solids. They will start
to foam but shouldn't boil over at the low heat. The
foam will then break up into little clusters and
continue to dissipate as the water cooks off. This
will be around the 15 min mark.

At around 20 min, the bubbling would have calmed down
considerably, and this tells us that the water has all
gone. Because we have "impurities" in the butter, in
the form of our onions, etc, the bubbling won't
altogether cease. Using a fork, take out the onions,
garlic, ginger and bay leaf and leave them aside to use
as topping on some other recipe. Leave the peppercorns.

If you are aiming for a rich golden colour, it's time to
stop. You shouldn't have much foam at the surface, but if
you do, skim it off but don't worry too much about it, as
we will be straining it. If you fancy a darker colour and
flavour, leave it cooking for another 10 to 20 min. The
longer you leave it, the darker the colour. Keep an eye on
it, as around the 45 min mark, you'll be burning the fat.
And we don't want that, as it will be bitter.

Triple line your strainer with a cheesecloth or muslin and
place it over a glass bowl. Pour the clarified butter in
to strain. Repeat for a clearer looking product, you can
use the same cheesecloth.

Store it in a sterilized jar, cool to room temperature and
store in the fridge. Will keep for 3 months in the fridge.
It will harden in the fridge.

Azlin Bloor, linsfood.com
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)