Quoting Michael Loo to Jim Weller <=-

On a sadder note, United has discontinued Courvoisier
worldwide. The best spirits offered are now Glenfarclas and
Buffalo Trace.

Surely they carry some sort of brandy? I'm not familiar with
Glenfarclas but it has good reviews and Buffalo Trace is certainly
drinkable.

thawed it's easy to push out the plug of slushy guts before the meat
is tainted. (Young Inuit women tell me to leave them in for a couple
of hours to flavour the flesh, while their grandmothers suggest a
whole day!)

Entrails aren't as horrid as people think

I forgot about it and they remained inside the fish overnight (in
the fridge, not out on the counter) and the steaks were fine. They
had an added unami richness that was quite pleasant.

Points to grandma.

We just had four more of them tonight. I did them the same way, on
purpose this time.

seasoned salt, pepper and dried tarragon.

Sounds fine, for those for whom tarragon is
a thing (I'm on and off the stuff

Dill instead tonight. You probably disapprove but we like it.

Another recent nice treat ... Vietnamese pork spring rolls. These
were made by and a Christmas gift from the lady who does Roslind's
nails and lashes. And they were different than any that I have
encountered in either Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants. The
wrappers were wheat flour based, like spring roll wrappers in Chinese-Canadian restaurants, not rice paper, and obviously hand
made from scratch as they weren't perfectly uniform. The filling was
very lightly seasoned (with a faint hint of star anise) ground pork
with just a very modest amount of extremely fine shreds of carrot
but no other vegetables.

I stand corrected. That gift was from the lashes lady. The nail lady
turns out to be another Vietnamese woman. Roslind mentioned the first
batch to the second lady who in turn gave her a dozen frozen ones as
a small gift. She claims hers are more traditional with chopped
shrimp, glass noodles and mushrooms. We shall see as we'll be
thawing and deep frying six of them them soon enough. The woman
coyly mentioned that making and selling them in bulk is one of her
three jobs! So what we got was a free trial sample and not an out
and out gift!

Were these the size of a fat man's finger?

Yep. And quite tasty even if not as expected.

We were speculating on the taste of swans a while back. Apparently
the black swan population in New Zealand is large enough to permit
hunting ...

MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV 2.10

Title: Black Swan Breast
Categories: NZ, game, poultry
Servings: 4

2 black swan breasts (300-400g
ea)
sprinkle of olive oil and
wine
1 onion
dash of cooking oil
1/2 ts ground cumin
1/4 ts ground coriander
1/3 c raisins
1 lemon
2 ts gravy mix

Trim the breasts and simply cut across the breast into five to six
pieces. Cut the end pieces a little thicker so that all the pieces
are around the same weight. Gently tap each piece out a little with
a light meat mallet. You can use the back of a knife - you just need
to shape each piece into nice little medallion steaks. Put them into
a dish, sprinkle over the oil and wine and a generous grind of black
pepper. Cover with cling film and chill until required.

Peel the rind from the lemon and cut into thin strips. Add a cup of
boiling water to the raisins, the lemon rind and a little squeeze of
juice. Dice the onions, fry a minute or two in a small saucepan then
add the spices and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the raisins,
water and lemon and simmer until it has reduced and the onions are
soft (around fifteen minutes). Add a dessert spoon of water to the
gravy mix and stir into the onions to combine. Season to taste.

Preheat a heavy pan or barbecue flat top. Place on the steaks and
cook a couple of minutes on each side. Rest in a warm place for 5
-10 minutes then serve with the spiced onions.

H. Carston

From: Www.Instructables.Com

MMMMM-------------------------------------------------

Cheers

Jim


... Words were created by Big Dictionary just to sell more of their books.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)