Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Bulago Gin Breeze Cocktail #FoodieExtravaganza

With equal parts gin, orange juice, Campari and tonic, a Bulago Gin Breeze Cocktail is super refreshing and a doddle to make.




For the last few years, I've been hearing my friends David and Nicky talking about a small home they have on Bulago Island in the Ugandan portion of Lake Victoria. It's a sweet retreat from the hectic world, where there is scarcely any internet and lazy days are best spent sipping cocktails, doing 1,000-piece puzzles, reading and watching the wildlife.

We finally got ourselves organized for a trip last April. It's less than a five-hour flight from the United Arab Emirates. Completely do-able for a long weekend.

The whole trip was a joy and Bulago is indeed a treasure. The birds alone require a reference volume for birds of East Africa because there are so many that inhabit the island, including enormous Hornbills and colorful Kingfishers and the Egyptian geese that wandered our garden. A pair of binoculars were always at the ready and I kept my telephoto lens on my camera as well. One never knew who or what would turn up.

One afternoon, as my husband and I were sitting out on the lawn reading, I heard a noise in the tree branches overheard. I thought it was some of the birds building nests because they had been going back and forth in an exhaustingly productive manner. Imagine my surprise, when this is what I saw.


I beat a hasty retreat to the house since he looked like he was about to leap down upon me. After my less than endearing experiences with monkeys when we lived in Malaysia, I am not a fan. Eventually he lost interest and we went back to our state of relative inactivity, reading and watching this scenery, keeping an eye out for otters and alligators. (Saw some of both!) There may have been Bulago Gin Breeze Cocktails involved, if not that day, certainly the next.


 Hardly anyone swims in this part of Lake Victoria. Now you know why.

We arrived on Bulago with two bottles of gin, one bottle of vodka and a box of red wine. There was some mix up in our grocery order so a whole case - 12 liters - of orange juice was delivered, along with tonic, beer and fresh vegetables. The store cupboard revealed an elderly bottle of Campari. And so our host created this new drink we aptly named a Bulago Breeze. When the breeze is blowing (or flowing) on Bulago, there is no more pleasant place to be.

Ingredients for one 8 oz drink
1/4 cup or 60ml orange juice
1/4 cup or 60ml Campari
1/4 cup or 60ml gin
1/4 cup or 60ml tonic
Ice

Method
Mix together all the ingredients in a glass. Add ice. It couldn't be more simple.


And enjoy. Cheers!


Today my fellow Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing recipes with gin, six in all. Many thanks to our event host, Caroline of Caroline's Cooking for her hard work behind the scenes.

Need some gin-piration? Check out our link list:


Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out here.

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Monday, May 29, 2017

Crawfish Pie Muffins #MuffinMonday


Crawfish pie muffins are not for the faint of heart. They have a half cup of melted butter, a full cup of peeled crawfish with fat included, and a little cayenne for zip. On the other hand, I've also included one cup of iron-fortified quick grits and some fresh green onions.


Every year when I come home for a visit in the spring, boiled crawfish are at the top of my list of Things I Want to Eat. We like to buy them live and cook them ourselves because we can season them to our taste but most importantly, because they are substantially cheaper that way. They are sold by the sack and you have to buy the whole thing (usually between 30-40 pounds) because stores won't divide them. This year the price is $1.97/lb, which is pretty darn good. Deliveries are only made on Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday so I plan my trips accordingly. I need at least one weekend here to take advantage.

Last Friday, I bought a 35 lb sack and boiled them in three batches. It was just my elder daughter, my mother and me so we ate till we couldn’t eat any more and, of course, there were plenty, I mean PLENTY, of leftovers. I ate cold boiled crawfish (delicious!) on Saturday. And on Sunday my mom came over and we both ate lots more. Then I peeled a bunch and made these tasty crawfish pie muffins. And there are still crawfish in my refrigerator! I don’t think I could ever get tired of eating boiled crawfish but this is going to be the test.

Meanwhile, the muffins turned out perfectly. The cooked grits add great flavor and texture, kind of a little like cornbread but with a much softer crumb.

Ingredients 
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1 cup or 170g cooked, peeled crawfish, with fat
Small bunch green onions, just the green parts, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 large eggs
3/4 cup or 360ml milk
1/2 cup or 113g butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing pan
1 cup or 242g cooked grits, cooled

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Lightly grease 12-cup muffin pan with butter.

Measure your flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne into a large mixing bowl, along with the green onions and peeled crawfish. Mix well to combine and coat the crawfish with the seasoned flour.


Whisk the eggs together with the cooled grits. Add in the butter and milk and whisk again.


Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and stir until just mixed together.


Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the muffins are baked through and golden on the outside.

Enjoy!



Check out all the lovely muffins my Muffin Monday bakers have for you today!


#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Sunday, May 28, 2017

Grilled Red Snapper with Cilantro and Onion Stuffing or حمراء مشوية مع حشوة

Grilled red snapper is a deliciously easy dish, cooked over a charcoal fire. The snapper stays moist of you grill with the scales on - and flavor is added - when you fill it with cilantro and onion stuffing, a traditional recipe from my current home, the United Arab Emirates.




I grew up with a father that fished and hunted so I am not unfamiliar with guts and eyeballs on foodstuff. But honestly, the first time I remember seeing a whole fish on a plate was probably when I was 10 or 11 years old, visiting Daddy in Venezuela or Peru and my stepmother not only ordered a whole fish but she popped out the eyeball and ate it with relish saying it was a delicacy.  Needless to say, as a child, I was repulsed. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the rest of the fish though!

Then when we lived in Abu Dhabi back in late Eighties and I was the editor at a small publishing house, my boss was an Omani gentleman who taught me that the sweetest part of the fish was the cheek, which is found behind the eye in a little pocket.  I always go for that little piece first because he was so right. (Thanks, Saleh!) If you’ve never cooked a whole fish, I’d like to encourage you to try it.  There is no way a fish filet can be as tasty as a whole fish cooked on the bones.  If the eyes really offend you, get your fish guy to cut off the head, but leave the rest of the fish intact.

Our theme is grilling this week but I wanted especially to make something from the United Arab Emirates, since this is home right now.  This recipe comes to me from a fellow Texan who married an Emirati and moved to the UAE.  Her blog is filled with delicious local fare, with complete explanations and photos, and is a treasure trove of ideas for anyone interested in Emirati cooking.  MaryAnn is a sweetheart and I am grateful to her for her advice and expertise.  You can find her blog at Emiratican Kitchen. She hasn't updated in a while because she is a beautiful seamstress and that has become her focus. but the recipes are all still there. If you leave her a comment, please tell her Stacy sent you.

In Arabic, red snapper is hamra, grilled is meshwiya and stuffing is hashwa, so this is hashwa meshwiyah m’a hashwa or as MaryAnn put it more simply, grilled hamra with hashwa.  Whatever you call it, it is delicious!  For her recipe, I was supposed to use a large red snapper of one kilo or about 2.2 pounds, but sometimes those are hard to come by.  I substituted two smaller snappers so the cooking time was much shorter.  And since we were just two eating that night, I ended up freezing the second one. It made a beautiful dinner another night.

Grilled Red Snapper with Cilantro and Onion Stuffing


Grilling a whole fish with scales on keeps it from sticking to the hot grill.  Stuffing it with onions, cilantro and spices infuses the whole fish with lovely flavors and keeps it from drying out on the grill.

Ingredients
Hamra (Red Snapper) 2 lbs plus or 1 kg - or larger (Whole – do not scale or trim fins)

For the stuffing:
1 medium-sized onion
1 medium-sized green bell pepper
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 thumb-sized knob fresh ginger
1 bunch cilantro or fresh coriander
1/4 cup or 60ml extra virgin olive oil
1 heaped teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin powder

Method
Gut the fish from the belly to leave a space for the stuffing.  (I let the fish guy at my local market do this job for me.)  Make sure to leave the scales on so the fish won’t stick to the grill.

Chop your onion and bell pepper finely.  Peel and mince your garlic and ginger.  Wash your cilantro thoroughly and trim off the end hard woody ends of the stems.  Chop the stems of the cilantro very finely and then chop the leaves roughly.



In a medium-sized bowl, thoroughly mix the onion, bell pepper, cilantro, garlic and ginger with all of the spices and the olive oil.



Fill the cavity in the fish with the stuffing.


Using a large needle and some kitchen string (I used poultry string, normally used for trussing a chicken for roasting) sew sides of the fish belly back together.  (I could not find my large needles, so I used an ice pick to poke the holes.  Then I put the stuffing in and tied the knots.)

Tie knots as you go to make sure the sewing is secure.




Meanwhile, light your fire in the barbecue pit.  When the coals are light grey all around the edges, they are ready.

Place the fish on the grill and put the cover on the pit with a little opening to make sure there is enough air getting in so you don’t smother the coals.

Cook for about 10-12 minutes on each side, ideally turning only once so your fish doesn’t fall apart.   If you are fortunate to find a larger fish, MaryAnn says to cook it for 30 minutes on each side.


Put a knife in at the thickest part and look at the bones to make sure the fish is cooked all the way down.  When the fish meat is completely white and opaque, the fish is done.



To serve, peel the charred skin and scales off with a knife and lift the meat off the bones.


Lift the meat off the bones with a knife or spatula. 
Lift the bones off to get to the other side. 
Traditionally, MaryAnn says this is served with white rice and fresh greens.  I didn’t take a photo of it, but we topped the fish with a little of the stuffing and it was delicious.



Enjoy!

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