grill lime FTW

it's safe to say that we have given in to the pre-packaged lime. we used to enjoy kentucky fried once a month (when yuh mother dragged you in town on a month end and promised you a box of chicken an chips just to keep yuh quiet). now almost all our social moves are based on the availability of a doubles man, gyro stand, bake and shark stall or cutters menu. ah mean, i love a sushi at levels or kaisan as much as the other dude, but i am yet to experience something that beats back the fun, excitement, economy, security and hygienic safety of a bess lime at a breddrin's house. so when pothound said he wanted to fire up his new grill, my saturday night was planned.

the case is usually that you bring something. no pressure really. whatever you feel like. just make it good enough to eat and enough to share. i was talking to my father earlier that day about grilling fish, so i went home and took some swordfish steaks out of the freezer.

when it comes to fish, lime is a must. i forgot to pick limes while i was at my parent's house, so i used some of this handy lime juice in de lime shaped bottle. it aight in emergencies such as these.

lime juice in dey waist!!

seasoning is also key. so in the trusty chopper i blazed some onion, garlic, shadon beni, pimiento, jalapeño, big leaf time and chive.

inside wid dat!!

after that, a little salt and black pepper to taste.

full coverage we dealin with.

ready to rock and roll. i covered it with two pieces of foil just in case i decided to wrap the fish in foil instead of putting it directly on the grill. options we talkin' 'bout.

so later on we pulled up at casa de pothound, who had his stuff ready and waiting.

he didn't waste any time in getting the grill ready. out with them coals.

let's see how sure fire these coals really are.

one match and the coals started. way different from the last time we grilled.

however, alco on hand was not different from the last time we grilled. tonight gin and tonic with a splash of lime... yes... that is the drink.

fiiiiiyuuuuuh!! these coals are coated with a chemical to make them light quickly, so the thing to do is to let the chemical burn off before getting your food on.

meanwhile, some potatoes went to boil.

not this potato though. this one went to bake.

oh... maybe i should explain the scene a bit. the grill man for the night set up a hot zone with the coals on one side and left the opposite side with only ambient heat so we had different temperatures on the grill. so potatoes could bake in one corner while meats could go over the blazing heat.

meanwhile we constructed a bbq sauce with some ketchup, worcestershire sauce, the end of a bottled bbq sauce with some onions, garlic, salt and black pepper. simple but effective.

oh yeah... and the first part of that beer that baidawi finished.

with the sauce done, it was time to get it blazin'.

the first of the meats to grace the hot zone.

so the idea was to cook the chicken a little,

then dip them in the sauce.

then back to the hot zone to finish off and get some colour. some corn went on around this time too. pothound shared a simple technique that just required wetting the corn and rubbing it with some salt before putting it on the lower temperature to start cooking.

thanks to some seamless multitasking, the potatoes were mashed with a little butter, sour cream, salt, pepper and chives. we did it rustic with the skins in. man food nah.

after the chicken, we put on some more coals for more blaze. don't worry, the corns returned also.

so steaks on high heat, corn still on low heat for now.

but slowly the tables started to turn.

soon the corn was in the hot seat getting some charing while the steaks looked on.

notice the potato still jibbin there in the foil.

we threw some wings on there too.

when they were done, pothound flipped them in some wing sauce and put them back on the grill for a bit.

time for the fish... and a few pineapple slices for good measure.

not too long in the hot zone. didn't want it to be too dry.

done!

and that was it. chicken breast, chicken wing, a steak, fish with a side of mashed potatoes and a side of corn. level eats, level drinks, level lime. on a saturday night, that's all the level i really need.

leh we bubble.

the cookie conundrum

i CANNOT bake. i mean the thought of making a bread is enough to make me curl up in fetal and just pay kiss their money. i suck at anything that requires me to kneed flour. like dumplings. but they say practice is the key, so from time to time i try my hand at it. i remembered that i had some oatmeal packs in the cupboard, so i thought... why not try some oatmeal cookies? sounds good. one problem. i don't really like cookies. not into sweets that much. then again, i have some friends that do. so i sent a text to 6 friends from work telling them that i was making some cookies and i would like them to taste them. as in, i'm not going to taste them. they will taste them and post their comments here. talk about setting up yuhself for a publicly recognized epic fail right? excitement!

i thought a good place to start would be a bowl. yuh know... something to put the ingredients in.

flour. not something i use a lot of anymore, but something i keep around for times like these.

i used this small strainer to scoop, measure and sift the flour in one motion. cool eh? didn't want to use too much flour so i used just one scoop.

i used 4 packs of oatmeal though. one maple & brown sugar and 4 cinnamon & apple. so at this point i realized that i was making cinnamon apple oatmeal cookies. sounds cool.

dumped that in the bowl and mixed it with the sifted flour.

oh yeah... baking powder. we baking right? so i guess we need a little bit of this in the mix. inside wid dat!

i heard you have to use some butter in it as well. this is what i had in the fridge so... yeah. that.

then a little sprinkling of salt to taste.

after mashing the butter around in the dry ingredients for a while, not really sure i was making much sense, i added some water. was looking for a thick but smooth dough. really based on a mental image of cookie dough.

the mixture was looking a lil plain, so i grabbed a handful of granola. basically more oats, some raisins, a few nuts... i think i could rock with that.

as i had some apple cinnamon flavor in there, i thought some apple chunks might bring something nice to the table.

i used half of a small apple. just rough chunks. thought it would help with the sweetness as i wasn't adding any more sugar. the maple & sugar oats with the cinnamon oats would have to work with the apple to make things sweet. anyway, at this point i realized that i had to adjust my description again to say apple cinnamon cookies with granola and apple chunks. wow! somebody could actually hear that and think i knew what i was doing or that i set out to do that. HA!

oh... forgot to preheat the oven. better late than never.

then i remembered... i don't have a baking sheet. well, whatever. i lined two baking pans with foil (easy for cleaning up after the fun) and gave them a lil cooking spray.

i spooned out some cookies onto the foil and placed them in the oven. in no time flat, i could smell them. the place had the fragrance of real baking. hm... impressive.

i baked them for about 18mins at 250. the bottoms came out a lil darker than i would like, but the tops had a nice color to them. not bad looking for a first time. but the real test will be when i give them to my friends to let me know how they taste.

well... my first piece of real baking. it was fun. check the comments to see what my friends say about them.

leh we bake.

skip to my loo

callaloo was one of those things that i never tried to make, mainly because my pops has a mean callaloo that he bubbles almost every sunday. why make it when it's always available, yuh know? but since he isn't cooking these days, the opportunity to try something has presented itself. so we've been bubbling callaloo a lot lately. it's not a hard pot at all. it almost cooks itself. check out dawi's version of an easy, tasty loo:

leh we bubble

DIY... drinks it yuhself

i adopted this new rule that is saving me a lot of money. i decided that i would only purchase meals that for one reason or the other are more efficient (or satisfying) to pay someone else to make. that pretty much leaves wings roti, santa cruz roti, sushi for now and pizza because i'm not that good with flour. i left room for the occasional treat, but for the most part, i'm making my meals.

i've taken the same approach with drinks. i mean, i have no real problem with enjoying the ambiance of a tgi or a samaan bar once in a while, but that's all i'm letting it go to these days. once in a while. maybe i'll head out just for a little change of scenery, but for the most part, i'm drinking at home.

when it comes to alco, i've done the royal extra thing, the guinness thing, absolute and johnnie. then i entered a gin mode after being introduced to the simple pleasure of a gin and tonic with a wedge of lime.

but i met these guys recently. rum isn't my thing, but these flavored rums ain't half bad for sips at home. apple, raspberry and citrus.

the razz, is nice with apple juice and two caps of lemon juice over ice.

cranberry and bacardi apple worked for me.

the limon actually helped me eliminate another thing off my "willing-to-spring-for" list. helium shots. the first time i had one was at mor vino. they use absinthe, but i thought... well... rum can flame too.

they also use blue curacao, but i opted for amaretto.

so what you do is swirl the alco around the glass because you're goin to blaze it. yeah. fire.

like so. it takes a little doing to get it started. just hold the fire in a bit and it will start spreading over the liquid.

when it does, place the glass on the mouth of the other like this and use the base to rotate it gently. i guess this is a good time to mention that you want to use something like a brandy glass with that curve and a base that would allow you to hold it when it gets hot, as well as anything like a round whiskey glass or something, so that you can do this. there's another reason why you need this combo. you'll see soon.

so after you blaze it for a while, maybe about 10... 15 seconds, (i jus go until i start to feel scared that the heat will break the glass or something) pour the flaming liquid into the waiting amaretto.

as soon as you pour the liquid out, cover it like so. oh! this is the other reason you need that glass combo. yeah so, what you're doing here is trapping the vapors. here comes the fun part!

take this shot by inhaling the vapors then knocking the drink back. to do that, get a straw and tear a small hole in a napkin. place the glass quickly on the napkin...

cover the mouth of the glass, insert straw and suck out the vapors...

then shoot dat!! better tasting than the ones i had on the outside... not to mention cheaper, but just as much fun.

there's also a coconut flavor that i think i'll pick up sometime. i anticipate a malabu-ish taste, which is why i didn't pick it up this time. but so far, bacardi gets the thumbs up.

leh we guzzle.

ALL YUH NEED NOW IS SOME WINE TO DE SIDE

carnival is here once again. that can mean one of two things:

1. you can't wait to take a wine in town while prancing around in yuh costume.

2. you can't wait to enjoy some wine with a nice plate of something when you get home from liming about in town.

my breddrins and i fall into category number 2. our usual spot is on the corner of ana street in woodbrook by anchor cafe. that's our friend charlie's bar. level drinks, level lime, level fun. but after a day in the sun, it's always nice to whip up something not too hard to make but tasty none the less. that's where easy pots like this fettuccine with seared chicken breast by baidawi comes in. check it out...

according to my NatDecants app, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and champagne are among the beverages that pair well with pastas in cream-based sauces. so is no scene if yuh want some wine to de side of this one.

leh we bubble.