Yellowtail for dinner

Today I bought a lovely fresh fillet of Yellowtail (Seriola lalandi) and I phoned Janet at work and told her that I was doing dinner, as I anticipated she was underwhelmed but I didn't take that as a "No!", I persisted telling her that I was doing it for her health and eventually she gave in and said "Oh very well, I suppose it will be alright." I, on the otherhand, was excited and really looking forward to the meal.

First take a pair of sterilised pliers, not just any old pair out of the garage, and pull all of the bones out of the fillet; (Joe doesn't bother to do this when he cooks fish but I think it's essential.)Then heat up a pan with a splash of olive oil and a good pat of butter and when the oil is hot place the fish in flesh side down and brown it, turn it over and brown the skin side and in the meantime have the oven heating up at 190 degrees.

When the oven is hot enough place the fish into a baking tray in the oven and turn it down to 180, now is the time to make the sauce - pour off the excess oil, turn the stove plate down to about number 4 and pour in about half a cup of good whisky and remember if it's not good enough to drink then it's not good enough to cook with, don't use cheap whisky........life's too short for cheap whisky.

Now de-glaze the pan with the whisky, stir it around scraping all of the bits from the pan and let the whisky reduce as it simmers for a couple of minutes and then pour in about 125mls of fresh cream, let this bubble and thicken, add salt to taste and a sprinkle of mixed herbs. The sauce will reduce to about half and should be nice and thick by the time you pour it over the fish, Janet did some lovely garlic potatoes and some peas and we had a really good meal, better than some restaurants that we have been to, that's for sure;
Does that look good or what? What I didn't mention here is that you should always have a beer or a glass of a nice Sauvignon Blanc close to hand while you are doing all of this, keep sipping while you are busy because it's thirsty work - enjoy, and soon I'll talk about biking again.

Warning: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing.

Eendekuil lunch ride

I managed to get Janet up and ready in time to meet everyone at the starting point by 0915, we had been told that we were going to leave at 0930 sharp so there was just time for a cup of coffee from the Wimpy. They never leave at the organised time and the guys all stand around looking at the other bikes and kicking tyres, something that Janet hates.
It was a fresh morning, there was no wind and the sun was shining low on the eastern horizon in a pale wintry sky but we could tell it was going to be a great day. We stood around shuffling our feet and hugging our cups of hot coffee, our breath visible in the early morning air, I've got heated handgrips I'm ok!

Div got on his Honda Blackbird and fired it up at 0950, we followed suit, my engine a quiet burble next to his. Eight bikes and fourteen people surged out of the garage forecourt and onto the R27 then swung a right onto the R45 and Div immediately set up a fast pace, at 150kmh we all thundered along in a fairly tight staggered formation heading towards the rising sun. I love this! I was singing Bob Dylan into my helmet and thoroughly enjoying the cold air and the powerful, surging motorbike - nowhere else I'd rather be.

We swung a left onto the narrow, bumpy R311 for the 22km run to Mooreesburg where we stopped so that those who needed to smoke could do so, also Craig and Monica were on a Yamaha VMax which only has a small tank so they topped up. By then it was warming up and it was very comfortable as we moved out onto the N7, 32kms to Piketburg and we blasted along at between 150 and 160kmh surging past the cages in a tight group.

Des joined us as we rode through the town at the foot of the Piketberge mountain range, perfect timing and by now I was feeling the first hunger pangs, lunch was going to be good. From Piketberg to Eendekuil (say Ian-duh-kale fast) is about 28kms along a very good road at the base of the mountain range and we blasted along as if everyone was in a hurry to get to the hotel.

The hotel owners are also bikers and they have made a lovely hospitable atmosphere to encourage bikers, a good bar which was well supported and good food which went down singing hymns. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours there and I was pleased to see that there were a good few other bikers already there when we arrived. The lunch was a buffet, nothing fancy but very good value and we found out that the rooms are good and the prices reasonable so we will be back for a stayover.

The ride home was just as good, in all it was just over 300km round trip, nothing much at all for a Sunday ride and I look forward to doing it again. We ended off the day in the spa bath this time looking back over the day and looking forward to the next ride, what a good life it is on two wheels!

A great day

We had a great day today! Janet and I have both had a pretty bad week at work for various reasons so we have both been looking forward to the weekend. My weekend started yesterday afternoon when Frank and I resumed the FA cup, we hadn't played at all during June so it was good to get together for a couple of beers and a couple of games of pool at the "Rooikraans" pub.
Unfortunately Frank couldn't find his form and I beat him five games straight, but still we had a good time talking crap and drinking a few beers - it's what guys do well.

This morning Janet and I started off with a bottle of JC Le Roux sparkling Sauvignon Blanc in our spa bath, such a relaxing place to start the day and such a good way to start the day. Afterwards I left Janet to do whatever it is they do to get themselves ready and I took the big red machine out of the garage and gave her a good wash, it had been a while I'm sorry to say, and she needed it.

We headed off at about 1130 and it was a lovely warm and calm winter's day, one of those magical days that we get here in winter and apparently tomorrow is going to be the same. We rode through to Saint Helena Bay and had a lovely lunch at the "Sunfish Restaurant", I started off with the soup of the day which was Snoek, Thyrsites atun and which is at it's best in the cold winter water around the Cape and let me tell you it was absolutely delicious! Janet doesn't usually have much to do with fish but she tasted it and said it was ok.

On our way back home we stopped off at a new biker pub in Vredenburg and had a beer;
We saw Joos and Jenny's bike outside so we knew it had to be a good place, good to see that there is another biker joint in the area.
After that I had to take Janet home for her afternoon nap, but I wasn't ready to stop riding so I did some cruising and thought that I would take some photos in and around Saldanha just to let you all see what a picturesque place it is;

This picture was taken from the viewpoint above the town, it shows the bay with some of the De Beers dredging vessels which have been here for several months now, after that I went to the Drop Anchor for a beer and to check on how the Boks were doing against the Lions, unfortunately we lost that one but we had already won the series!

My last picture was taken on the beachfront road, I couldn't resist composing what I think is a very good picture overlooking the hotel and the bay, it could be a Mediterranean scene and I have taken a leaf out of my friend Chessie's blog, ok my pictures are never going to be as good as hers but she has her bike standing in front of the places of interest and I love it, check out her wonderful blog www.chessiestales.blogspot.com

By this time I knew that it was time to take the bike home, it had started feeling like it was cornering better and wanting to go faster and that's a sure sign that I have to put it away. Tomorrow we are going on a breakfast run with the local club, the "Meeulanders" and I have talked Janet into going as well, she normally doesn't enjoy the breakfast runs but we shall see how it goes - I'll tell you all about it.

Warning: the consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing with you!

Action in and around Saldanha

I wasn't going to talk about the heavy storms that we have recently had here on the west coast but I thought that you would find this very interesting; this a huge barge carrying eight smaller barges which were apparently en route for Rotterdam when they broke their towing lines and were washed ashore!

These pictures were taken just down the road from where I live, in the little residential village of Jacob's Bay which is about twelve kilometres from Saldanha, it is going to be a huge job to salvage this lot and in the meantime the restaurant "Weskus Plek", which I mentioned in an earlier post, is benefitting from the tourists who come down to gawk.

Today I had a rather interesting experience, driving through the centre of Saldanha I came across this scene;

It seems that the driver had just parked and got out of his car when it caught fire! Lucky for him it was after he had parked it. Someone called the firebrigade but it was too late by the time they arrived.When they did arrive on the scene it was like a comedy of errors, like something out of the "Keystone Cops", first a small van arrived with a water tank and petrol driven pump and when the fireman started the pump it sprayed water all over him, then he couldn't unravel the hose. Soon a traditional fire engine arrived, but when the driver started the pump the hose wet the two fireman who were unrolling it! By the time they got the fire extinguished the car was completely burnt out and there were three soaking wet firemen.

My next post will be about the party that we had in Capetown, I'm just waiting for some photographs to be sent to me but in the meantime here's one of the pot, which I had to raise up a bit on some bricks while I was busy browning the oxtail;

It all turned out very well and the pot was delicious, I'll tell you all about it soon

Storms and swells

What a week this has been! A real week of storms, firstly we have had three major cold fronts coming through one after the other causing drenching rain and high winds that have caused much misery and discomfort in the informal settlements around the Cape. Added to that there have been very high seas running which have caused major problems with shipping, three vessels nearly running aground after dragging their anchors.

Here in Saldanha Bay the swells have been running between six and eight metres which has caused us some major headaches, yesterday three of our mussel rafts dragged their moorings or broke loose and drifted into the shipping channel.We went down to the south end of the farm to investigate and the swells were incredible, like being out on open sea and the Mussel Cat is not built for those conditions, in this picture the raft is on its way into the channel and nothing we could do about it. I turned the vessel around and headed to sheltered waters, not wanting to endanger the crew or the vessel. I made arrangements with the harbour authorities for a more powerful tug to do the salvage. That was one of three rafts that went "walkabout", it was going to be an expensive day.

In this picture (if you squint your eyes and lean in really close) you can see one of the other rafts just in the shoreline with the swells running along, a very rough sea and there was no way we could do any harvesting of mussels.

To add insult to injury the little "Mytillus", our maintenance vessel lost her steering and we had to tow her in.

This morning the swell is running at over six metres and the wind is peaking at 30knots so it looks like another wasted day, these weather conditions also make it extremely difficult for any salvage work that we have to do, oh well I suppose it's all part of the aquaculture life and also all part of the farming life in general - keeps it form getting boring!

Needless to say there has not been any biking lately and I still haven't had the opportunity to wash the big red machine yet, there's a busy weekend coming up so I won't be using her for another couple of days, maybe next week?

The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront

Sunday morning dawned grey and overcast! I stood outside with my morning coffee after a good night's sleep and gloomily looked at the light drizzle that was dampening my hopes of a ride down to Capetown, we were to meet my Sister Annette and Brother in law Barry at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront for lunch and I seriously did not want to drive down!

As I have said before, we don't mind riding in the rain, hell we have done it many times as of course you will if you ride a motorbike for any length of time - but if we don't have to then most of the time we would rather avoid it.

I kept an eye on the weather during the morning and happily by 10am it was looking a little bit better, I found that if I stood on tip toe and squinted my eyes towards the north west I could just about see some small patches of blue sky. The weather site; windfinder.com was quite adamant that there would not be any rain so we set off on the big red machine.

It was a cold ride, the temperature was 9,5 degrees when we started and it didn't get any higher than 10 degrees on the way back but I thoroughly enjoyed it, Janet complained of being cold but she also enjoyed the ride.

We met my family and had a very good lunch, a couple of glasses of wine and a good chat at the Waterfront, one of my favourite places in Capetown. There is always such a good vibe there, plenty of eye candy for the guys and on this visit we heard plenty of English and Irish accents from the many people who were following the Confederation cup football games.The Waterfront is a major tourist attraction in Capetown with many different restaurants and shops, entertainment areas and harbour boat trips and we had a bit of a walkabout before getting back on the road.

As usual Janet was dozing off before we had got very far out of town. I really need to glue a big rubber pad onto the back of my helmet because that's how I know she is falling asleep, she starts leaning against my helmet and pushing my head forward!

A lot of Janet's non-biking friends, as well as my sisters cannot believe that she can fall asleep on the back of the bike; "Aren't you scared you are going to fall off?" they ask, horrified. But after talking to other biker ladies we found that it is not uncommon and quite a lot of them will have "forty winks" on a long ride.

It was a lovely ride home, the big red machine ate up the kilometres and the weather stayed kind to us. We were both cold by the time we got home but an hour in the spa bath soon sorted that out.

I now have to wash the bike before we can go anywhere else because she is pretty dirty but as I have said before, that is a labour of love and I enjoy doing it.

Next weekend I am entertaining about twenty of my friends at Linda's house in Capetown for my "Coming of age get together", I am turning 60 next week! I don't normally do the birthday thing but most of these people were at my 50th and they will all be here on Sunday, plus a few others, for lunch. I am planning to do fresh oysters and marinated mussels for starters, then there will be a big pan of roasted chicken wings. The main course is going to be an oxtail pot and then we will end off with cheese and biscuits with Belgian chocolates, it should be a gas and I am looking forward to it - I will let you know how it goes.

The lodge banquet

Well the banquet that we catered on Saturday night went extremely well but the 55 people turned out to be 63! A bit of a stretch and a bit of extra stress for Janet.
We worked out butts off with the preparation, Janet took a day's leave on Friday and got started early and after I had got back from my hard day at the office (riding down to Capetown and back!) I got stuck in and helped her, she had started frying up the 168 chicken portions which all had to be browned then packed in an oven dish with the tomato sauce and baked for an hour, this took four oven trays which had to be done in two batches.
Whilst this was cooking we started preparing the ingredients for the soup and for the brinjal and butterbean salad which we were going to make on Saturday morning.

These are the first two of the "Chicken Cacciatori" dishes, and let me tell you it was as delicious as it looks!

That evening I shucked 75 oysters and preserved the liquid from the shells as well for the soup;

Saturday morning saw us up bright and early preparing the vegetables, this was my job while Janet made the soup. We always save our chicken stock whenever we cook one so there was plenty of that to use in the soup, Janet started by frying up a kilo of bacon after which she added fried onions and green peppers, the oysters were then all fried and after that everything was liquified together, a white onion soup powder mixed with milk was added and then the soup in two saucepans was left to simmer.Aren't these lovely colours? We made two of the salads and by mid morning we had the soup ready, everything was to be transported out to the lodge where it would all be warmed through and dished up whilst Janet made the chips in the deep fryer, a lot of work and a lot of planning to make sure that everyone got a hot plate of food!

This the completed brinjal and butterbean salad and it is served at room temperature, a nice dish to serve because once it is made you don't have to do anything else with it until serving time. Soon it was time to serve the meal, first the soup which was absolutely delicious!

Whilst the guys were all enjoying the soup it was time to plate up the main course; chicken cacciatori with brinjal and butterbean salad and chips.

Here is the meal and here are some of the guys tucking in;

It was a really successful evening but it was a hell of a lot of work and it will be a long time before we do another, we had help in the kitchen during the serving and for the cleaning up after and Sandy made the dessert but we were both exhausted after the evening was over. Looking forward to a bike ride to Capetown for lunch on Sunday.