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Welcome to my blog, these are the ramblings and musings of an (upper) middle aged biker and if you enjoy braais, (barbeques) beers and motorbikes then hopefully you will enjoy what Janet and I do; we do lots of braais, we drink lots of beer and we tour South Africa on our motorbike, which at the moment is a BMW R1200RT. Join us, read about what we do and please leave us your comments.



Monday, August 23, 2010

Fish, Meat and Motorbikes

Another quiet weekend at home. We were hoping to go for a ride but again the weather was crap! We were busy with a catering job for thirty people on Saturday so that put paid to any free time and by the time we were ready to have lunch on Sunday I said to Janet; "What about we stay home and do something on the braai?"
Janet happily jumped at that suggestion so we defrosted some anchovies and we had some pork loin chops already defrosted so we were good to go! I wanted to try the anchovies as a starter so I rinsed them off and prepared a dusting of cornflour, aromat, mixed herbs and ground black pepper.Once they are defrosted, which doesn't take long at all, they have to be rinsed under fresh water a couple of times and then drained. Make up the corn flour, aromat, mixed herbs and pepper in a bowl and then toss the fish around in small batches to get them nicely covered. In the meantime heat up some cooking oil in a pan and once it is nice and hot dump small portions of the fish in and stir them around for 3 to 5 minutes, they must fry vigorously, then take them out and place on a dish covered with serviettes to drain the oil and let them cool a bit. They are supposed to end up like this; slightly crispy and seriously easy to eat, rather like peanuts! We tucked into this lot even though it was a bit too much for two people, so next time we will either cook less or invite some people over. I think my friends Dick and Janet and Joe and Annie will really enjoy these.I had earlier got the fire on the go and had prepared my sweet potato, (kumera in New Zealand) I sliced it almost through in quarters and packed it with butter and then placed it on top a a big pat of butter on some tinfoil, sprinkled with aromat, mixed herbs and black pepper and then sealed it well. I had also wrapped some onions in tinfoil and these three packages were placed into the braai next to the fire right from the start. I sprinkled the rind on the chops with salt and then placed them on the grill over fairly hot coals, browned them on both sides and then balanced them against a good piece of wood to crackle the rinds. Remember to keep turning the potato and the onions so that they don't just burn on the one side.
Once the rinds were good and crispy I laid the chops back on the grill to make sure that they were cooked and sprinkled them with.......yeah you guessed it....aromat, mixed herbs and garlic on both sides until they were done.
That was lunch; pork chops, onion and sweet potato - really nice.

I have something to end off with, and this came through my email so I have not tested the veracity of the story but it seems that after the death of a bike shop owner in Belgium; the "Motoshop Podevyn" in Aalst, it was found that he had several crates of motorcycles that had never been opened and when the first one was opened......it was found to contain a "brand new" 1975 Norton Commando Interstate! Further investigation revealed another eleven crates of Norton Commandos that had never been touched!Further exploration of the workshop revealed parts and accessories for old motocycles and there was also a "Brand new" 1989 Matchless G80 still in its crate, apparently some 400 items are going to be auctioned.
I would seriously like to make an offer on this motorbike! I got my licence in 1969 on a Matchless and rode them in the Police force in Rhodesia for most of my service, what a lovely bike. We can only dream of finds like this but I believe that there are still many treasures to be found hidden in old barns and garages around the world, amazing stuff!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Morning Andrew - its 07h30 here at work and i've just read your blog - and you know what - I could do with those anchovies right now - they look very scrumptious - as of course the chops etc also do!! I got that email on the new bikes from my mate in New Zealand - so cannot vouch for it - Be great if its true - go for it put in an offer!! - see you soon- Cao Dick

the rider said...

Hey Dick, next time you come through here I'll make a batch of anchovies - seriously lekker! Wish I could get my hands on a Matchless like that!