I'm afraid it has been rather an unsuccessful week as far as biking is concerned, at least she has stayed clean, she's nicely covered up in the garage but I am having withdrawal symptoms - I need to go riding!
Friday we had the day off in place of the wednesday public holiday and we invited Frank around for lunch, I did a chicken potjie which turned out very tasty;
First I fried one chopped onion, one chopped green pepper, three cloves of fresh garlic, two chopped celery sticks and three small red tabasco chillies in some cooking oil until the onions were translucent.
In the meantime I chopped one whole chicken up into chunks and in bowl I covered them with a good srinkle of aromat, a whole packet of cream of chicken soup powder and a good shake of mixed herbs. Cover with a lid and shake them around until the meat is nicely covered.
I then added all of the chicken to the pot and kept stirring over high heat until the meat was nicely browned. At this stage there was not much liquid in the pot so I added a whole Castle lager and then turned the heat down and left the pot to just simmer gently for ten minutes or so while I chopped up four potatoes and half a butternut. These chunks I then added to the pot and left it to simmer for about half to three quarters of an hour.
I checked the potatoes with the point of a knife and when they were feeling soft I chucked a punnet of button mushrooms and some florets of cauliflower in and gently mixed everything to settle the vegetables into the liquid. I also added salt at this point.
We ate the meal with a nice crusty bread and a salad of olives, feta cheese and ........... little red things, (I forgot the name but they are quite spicy - lekker!)
Janet and I had a braai on Sunday, it was a lovely hot day so we decided to relax around the house. I bought a couple of free range chickens which were advertised at a special price so I decided I would do them on the rotisserie but after I had gone to all of the trouble of spicing the bird and fastening it to the rod I discovered that the motor wasn't working. We hadn't used it for ages so I went off to the 7/11 and bought some new batteries but still the bloody thing wouldn't work - plan B; spatchcock and braai the chicken.
I rubbed the chicken with olive oil and then covered it liberally with a mixture of Aromat, garlic flakes, lemon pepper and mixed herbs and then got busy braaiing it. We relaxed with a beer or two and by the time the bird was ready Janet's potatoes were as well.
If that was a "free range" chicken it must have been a bloody big range! Or else the bloody chicken walked all the way to Saldanha, it was incredibly tough and apart from that it must have had the wind behind it blowing sand up its bum because the inside was all gritty! We managed to eat it but I don't know what I'm going to do with the other one, luckily we didn't have any guests for lunch.
On a bad note, the Blue Diamond has closed its doors! I'm not sure what the story is at the moment but this is bad news - I hope it's not permanent, I'll keep you informed.
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