Braais, (no bloody) beers and (not much) bikes

Since the end of March when we went into this totally unnecessary and extremely harsh lockdown we have not been able to buy alcohol, now the Government has decided that as we have been good boys we will be able to buy alcohol again from Monday 1st June - hallelujah! I will not be going on Monday though, it will be chaos although maybe I'll go down there to get some photos.  Also I would like them to sell out of all their stale stock and get some fresh in. 

The smokers have evidently not behaved themselves and will continue to be punished by not being able to buy cigarettes or tobacco, they will no doubt continue to pay exorbitant prices on the black market. I am so happy that we gave up smoking more than 40 years ago, maybe I should have given up drinking as well? Nah. No names, no pack drill but the word is that a certain Government minister is involved in the illicit cigarette trade and is coining it while the ban lasts. I'm not surprised.

As far as biking is concerned I have managed a few local rides, mainly to go shopping and then taking a slightly longer route to get home and whilst this has been lovely I am desperately in need of a long ride before I hand my bike over to my brother Murray. Maybe soon.

Braais; 

These are not affected by the current state of affairs and we have had quite a few, the last one was on Sunday; yesterday and it was a very nice one. We sat out on the back veranda, the weather was very pleasant and I tried a new starter.

I carefully de-boned a nice little piece of Lamb flank which is not as difficult as you might think, I then liberally sprinkled and rubbed it with my own favourite combination of herbs and spices and braaied it over good hot coals. I love a braai, Janet and I sat drinking and chatting in the warm sunlight, she drank Lime juice and soda water and I was on a very biker/macho Peppermint liqueur and Soda.

Ya gotta get it crispy on the outside so hot coals and frequent turning, don't let it burn. It doesn't take long so I was soon slicing it up. More wood on the fire for the main course a bit later, ~"Put another log on the fire."~

Crispy outside, soft and moist on the inside and eaten with a favourite HOT sauce from West Coast Chili in Langebaan they were very nice. Certainly made for a good starter, we waited a little while before we started with the mains.

Pork chops and boerewors on the braai and Janet did the sides; Potatoes, egg mayonnaise salad, a miellie and some tomato. A very loaded plate but for a Sunday lunch I handled it like a big boy.

Snoek/fish Cakes;

 

The other day I told you that I make fish cakes out of leftover Snoek, well here they are;

 

I flake the fish very small, diligently de-bone it, weigh it and then mix it into an equal quantity of mashed potatoes. Add herbs and ground pepper and this time I threw in a good handful of grated cheese. Make sure it is thoroughly mixed, shape into patties, dip in flour, whisked egg and then breadcrumbs and set in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Shallow fry, I love these and make them whenever I can. This simple recipe works with most types of fish, I haven't tried it with Hake because there's not much flavour there but it should work fine.

We will have a few more braais in this house, we have to be out by the end of June. See ya!

A lucky find and a new beast waits to be unleashed

Remember how I told you that we're down to drinking leftovers in the booze cabinet because bottle stores have been closed since the end of March? Why "they" decided that people should not be allowed to drink or smoke during lockdown is anyone's guess. We do have our suspicions about the cigarette ruling though, about officials involved with the black market trade in cigarettes making a fortune but we don't smoke and as this is not a political blog I will avoid that topic.

I digress, I have been drinking Schnapps, lemon juice and soda water because that's what we have, it's acceptable but not very nice so I don't drink much at all. This is quite novel for me, not drinking much I must say. Anyway the other evening I was contemplating not even bothering when suddenly a light bulb flashed on above my head! I jumped out of the chair and rushed through to the cupboard, in my bike jacket pocket I found my hip flask full of whisky!

What a happy boy! This presented a  quandary; do I have four doubles or eight singles? I settled for and thoroughly enjoyed four double tots with ice. That was just the one evening though, the next night it was back to the other stuff. I am now on a three quarter bottle of Butlers Triple Sec with ice and soda water and it is actually better than the Scnapps but a bit sweet. We're made of stern stuff though, we'll tough it out.

Earlier in the week we received a photo on the whatsapp group, our President had been down to Capetown to collect his new motorbike, just look at this;

Triumph Rocket 3 TFC (Triumph Factory Custom) One of only two coming to South Africa it is number 379 of 750 that were made, what a beauty; 2500cc of brute power. I believe that the new model Rocket 3 2500 is already also on sale here.

Poor Anton must be absolutely dying to get this beast out onto the road but during our harsh lockdown recreational travel is prohibited. I am looking forward to seeing this machine in the flesh, so to speak.

That's all for now, we have to wait until Wednesday to see if our home brew red wine is going to be palatable, eager anticipation. In the meantime I have bought another Snoek so that's what we will be doing tomorrow, having a braai - with lousy drinks!

I'm so tired of this!

I'm so tired of this!
I can't even remember what day of quarantine this is and quite frankly I couldn't give a shit damn.

I'm tired of reading Covid-19 posts on social media because they're all bullshit, you read one that gives you hope and then within a day some other "expert" is telling you something else that dashes your hopes. I'm going with the one that told me this lockdown was a huge mistake and that very soon I'll be able to go and buy some wine and some whisky.

Speaking of whisky my brother Murray lent me a bottle of Vat 69 and Frank gave me a bottle of wine for Janet. Thanks my brothers, you smoothed my path. The Whisky is nearly finished, I have been measuring strict tots and have enjoyed it immensely. We have finished off two almost full bottles of Peach Schnapps which have been in the booze cupboard for heaven knows how long. We mix it with a dash of lemon juice and soda water and it is quite pleasant, there is half a bottle of Peppermint schnapps to follow and then I'm not sure how we're going to drink what's left; 

Here's what's left; the small bottle on the left is "Sobieski", with a tot of whisky liqueur left which is nice, I'll flatten that soon. Next to that is "Butlers Triple Sec", not sure about that one we will experiment. The long bottle, number three is foreign and very harsh, I don't even think Coke will help that one. Then there is a "Buchu" liqueur, also not very nice but maybe an acquired taste, half a bottle. Then a dash of Pernod which I have mostly used to make sauce in my seafood dishes for a prawn or calamari starter. The last one is an almost full Peppermint liqueur, which is nice in shooters like "Springbokkies" but I'm not sure how else we'll drink it. "Beggars can't be choosers" as the saying goes. These bottles have been in the cupboard for years and I have no idea where most of them came from.

My attempt at homemade red wine didn't work out. 😖 Apparently the yeast was too old, it was dead. I bought a fresh one and added it but still nothing happened, now we're thinking that maybe the container wasn't properly cleaned. I have bought a new container but we just have to do something with the water in it so I'll let you know what happens there later. (Maybe drink it?)

Yesterday (Friday) evening we had another club drink at 18h00 although I had to toast with Amarula which is a bit girly because my Jagermeister is finished. Club spirit is still high and everyone seems to be in good health, all we need is to get together in real life for a breakfast run or something.

We've had a nice couple of braais, had a good one today with my last portion of lamb's tails as a starter, I shall look out for more of those, very nice.

I braaied Pork neck steaks and boerewors for main course along with a miellie, some Gem Squash and a couple of small potatoes. A nice meal, we've been braaing quite a bit as the weather has been so nice you either have to go for a ride or have a braai. Here's a picture of my lunch, sorry but I don't have anything else to show you;

I've ordered another Snoek which will be delivered tomorrow so that will be the next braai with again fish cakes for one meal and Smoorsnoek for another. For my few foreign readers Smoorsnoek is a tasty dish made with leftovers, a very basic method (there are plenty of recipes as this fish is a west coast staple and has been eaten here for centuries) is to fry onions until soft, add chopped potatoes and fry until soft than add the flaked snoek, stir in to warm through and it's ready, just serve on rice and add a good pat of butter, simple but delicious. 

I can't seem to find a non copyright picture but if you are interested in what the fish looks like just google "Thyrsites Atun"

Right what have we got to look forward to this week? More episodes of The Walking Dead, oh yes and I'll take a ride though to the Mall on Wednesday, weekly shopping and I'll see if I can add in some extra k's if there's no cops around. Wow exciting!