"Fish and Chips"

Here I go with another post which is not quite as it should seem hence the quotation marks. I apologize for leading my readership on. I believe that if you change your life style ,"lifestyle change" so rotund people don't feel down, you should embrace it wholeheartedly and not look for something that is "just like". Have cauliflower rice for what it is cauliflower rice and NOT because it must replace regular rice. Nothing replaces the real ma-coy. Find dishes that you enjoy making and eating and leave it at that. IF you find a substitute you always have that link to something you were trying to change. Something like smoking and the twisp revolution.

After that ideology I present "fish and chips" which contradicts every thing I wrote in the previous paragraph. The problem is I'm not sure how to name this dish. The dish tastes awesome for what it is but cannot replace a good 'ol Hout bay fish and chips (fresh, batter dipped and fried).

The appliance that makes the chips portion possible is the result of marketing wizardry and has been named the "air fryer". In truth this is just a compact convection oven but in the soulless world of money anything goes to make money right? It worked and I bought one and it makes some wonderful food but lets get something straight it does not replace deep fried (see above paragraph). As you can see from the picture my air fryer is a white one and does not look like the currently trendy Phillips black one (among South African's of Indian ancestry is my personal reference). The Phillips black one looks like Darth Vader and mine looks more like the storm trooper. And true to the storm trooper motto it is slightly cheaper and feels a little inferior in quality but works just fine.

For the people that like a little speed in terms of the preparation of their food this recipe works quite well. And onto the recipe-



The chips:
Ingredients
1 medium Aubergine (cut into "chip" shape)
1 Tbsp coconut oil or olive oil or 2 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp dried herbs

Method
Mix aubergine, oil, salt, pepper and herbs
Place in air fryer for 30 mins at 220 degrees C from cold
Take out mix and inspect
place for another 10 mins to crisp if required

The Fish:
Ingredients
1 can sardines in brine
1 Tbsp coconut oil/olive oil or 2 Tbsp melted butter
1 whole chili
1 tsp garam masala

Method
Place oil and whole chili in flat pan and heat up on medium heat
once oil is hot add garam masala
once spice is sizzling and strong aroma's arising from pan
add drained sardine and cook until the edges of the fish are crisp

Combine both dishes and enjoy!

Project LOL (The beginning)

Project LOL: The beginning

Over the past couple of years I've grown increasing distrustful of all institutions, universities, health and well being organizations, governments (duh!!), religious fanatics and most of all the media. There is some form of politics that has infested virtually every aspect of daily life both knowingly and unknowingly.

From the time I was growing up my physique was that of the rotund persuasion. I tried in vain to improve my vanity. I tried all sorts of fads, "sound advice" and even ran the comrades ULTRA marathon.....boo ya! but alas I had failed, to improve both my vanity and physical prowess, I completed the comrades twice (just to avoid ambiguity, check out my other blog as proof). One day on a commute to my dead end job, I was listening to the hyper negative radio 702 (which was my pick me up before work...yeish!) and there comes onto radio Dr Tim Jokes (that's how the gym rats would gossip instead of pumping the iron/working out. "Handle your business like a man" still has no meaning. Dr Tim Noakes is who I am referring to in case my rambling is a little to close to South African current affairs).

Since I had run comrades, I obviously had read Lore of Running and these statements were awesome news or maybe me clinging at hope. I had moved beyond my vanity and onto actual improved performance for myself. So I got to the office sent an e-mail and received a reply. (Which famous personality actually replies to e-mails) That got me on my current journey. I devoured knowledge, tested myself and listened to podcasts. This debate is going to continue for awhile but at least there is a debate that has been ignited and in the future better more sound information shall come out. The issue I think is that egos have been bruised and the embarrassment is something many "learned" people cannot cope with right now........maybe they should chuck the pride, just saying.

I hope my dear readers that you read through my rant and lead up for Project LOL, which is short for Live Of Land. This project has been born out of my distrust for supermarket institutions and the entities that back them be it political, religious or well being with some "make no sense" ideology.

The purpose of this project is to put together systems and processes so that I can produce fresh produce from the land I live on. If I had lived in a flat the same shall apply. I hope to take my readers through this journey and by the end of this year, everything shall be in place. I also hope that the information that I shall make FREELY available is useful to anybody who would like to try.

Ideally I would like to visit the supermarket for toilet paper only!!! Its a 2 ply issue.

Things that I have tried on my own, and have been successful:
- Worm farming (Vermicomposting)
- Growing seeds (defies 2nd law of thermodynamics)
- growing plants with light emitting diodes (LEDs)
-making my own yoghurt
-making my own biltong (jerky)

Step 1 of Project LOL: Define the parameters.

• I need to design a green house that incorporates LEDs for my area. I need to use all the pot plants that I have generated over the recent time. I would like to harvest rain water for my plants and use sustainable energy to operate the LED and circulation pumps (irrigations).
• In the future I would like to expand to hydroponics or even aqua-ponics (a little to rich for this year).
• What plants and herbs that shall suit this man made environment. Cycle crops in such a way to ensure fresh produce?

I hope to have consistent Tuesday posts on this topic. I hope you shall find the journey fascinating.

Home made Biltong

Avocado Seedlings

LED grow light panel

Wormfarm and about 2 litres of worm juice (potent compost)

Chicken Wing "Stir fry"

The question on what determines a stir fry? is it the wok, use of soy sauce, thai paste or that someone from asia should cook it. Ethnically geographically I'm close enough and cook with a wok to warrant the use of the term. I should Google the requirements but I'll leave that to my knowledgeable audience.

We (Wife and myself) received this electric wok (Is the use of an electrical wok cheating, probably) as a wedding present. It is simply one of the best appliances we own and the only wedding appliance that has survived The Cull.

The Cull is spring cleaning on steroids, in a nut shell anything we don't use was disposed off by any means. 15 random appliances including old heaters, pots, pans, brand new cutlery sets even our dining table was cut down. We did make a DIY table that suited our requirements. (I should blog that)

This wok uses about 1.5 KW of energy and generally wok cooking is quite quick, so assume 30 mins cooking time and an Eskom rate of R5.00 pKWh (This is an illustrative cost, actual cost should be lower), which works out to R3.75 for a cooking session. You can also control the heat of the wok and I cook at about 30% of full power so the cost is reduced to R1.25.

This is one of the few times I enjoy food that is cooked quickly. Vegetables change into a vibrant form of their original colour and spice/vegetable/meat flavours combine to form something spectacular.

I chose chicken wings purely because I enjoy them but they have always been fried (Chicken Licken/KFC style). The other plus with chicken wings is that they are quite cheap relative to a whole chicken, 30 p/kg vs 50 p/kg (2014 cost scale).

The question on eating the skin/fat is a debate for all "knowledgeable" people out there. Its weird but observing our "knowledgeable" folk interact on this topic is like watching school yard bullying. Ganging up with like minded opinions (patting each others back), instructing people on "do what I tell you or die" or "do what I tell you because I am a doctor/dietitian/engineer/accountant/school teacher", verbal personal attacks......... this seems like how politicians behave as well, hmmmm.

On to the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp butter
2 tsp garlic (smashed, chopped and diced)
2 tsp ginger (julienne)
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp cloves
1 onion sliced (medium size)
12 chicken wings
2 handfuls string beans (cut to preference length)
1 carrot (cut to preference length) (this was the lat one in the fridge, so I used it)
1 broccoli (broken into florets)

Method:
Turn the wok power dial to 1 or 2 of 6 (16-33%)
Insert butter, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and onions
Saute until onions are soft
Add chicken wings and sear the skin
Insert beans and carrots and cook until chicken is cooked but not so long that the beans lose their crunch
Add broccoli and mix into existing flavors and leave it cook until broccoli green becomes very vibrant and bright
Serve

Enjoy!

Braai'ed butternut

Figure 1: Braai'ed Butternut

The recipe was born a little out of boredom, mostly me trying to add volume for my weekly feeding of my beloved worms (future blog post related to project LOL, all very cryptic but shall make sense in time, i hope)) and we had to finish our vegetables before our weekly shopping visit to our boeremark. If you are in Pretoria this is a true farmer's market, visit the website www.pretoriaboeremark.co.za .

For the record the "farmers market" in jJohannesburg four-ways is not a FARMERS market. I suggest that this venue is renamed so that it is not so misleading, but then again i suppose its interpretation. Rant....check

Another aside, the last one I hope (that is a little dark), I use my worms for vermicomposting and if you items want some information on vermicomposting check out his website http://edendreaming.org/worm-farming.

This is all very unappetizing talk/write/type?

We had essentially braai'ed (or barbecued for my foreign contingent items) all our meat and the coals were still raging. I prepared this meal and let me state that it was awesome and must be tried. The great thing is that nothing goes to waste.

Ingredients
1 butternut (our butter was medium-ish)
1 onion (I like the flavour of red onions), pick an onion that can fit into the seed area cavity of butternut once peeled.
2 cloves garlic (crushed and thinly sliced)
1 tsp ginger (cut and diced)
1 tsp dried herbs
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried cinnamon

Method

1. Cut the ends and peel butternut
2. When you cut the seed side of butter try to maintain the concave shape of the seed cavity
3. Scoop out the seeds
4. Peel onion and remove layers until the whole onion can be popped into seed cavity (like eyeball in socket)
5. Make 1mm wide x 1mm deep cuts into butternut in whatever pattern you choose (I made the pattern the way you would cut into a leg of lamb)
6. Place as much ginger and garlic as possible into the cuts made in the previous step
7. Dice left over butternut from peeling, onion layers (if any)and combine with left over ginger and garlic, dried herbs, cinnamon and olive oil into a "sauce"
8. Rub "sauce" onto prepared butternut
9. Place in foil (shiny side out)
10. Placed foiled butternut directly onto coals for about an hour
11. Prod the butternut (any thin sharp instrument will do) once in a while to check if it is cooked
12. Remove from coals, remove foil and enjoy!

lekker braai!!

Figure 2: Braai'ed butternut before it is braai'ed

Figure 3: Braai'ed butternut after it has been braai'ed

Roast smoked chicken

Figure 1: Roast Smoke Chicken with yoghurt sauce

The next cooking apparatus I like using is a oven pot. It is sturdy enough to be used in the over at almost any temperature, it has a deep base which plays into this recipes requirements.

Generally I like cooking food that has a quick preparation time and cooks at long "chilled" pace. Not literally chilled then it would be closer to a gravlax, google that! I enjoy cooking food at a slower pace because it gives me the freedom to undertake other undertakings (there is failed attempt at sophistication) at the same time and gives the ingrediants flavour time to infuse with each other because generally I think up my recipes on the fly (I acknowledge that there might be something similar out there but these concoctions have come from my own brain) and the protein/meat does not have time to marinate.

What I like about this recipe is that you use fresh ingredients, whole spices and chicken gets smoked and then roasted in the same pot.

The products or spices being used for the smoking process and then reused to create an alternative sauce where the smoked product mixes with the chicken stock. At the end of the cooking process I take the stock and mix it with double thick Greek yoghurt, just because it feels better and easier to handle when I eat the chicken. The Greek yoghurt addition is one of my favourite tricks and I use it often and you shall see it often on this blog.

Ingredients
1 chicken (free range I feel is generally better but then again it could be mental convincing, cost is roughly the same free range vs conventional (as opposed to an unconventional chicken, which comes with more drumsticks) )
2 Tbsp Ginger
3 cloves garlic
3 cardamom
2 tsp salt
1 tsp smoked paprika (or any dry spice you want to try)
2 sticks cinnamon

Process (the pictures below illustrate the cooking order)
Pre-heat oven at 150 deg C (200 Deg C if you want some speed but then the cooking time is 1 hour)
Liquidise ginger, garlic, salt and cardamom (how very un-paleo of me, I should take a pestle and mortar and grind the marinade together and grow them arms)
Take paste and place between chicken skin and meat
Place paprika and cinnamon in cooking pot (the chicken will inherit a smoked flavour from these ingredients)
Place a raised surface in cooking pot (this will allow the chicken to be roasted all round)
Place chicken on raised surface
Cover and place in pre heated over for 1.5 - 2 hours (the lid should offer a very tight seal but not air tight, you want the chicken to maintain moisture but not create pressure)
Take out chicken and use flavoured stock how you see fit (I use the yoghurt move)

Enjoy!!

Figure 2: Ingredients and apparatus (salt is in hiding)

Figure 3: Liquidise Ginger, Garlic, Salt and Cardamom. Place between chicken meat and skin

Figure 4: Place Paprika and cinnamon at bottom of pot and raised grid thereafter

Figure 5: Place Marinated chicken on raised grid

Figure 6: cooked product, refer to figure 1 for plated visual

Mutton "Tagine"

This pot/cooking apparatus is the reason that the word Tagine is in quotation marks. This is a very expensive gift, but for the life of me I cannot figure out what this pot is meant to be. Google gives a possible reason as a paella pot, I think it is closer to a tagine. Maybe some of my (taking ownership of my readership in the 2nd post, STALKER!!!) more seasoned googler readers can correct me.

Using the term mutton mush for a heading might also not be very appealing.

This pot is like the adopted ugly duckling of the tagine family (why not the paella family, call it autocratic discretion and raise the issue with my board of directors) and grew up to be the bigger, resilient ,with better skin AND ate all its siblings, the Termyna-Tagine. (play on the terminator movie).

Its like when a paella pot and tagine defy their families, elope and create this hybrid offspring that is a threat to the old ways of the cooking world. The whole sentence is like when Cars meets Romeo and Juliet meets Lion King 2 (not lion king 1, that was awesome).

Jokes aside this pot fits into one of my principles that I apply when cooking. Cook food slowly. The reason is that you give respect to the ingredients that you are using that have their own unique flavors and are combined (or blended :) ) to form this food that is both satisfying and tastes real good (not steers). This pot provides sizzling flavor at the bottom and steam which can cook tough meat till it is tender, all this undertaken at a very low heat (1/6 or 2/6 on the stove dial).

The other principles is fresh fruit and vegetables, whole spices and fresh meat.

Ingredients: 
2 Tbsp butter
1 onion (sliced)
2 garlic cloves (crushed with flat side of knife and then sliced)
2 teaspoons of ginger (diced finely)
2 whole chilies (red, green does not matter, except if it is a habanero then it matters, funny story coming soon )
1 cinnamon stick (this ties in with how long is a piece of string, i could advise feel the size but this ties in with a very lucrative internet industry so I would estimate about 5cm long (these hidden meanings are getting worse))
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp salt
3 tomatoes (I used pomodoro tomatoes, i'm showing off, you can increase the number of fruit to cover the entire dish, the problem is that there is too much moisture and spills over from the "tagine" creating a mess, which I will have to clean, I bet chefs don't clean their messes that's why they waste stuff like nobodies business or not their business)
1 kg of mutton or beef
2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

Method:
Place the pan on the stove.
Layer all the ingredients in the order described above
switch the stove on (assume stove has 6 dials to describe flame intensity)
place dial on 4/6 (66%) for 10 mins
Reduce to 1/6 (15 %) for 1.5 to 2 hours (do open to check, because the built up heat will be lost but open if the sense of smell is very intense)
Open pot, stir once and serve
I enjoy this meal with a coleslaw (recipe coming soon)

The pictures are arranged order of cooking method. Bon appetite! I hope you don't mind my commentary in brackets at random places, please let me know if I should stop that. I might consider this in the future. (you must be thinking how UN-autocratic of me, maybe I'm changing or not can you trust this stalker).

It has Begun......2015!

This is the first post of a very unaccomplished blogger who, after messing up, the first blog, masalatjol, has moved on to another clear canvas at the start of the year 2015. What I hope to achieve with this blog is to freely impart knowledge that I have gained over the past couple of years and ultimately see how this blog can make money. "Free" and "make money" in the same sentence, yeah I would be skeptical and I hope my new readers will call me to task on that item. More importantly this blogger would like to move from the realm of unaccomplished to mildly competent, not very ambitious you might think but if I attach a time frame say, by the end of the year ,then it becomes more realistic.

Lets begin with the name rustic blend, the name would elude to something related to coffee and you would be right, partly. Rustic related to something rural or of the country side and blend is a mix of various items. Rustic in this case is the do it yourself mentality that I have developed and with much time and money spent, I have acquired some knowledge. This is what I intend to impart freely. Blend is a mix of both modern and old world living and my various interests. In a word Life Hack, where I take apart various interests of my life and create a make-a-plan or do-it-yourself option.

My interests that shall be addressed in the blog are as follows:

Fitness 

• training regime
• Sporting Goals
• Natural methods (eating and training)

Cooking 

• using various apparatus (air fryer, potjie, tagine)
• Making up new recipes

Traveling 

• visiting places in and around where I stay and traveling the world
• Modes of transport, accommodation, plans, experiences

Start at Kaapsehoop marathon

Kult Chicken Potjie Roast

Braaied Butternut and onion

Berlin Falls, Panorama route Mpumalanga

Do it yourself 

• Creating and drawing up products for problems I have encountered at home

DIY Biltong Maker

Hot beverages 

• tea and coffee (sources, make you owe, understanding flavors and venues)

French press and coffee grinder

My writing is not very good and my pictures are average but I hope to share my passion for my interests with everybody and hope that this is useful.

At this early stage of the blog I am still feeling out the process but these random thought and psychology posts shall be transferred to a Sunday. Seems like a good random autocratic move.