Not much newsworthy took place this past week. And the only thing that was, was a disappointment.
Wife went into the foot doctor for X-rays on the status of her broken foot. One of the breaks has healed but two are still in process. This means another 4 weeks for her in the boot.
She was depressed. I was depressed. But she's focusing on the instructions related to no foot movement to promote healing.
After my great success with grilling chicken last week, I was inspired to try the same technique with a large piece of boneless leg of lamb. This is another cut that I've had issues in the past getting to turn out decent. Only this time I photo documented the whole process!
The Marinade
This is a major part of the revised process as historically my efforts in this regard have been fairly banal.
Start with a lot of salt and a lot of whole black and white peppercorns
The rest of the ingredients - Large amounts of garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme, olive oil, and red wine
Using a heavy duty mortar and pestle beat these until the peppercorns substantially breakdown
Add a lot of garlic and beat until paste like
(please note we follow the 'Grandparent Cooking Conventions' whereby our directions are 'a bit of this', 'work it until it feels right', 'how much? enough'. And for crying out loud, I gave you picture above.)
Add your Rosemary and Thyme
Now beat like a maniac because breaking these down is a Mother
Beat in gradually the olive oil and red wine
Prepare your chunk 'o' meat by cutting across it checkerboard style. This will allow the meat to lay flat and thinner so it will cook faster. The slicing will expose more surface for the marinade to infuse flavor.
Rub the marinade into the meat. Really give it a massage.
Put in the fridge overnight
Next morning take it out at least 3 to 4 hours before you grill it so it gets up to room temperature.
(If your meat is too cold it will have a hard time getting to the proper internal temperature without the outside being charred.)
Take off most of the marinade.
Cook using our foil underneath to protect from charring and brick on the top to get as much surface are on the direct heat method.
There was a nice char on the outside and great flavor throughout.
So get your mortar and pestle, your brick and your foil and tackle those larger cuts of meat.
(And yes for certain relatives, I bet if you took a block of tofu, marinaded it thus, grilled in on a thick layer of foil with a brick on top it would come up pretty damn good.)
We all know the catchy phrases:
If it were easy, everyone would do it.
No pain, no gain.
I would offer that it the actual experience of driving for success can be a bit wearying.
Since the February trip, things have been a bit rough. We went through another phase of client loss which led to finances being very tight. And my attempt to bring 'open book management' and more participation in responsibility for the business did not work.
Without going into too much gory detail, it was a very nice 'developed country' idea that ran onto the rocks of the reality of a very different culture, lack of strong local leadership, and a base of people who come from a traumatized background. I honestly thought we might implode.
But things happen for a reason.
My number one local director, a very experienced and strong business person who has both International and local Ghana experience, a person who has been key to our being legal in Ghana, stepped in and took charge. In his words, 'We tried doing things the American way. Now we are going to do things the Ghana way.' He has appointed one of the women to be the day-to-day manager and is providing mentorship to her. I have a couple of things I need to be doing.
Things have stabilized. We are adding clients again.
This was not a particularly 'fun' thing to go through (an understatement). But seeing a strong local presence say, "We cannot let this die" is an important breakthrough. It is not just a 'white guy's' project/vision anymore. Now we have local people who are truly bought in as proven by their actions.
That's a pretty big breakthrough.
A number of years ago, I saw an article on grilling chicken over coals by cutting it in half and putting a brick on top of each half. The idea was to reduce the cooking time so you didn't have a charred outside and uncooked inside. I tried it and was relatively happy. But it often was overcooked, dry. I had issues with the outside getting too charred. And I wasn't happy with my flavoring marinade that didn't seem to add a whole lot of flavor.
This last weekend I made a number of modifications to my recipe that resulted in a very most and flavorful bird.
Marinade
I wanted to be sure I was packing flavor that would be tasted. I started by pounding black and white peppercorns in salt in my heavy duty Thai mortar and pestle. I added garlic, pounded more. Then HUGE handfuls of fresh rosemary and thyme from my garden and pounded a lot more. Finally, I added olive oil and white wine and pounded still more.
I took this mixture and rubbed it into my split chicken (which I had made slits in the breast, thighs, and legs to aid in the flavor absorption and cooking time). I marinaded the chicken for almost 24 hours, occasionally taking it out to rub the marinade into the chicken.
Fire Set-Up and Cooking
My two main concerns were not having the chicken stick to the grate and avoiding the chicken drying our. What I did was not pre-heat the grates. I put them on over the coals just as I was ready to start. Then I put down a sheet of greased heavy duty aluminum foil. I put the chicken halves on, inner cavity side down first. I put bricks on top of each half.
The use of the aluminum foil between the chicken and the fire was inspired (he says with extreme modesty). It kept the chicken from getting burnt on the outside. Juice from the chicken pooled on the foil, moistening the cooking chicken. Sticking was minimal.
Results
I cooked it on the inner side for 10 minutes and the skin side for 8 minutes. The chicken came out very moist and a good outside. I think it could have used 2 more minutes on the skin side.
I am thinking I want to use this same technique on a piece of boneless leg of lamb.
I sit on the outdoor deck just outside the Man Tower. I am watching the sunset play its reds, oranges, and purples on the remnants of the thunderstorm we had a few hours ago. As is often the case during this season, there is a significant wind and I'm watching the trees sway in rhythmic harmony with the music I'm listening to through my headphones.
I've working on my story as I do almost every night now. I keep looking up to see the next permutation of the colored light tableau in the sky, feeling the near perfect low 70's degree temperature, sipping my after dinner drink.
The Monsoon, the time when the summer heat causes the air over the mountains to rise, pulling moisture from the far away Pacific and Gulf of Mexico into our area. This then rises, cools and causes thunderstorms. It gives us humidity that is in the 35% range, three to four times the norm here in the desert.
The days have a rhythm. There might be lingering moisture and clouds in the early morning. But it is usually clear and dry during the late morning and early afternoon. But you see the clouds building over the mountains. And by late afternoon, the storms come. Some times it is just a dribble. Sometimes it is serious rain. Then by mid evening it is all blowing off and the cycle will start again.
This year we had a very dry winter, followed by a cooler and wetter spring. We only had a few weeks of the exceedingly hot and dry weather that usually marks May, June, and early July. Instead we got a much earlier Monsoon than usual. This has been a blessing for our garden, in particular, my tomatoes, cucumbers, chiles, and cooler loving herbs like parsley. I already have harvested some from all the above which is unheard of so early in the season.
The Monsoon. So lovely. So appreciated.
I Was Wrong!
I had a whole bunch of 'before' pictures. I just hadn't posted them when we started the project.
When we started the project, I remember the two contractors saying confidently that this was a straightforward job and they should be able to knock it out in about a month. Well we are here at 4 and a quarter months and we're still not all the way finished. BUT, we are still going to do our before and after post because most of what's left is pretty small stuff.
Living Room - Before
Living Room - After
Lounge and Library - Before
Lounge and Library - After
Front Bedroom - Before
Front Bedroom - After
(Sorry - Either a very bad picture because of bright back lighting or an astral plane image)
Oops - Somehow forgot to take 'Before' pictures of the Master Bedroom so only 'After' ones
Master Bath - Before
Master Bath - After
Small Bathroom - Before
Small Bathroom - After (including disco mirror and cosmic Japanese style toilet)
Small Upstairs Office - Before
Small Upstairs Office - After Man Tower Transformation
Large Upstairs Office - Before
Large Upstairs Office - After (aka Eldership Bridge)
Upstairs Exercise Room - Before
Former Upstairs Exercise Room - After (use still to be determined)
Other parts of house that were transformed but for which there are no 'Before' pictures
Three Cheers for the Impresario of our Remodel
WIFE!
