Then: I’ll always love you And you can depend on me.
Now: I’ve moved on And so should you. Be determined… to be free.
Oxford
I seem to be working through a bout of bitterness at present.
Hot days and nights. Inactivity. Too much time to think.
The music I listen to triggers memories and emotions.
I don’t want to be bitter. I can understand how some men become hateful misogynistic arseholes when they feel hard done by in the wake of a broken relationship. If I had behaved like an arsehole in the first place I might accept I deserve to be where I am. Maybe. If I really had been an arsehole I would probably be blind to the faults that led to me being deserving of the karma that has been wrought. I would still be an arsehole now.
Am I?
I play with words, and vent my spleen. It helps.
“Get a life” I tell myself. But my options are limited.
I garden, I cook, I chat with friends, neighbours and the checkout ladies. I exercise my limbs as the physio prescribed. I pedal my trike with assistance from an electric motor. I listen to music. I reminisce.
The irony; she depended on me.
This has been a “Dear Diary” post.
Oh look, there’s a skink traversing the drive and eying me warily.
This is the first time I have committed to writing the thinking and the steps I take when devising or adapting a recipe to publish on my food blog It is usually all done in my head.
DISCLAIMER: until I actually make the sauce, approve of it, document it as it was made and then publish with pictures the recipe, this is a work of speculative fiction.Mango Chilli Sauce as I envision it has not yet been made. Soon, however.
My apologies for the crappy format. Pasting this over from notes did not allow me to keep the formatting I had already spent so much time on. Frustrating.
To continue. Chilli Mango Sauce or Mango Chilli?
Here I decide on another potential use for my chillies. This process is why I see cooking as an art and an enjoyable challenge. Also why I read a lot of recipes but don’t necessarily follow them.
This is not about a mango sauce, it is about a mango flavoured chilli sauce. I learned quite a bit from making my hot sweet chilli sauce. This is the next iteration. Definitely more complicated. But others have done it. A quick google showed that. But I have some ideas of my own.
I am often referring to other recipes as examples. They give me an idea of what works. Comparing their differences is also helpful.
I work out a recipe using ingredients available to me or on hand along with available resources such as blenders, slow cookers, etc.
This recipe, I repeat, has not yet been made. Therefore it is not published here. This post is really about the process I go through to write an /“original” recipe. When I was doing my Cert IV Training and Assessment I learned to break down even the simplest operation into even simpler and easily comprehended steps . That is what I’m trying to do here. Possibly with limited success. You decide.
My Research and (some of)My Thinking
Notes
Below is an example of how I looked at other recipes before I decide what would go into my recipe in terms of ingredients and procedure. Internal dialog on the pros and cons of using canned vs fresh fruit, for example, is partially included in the notes.
It must be cooked because it must keep well. I live alone and won’t be using this every day. Nobody likes food as hot as I do except Lyn. Not a Christmas gift then.
It is acidified which is an important factor for keeping.
How much? Say one large can of mangoes, everything else in proportion
Since it is cooked and processed, canned mangoes are just as likely to give good results. Known amount to work with.
It is really about the chillies 🌶️. Hot!
Spice? (Watties tomato sauce is best because of that underlying warm spicyness-is that a word? ) anyway another warm spice will contribute?
The recipe (not yet) published is (what I actually shall do). Including any Tweaks along the way. If the final product had not been as good as I hoped for, or it looked really really unappealing then no blog post would result. You would not be reading this. Amendment. You are reading this because I turned it into a sprculative tutorial..
I work out beforehand my recipe as a proposal. (Example Below). In general I then put it into practice, and as I proceed, sometimes, I add a tweak or two, adjusting amounts, proportions times or temperatures as I see how the product is coming along. Then I rewrite the recipe as actually carried out and completed.
Amounts and proportions can be important to record. If it comes out well it must be repeatable to be a proper recipe. Otherwise advice to wing it must give a sense of what works. Cooking is art. Not paint by numbers, but there are sensible rules to bear in mind, and perhaps even follow.
Some recipes make small amounts of final product, some too much. When one lives alone one must consider how much of a product such as this one might use in the time it might reasonably be expected to keep. On the other hand how many friends or neighbours might be grateful for a bottle?
Another consideration is how much of the ingredients one has on hand, or can afford. If using canned mangoes (or plums as in my plum sauce (link)) how many cans? This will determine the proportion of other ingredients needed.
Also important. Are there suitable containers on hand sufficient to store the product? Could it be frozen?. Just thinking out loud.
I did give it some thought. Since the sauce is cooked, I concluded it would not matter if the mangoes were already cooked. The health inspector in me insisted even though it is acidified the product be bottled hot in sterile jars. Even so I’d keep it in the fridge. Probably.
(Caravan life Mango chilli Chilli Mango Sauce, my way. Proposed – Draft)
References below. Not the only recipes I checked out, incidentally. Included for educational purposes only. Three is the charm.
Chillies (hot!). How many/ how much? Which?
X g Can of mango in juice/syrup. (+sugar?)(honey?)
Lime juice. (??). Yes. Lime will give it a subtle tropical nuance complimenting the mango and ginger. ( pretentious Git).
Apple cider vinegar (!!) always
Salt (amnt ?) low sodium option, or normal? What is normal? Buggered if I know.
Xanthan (??) or arrowroot?
⁃ amounts to be determined.
– Procedure
Cook onion garlic etc first (in suitable pan). ( caramelise?)
Add all ingredients to a food processor. (Blender wand!)
Process until smooth.
Add (remaining ingredients) to a suitable pan and bring to the boil over med heat while stirring
(Insert blender wand here)
Reduce heat and simmer on low heat for X0 minutes. Watching and testing viscosity
Pour while hot into hot sanitised bottles or jars and cap.
References:
I copy the Internet recipes into notes so I don’t have to keep referring to a website with all its pop ups each time I want to check or compare. However, here I’m including only the links. And perhaps a comment.
In another hemisphere, my Canadian gardening friends await the coming of spring. Why wait? Get started now.
If you dig the snow into the ground while planting seeds, once the thaw comes, the garden is prewatered and the seeds sprout.
Just remember In the winter Far beneath the bitter snow Lies the seed That with the sun’s love In the spring Becomes the chrysanthemum Or something which by any other name Would be easier to spell.
SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMOUR: “For more than a quarter of a century, the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH) and its successor, the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), have been employed to characterize the factors that define a joke, to describe the components of jokes and their interrelationships, and to provide a model for the analysis of joke texts. But these theories have never been adequately scrutinized. When approached from the perspective of appropriate incongruity some serious questions can be raised about these theories and their usefulness in joke analysis” ~ introduction; Some poncey literary paper by some pretentious git.
For the last few weeks I have had a nocturnal visitor outside in my annex. I hear it scrabbling about but I could never see anything when I went to look. I could not at first fathom what it was or what it was doing. Then last night I heard it again, and realised the sound was coming from behind my new refrigerator. Armed with a torch I investigated. I just caught a glimpse of something grey and quick disappearing underneath the fridge. It had a tail, and it was reptilian, not mammal.
That was a relief because I was sure I had permanently dealt with unwelcome rodents. The partly gnawed blocks of blue bait are still nailed to a board under my doorstep. They haven’t been touched for a while. It’s only the possum and the caterpillars that are eating my tomatoes now. But I think I’m on top of that, now. It appears that a liberal dusting of Yates’ tomato and vegetable dust discourages both. I’m getting some lovely undamaged tomatoes now.
Lovely undamaged tomatoes 🍅 not eaten by possums or caterpillars.
That my new little friend is not a snake I am quite sure. Not that I’d mind if it was. It didn’t move like a snake, which moves without seeming to, if you get my meaning. The tail, from the brief glimpse I caught, is stumpier. I thought for a while it may be a skink. One of the larger species that are known variously as bluetongues, shinglebacks, bobtails, or stumpies.
I do know we have a skink. My neighbour and I have seen him/her quite often. It doesn’t dash. It ambles. We don’t seem to bother it much. It ignores us unless we get too close. Then it just wanders off.
A skink that size is a great asset for any gardener to have sharing his garden, because they will control the slugs and snails better than Blitzem, and even though they are omnivores and do like fruit as well, they are not climbers and content themselves with those fruit that fall to the ground. Or grow there. None of mine do. They are in pots or raised beds.
Tonight whoever it was started scrabbling around again. I quietly crept to the door, which is always open at this time of year. I flashed my torch around. Once again I caught a quick glimpse before he dashed away underneath the caravan. Grey, stripy, reptilian. With legs. Quick.
That characteristic is one problem with my skink postulate, however. Skinks don’t dart quickly away. They amble off in their own sweet time, and if they feel threatened, they puff themselves up, open their mouths wide, stare straight at whatever is making them feel threatened, and hiss. Some display a bright blue or pink tongue to startle their would-be predator.
Not, therefore, any of the bluetongue tribe.
So I am no further ahead in identifying my little friend. My copy of Wildlife of Greater Brisbane has not inspired me with a possible candidate. Unless. Reconsidering. Maybe a water dragon?
Just rescued a neighbour from a Red-bellied black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus), which was preventing her hanging out her washing. It had established itself in a crack in the concrete slab under her donga. (Donga = transportable home). She would have to walk past it to get to the clothes line.
Actually, it was the snake that I rescued, removing it to the bush at the bottom of the camp before the peasants armed with shovels and torches stormed its lair.
Once again, in the excitement, I did not take my camera or phone with me, so here is a picture I found on the web.
Pretty wee thing!
It is a beautiful snake; sleek and slim, with a reddish sometimes yellowish tinge on the belly. This one was young, I think, and not quite a metre in length. Mildly venomous, it is really only dangerous to us old codgers and the immunocompromised.
I made a make-do hook from a piece of malleable wire and gently coaxed it out of its crack and guided it away into the bushes by the creek. We discouraged it’s return to that particular hiding place by pouring vinegar into it.
It is getting more difficult to do this sort of thing now that I’m dependent on a walker and a stick to get around, but I will respond whenever I can because there are too many folk around who believe a sharp-edged shovel is the best tool (weapon) for the task.
This was not an aggressive snake. Most aren’t. Unless provoked. It was easily persuaded to go away. I hoped my neighbour would see there is no reason to fear an unexpected attack unless she treads on it. But she is not convinced.
It is two weeks now since I gave up the secular life and devoted myself to meditation and seeking enlightenment. Even as I carry out my humble duties in the herb garden, and turn my thoughts inward through five hours of meditation each day, I can feel my sense of self slowly but steadily fading away.
Pretty soon I shall be the most enlightened acolyte in the world.
Sipping cider Steadily Imbibing Riesling Readily Riesling and falling Rising and boiling Kettle Quaffing coffee Life is a liquid headache. But drunken crabs walk forwards
The latest consultation with Dr Mehdi was a positive one. My blood iron and haemoglobin counts, though still low, are greatly improved. my vitamin D likewise.
The really good news is that despite being so unlikely at this stage of my life, my kidney function has also improved. It has shot back up to 34%. My weight is down. Mehdi is really pleased. He encouraged me to carry on with whatever I’m doing.
All I’m doing is dining well, but thoughtfully. Omnivore three days a week and herbivore the other four. At least one meal a fortnight that might be considered extravagant for a tubby person, such as stuffed mushrooms or fish and chips.
No matter what I eat and drink I always drink at least two litres of water during a day in four mugs of 500 mls in addition to whatever I drink by way of tea, coffee, or other beverages. And I do drink quite a bit of tea,coffee and other beverages. I believe this may be one of the secrets to keeping those nephrons ticking over.
A good proportion of my vegetable intake is now coming from my own garden. Tomatoes,snow peas, herbs, spinach, bok choy, silverbeet, chilli, capsicums, even a few potatoes. All grown in pots or portable beds which are basically big pots.
The potatoes were not a great success in terms of volume produced but it was so good to enjoy that wonderful new potato flavour that one only gets from freshly dug spuds. I shall try again. I’m using a spud bag to grow them instead of digging the ground, which I’m not permitted to do here. This time I’m going to use proper seed potatoes instead of supermarket spuds that sprouted in the cupboard.
Through Hollow Lands and Hilly Lands 