When life hands you black bananas (from cleaning the fridge) you make banana, oatmeal, sesame, coconut, dark chocolate chip bread.
Category Archives: Food
US Charging Ahead on Enviro Issues, Canada Stuck in the 50s
I’ve been attending the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference, and as at previous ones, I am yet again in awe of coordinated volunteer – municipal – tribal (in Canada First Nations) – state – federal conservation efforts in the US.
Yes, we like to slag our southern neighbours for many things, but they are way ahead of us on many others.
Canada? We’re doing good here and there, but we suck at coordinated action. And in Canada, for the last decade at least, the burden has increasingly fallen on volunteers, with federal and provincial governments abdicating their responsibilities, and slashing enviro-related staff and funding.
A major hurt is that Canada is still so 20th century. To see the ruling-party hydroelectric dam platform in BC is to read something from the 1950s.
The US is demolishing dams, setting rivers, wildlife and salmon free, unleashing renewable, long-term natural and economic potential along the way.
Here in Canada, our governments still want to pour concrete in pristine rivers and flood massive areas of our most productive farmland and traditional First Nations hunting and fishing territories.
Shame.
Green/Blue initiatives will provide jobs.
Meeting the Herring Whisperer
I’d heard about the great success that Squamish Streamkeepers have had in wrapping pier pilings so that spawning herrings’ eggs are not killed by creosote and other chemicals. Today my wife Yumi and I had a chance to meet Dr. Jonn Matsen at Fishermen’s Wharf on False Creek in Vancouver to see some of the techniques in action.
Jonn and my wife Yumi hold up a net as a TV news cameraman lines up a shot
Jonn points out how creosote kills herring eggs. There’s no eelgrass or kelp left around here for more natural spawning sites
Net suspended in the water from the wharf
Closer view of herring eggs on piling
Made Paella Tonight – Folks Asking for Recipe
I made paella tonight. It’s not something I cook often, but perhaps two or three times a year. Folks on FB were asking for the recipe, and since this took some time to write out, I thought I’d post it here, too. I’m not an expert by any means, but this works for me.
Preheat oven to 400 F / 200 C
Saute a dozen (headless if you’re squeamish : – ) prawns with shells on (adds more flavour to the paella and your fingers if you peel shells later : -), boil half a dozen mussels for two minutes, tossing in a dozen clams with the boiling mussels for the last minute. Discard any mussels or clams that do not open.
Many recipes also call for sauted chicken drumsticks/thighs, or diced sauted chicken breast, diced chorizo or other sausage, etc., but just seafood is fine if that’s what floats your boat. I also sometimes add chunks of sauted non-oily, lighter fish, like basa.
Take a few strands (a pinch) of saffron and steep in a bit of water. Can put more if you like, but there’s no need to go crazy with it.
Prepare 1.5 liters of broth (I just use chicken powder, but of course it’s better from scratch if you have time, using whatever base you like), You can also substitute some of the water the mussels/clams were boiled in if you’re really into seafood flavour.
Chop an onion or two and lightly saute with a quartered tomato or two. Garlic, for those who like it.
Put about 600g (~1.5 lbs) of uncooked long-grain rice in an oven-safe stone pot or casserole dish. Stir in the broth, the onions and tomatoes, toss in some peas. Stir in the steeped saffron. Salt and pepper if you like. I find the broth and saffron alone do the trick.
Take the prawns, clams in their now open shells, and mussels in their now open shells, and press them on top of the rice mixture. Bake uncovered in oven for 25-30 minutes. Around the 20-minute point I peek in the window every couple of minutes to see if there is still liquid percolating at the bottom of the glass casserole dish.
Take out and let stand for ten minutes or more before serving.
I’m sure there are plenty of variations. It’s hard to go wrong, so try what you like and seems interesting. Just be sure to saute, boil, or otherwise cook whatever seafood and un-smoked meats you are using, as appropriate or to your taste, before arraying them on top of the rice mixture, because 25 minutes in the oven is likely not enough to cook them thoroughly. (And you want to make sure any fresh shellfish opens up for you).
Cooler Weather = First Batch of Oden Since Last Winter
You know you’re sliding toward fall and winter when you make your first batch of oden. It’s a bit late to dig in now (9:30pm) but it’ll be great with a side dish of genmai brown rice in the morning.
Anyway it’s often better when you let it sit for awhile and let all the flavors mingle…
Yumi’s Mom in Aomori (northern Japan) makes wonderful nishime in the fall & winter — I get the impression that her stock simmers for months and she just keeps replenishing veggies and seafood.
Another Super Powell Street Japanese Festival in Vancouver
We attended the 2015 Powell Street Festival in Vancouver today. Super sunny day. Great events and food!
My Flickr album here.
Happy Birthday to Me – Roll Your Own Sushi!
My lovely wife prepared a roll-your-own sushi feast for my birthday, You will also note the portion-controlled birthday cupcake :-).
Today’s Cornucopia – Yum!
We got ten cobs of fresh corn at HMart today for, I think it was $5.98. A minute or two in boiling water and it’s fantastic, not even any salt or butter, just natural sweetness.
Keeping Emergency Water Fresh
We completed refreshing our earthquake water supply kit tonight.
Here in Burnaby on the west coast of Canada we are in an earthquake zone. We don’t get them that often, and usually when we do they are tiny. But historically there have also been temblors that (I love this quotation, though I don’t remember where I read/heard it) have “knocked cows off their feet.”
We keep 3 X 20L containers on hand. We also rotate through them for camping, so the water gets refreshed in the course of such activities, but we haven’t been camping in awhile.
So over the last couple of days we used a container a day to water our balcony garden and some shrubbery outside the front door.
We then refreshed the containers with a baking soda solution, let them air for awhile, and refilled them.
Coho Smolt Release on Byrne Creek
Our DFO Community Advisor released about 5,000 coho smolts in Burnaby, BC, south slope creeks this morning. Byrne Creek, on which I volunteer, got a total of about 3,000 of those.
The yearlings are transported in a special tank and then transferred into the creek in buckets
A closeup of the seething mass of life. It appeared that we lost just two or three out of the thousands
DFO is now saying to clip the adipose fins on hatchery coho again, which means streamkeeper volunteers will be able to distinguish hatchery from wild coho when they return to spawn in a few years.
The habitat was looking lush following this morning’s rain
Rain beading on blossoms
Lonely blossom in the rain