food+drink

Culinary Adventures #110: Duck Schnitzel with Orzo Pseudo-Risotto

It’s been too long since I did a Culinary Adventures post. So to put that right this is what I concocted for Friday evening. As always it’s based on ideas culled from recipes I see, and adapted à la mode d’ici.

Duck Schnitzel with Orzo Pseudo-Risotto

Serves: 2
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 duck breasts
  • 100g orzo
  • 2 handfuls frozen peas
  • 2 large salad onions, or one medium-size onion, chopped
  • enough cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed
  • a yellow, orange or red pepper, chopped
  • zest & juice of a lemon
  • plain flour
  • an egg, beaten
  • about 75g Panko Breadcrumbs (or ordinary breadcrumbs)
  • fresh ground black pepper
  • leaves from half a packet of fresh tarragon (discard the stems) or other fresh herbs of your choice
  • splash white wine or dry sherry (optional)

What to do

  1. Lay out 3 small plates. On the first put the flour, and season it with ground black pepper.
    On the second put the beaten egg.
    On the third the breadcrumbs mixed with the lemon zest.
  2. Put the orzo and peas on to cook together in plenty of boiling water. When done, drain and keep warm.
  3. Sweat the onion, garlic and pepper in some olive oil. As it cooks season with black pepper.
  4. (If desired remove the skin from the duck, and give it to your local fox.) Put the duck breasts between layers of clingfilm and beat them with a steak hammer (or rolling pin) to reduce their thickness.
  5. Coat each duck breast in the seasoned flour, then the egg, and finally the breadcrumbs. Fry in olive oil in another frying pan. Turn regularly and cook until the juices run clear (or a meat thermometer reaches at least 70°C) – but don’t overcook it so it goes dry.
  6. Just before the duck is done, add the tarragon and lemon juice to the onion, followed by the orzo & peas. Mix well and cook until heated through and steaming. If it seems too dry add a splash of white wine or dry sherry. Season with more black pepper.
  7. Serve the duck and “risotto” and enjoy with a glass or two of wine of your choice.

Notes

  1. I was surprised how well the lemon and tarragon came through in the “risotto”; it felt like the right combination. But thyme, sage, or coriander should work well too.
  2. I used Panko breadcrumbs. I’ve never used them before and I wanted to experiment. I think they gave a superior result to making your own breadcrumbs from stale bread – probably because they’re dried.
  3. This could be adapted (as I have) to use any pasta; broken up spaghetti works well.
  4. I’ve also done something similar with other meats, or for a veggie option I guess you could use slices of aubergine.
  5. Also optionally add a tablespoon of tomato paste to the onion mix at the same time as the tarragon and lemon.
amusements, quotes

Monthly Quotes

So once more it is time (where is the year going?) for this month’s selection of quotes.

A politician … is a man who thinks of the next election; while a statesman thinks of the next generation.
[James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888)]

He knows nothing; he thinks he knows everything – that clearly points to a political career.
[George Bernard Shaw]

We need to stop just pulling people out of the river. Some of us need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.
[Desmond Tutu]

As a thinking, breathing, acting human you constantly generate a three-dimensional ripple of information from the moment you are born … It is the evidence of your existence, radiating from you into the universe. In some small way (infinitesimal, perhaps, but never zero), the heat of your body, the gravitational pull of your mass, the electromagnetism of your thoughts, and everything else you do touch all of reality around you … Everything in the universe that is touched by your ripple could potentially be aware of you. So, for instance, if you are 40 years old, extra-terrestrial beings on a planet that is 40 light years away from us would just now be entering the ever-expanding, spherical information-ripple of your existence … You don’t need to look far out into space to experience this kind of universal connection. As a ripple of information, you are entangled with everything closer to home as well: your immediate surroundings, your neighbourhood, your planet. Whatever happens to Earth and its inhabitants, you are a part of it.
[Corey S Powell at https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/p/you-are-a-ripple-of-information]

His head was an hourglass; it could stow an idea, but it had to do it a grain at a time.
[Mark Twain]

I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us, and part of us remains. Go anywhere in the station when it is quiet and just listen. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought and word we’ve exchanged. Long after we have gone, our voices will linger in these walls.
[unknown]

You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.
[Yogi Berra]

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.
[Pablo Casals]

More people have poor taste than good taste. They come to their opinions quickly and without any thought, like a small child. That’s why there’s fast food. And moronic reality television shows. And people who follow Paris Hilton. More people will enjoy crack than Proust’s novels. Ergo, just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s inherently good or worthwhile. Too many people just love bad shit because they don’t know any better.
[HyperSexual Girl; Love & Lust]

“All right, class, have we all remembered to bring a potato?”
About three quarters of them held up a potato. I sighed and lifted the shopping bag I’d spent my own money on for this inevitability.
“All right, come get one if you forgot. You too Jason, that’s a carrot.”
“Aw Miss mum said it would be fine.”
“You can’t install Linux on a carrot, Jason, the beta-carotene causes row faults in the DRAM.”
I held up my own potato, showing the genesculpt needles embedded firmly in its flesh. “Now, last week we compiled our VHDL to mRNA, this week we are going to implant it and then incubate our veggies until next week.”
[Christopher Biggs; https://aus.social/@Unixbigot/112628440884924735]

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is
here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
[Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy]

amusements, arts, memes

June Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Art

  1. What year did Vincent Van Gogh die?  1890
  2. What Renaissance artist is buried in Rome’s Pantheon?  Raphael
  3. Who painted the famous artwork Guernica?  Picasso
  4. Who painted the famous artwork The Birth of Venus?  Botticelli
  5. Which US artist died in a car crash in August 1956, aged 44?  Jackson Pollock

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2023.

environment, science

Asian Hornets (Redux)

There’s more news on the Yellow-legged Asian Hornet which is attempting to get established in the UK.

A BBC news story earlier this week reported that DNA testing had shown that the hornets had definitely survived a UK winter for the first time. Subsequently Defra blogged that “Whilst this is the first evidence of Asian hornets overwintering in the UK, it is not considered to be strong evidence of an established population”.

Asian hornet ID chart

Hmmm. Well. Maybe. That sounds like a fairly technical position by Defra, and almost looks like hiding their head under their blanket. Having overwintered once they can easily do it again – and by that time they will have spread and there will be many more overwintering queens. It’ll take only one missed nest not destroyed in time and another mild winter. So it feels to me that they’re here to stay.

amusements, arts, memes

June Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Art

  1. What year did Vincent Van Gogh die?
  2. What Renaissance artist is buried in Rome’s Pantheon?
  3. Who painted the famous artwork Guernica?
  4. Who painted the famous artwork The Birth of Venus?
  5. Which US artist died in a car crash in August 1956, aged 44?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history, memes

June 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

3. Died. Franz Kafka, Austrian author (b. 1883)

5. Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean, which goes to his father in Sweden

8. George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen “going strong for the top” of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50pm; the two mountaineers are never seen alive again

12. Born. George HW Bush, 41st President of the United States (d. 2018)

amusements, memes, personal

Unblogged May

1 Comment

Being things I didn’t otherwise write about this month.

Wed 1 What miserable May Day. It should be sunny and warm, as befits the bonfires of Beltane welcoming the return of the sun. Instead of which it was somewhat chilly, dull and threatening rain all day. And it looks pretty wet for at least the next week. At this rate we’re in for a long, cold, wet summer. Gawdelpus!
Thu 2 There are times when the cats drive you demented. Because N was at the hospital this evening, I was left to feed said animals. I go downstairs to feed them (and me!) a bit before 19:00. Rosie soon appears, which was not a surprise. I feed her a treat of very unposh chicken catfood; she eats heartily through 3/4 of her food and goes out. The other two are absent, despite having been called three times. Ten minutes later Tilly appears. I feed her the usual small portion; she condescends to lick the gravy off the food, as is her usual way, and goes out. While I’m eating my food Tilly comes back and has two goes, five minutes apart, at polishing Rosie’s bowl. By now Rosie has probably finished off Tilly’s food. As I write (about 20:30) Boy Cat is still dozing on the cushion behind my right shoulder; he’s not moved, so hasn’t been fed. We’ll get starving kitten mode in about an hour’s time.
Fri 3 So you think you’re going to have a quiet day, and everything conspires to ensure you have a continual succession of stupidities to unravel.
Sat 4 What a lovely bright, sunny Spring day with barely a breathe of breeze. It wasn’t unpleasant in the garden even at teatime, although the ground is still absolutely sodden.
Sun 5 My phalaenopsis orchids haven’t done so well this year. I’m down to four plants. One hasn’t shown any sign of flowering and the miniature one has two flowers which are trying to hide in the pot. The other two have just three flowers.three orchidsThey’re some years old now and they’ve not been getting as much attention, water and feed with everything else going on. I’ll have to see if I can rejuvenate them over the summer.
Mon 6 Bank holiday Monday, and it’s as dismal as Monday can be. Nothing going on and its been raining most of the day. Even the cats have been lying low all day. I ended up doing literary society work all afternoon as the web developers and the Secretary were working and emailing me. But I did manage to get my haircut in between it all.
Tue 7 Don’t you just love hospitals. N had an appointment this morning with her consultant, although it was admittedly only an “in case needed”. Can they cancel it in good time? Nooooo! They call just after 08:30 this morning to cancel it. Fortunately we’d not left home, although we had got up at crack of sparrows to be ready in time and booked a taxi. The up side was that I got a clear day to get things done, including the monthly household finances which took forever!
Wed 8 What a lovely sunny, warm Spring day – as was yesterday. It’s so warm we’ve had all the windows open all day, and even sat out in the sun for a while after lunch. And that was good because we spotted the first swift of the year. Only one, but it’s good that we have any at all now; 40 years ago the sky was full of them.
Thu 9 Another lovely warm sunny Spring day. And it brings the smelly barbeque-wallahs out. Barbeques (known locally as crematoriums) are bad enough on their own, but why do these people have to use noxious firelighters or the like to start them? Were they never Boy Scouts? No sooner does that stop, than some neighbour starts up a petrol mower – like you need a petrol mower for a garden this size! – followed by a hedge trimmer.
Fri 10 A couple of days ago I clocked up my 150th Postcrossing card received. Here are numbers 101-150 up on the corkboard before I file them and start the board again.postcards on noticeboardI’m averaging a card every three days, so at this rate I should get to 200 before Christmas.
Sat 11 After nearly 45 years of marriage it still turns up surprises. Apparently N may be offered afternoon sessions at the hospital, rather than the current three evenings a week. This would actually be more convenient. But what surprised me most was her comment that what she misses is eating together every evening, and she fells this is especially important. While I agree, I hadn’t realised quite how important it has become.
Sun 12 Three or four days ago we had an odd rose in flower. By today we have a garden full of roses; suddenly they are almost all in flower. From one lone dog rose climbing the silver birch we have a tree full of small single wild roses, and a rambler smothered in apricot blooms.
Mon 13 Monday is always hard – and even harder when it follows a Sunday.
Tue 14 Something must have happened today, but if it did it completely passed me by. Spent the day with brain in jelly.
Wed 15 Comes the gardener for the second time in a week, after a hiatus of about a month – due to a combination of N’s situation and the wet weather. Lots done, including a soap wash of one of the apple trees to get rid of the woolly aphid. Six hours later and the tree is already looking 300% better.
Thu 16 There’s this first portrait of the King. And it has stirred controversy, as portraits of the monarch always seem to. Some like it; many don’t with comments like “how good that he’s covered in the blood of the slaves/soldiers”, or “why is he battling through menstrual blood?”. Perversely I do like it; it’s shocking at first, but as a portrait it is pretty accurate and it does seem to capture the man – a man of many parts. Yes the red shocks initially, but for me it works and it’s better than the usual dull portraiture.Yeo portrait of King Charles III
Fri 17 How’s this for stupid? We order supermarket groceries online every week and they’re fulfilled from a fulfilment centre down the road. The range is restricted compared with what’s in the stores, which is very annoying. I can also order from the same supermarket a small top-up order for immediate delivery by UberEats from the nearest store. Understandably this range is also restricted compared with what I could get by going to the store. But there are things I can buy via UberEats that I can’t get via an online order. Like today I was able to get via UberEats: English asparagus, a common-or-garden pickle, and a small cucumber, none of which the fulfilment centre stock.
Sat 18 This morning we had a really good meeting of the doctors’ patient group. A good turnout of 9 patients, plus the Practice Manager. Everyone was friendly, positive and contributed. And N gave an informal talk about her recent medical experiences, which was well received. Meetings like this do restore one’s faith in humanity a bit.
Sun 19 Just after lunch N refilled the bird feeders. For the rest of the afternoon the garden has been ringing with the squawks of the parakeets. Their chatter is continual, even if there is only one! It’s basically just contact calls – after all they are only budgerigars on steroids! I love having them around, but they are noisy!
Mon 20 The garden is absolutely awash with roses – and not all are even in flower yet! I wondered aloud to N how many thousand (and yes, I mean thousand) rose flowers we had. These photos are just a tiny fraction of the total, especially as the silver birch has not only the Buff Beauty but is a shower of dog rose right to the top.Shower of dog roseshower of Buff Beautyshower of unnamed rambling rose
Tue 21 What a dismal day. Definitely feeling slow and dopey today. And it’s been raining steadily since late morning.
Wed 22 OK, so we get a General Election on 4 July. Prepare then for six weeks of disinformation and misinformation (ie. lies and make-believe) from all sides. Trust none of them – remember they’re politicians and they’re fighting for their seat on the gravy train!
As for the prediction of a Labour landslide? Personally I doubt it. Despite what the polls say, Joe Public will chicken out. He and she will vote for whoever they think is going to put money in their pocket, get rid of immigrants, and claw back our sovereignty: and that may well not be Labour. There will also be a lot of tactical voting. Given that Labour are currently about 10-1 on to have an overall majority, I reckon 11-2 against for a hung parliament, or the same odds for a Tory majority, are good bets. My best guess? A Conservative overall majority of 6 seats. It’ll be interesting – if you can stomach it. I’m not sure I can.
Thu 23 While we’re eating our evening meal, the Marmalade cat from next door appeared having caught a wood pigeon – still fluttering desperately to get away. But no luck, she sat gripping it firmly by the throat until dead. She then proceeded to eat it over the course of at least 45 minutes. One of the local alpha males happened along and thought he was going to get a share: not a chance, he was soon disabused and gave up. She was last seen still manfully chomping away at her pigeon. It’ll be interesting to see how much is left in the morning; my betting is that unless she takes the remains away they’ll be removed by the foxes.
Fri 24 An interesting day.
(1) It started off with the supermarket delivery refusing my credit card overnight. It was a new card, activated yesterday, because there was some (small) amount of fraud on the old one. I made the payment payment with another card after almost 30 minutes on the phone on hold. Turns out the block on the card was only released at the start of office hours this morning. Why am I expected to guess this!
(2) As predicted, all that’s left of the pigeon from yesterday is some scattered feathers. I might find out when I look at the trail camera what happened.
(3) While we were checking off the grocery delivery N looked at the kitchen floor and exclaimed “Why is there a small dead mouse down there?” Sure enough a small dead mouse was indeed trying to hide under the sink.
(4) As usual by mid-afternoon I was convinced it was Saturday.
Sat 25 Another nice sunny day spent working. One day I’ll actually manage to see something of the summer.
Sun 26 Unloading this week’s photos from the trail camera, I found a couple of nice shots of one of our foxes. The resolution isn’t brilliant as they were in poor daylight, but said fox looks to be in good condition.red fox, looking hardred fox, looking hardJust look at the cheeky curiosity on that face. You can see why it’s often said that foxes are dogs running on cat software!
Oh and there were no good shots to indicate the final removal of the pigeon.
Mon 27 I know I didn’t put my hearing aids in today, but it has been unusually quiet, especially for a bank holiday. I can only think the neighbours know something I don’t. But then it was supposed to rain all day, but it hasn’t; it’s been intermittently sunny, although quite windy. I don’t remember this amount of wind when I was young and playing cricket – I would have noticed, because not being a top rank bowler I would have been bowling into the wind all the time. It has definitely got a lot windier in recent years. Someone must have put the gods on a diet of beans.
Tue 28 After months and months and months of delays and postponements, I finally managed to rearrange our dental check-ups and hygienist appointments. To my amazement we were offered appointments on 1 July, which is only 5 weeks away. So often we have to wait 3 months!
Wed 29 Had some really good Barnsley Lamb Chops this evening. Really juicy, flavourful and tender. They’ve been languishing in the depths of the freezer for ages and we decided the time had come to exhume them. The freezing will have helped with the tenderness – as well as the fact that I made sure not to overcook them.
Thu 30 Amazingly we have a large white Amaryllis with two large flowers – they’re the size of a tea plate. It’s an old bulb that has been kept going on the windowsill, with the occasional drop of water. It throws up the odd few leaves, but we never expect it to flower. And suddenly, there it is in full bloom!large white amaryllis in flower
Fri 31 Today has definitely been one of pushing jelly uphill trough treacle. Just about everything seems to have been an irritation, or worse. Well it’s a new month, and a weekend, tomorrow, so onwards and upward. I hope!