Who's In, Who's Out, Javed Miandad and Making Proper Tea

It's a beautiful morning; the sun's shining, the birds are singing, and everyone's happy.   Well, except for Australia.  They're not happy at all.  In fact, there's talk of Shane Warne coming back to the team to spin some sense into the squad!  That would be crazy!  That would be pandemonium!  That would be the most fun thing to happen in this bleak Ashes series! We want Warne!  We want Warne!

And here's some Pakistan Cricket Team news.  The Pakistan Cricket Board gave the ICC a list of 40 players to be approved...and guess what...3 players are not approved for international cricket!  Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Danish Kaneria will not be on the team for the New Zealand tour, and I believe they won't be on the World Cup team, either, but I'll have to double check that. 

It's not his fault his gloves were made of butter!

To be honest with you, I'm not sad about Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal, but I'm really disappointed about Danish Kaneria.   He was allegedly involved in some monkey business in county cricket in the UK.  By monkey business I mean spot-fixing, not buying and selling monkeys on the black market.  Soo, I'm a little sad about not seeing him any time soon because I love his spin style, and he has the craziest run-up in town.   Oh well.  But let's think about the good things...the team that IS going to New Zealand is flipping awesome and I'm not going to miss a single minute of all the action!

And here's the good news.  Javed Miandad, the legendary batsman, says he's having a grand old time coaching the team and showing them how to perfect their batting.   Things are going well in the Pakistan training camp; there are still some lingering effects from the spot fixing scandal and legal case against the accused trio, but all of the players are hunkering down and working hard.  This tour is going to be a lot of fun to watch because our lovely lads will be fit, fabulous, and prepared!  Furthermore, I heard a little rumour that our chaps on the team are eating great, traditional food!  Excellent!  Nothing makes me happier than to hear that they're eating properly!

So, that brings me to today's food topic:  making proper tea.  Tea is a beautiful thing, and there are so many varieties of it.  Over the next few days, I'll show you how to make the different versions of it, but for right now, we'll learn the absolute basics. Today is British Style (or Canadian style if that's what you want to call it.) Now go get a teapot cuz we're going to make the real deal.

First of  all, heat up your teapot by filling it with boiling water.  If you're using an antique or fine china teapot, put a spoon in the pot first, and pour the boiling water over the spoon...this will prevent the pot from cracking.  Let the water sit in there for a couple of minutes.  This pre-heats the pot and will help keep the tea warmer for longer.

Empty the water from the pot, and add 1 teabag for each person you're making tea for. Read the label on the package, sometimes one teabag is good for 2 people.  Adjust the amount according to how strong you like your tea.  If you're using tea leaves, use approximately 1 teaspon leaves per cup/person.

Pour freshly boiled water into the teapot over the teabags or leaves, and give a quick stir.  Let it sit for 2 or 3 minutes, and then serve.  Most old-fashioned or fine china teapots have a built-in strainer, but if you're using tea leaves in a modern pot, use a little hand strainer.  The old fashioned way to serve the tea is to put cold milk and/or sugar in your cup first, and then pour the tea over it.  It is acceptable to serve children their tea in a saucer so that the liquid cools down quickly; however, for adults this is frowned upon.

Right, have a good one today, I know this was a simple post, but try making your english style tea in a teapot.  It makes a huge difference!

Happy Cricket, and Happy Tea-time!

Cricket Gossip, Alarming Health News, and Salade Marocaine

G'day!  The second beat-down of the Australians is over, thank goodness, and I've sent a little message to their captain Ricky Ponting via my article in the SportPulse online magazine.  Here's the link:

http://sportpulse.net/article/ashes-minced-meat-and-qeema-0

You know the recipe, we've posted it here earlier, and if you've tried making it, you already know how effective it is in making you feel stronger.  So if my advice is taken, our lads from Down Under should perform a little better in the next test match!

But enough about the Ashes, it's making me all sad.  I have some small cricket gossip about the Pakistan team!  Apparently, my public enemy #1, Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, will not permit 5 members of the team to leave the country!  The five, which include Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul, were supposed to go to Malaysia and shoot a commercial or do some promotional work.  Now they can't go because Mr. Butt is afraid they won't go to their training sessions or come back.  Hmmmm.  Is there any reason why they wouldn't come back Mr. Butt?  Do tell.  Oh, and I've just read that he denies everything.  Good grief.

And some further news.  That Haroon Lorgat guy, the president of the ICC, cricket's ruling body, said earlier this week that he hopes the three suspended pakistani players accused of spot fixing are found guilty.  He in fact said he'll be disappointed if they aren't found guilty.  Talk about being prejudicial!  If they're found to be innocent, isn't that a good thing?  I guess his way of thinking is that SOMEONE must be guilty, and SOMEONE must be punished for the whole mess.  I'm just hoping that these guys will be found innocent.  Or if they are found to be guilty, be lenient with Mohammed Amir.  He's only 19.  We all makes mistakes at that age, and it's not like he robbed a bank or punched someone's sister!

Anyways, I am looking forward to the Pakistan team's tour of New Zealand.  I'm ready for some of that Razzle-Dazzle, Boom Boom and Gullification!

And here's the alarming nutritional news:  We're getting fatter and fatter in developed countries.  We're getting so fat that we're now getting obese; the World Health Organization says it's because we're not eating enough vegetables and fresh food!  This is alarming indeed!  Obesity leads health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems...all because we're not getting enough veggies!   

So here is today's good news:  Salade Marocaine is a traditional salad from Morocco, which is ridiculously easy to make, and it is delicious.  Even people who HATE salad and raw vegetables love this salad.  So stop wasting time, and get your cutting board out!

Salade Marocaine
3 tomatoes, diced
1/2 onion, diced
2 green peppers (capsicum), diced
1 cucumber, peeled unless it's the thin-skinned type, diced
a handful of chopped coriander (cilantro)
extra virgin olive oil or argan oil (from Morocco, rare but very good for you)
juice of 2 or 3 limes or lemons
salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder (optional)

Toss everything together, and let sit for a few minutes.  Eat and enjoy the deliciousness of the vegetables combined with the olive oil, salt and lime juice.  Heaven!

So no excuses!  Go eat your vegetables, and let's reverse this alarming health trend!  Salade Marocaine combined with Pakistani dishes will keep you fit, fabulous and gorgeous, just like Wahab Riaz the fast bowler!

Have a good one today.  Happy Cricket, Happy Salade Marocaine!

Guests, Ricky Ponting, and a Little Something to Eat with Daal

And a good morning to you.   I've got guests at my place, and I'm taking them to the Victoria Market today, so I've got to make this quick.  Yes, Australia isn't doing very well in the second test of the Ashes,  but I want to give a shout out to Michael Clarke and to Shane Watson.  Good on both of you guys, you've given everyone a little bit of hope!

Ricky Ponting has been coming under fire here in Australia; one headline called him a disgrace.  I've never been a Ponting fan because he elbowed and shoved the young Mohammed Amir in the Australia/Pakistan tests.  Is he a good captain?  Well, the fact that England is scoring runs in the 1000's makes me say:  no, not really.  Morale is low.  Nobody was even watching the match on the huge screen at Federation Square in Melbourne.  Sigh.  Maybe today we'll see some more fighting spirit, and Siddle will get all of the English out 10/15.  Wouldn't that be nice?

Anyhoo, I've got to keep it short today.  Today's little recipe is something very nice called Quick Achaar, or quick pickled onions and garlic.  You put a teaspoon full of this explosively flavourful stuff on the side of your daal (lentils) and take a small amount of it with every bit of daal you take.  This adds another dimension to what is otherwise a rather plain, but good dish.  Here we go on the flavour train!

Quick Achaar
1 onion, chopped extremely finely
1 head of garlic, or about 12 cloves of garlic, chopped extremely finely
2 green chilies, chopped extremely finely
salt
lal mirch (red chili powder)
white vinegar, enough to cover all the ingredients

Put everything together in a bowl and stir.  Let it sit for at least 1 hour before eating so that all the flavours mix.  It's best made 1 day ahead, then the flavour really jumps out.
You can also add some extremely finely chopped fruit to this to add yet another layer of flavour.  I sometimes use in-season mangoes or peaches.

Right, have a good one, enjoy the Ashes today (yeah right if you're an Australia fan), and don't be too hard on Ricky Ponting.  He's not my favourite, but he doesn't deserve to be brutalized in the press.

Toodles.  Happy Cricket, happy eating, and Happy Ashes.



ps Dec 26 can't come fast enough.  I'm having Pakistan Cricket Team withdrawals.  Cricket just isn't as exciting when they're not around.  Love them! 

A Scolding, a Plea, and MCG Mole Verde for Fitness Renewal

And good stuff!  My internet connection is back to normal, so here we go, straight to the point:

Australia is not doing well in the Ashes.  That is all you need to know.
 
To be honest; I'm worried.  Very worried.  I'm an Australia fan, and I'm quite concerned about what the chaps on the team are eating.  It's quite obvious that their diet is lacking in nutrition, and furthermore, in an old interview with Shane Warne from 2006, he says that the Australians eat sandwiches and drink cokes during their lunch breaks!  Soda pop is no good for athletes!  No wonder you're looking like a hot mess and that the English are saying you're bad at batting, bowling and fielding!   For crying out loud, eat properly and stop all of this self-destruction that's going on!  By eating poorly, you're actually helping the English win, and we cannot have that! 

Mr. Ponting, tell your team to eat this mexican dish that I'm proposing today.  It has the proper balance of proteins, vitamins, nutrients  and carbohydrates for your lads to perform at their highest level.  Mr. Ponting, please have some Melbourne Cricket Ground Mole Verde.

Mole (pronounced mo-lay) is a mexican-aztec word for stew/curry/salan.  There are hundreds of varieties, but the one thing they have in common is that they are all cooked slowly and are very flavourful because the ingredients meld together.  A good, rich, delicious mole is just what the doctor should order for the tired athlete to get back into form.
Melbourne Cricket Ground Mole Verde (vair-day)
Ingredients
1 chicken cut in 8, skin removed
6 cups of chicken broth
1 small onion
1/2 tablespoon salt

1 cup pumpkin seeds
3 tomatoes
5 green chilies, use more or less to adjust heat to taste
1/2 chopped onion
5 garlic cloves
1 bunch coriander (cilantro)
1 teaspooon cumin seeds
5 black peppercorns
4 cloves
olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
salt to taste

1.  Cook chicken in broth with salt and onion; simmer 12 minutes, remove chicken.
2.  Toast pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan.
3.  Blend pumpkin seeds in a blender with 1 cup of the broth from step 1.  If you don't have a blender, crush the seeds to a powder with a mortar and pestle, and add to the 1 cup of broth.  If you don't have a mortar and pestle, use a sharp knife and chop the seeds until they're as finely chopped as possible, then add them to the cup of broth.
4.  Simmer the tomatoes and chilies in salted water for 10-15 minutes.
5.  Drain the tomatoes and chilies, and put in the blender with with the coriander,garlic, cumin seeds, black peppercorns and cloves.  If you don't have a blender, crush the spices in the mortar and pestle first, then crush the cooked tomatoes and chiles.
6.  Heat some olive oil in a big pot, and fry the chopped onion until lightly brown and slightly crispy.
7.  Add the blended pumpkinseed mix, and fry 4 or 5 minutes.
8.  Add the tomato/coriander/spice puree, fry 2 or 3 minutes, then add 2 cups of the broth.  Simmer about 10 minutes.  The longer you cook this, the richer the sauce will be.  Add more water when needed.  If you want an extra smooth sauce, cool it down and put it in the blender again, but it is not necessary.
9.  Add the chicken and salt, and add the rest of the broth.
10. Cook on high heat about 3 minutes, then turn the heat to med-low and simmer for approximately 1/2 hour.

Serve this dish of deliciousness on plain steamed Basmati rice.

Right.  So now Australia has no excuses...with this MCG Mole Verde, my second-favourites (come on people, everyone knows Pakistan is #1 in my heart) will be big and strong and will reverse the painful situation in the third test!  Let's GO, Australia!  Show those English guys how things are done Down Under!

Have a good one, and keep your fingers crossed for today, Day 4!

Happy Mole, Happy Cricket, and Happy Australia!

More Communication Problems, More Australia Problems

Ick.  Ick.  Phooey!  I only have access to a hobbled version of the internet because apparently I've gone over my usage limit.  So no fun post today, just this.  On Monday things should be back to normal. 

And I don't even want to talk about Australia in the Ashes.  They've really got issues.

Have a good one, and tomorrow I'll have a proper post for you if all goes well with my internet provider.

Happy Cricket, and Happy Australia (please play better today!  And where the heck is Tim Paine?  He was good!)

Communications Problems, Australia Problems

Hi.  How are you.  Sorry for not posting yesterday; I'm having big fat problems with the internet service.  Hopefully they'll be solved today and I can get back to the fun stuff soon. 

As you probably already know, England pounded Australia into the dust yesterday...Ashes indeed!  I'm rooting for Australia, but man, yesterday was not pretty.  Mike Hussey was a ray of hope with his 93 runs, but Clarke and Ponting made me wonder.  What in the heck have they been eating to perform so poorly?  Hopefully someone made them nice din-dins last night and today they'll be back in good form.

No play for the Windies/SriLanka test yesterday...I'll assume it was because of RAIN yet again, but I don't really know because I can't access any internet sites.  Phooey!

Right, I'm off to solve my internet problems.  Wish me luck. Ugh.

Happy Cricket, and Happy Internet.

More Rain, More Akmal, Beautiful People and Bitter Melon

A bit of a grumpy post today.  It's raining so much here that my backyard has turned mushy, and there's more to come.  The rain is everywhere this month; Melbourne, Casablanca in Morocco got hit really hard (actually killing people) and Sri Lanka.  Furthermore, the rain has made a mockery of the West Indies/ Sri Lanka test series.  Bah.  BAH!!!   Maybe I'll start watching indoor cricket.  Bah.  Rain can be a good thing, but as I always say, everything is better in moderation.

Speaking of too much rain, Pakistan is still reeling from the floods earlier this year.  Let's not forget about them; if you get the chance, make a donation.  Every little bit helps.  If you've got family or friends in the water-ruined areas, do what you can to alleviate their suffering.  Pakistan is a lovely country; and I must emphasize this:  if the situation was reversed, pakistanis would be the first people to help.  I saw this first-hand in 2005.  We were in Islamabad when the earthquake struck; as soon as people in our building heard that another building had collapsed, all of the able-bodied men immediately went to the collapsed apartment complex to dig out the victims.  By hand.

Right.  On to some cricket news.  Kamran Akmal won't be on the squad for New Zealand, even though he's been cleared by the ICC for selection.  He's all upset about it, because it did look as though the PCB were going to take him back on board.  He claims that he's a better batsman now.  Of that I have no doubt.  He can hit the ball, and he did score an insane 500+ runs in his last domestic game, but he still has issues wicket-keeping.  So for the time being, Umar Akmal and Adnan Akmal are in.  We'll see how things go. 

Before we get to today's cooking, perhaps something to lift our spirits is in order.  Look at this, and let's feel a bit better.


Paulina Porozkova for the Gents



Imran Khan for the Ladies



















Ok.  It's always good to look at beautiful people. 

Now today, we'll be looking at another variation of Bitter Melon Qeema.  Yesterday we learned how to prepare the bittermelons or karelas by taking out the bitterness, and we did a basic sliced karela version of the qeema.  Today we're learning the spectacular version of it.  Oh and by the way, karela is very good for diabetics.  Good to know!

So get about 6 or 7 karelas, peel off the bumpy parts of the skin, slit them lengthwise, but not all the way,  scoop out the seeds, rub salt all over, inside and out, and let sit for an hour or so.   Rinse well, let them soak for a while, and rinse again so they're not too salty.

Now get your prepared qeema, and stuff a few spoonfuls of the queema into each karela. 

Get some cooking thread or plain cotton thread and wind it around each karela to keep it shut.

Now, in the same pan as the queema, fry the karelas in with the rest of the unused queema over medium heat until the karelas start to turn nice and golden.

Serve the qeema and stuffed karelas with fresh roti, pita bread or naan from the tandoor bakery.  Enjoy!

Have a good one, hopefully some of this rain will let up.  It's raining so much that moss is going to grow on my head soon.  Yuck.

Happy Cricket, and happy eating!