Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Oysters

I love oysters, although once upon a time I didn't. My parents would eat oysters by the plateful and I wouldn't touch them. I have described how once when I had a French girl staying with me, we had oysters and my parents, having prepared them together with brown bread and butter (traditional in England) called each of us youngsters in to try them, there were several of us. Each one of us went 'yeuch' until the French girl came in and my father described it as being a Disney cartoon where the oyster shells went one way fast and the stacks of bread and butter kept decreasing. They had to tip her out of the room before there were none left for the adults.

Once I got to North Carolina I learned to eat steamed oysters which I could eat by the bushel load and absolutely loved. Then, at London Airport returning from our Christmas visit this year, we had a seafood lunch and my plate had one raw oyster on it. I ate it, I loved it. Wonders will never cease. Of course I do miss my fresh oysters from NC, nothing like living by the water for fresh seafood. In Canada all such food has to travel an awfully long way to reach us and therefore costs twice as much as it does near the coast.

I wrote a blog about a last meal, maybe I should add Oysters to that menu.

You simply have to to see the YouTube video of a new talent from Britain's Got Talent. They showed the clip on Good Morning America and both Matt and I had tears running down our faces. The audience gave this young man, Andrew Johnston, 13, a standing ovation; the dreaded Simon thought he was great. He starts by telling the world how he is bullied at school and deals with it by singing. To watch the video click here.

Last night we had another recipe from Dottie's Cookbook aka Betty Crocker's New International Cookbook, we enjoyed it.

Honey-Spiced Chicken with Orange Sauce
6-8 servings

In Israel, as in much of the Middle East, honey is an ingredient used to signal festive occasions, to celebrate the sweetness of life or of a new year. Honey, lemon and orange juice, ginger and nutmeg flavour this golden brown chicken and provide a sweet sauce too.

2 Tbs vegetable oil or chicken fat
2 1/2 to 3 lb. broiler-fryer chicken cut up
2 medium onions, sliced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp pepper
1 C orange juice
1/4 C honey
2 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 C pitted ripe olives
1 Tbs cold water
2 tsp cornstarch
Orange slices

Heat oil in skillet until hot. Cook chicken over a medium heat until brown on all sides, about 15 mins. Place the chicken in an ungreased oblong baking dish, top with onions. Sprinkle with salt, paprika and pepper. Mix orange juice, honey, lemon juice, ginger and nutmeg; pour over chicken. Add olives. Cover and cook in 350 F. oven until thickest pieces of chicken are done. 45-50 mins.

Arrange chicken, onions and olives on platter. Pour pan juices into a saucepan; heat to boiling. Mix water and cornstarch; stir into juices. Cook and stir until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 mins. Garnish chicken with orange slices; serve with orange sauce.

We cheated, we started with four skinless, boneless chicken breasts and adjusted timing from there. It was very enjoyable just the same.

Have a great day.

4 comments:

  1. Oysters ... only two weeks left to eat them here in France because once May (no 'r' in the month) is here the oyster stalls will disappear until September.
    Marilyn

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  2. I haven't had oysters in a while other than the one in London. When we go to NC it is usually in the summer, no r's in any month then.

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  3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=560637&in_page_id=1773&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=picbox&ct=5

    Jo, I hope you will be able to open the above link. Something interesting.
    Marilyn

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  4. I cut and pasted the link and got the article OK. Interesting. But it didn't come over to us that he was supposed to live in a dump. The only thing we got was bullying.

    ReplyDelete