Tha Jerk Chicken

Barb is a project woman!! She had last Thursday off work and she decided to make jerk chicken.I firsted tasted this dish at some of the carribean shops that served homestyle food in Neasden in the UK. Barbara and I lived here when we went travelling in 2000.

"Jerk" style cooking comes from Jamica, with two key spices: allspice (Jamician pimento) & Scotch Bonnet peppers. The latter are a bit tricky to find in Sydney so Barb used red ball peppers and red chillies. Jamican food has Chinese and East Indian influences.

Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_jerk_spice and if you want to see Tracy cook some jerk chicken go to: http://www.jamaicatravelandculture.com/food_and_drink/jerk_chicken.htm

As you can see by the photo below we all loved the jerk chicken!

My Ma's Fish Molee

My good mate Renjit texted me one arvo,"Would u like 2 invite me over 4 dinner 2 night?". My response was "sure thing mofo" and I returned home from work to cook a traditonal Kerala style meal, featuring a fish curry cooked in coconut milk broth. This dish is usually served with lace appam (fermented rice pancake).

This recipe comes from "A Treasure Chest of Recipes". This book was put together by the Marthoma Church in Sydney. It is a pucka Kerala dish:

1/2 kg Spanish mackeral sliced 2 onions thinly sliced
1 inch ginger, chopped 6 green chillies thingly sliced
4 cloves garlic chopped 1 sprig curry leaves
1 cup thin coconut milk 2 tomotoes sliced thick
3 tablespoon oil


Spice mixture:
1 teaspoon corriander powder 1/4 teaspoon pepper powder
3/4 teaspoon cumin powder 1/4 teaspoon tumeric powder
4 cloves garlic



Heat the oil in a flat pan with lid. Fry the sliced ingredients until light brown. Add the ground spices and curry leaves and stir on a low heat for 5 minutes.

Using a spatula push the mixture to one side of the pan. Place the fish pieces in a single layer in the centre*. Put the mixture (masala) over the fish and add the coconut milk.

Sprinkle salt then place the sliced tomotoes on top, simmer till fish is cooked through and remove from fire.

This dish is best eaten using your hand.

*The fish can be fried in a spice mixture before adding the coconut milk.

Cricketer's Arms

I know this is food blog but I had to include this picture of my mate Slem as Jesus. Aaron, who is animator, created this picture following Slem's amazing century during winter cricket. The Cricketers Arms went on to win this semi and the final.

Weekend's Away

Following the death of Maya last year Barbara and I have made the decision to take weekend's away as often as we can. This has been helped by the gernerosity of family with holiday homes.



Barb and I took a spontaneous trip to Bilipin in March to stay at an orchard. It was lovely because they provided local produce from their farm.

We ate, talked, swum, bushwalked and rested. We also had to place a vote at the local school hall.

Dr Proctor

Here is Ali nd Barb enjoying some local chinese take-away (roast duck) in Canberra. Ali is an flamate of Barb's when she used to live in Ultimo. Ali's a top chick who loves life.

Yum Cha

For Barb's older sister Liz we celebrated her birthday (36) at a chinese restuarant. It was the usual suspects: Jake & Barb, Carol & Rob, Sister Jo, Liz, Al, Ameile & Kataya and Al's lovely parents, Roger & Robyn.



I love the chaos of yum cha. Everyone says at the start, "Hey you can choose" but as soon as the silver carts go by everyone is is yelling out for this dish or another.



What I aslo love about these occasions is how the Nance gene is never too far away. Carol brought along a delightful Margaret Fulton classic desert. It was great!

Manu & Lisa

Barbara and I finally caught up with Manu and Lisa. They got married in India last year and spent some time in Harvey Bay, where Manu was working before moving to Sydney in Jan. Lisa is someone I have known for several years through the Marthoma crowd. Lisa went to the trouble of cooking a lovely indian meal.

I value these types of relationships as there is a boat-load of cultural and religious dilemmas that we can share and explore when we are together. (BTW Lisa was the chick in the stunning yellow sari at our wedding).