Sunshine in the City

Still very cold, still sunny.  Two shots taken along Thomas Street / James' Street.

Spring : Chicken

It was certainly Spring here today. Although water in some of the empty troughs on the patio stayed iced over all day, I was able to get two lots of wash dry on the line thanks to the sunshine and a light breeze. Any other sunny days have still been too humid for any real drying.

Over the weekend we had Jamaican Jerk pork, and there was some (Jamaican) rice and peas left over.  I was trying to find something suitable to have with it today, and found this Moroccan recipe in Claudia Roden's New Book of Middle Eastern Food. It turned out well; C says he thinks it would be a suitable meal for guests.


Moroccan Chicken Qdra:
1 large chicken, quartered
2 tblsp butter
3/4 - 1 lb onions
1 tsp cinnamon, salt and pepper,
8 ounces dried chickpeas, (garbanazo beans) soaked overnight
4 oz whole almonds, blanched
Bunch of parsley, finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon

Put the chicken, butter and 1 finely chopped onion in a pan, and cover with water. Add the cinnamon, and salt and pepper to taste.Bring to the boil, add the chickpeas, cover and simmer over a very low heat for one and a half hours, by which time the chickpeas should be tender.  Add the rest of the onions, finely chopped, the almonds and parsley, and simmer for about another half hour till the fresh onion is soft and the sauce somewhat reduced. It wasn't in the recipe, but I took some of the chickpeas and liquid out and puréed them to thicken the sauce up. Arrange the chicken pieces on a dish, and spoon the chickpeas, nuts and sauce over. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over this and serve.
It was a very enjoyable light (as in not rich) chicken dish, with a lovely aromatic warmth from the cinnamon and tang from the fresh lemon juice. It reminded me a bit of some Persian chicken dishes. What was left of the sauce I blended coarsely to make a nice soup for tomorrow's lunch. Although it did, indeed, go reasonably well with the rice and peas, next time I make it I'll serve it with plain rice or even better, homemade flat-breads.

Saturday Walk

We took a short walk down the canal to the 12th lock this morning. C has a gig on Tuesday to practice for, and a pile of ironing, so short was the key word;  and down the canal meant that we passed the shopping centre on the way back for essentials like bread and milk.

. More swans - they seem to be out in abundance just now.

A moorhen taking a rest

 

Canal Maintenance (they are doing a lot at the moment. Last week we saw some type of "boat" that is obviously a floating platform for cutting trees from, and a lot of clearing has been done along the banks too. This man was wearing an Irish Waterways windcheater, and was doing some kind of work in the lock. He had a ladder tied to one of the bollards along the quay, for climbing down to the boat. While we were watching him we spotted a grey wagtail - a wonderful splash of yellow.

 

Another splash of colour - these little irises (barely six inches tall) were planted along the bridge.

And another splash of primary colour - large-scale litter, which must literally have made quite a splash wherever it was dropped in. There was a yellow hard-hat floating near it, too.

More Birds

I wasn't expecting to work today, but got a text this morning at quarter to eight, saying someone else was sick. So instead of a walk in the park, I went to the shopping centre after work to collect the photos from last year's holiday, and walked home from there. I was really puzzled because I knew I still had two books I could take out from the library, so I went in and chose two and went to the desk. And hen th librarian told me I already had ten items. I was surprised, but he was sure, so I put them back. I came home and logged into my account, and there are two books i most certainly didn't take out. Still waiting to hear back from the library on that one - I don't want to end up with overdue charges for books I don't have.
It looks as if this swan is ringed.

 Swan symmetry

 

 The robin in the garden, chirping away with his breast puffed out.

Liffey Birds

Two pictures, neither of which is very good. It was very cold this morning - I have other pictures of both the cormorant (or shag, I can never work out which it is) and the swan when you can see their breath in the cold air. And it was also very bright.
I like this one of the swan, even though it's not great, because there really was a sparkle on the water just like in the photo, as I was looking down the river towards the sun.. It captures the feel of the moment.

And the cormorant - or shag; I love seeing these, they fly along above the river like bombers. As I'd seen one fly down-river this morning, it was real surprise, when I was watching the gulls, to suddenly see another one surface. While I see them by the dozen along the coast between Bray and Greystones, I've never seen more than one at a time on the Liffey.  I've also never managed any sort of a photo before, so while this one is not great, it's a start!! I even managed one of it diving - but if you didn't know what it was, you'd certainly never be able to tell. Shame I didn't get one of it with the fish in its beak after a successful dive.

Fish Out of Water

As we got near the border between County Dublin and County Kildare on our Saturday walk,  C spotted a metal fish plate set into the ground by the canal bank...and then another...and many more as we walked along.

A quick look and it was obvious that they were all beside little fishing stands, with two or three steps down to the water level. I think the fish is meant to be a salmon, though I am basing this more on the fact that the Irish name for Leixlip (the town where we got the train back from)  means Salmon's Leap, than on anything else. The poster was at the Royal Canal Amenity Group slipway and moorings. You can see from all the languages how much fishing is part of the tourism industry. Although these days, with immigration, many places now have signs in more than just English and Irish. Polish being up there near the top, and Rumanian.

And my own fish in water...

Wide open vistas

Part of the (Royal) Canal near us is quite narrow; the stretch is known as the Deep Sinking. It runs through an old quarry, and some of it is up to 30 feet below the tow path. It doesn't look wide enough for two boats to pass - I don't know how they used to manage when it was a functioning waterway. We've passed a memorial to an accident in the late 1800s when some people died.
So for us, it's always nice when we walk a bit further than normal, like yesterday, and can enjoy wide open spaces like these, and more sky and sunshine as the paths are wider and less crowded by trees.

  

 
Aren't the colours in the photo of the railway maintenance car wonderful! It was worth stopping to switch to a wide-angle lens to capture it. They're working on a new spur off the railway line - when we got the train back, we could see all the concrete ties laid down, waiting for the rails to go on.

Swan's Way

We had a lovely walk along the canal this morning, as it was bright and sunny when we woke up. Just as well we had a good porridge breakfast, as in the end it was almost a two hour walk - we got the train home.One of the highlights was seeing an otter - we've seen muskrats in France, but neither of us had ever seen an otter before.
It was, indeed, cold last night and a lot of the canal was lightly glazed with ice.

 

 

Greens are good for you...

It was a very dull and grey day today. At least the snow was almost all gone. Yesterday when I was waiting for the bus, all the boys waiting for their school bus were busy trying to make snowmen before the bus came.

This morning I did spot these bulbs coming up at the end of the road , and couldn't resist adding some text to the stone slab.

RIP Winter is a vain hope, though - tonight and Sunday are both forecast to have temperatures below freezing.

Tonight we had one of C's favourite dinners - a curried beef and potato stir-fry. We always have it soon after one of his other favourite dinners -Chicken Kebabs with Satay Sauce. I used to be able to buy a lovely commercial Satay Sauce, but since it went off the market I've tried I don't know how many brands, and gave up on all of them. It's fiddly roasting and skinning the nuts to make your own, though.
Anyway, with the chicken kebabs we almost always have this recipe for Stir-Fried Chinese Leaves, from Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. There are enough Chinese living in the neighbourhood that our local grocer almost always has Chinese Leaves. One large head will make enough for about 3 people.
Stir-Fried Chinese Leaves:
1 large head Chinese Leaves (Chinese cabbage, wong bok)
4 tblsp oil
1 heaped tablespoon finely chopped onion - I usually use one French shallot
1-2 cloves finely chopped garlic
2 slices fresh ginger
salt
1 1/2 tblsp each  sherry and light soy sauce
1 tsp ginger
1/4 chicken stock cube
1 tblsp melted lard, chicken fat or sesame oil (I like the flavour this gives, if it's one with some toasted sesame oil in it, and not just all untoasted)

Shred the leaves.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok. Put in the garlic, onion and ginger and fry for one minute, to flavour the oil.

Put in the Chinese leaves and a good teaspoon of salt, and stir constantly for about 3 minutes, so it's all finely coated with the oil. Add the sherry, soy sauce, sugar and stock cube. (I don't like cubes and don't buy them, but if and when I find jars of a good concentrate, I use a quarter teaspoon of that). Reduce heat and continue stirring and frying for another couple of minutes. If it looks too watery, turn the heat back up. If it's drying out too much, add the least amount of water possible. Just before serving add the fat or oil and season to taste.

Another green leafy stir-fry we are partial to is this Gujerati-style Cabbage with Carrots, from Madhur Jaffrey.We normally have it with curries, but when catering for holiday camps I've served it with boiled ham or bacon.

Gujerati-style Cabbage with Carrots: (4-6 as a side dish)

3/4 lb green cabbage, finely shredded

3/4 lb carrots, peeled and coarsely grated 

1/2 - 1 fresh green chilli, cut into long thin strips

4 tblsp oil

pinch of asafetida (optional - it's not always easy to find)

1 tblsp whole black mustard seeds

1 whole dried red chilli

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

4 tblsp chopped coriander / cilantro

1 tblsp lemon juice

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok. When hot add the asafetida, and then straight away the mustard seeds. When they start popping, add the dried red chilli. Now add the carrots, cabbage and green chilli. Reduce the heat, and stir the vegetables for a minute. Add the salt, sugar and coriander. Continue to stir-fry for another 5 minutes till the vegetables are just tender but not overdone. Add the lemon juice and serve.

Last pick from the Botanics

 Bench and Flare

Backlit grass (there was a bad case of unwanted flare in this one which I cropped out. There's a fine line between too much sunshine, making for too high contrast and flare, and that light that gives any picture a lift from the dump-it into the keep-it category. Some from Saturday have too high contrast and aren't worth keeping.

Backlit cyclamen (in the Alpine House)

Cropped this photo and cleaned up the line across it to make this card for the MMTPT challenge this week. Printing in on linen-effect paper has washed out the vibrancy of hte colours but gave me the abstract effect I was hoping for.

Shooting up: I always like bracken. It grows pretty much everywhere here, but I have particular memories of the fields behind the cottage in Killybegs, Co. Donegal, which is really the first place I remember from family holidays. The fields were edged with fuchsia hedges, and full of bracken, sheep and the sound of corn-crakes. At least it was something to compete with the smell of the outdoor chemical toilet!! I also remember picking ripe fronds and laying them on paper, to get the pattern from the spores as they fell off - and doing the same with mushrooms, too.

 

Shooting out: the old Cactus House and the Waterlily House are the last of the Curvilinear range waiting for restoration. Seems like they've been waiting a long time, when the last time they grew the giant Amazonian Waterlily was in 2003.