When I cook I think in Spanish – don’t know why
Πάντα έλεγα ότι οι καλύτερες συνταγές εφευρέθηκαν με τη μέθοδο ότι-έχει-μείνει-στο-ντουλάπι. Όχι ότι ισχυρίζομαι πως η παρούσα συνταγή αποτελεί μια από τις καλύτερες…
Ήταν μια έμπνευση της στιγμής, μια μέρα που το ντουλάπι με τα μπαχαρικά είχε ξεμείνει από τα βασικά. Μια έμπνευση που μας προέκυψε νόστιμη.
Υλικά
3/4 με 1 κιλό φιλέτο κοτόπουλο.
1 κεφάλι μπρόκολο (ανάλογα με το κρέας διαλέγουμε και το μέγεθος)
Λίγο ελαιόλαδο (για το τηγάνι)
Κόκκινη γλυκιά πάπρικα (τριμμένη)
Κύμινο (τριμμένο)
Σκόρδο (ξερό, τριμμένο)
Τζίντζερ (τριμμένο)
αλάτι
Παρασκευή
Έχουμε πλύνει και κόψει το μπρόκολο, το οποίο και ζεματάμε ανάλογα με τα γούστα του καθενός: άμα μας αρέσει τραγανό αρκεί το ζεμάτισμα για 1-2 λεπτά, ειδάλλως αφήστε το να πάρει μια βράση. Αν μπορείτε να το κάνετε και στον ατμό ακόμα καλύτερα.
Κόβουμε το κοτόπουλο σε μπουκιές και το τσιγαρίζουμε με λίγο ελαιόλαδο.
Μόλις πάρει λίγο ρίχνουμε την πάπρικα, το κύμινο, το σκόρδο και το τζίντζερ και σωτάρουμε.
Η πάπρικα και το κύμινο θα σας δώσουν τη γεύση για αυτό μη τα τσιγκουνευτήτε. Το τζίντζερ προσδίδει μια πικάντικη, ψιλοκαυτερή γεύση που μένει στο στόμα, όσο περισσότερο, τόσο πιο πολύ θα σας μείνει η γεύση.
Χαμηλώνουμε τη φωτιά και προσθέτουμε το μπρόκολο και αλάτι και αφήνουμε να τραβήξει τα μυρωδικά ένα – δυο λεπτά.
Σερβίρουμε με πατάτα φούρνου για ένα πλήρες γεύμα, ή σα μεζέ με το τσιπουράκι.
Σάββατο
Εδώ βγαίνουν μυστικά, κολπάκια και παραλλαγές.
Για τους μη έχοντες τζίντζερ σε σκόνη, ψάξτε να βρήτε μίγμα για κινέζικο. Αυτό είναι συνήθως τζίντζερ και σκόρδο μαζί.
Το φαϊ δεν βγάζει ζουμί. Για να του δώσουμε λίγη σάλτσα προσθέτουμε λίγο από το νερό με το οποίο βράσαμε το μπρόκολο στο τέλος.
Η πατάτα “φούρνου” γίνεται ταχύτατα στο φούρνο μικροκυμμάτων: πλύντε καλά, τρυπήστε με το πηρούνι 1-2 φορές, τυλίξτε με μια πετσέτα και βομβαρδίστε τη για 10 λεπτά στο μέγιστο.
Αν σας έπεσε πολύ το τζίντζερ “σβύστε” το με λίγο γιαούρτι.
I always say that the best recipes were invented with the what-is-left-in-the-cupboard method. Not that this one counts as one of them…
It was a momentary inspiration on a day when the spices cupboard was running low on the basics. An inspiration that turned out tasty.
Ingredients
3/4 to a kilo of chicken fillets.
1 broccoli (choose size according to quantity of meat)
A little olive oil
Ground red paprika (sweet)
Ground cumin
Ground garlic
Ground ginger
Salt
Preparation
Wash and chop the broccoli. Drop it in boiling water. how long you leave it in there depends on how crunchy you want it. A couple of minutes is enough for a satisfying crunch. If you can steam it, even better.
Chop the chicken in bite sized pieces and sizzle it in the pan with a bit of olive oil.
Add the paprika, cumin, ginger and garlic. Saute the chicken until done.
paprika and cumin give you the taste so don’t be stingy. Ginger will give you a spicy aftertaste, the more the spicier.
Lower the heat and add the broccoli and salt. Let it suck the spices for a couple of minutes and you’re done.
Serve with an jacket potato for a full meal or as accompaniment to tsipouro.
If you overdo it with the ginger serve with a dollop of greek-style yogurt.
Fast track to a jacket potato: wash, prick with a fork, wrap in towel and nuke in microwave for 10 mins.
Posted by Vassilis Rizopoulos on Jun 05, 2010
This could be a tape, a High Fidelity top N list, a digitape (which the spell checker suggests should be written ‘digit ape’), a tribute or just plain flame-bait!
It’s a few names/sounds/sensations that have been rattling around my brain for quite sometime.
In today’s starkly visual world, where video dominates (from YouTube:“http://www.youtube.com/fiveyear” – five years dude! – to the debate over HTML5, or more accurately over the <video> tag), a disembodied voice can still evoke strong emotion – maybe even more so, unaccustomed as we become to the lack of visual stimulus.
This is given in no particular order and is incomplete, highly personal, biased and – in stark contrast to it’s title and subject – replete with visual content.
You really should close your eyes…
Maria Callas, la Divina. What more is there to say…
Cecilia Bartoli, whose voice made me go back to opera after long years. “There once was a King…”
Petra Magoni. Love at first note.
Madeleine Peyroux. Smokie nights, low lights and cacique con cola.
Cassandra Wilson for haunting my midsummer full moons all these years
Η Ιφιγένεια, των Νάμα. Δροσιά το καλοκαίρι, ταξίδι, μικρές οδύσσειες.1
Estrella Morente Της χρωστάω το νόστο κάθε επιστροφής.2
Alternatively, you can pretend you’re listening to radio.
1Cool in the summer, travel, little odysseys – I know, it doesn’t translate well
2I owe her the nostalgia of every return
Continue Reading…
Posted by Vassilis Rizopoulos on May 26, 2010
This was inspired by 5 things you should know before dating a journalist, which I found quite funny (while itching to deconstruct – which I won’t do).
1. Google is our friend
…and Twitter, Facebook etc…
If you are of a “dating age” then you have a life online and we have the means to expose it.
If you have a life online, you have a computer and we know how it works.
And the best part is, you will give us your passwords, surrender your laptops and let us configure your smartphones, because, hey… we know how to fix it.
So it’s best you don’t try to hide anything. We don’t have to find things out, your computers will tell us.
2. We like our toys
Be it computers, cameras, remote controls or actual toys.
Inquisitive brains like to fiddle with things, find out how they work, what makes them tick and how to make them do new and interesting things.
With the right application domain, you could be in for the time of your life.
3. You will be tuned out
Programming requires attributes that at extremes would be considered autism.
Present us with an interesting enough problem and we will tune the world out.
Present us with a boring subject and we will tune the world out.
You need to find the right balance of subjects and alternation velocity.
Be careful of the “black hole” subject though. This is a subject that once breached will create an endless monologue of minute details that will kill anything and everything by sheer force of boredom.
And never, ever, put two geeks that share the same “black hole” subject in the same room.
You are guaranteed a super massive black hole that will suck your conversational universe, compact it and eliminate it in the vortex of incomprehensible detail that is stored in the programmer’s mind. Add an internet connection and you might never get out alive.
4. Don’t ask us to fix your computer.
Especially don’t ever utter the words “I have this problem with my computer, maybe you could help me…” within a month of meeting, even if it is a pretext for luring the target to your bedroom.
There is nothing more boring than cleaning up a Windows installation for the Nth time and the aversion effect is immediate.
Let it be known there is a problem (“darn, my laptop started acting up again”), let them offer, never ask.
For more repercussions see also 1.
5. Variation guaranteed.
Programmers vary wildly, in personality, in interests, in body shapes.
You could claim above average intelligence until you see the state some software projects end up in, so no, anything goes.
You better consciously avoid stereotypes (the geek, the nerd, the asocial, the unwashed etc.) and keep an open mind.
Surprises, good and bad, are part of living.
Posted by Vassilis Rizopoulos on May 20, 2010
Mother earth sneezes and I get stranded in Frankfurt for a week!
One more Volcano Tale to add to the pile. Compared to other epic return trips though, mine is positively uneventful:
I just decided to hop on the first available train and take a “forced” weekend holiday in Berlin – which proved quite a good move as soon as it was clear that planes were not going anywhere anytime soon.
My mate, set to fly Saturday to Greece to meet his family for his own holiday had to settle with a weekend’s “relax therapy” as well, so we found ourselves without partners or – most importantly – babies and brilliant weather.
There was no way out, no other choice really. Slept late, woke up late, spend most of our time in the parks enjoying the sunshine and ate as much food as possible in the sure knowledge that by the time our spouses see us the bulge would not be so pronounced (we’re still that young).
What we did not do was hit the bars and clubs – there is a limit to how much you can take on if you have to go back to work on Monday and we’re not that young anymore.
But the cafe-walk_in_the_park-restaurant-walk_in_the_park-ice_cream_and_coffee-in_the_sunshine routine is a perfect revitalizer. Throw in a tour around the river channel with a rented water-bike, good black beer and unlimited playing time for two evenings straight and this volcano incident is creeping up in the list of “fun things we did” for that we didn’t want to do it.
To all of you out there, stranded by Gaia’s hay fever: Try to take a step back, relax and enjoy the adventure, these things don’t happen every day.
Posted by Vassilis Rizopoulos on Apr 20, 2010
Δε το συζητάω, έχει γίνει παράδοση.
Στο Back to 2004 το 2007 μια ξεχασμένη σελίδα του site των Νέων οδηγούσε στα αποτελέσματα των εκλογών του 2004.
Ε, σήμερα, ανήμερα των εκλογών 2009 το http://ekloges.dolnet.gr έχει μείνει κολλημένο στο 2007!
Posted by Vassilis Rizopoulos on Oct 04, 2009