We attempted for a post-food coma, but we were quickly visited by a half dozen kids, wanting to see Jeff, who's come back for another three months of volunteering, and wanting to return library books. Jeff taught some how to play proper chess, some of us played UNO, some played dominoes.
Howard had been popping in and out all morning, reporting that he was unable to obtain a pig to roast, but we could get some mutton. We bought a whole sheep and later, Howard delivered the whole, skinned, animal and layed it on our counter. He chopped it into pieces as I grated 2 cloves of garlic and two small onions to season it.
Jeff had the kids help him to gather firewood and then I had some kids pick a medium sized bowl of limes from the tree behind the house and start squeezing. I pressured channa (chickpeas) to make hummus and made lime juice with the limes, plus seasoned the cut up meat. It marinaded for a few hours, in a big plastic basin big enough to hold a 20 pound sheep, minus some of the more boney parts, that Howard put aside and said to make a boil with.
I wanted to experiment, see what difference in flavor and tenderness cooking a boil there was when you sautee the onions, garlic and sweet pepper, then quickly fry the meat before adding the water, versus just putting it all in hot water and letting it boil for awhile. I added the same amount of seasoning, including casareep. (The sauteed seasonings and meat came out with more flavor, though I think the tenderness was about the same.)
Howard and others got the fire burning, the lime juice was served with rum, and Matt made a barbecue sauce of ketchup, honey, casareep, pepper sauce and onions, which we brushed over the lamb as it grilled. Jeff went out to get more black pepper and biscuits for the hummus, and to check on the fresh baked bread we were going to use as buns for the hot dogs I bought in Lethem last week.
The meat was barbecued, the boils were done, the farine was set out, the hot dogs started to grill and Anthony carried me to the baker's house to collect the bread; we got two fresh baked loaves and quickly put them on the towa to toast a bit so they'd hold up better with the hot dogs. Mike brought some mustard from C.H.
By then, we had more than 20 people at the house, and everyone started eating the bbq with farine soaked in boil broth, maybe a piece of the boiled meat, too. The Beatles played from my worn multi media player that takes 6 C batteries. Matt had done wash that morning and we noted his string of boxers on the line which, incidentally, were American Eagle, and three of them went in line as red, white a blue. We got a picture of him next to it, saluting.
We had around 30 people total in and out of the house, all eating to their hearts' content, as we had lime juice and rum, then Howard went for some kari. Cindy brought over a cucumber to add, and Vilma helped with the dishes. People came inside to play games and gaff, some guys sat in the front patio room, strumming a guitar with a mug of kari next to them...
El Dorado Rum and lime juice. Barbecue mutton. Barbecue sauce. Hummus and crackers. Farine. A cross cultural feast.
Three US Americans in K. House makes for a pretty good Independence Day shindig.
Matt Hallett, July 4, 2011. K. House volunteer, March - July 2011
God Bless Americas.
No comments:
Post a Comment