Builders'dinner

[bazfaz]

We just had our builders to dinner. They left at 1.30 so you can take it they enjoyed themselves. It has become an expected event, even if they do no building. It is basically Robbie and his son Thomas (French, despite the names). There have been others in the team but these are the permanents. Then Thomas added his missus. And last year and this she brought her teenage son. They always ask for Thai food.

So tonight I did chicken livers with spices; mussels with endive and coconut; prawns with palm sugar. Main course was Penang beef (OK that is Malaysian but eaten in Thailand) and veggies. I don't really like any Thai desserts so it was sliced peaches with vanilla ice cream and honey meringues (from St Pons market).

Plenty of wine.

Wonderful warm evening on the terrace.

Do you have your builders to dinner to celebrate finishing a job?

[cristina]

Yes, we have had our workmen to dinner (we haven't actually built anything...just renovated a lot.) It is a very nice way celebrate the end of project. Especially when it is a long project and you really get to know the people working on your house.

As for Thai desserts, there was a Thai restaurant that I frequented when I lived in North Carolina that served black rice pudding in coconut milk. I haven't seen it anywhere else but that was a fabulous dessert!

And I don't really like dessert, normally.

~C

[Deleted]

Black rice pudding in coconut milk sounds divine. I would love to try that or know how to make it.
We had a BBQ several years ago after a major renovation. The contractor I knew socially and I have always enjoyed his wife so she came as well .She actually did do some of the work treating some of the cypress boards at home. The painter came and his assistant. I remember they drank alot of beer. We had a piano at the time and E. played some Scott Joplin Rags on into the night.

[Don Cuevas]

"Do you have your builders to dinner to celebrate finishing a job? "

Just give them a couple of kilos of carnias and a case of cerveza, and they're content.

[lagatta]

What are carnias? Assume it is some kind of "carne", but don't know which kind. I'd think something they could grill with their beer?

[Don Cuevas]

Should have been "carnitas", a sort of "confit d' porc", where sections of an entire pig are slowly rendered down in its own fat.

(My previous PC, a Dell Insipid, has a terrible keyboard. Now, I'm back on my MacBook Pro. ;D

[bixaorellana]

And it would be appropriate to serve it with salsa de albañil*, right? ;D


*"bricklayer's sauce"

[Don Cuevas]

THat would be one of many excellent salsas to serve with carnitas. Personally, I like without salsa, but with some semi crisp pickled chiles jalapeños to cut the grease. Bottles of Orange refresco is good paring.

[lagatta]

Yes, I know what carnitas are, though I've never had them. I'm looking into recipes for my "new" $1 Canadian crockpot, but don't want anything that is too much a cholesterol bomb. Though confits can be carefully drained and the fat re-used.

Orange refresco, if that means "Fresca" no thanks. Orange juice cut 50/50 with bubbly water is nice though.

Have reached the age that while I love food, I'm very careful about such things.

I live in a housing co-op and we are having considerable work done, alas in the autumn (I am in TERROR of this, as mobility decreases with the approach of winter and I'll probably have to work outside my house; moreover I am terrified that the noise and vibrations will traumatise my dear old tomcat). We've already been talking with the professionals and contractors; no doubt there will be some kind of party when all the mess is over.

[hwinpp]

Here, Cas,

I became addicted to this simple and deceptively impressive dessert after taking a cooking class in Thailand. It's not as sweet or creamy as rice pudding, and the black rice is a whole grain so I reckon it's better for you (just don't think too much about thye coconut milk).

Black sticky rice is very glutinous and gives off a creamy, starchy sauce the same way that Arborio rice does, but it is even more saucy, while the grains, which still have their hulls, remain firm and separate. I am not quite sure why, but black sticky rice is used almost exclusively for sweet dishes as opposed to savoury. Try this out when you're craving rice pudding but want something a little more grown up.

Ingredients:

* 1 cup black sticky rice, soaked overnight
* 1 cup water
* 1 cup coconut milk
* 1/2 cup palm sugar
* 1 or two small pieces fresh ginger
* 1/2 cup coconut cream
* fruit, if desired

Simmer all ingredients together in a covered pot over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a bit more water if the rice starts looking dry.

Spoon rice into 4bowls and top each with a bit of coconut cream. You can also serve it with lycees, mango slices, longans or other similar fruits.

gorgeoustown.typepad.com/lex_culinaria/2005/07/black_sticky_ri.html

I suspect the difficult part will be getting black sticky rice. The white variety will be available in every shop that sells Asian groceries.

Back on topic, I used to work as a roof carpenter in the holidays back when I was a student. I used to love the lunches and dinners and parties given by the house owners whose roofs we'd just finished.
Our favourite was pork tartare on rolls with onion rings and some beer. Maybe a bottle of 'Schnaps' to share:

[Deleted]

I absolutely love raw pork. Our American friends with their unhygienic animal farms and food processing plants still worry constantly about getting worms from their food unless it has been cooked into submission.

[Deleted]

What a prince hw! thanks. I want to try this soon because if it turns out as delicious as it sounds I will make it for my mother who delights in few foods these days I'm afraid ,but has always loved rice pudding.
The pork tartare looks yummy too. I could easily get over the raw pork phobia. Have never had it as I've never seen it offered over here.
There is a grill/diner type place here that used to offer a beef tartare,they called it "the Cannibal Special",it was very popular,served with raw onion as in your pork. They took it off the menu quite a few years back due to some "health" scare. It was reputed to be excellent for hangovers
Baz,what spices do you use for the chicken livers,please?

[bixaorellana]

I admit to the raw pork phobia. It was ingrained in me since childhood, and I was under the impression it could be present in pork no matter how hygenic the feedlot and slaughterhouse is.

All my life I happily gobbled raw beef, a flavor I still crave. However, a few years ago I got really really sick and stayed sick for months, losing a scary amount of weight. It seemed to have been caused by raw beef, which I've avoided since.

Well, I'm happy to have the raw pork phobia if it makes even one more insufferable French person feel smugly superior.

[lagatta]

We have many kinds of tartare here though I've never seen pork. Nor have I ever seen raw or truly rare pork served in France either. In Italy they cook most things quite through.

I don't think it is true that there is any lack of hygiene and pollution problems caused by mega-pig-farming in France either, in particular in Brittany. Here I can get pork from a sustainable producer. We have very serious problems with some of the mega-porcheries, which exist largely for export.

Bison tartare is wonderful, though I think (being a cat) that salmon remains my favourite.

[Deleted]

Actually, pork tartare is quite rare, but I often eat that bacon that I photographed without cooking it (and so does all of the rest of my family except for my extremely 'American' brother).

[auntieannie]

I had never heard of raw pork being eaten before... and I love tartare... Might actually ask our butcher for some suitable beef for tartare.