Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning


April 4, 2009: Dinner with Josh, Mei Leng, Joseph and Ellen

It all started in Sinapore when I discovered the Joseph and Mei Leng would travel to Duke the same week I would be there. Josh, the master chef, might possibly be able to display a bit of southern hospitality, particularly if I paid the bills. So he planned a dinner for 5 - and it turned out to be home made sausage, pretzels with grilled peppers and onions at his small home on Oak St in Carrboro.

To start the day - he was caught sleeping in the quilt Ellen recently made and presented to him. After some coaxing from folks unnamed - the official caption is "Josh, suffering an extreme agony inflicted by The Bean's quilt gift to him."

apr 04 7349 josh quilt

The quilt, Josh and Ellen, on display. After all, what is a grandmother living in Singapore to do with her time other than quilts for the kids and grand-kids?

apr 04 7353 ellens quilt

We went to Cliff's for a shoulder and managed to spend 20 - 30 minutes talking about the old days when Cliff supplied 1/2 pigs, shoulders, hams and chickens for those occasions when Marvin and I grilled stuff for our friends. (This was an annual affair at Marvin's place on Mt. Carmel Church Road). Taking the deboned shoulder home, Josh cut it into strips and I started grinding. Josh did not understand the nature of low light photography and to complicate things, I'm working at such speed that its all a blur.

apr 04 7388 frank grinding

However with the deblurring flash on - here I am - a bit surprised but with the 1st grind of the port oozing out of the grinder.

apr 04 7393 frank grinding

Here is Josh demonstrating his superior skill

apr 04 7395 josh grinding

Superior concentration

apr 04 7396 josh grinding

ANd a small smile

apr 04 7397 adding meat

and a not so small smile - whilst putting gentle pressure on the meat to feed it into the grinder

apr 04 7399 josh apr 04 7407 sausage mound

More intense concentration and gentle pressure

apr 04 7411 gentle pressure

Extremely intense concentration and increasingly less gentle pressure

apr 04 7421 intense concentration

Now for the serious work - that of loading the sausage wrapper onto this nozzle

apr 04 7424 nozzle

Side view

apr 04 7426 nozzle side

Step 1 - open the wrapper

apr 04 7427 load wrapper

and place around the nozzle

apr 04 7428 load wrapper

Then really gently slide the wrapper toward yourself

apr 04 7429 pull wrapper

Then gently lead the wrapper (slightly moist)

apr 04 7431 pull wrapper

Sliding the wrapper toward yourself

apr 04 7432 sliding

And continuing

apr 04 7434 sliding

The last segment

apr 04 7453 last segment

The fully loaded wrapper

apr 04 7457 loaded

with Josh about to start the stuffing process. First remove any air from the system

apr 04 7461 loading meat

The air is apparent with the ballooning of the end - not the sausage within the nozzle indicating that there are no blockages

apr 04 7468 stuffing

More ballooning and loading more sausage into the grinder

apr 04 7469 loading

Now applying gentle pressure on the mound of sausage and grinding, you can see the sausage entering the wrapper - every so tentatively

apr 04 7470 gentle pressure

Continued rotation, the sausage wrapper begins to seriously fill

apr 04 7471 initial stuffing

Now the critical moment - not to overfill and rupture the wrapper. Tender care and feeding of the wrapper required here

apr 04 7475 initial stuffing

Now the sausage begins to take the shape of a serious sausage

apr 04 7476 initial stuffing

With continuous cranking by me, and Josh managing the wrapper system, a long sausage emerges and now we are beginning to think, how to test the quality of our product?

apr 04 7483 growing

Makng sure the end is securely tied

apr 04 7484 growing

COntinued cranking and continued extension of the sausage

apr 04 7487 lengthening

Now, remove the residual wrapper and tie the end

apr 04 7491 tieing end

A little twisting action to segment the long sausage into shorter links

apr 04 7497 twist

A mightly pleased Josh

apr 04 7502 happy josh

An extremely pleased Josh

apr 04 7567 happy josh

Now the veges to be grilled - onions and peppers

apr 04 7568 onion peppers

In addition - pretzel dough for the bread

apr 04 7569 pretzel dough

Rolling the dough to make pretzels

apr 04 7573 rolling pretzel dough

THe raw pretzels

apr 04 7574 pretzels

And the initial preparations for dinner

apr 04 7575 initial dinner setup

The kitchen setup - Juicer, pretzels, onions and peppers and stuff + chef Josh

apr 04 7576 kitchen

Bioling pretzels

apr 04 7578 boiling pretzels

Turning pretzels

apr 04 7581 turning pretzels

Removing pretzels

apr 04 7584 removing pretzels

Removing pretzels

apr 04 7585 removing pretzel

In addition - frying pancetta - which Josh prepared several weeks ago. His colleagues in the lab at UNC have wonderful refrigeration facilities for his kitchen experiments

apr 04 7598 frying pancetta

The look of pancetta gently frying away in the pan.

apr 04 7599 frying pancetta

Our salad

apr 04 7601 salad

Starting the fire

apr 04 7610 start fire

The smoke of the fire

apr 04 7613 fire

Looking from inside Josh's home

apr 04 7622 fire from inside

In parallel - removing the pretzels

apr 04 7623 removing pretzels

Hot pretzels

apr 04 7625 hot pretzels

Cooking the onions

apr 04 7632 onion cooking

Nothing like veges on the grill

apr 04 7639 cooking veges

Joseph - director of HR in the Duke-NUS Singapore program.

apr 04 7640 joseph

Josh preparing the sausages - half spicey Italian and half bratwurst

apr 04 7644 preparing sausages

Adding the sausages with Joseph offering some help

apr 04 7647 adding sausages

Strategically placing the sausages on the grill

apr 04 7653 loading oven

The orientation of the sausages and veges

apr 04 7658 cooking setup

The master chef

apr 04 7661 master chef

Our team - Josh, Mei Leng, Joseph and Ellen

apr 04 7665 our team

Turning the sausages

apr 04 7669 turning sausages

with several hungry admirers

apr 04 7671 admirers

The sizzle of sausages cooking

apr 04 7679 sizzle

Turning

apr 04 7691 turning

Our dinner

apr 04 7693 dinner

Turning the sausages

apr 04 7699 dinner

Mei Leng offering transporation service to move from grill to dinner table

apr 04 7708 mei leng transport

Like a dance for two

apr 04 7712 mei leng transport

All smiles form Mei Leng

apr 04 7713 mei leng smiles

A smiling Joseph

apr 04 7717 joseph restraint

Dinner

apr 04 7721 dinner

Then after dinner - a short concert of Bach and Elgar

apr 04 7724 dinner concert

By Josh

apr 04 7728 josh cello

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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