This is my last post under Muse in the Kitchen.

Muse in the Kitchen was a blog Belle’s created and named. She did the writing and I did the cooking. Now she has past the writing off to me and the name just doesn’t fit me.

I teach martial arts for a living – karate, aikido, judo and jodo. They have been my passion for the last 30 odd years. Funny because about 1 or 2 years before I got involved in the martial arts, I loved to cook. Back then I had cable TV and worked in the insurance business so I was home a lot during the day and worked in the evenings. While at home I watched “The Galloping Gourmet” with Graham Kerr and “Wok with Yan” Then when I started in the martial arts, I gave up the cooking and focused on only one thing. Not a good idea. I did not have balance in my life.

Now I am able to do both, thanks to the support of my wife Belle and our family. So the new name reflects the martial arts (part of my life) and the passion for cooking (the other part).

Please join me at Sensei Cooks and share with me the truly wonderful world of cooking. I have no particular style or cultural bent. I love it all. I love cooking so the recipes and dishes will be taken from everywhere in the world.

I hope to move everything over to the new blog soon, so bear with me. Things will be changing as I experiment with everything on this new blog. Any suggestions or comments are always welcome.

I wish the very best for everyone and hope to finally get some time to visit everyone else’s blogs. There is so much good stuff out there and I just have been so bogged down with home stuff that I have not had the time to visit my favourite food blogs.

A while ago I was on Jamie Oliver’s web site and he asked the question, should the person doing all the cooking have to do the cleaning up too?

I thought this was a very interesting question. I love to cook and I love things clean but I don’t like the idea of cleaning up after dinner. I wash my utensils, pots, pans and measuring things as I’m cooking (in case I might need them again) and I always wash my knives myself, too – don’t anyone else even think of touching them!

But after the dinner or meal, I really don’t feel up to cleaning up, put leftovers away or put away the dishes that I have washed.

What do you think? Do you think the cook/chef should have to do the cleaning up too and why?

Belle’s note: In case you’re thinking poor Ward has to do all the washing up, I’ll just add here that I clean up the kitchen after dinner. It’s my audiobook time – wouldn’t want to miss out on that!

How about shark and homemade bread on the BBQ?

The Barbecue! Bible! has a great recipe for Grilled Shark and Bakes. I adapted the recipe for the marinade and followed the recipe for the bakes, sort of.

First, let me say if you do any kind of barbecuing you need to have this book. The Barbecue! Bible by Steven Raichlen, is fantastic and nearly every recipe (and there are over 500 recipes!) is mouth watering. This particular recipe for Grilled Shark and Bakes is from Trinidad and Tobago.

The recipe is for four but Belle had gone out shopping with our daughter, my older son was out and Dylan had already eaten (like he would try shark anyway), so I made this for one. If you’re serving more people, just increase the number of shark steaks but leave the rest of ingredients the same.

Oh, I guess I should have had a veggie but I did have the veggie pizza already so that covered the greens.

This is a wonderful bread to make and it is pretty fast. I would just make the bakes by themselves and eat with the chilli fish sauce that goes with the Classic Thai Fried Rice. Belle loves this – well actually she loves that chilli fish sauce on just about everything except ice cream.

The following recipe is adapted from The Barbecue! Bible.

SHARK AND BAKES

Fish and Marinade

shark steak(s)
1/2 bunch scallions trimmed and coarsely chopped
1 tbsp chives cut in half
2 shallots coarsely chopped
4 cloves of garlic coarsely chopped
1 rib of celery coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley leaves
2 tbsp fresh mint leaves
1 jalapeño chilli, seeded and coarsely chopped
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup fresh organic lime juice
2-1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

The Bakes

1 tbsp dry active yeast
1/4 cup hot water
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup hot water
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1-1/4 tsp salt

1. Rinse the shark steaks and pat dry.
2. Combine the chives, shallots, garlic, celery, parsley, mint,  jalapeño, water, lime juice, salt and pepper in a blender and purée until smooth.
3. Taste and adjust with lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour marinade into a freezer bag, add the shark steaks and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours.
5. Start the bakes 2 hours before you want to make the shark. In a stand mixer with a dough hook, add the yeast and 1/4 cup hot water and let it sit and get frothy for at least 5 minutes. Then add sugar, the rest of the hot water and the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix on low speed until it is a ball (about 5-10 minutes).
6. Spray a large bowl with non-stick cooking spray and place dough in bowl, spray the top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap.
7. The recipe says let dough rise 1- 2 hours. I actually only let the dough rise 45 minutes but I force the dough by heating the oven. In this case the oven was already at 500 degrees F for the pizza so I left the door open, pulled out the rack and placed the dough on the rack.
8. Here it is after 45 minutes.
9. Pre-heat your BBQ to medium high (do this by putting it on high for a few minutes, then clean your grill, reduce to medium high and spray with non-stick cooking spray or oil the grill – be careful not to catch fire)
10. On a floured surface, punch the dough down and divide into 4 equal pieces, and with a floured French rolling pin (or any rolling pin) roll out each piece to a 6” – 7” oval (or whatever shape you like – I just prefer an oval), about 1/4” thick.
11. So they are not perfect ovals or circles. They are handmade and should just feel good. We are going to eat them, not put them on a wall in an art gallery!
12. You are supposed to lightly oil the bakes and then put them on the grill but for some reason I usually forget to oil them and they always turn out great so try it both ways and see. Grill for 2- 4 minutes per side. Remove and keep warm.
13. For the shark steaks, remove the steaks from the marinade and blot dry. Brush both sides with vegetable oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place on the grill. Grill 3-5 minutes per side, turning carefully with a long “fish” spatula.
14. Place the shark on a plate along with a bake. Serve with chilli sauce or hot sauce.
15. Since this was dinner for one I had the rest of the bakes for later – they are great cold!