Julie, Julia and Gunkholing!

It's been a busy weekend. After a trip to town on Saturday morning, to top up on supplies we headed off down river for a spot of 'gunkholing'. The weather was calm and not too hot, ideal conditions for nosing around some of the bays and islands in the Rio.

The silence once you get away from the busy part of the Rio is profound. The type that rings in your ears. We nosed our way, tentatively, watching the fishfinder, behind a small island and into a bay. There was nothing there, no houses to be seen, no canoes, no people. You knew that just back from the waters edge there must be small homes but they were invisible. As the water shoaled up to around 8 feet we put the anchor down. It bit straight away and after a good pull back, to set it, we turned the engine off. Wow!


I sat myself up in the cockpit and just let the atmosphere invade me. A 360 degree view that incorporated no signs of habitation, no houses, no telecoms masts,no outboard engines. The loudest noise was the gentle waves slapping on the bottom of the dinghy that was tethered at the rear of the boat. We got that aboard so that nothing would contaminate the special place we had found.

A long white egret flew by so close to me that I could hear his wings beating in a lazy rhythm. A bunch of vultures were circling over a rise in the land, maybe eying up their next meal?

As the afternoon turned into evening the wraith of wood smoke could be seen rising from a few places along the shore, the cry of a small child, a single dog barked. So there were people here!

We slept like babies with not a breath of wind to even rock the boat.

Yesterday back up river to try another view, this time beyond the large bridge that crosses the river. Not so peaceful but a nice vista that included the renovated fort that guards the entrance to Lake Izabal.

We watched 'Julie and Julia', the new Meryl Streep movie that looks at the life of the American Cookery Icon Julia Child and the efforts of a 21st century blogger, Julie Powell, to cook her way through Julia's masterpiece 'Mastering the art of French Cooking'. It was a lovely film, totally foodie which pleased me, and made TBH hungry!

 


So inspired this morning I started off by making some chicken liver pate....the week looks set fair for a good start!

Chicken Liver Pate (Elizabeth David's recipe)

Take 1lb chicken livers. Clean well and saute in butter for 3-4 minutes.
remove the livers and to the butter in the pan add a small glass of sherry and one of brandy.
Mash the livers to a fine paste, they should be pink inside, with plenty of salt, black pepper, a clove of garlic,2oz butter, pinch of ground basil, marjoram and thyme.
Add the liquid from the pan.

I then sieve the mixture for a smooth pate.
Put into a small bowl and chill well.

Yum