Ryan's Roti - Rich's Restaurant Review

It's funny .. I'm always taking photos of the food i eat , judging it , rating it .... but when it comes to writing about it ! hahaha I have such a hard time ,  I guess I'm just not a writer!

So.... Ryan's Roti & Jerk was recommended to me , love trying new places and I just love spicy foods. Located at 1051 Simcoe St North , in Oshawa ( at Beatrice SE Corner ) 

 

First Impressions : Clean , tidy , with an easy to choose from photo based menu . Two basic options , roti or over rice with a salad .  I choose the roti , feeling hungry .  

 

Second Impression ... The food , smells delicious , I opted for a spicy beef roti , personally being  rather hungry I was hoping for a little more ;)  Especially after seeing the size of the rice and salad dish my friend ordered 

 

The smell was amazing , once i cut into it ... love the fragrance of curry !  The potatoes were soft , and nice and chunky , the beef well marinated and cooked , simply flaked apart . Had a bit of a sweat going by the time I finished it 

Value -  Descent - $7 and I was content 

Taste -  Good -  No veggies, Nicely Spiced Beef, potato was just right 

Texture -Nice   - Soft, with slight chew, beef flaked apart 

Service - Quick and efficient , could have been friendlier
Overall - I would return, to try and compare the rice/salad dish

Would love to hear from you , Did you like the review , was it helpful ? What would you like to see ?   Any advise or suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

Peace, Love and Good Food - Rich 

Starting My Garden Early 4

:)) It seems that stabbing your foot with a pitch fork is good for getting caught up on blogs !!  Hahaha Thank fully I just nailed on toe , and not the whole foot. Its amazing how much one toe can hurt though .  So that leads me to this post ,  I'm finally caught up to June, well I will be once this one is done.   Yeah!!

I would like to apologize to everyone for being so far behind on these, it was an odd couple of months for me... but I'm back and the words are coming to me nice and easy .

This post is all about the last 10 days of May ,  which up here in Ontario Canada is our last frost date ...  and the time when most people start gardening ,  I had a great head start and actually planted seeds in March :))

This post should cover that :  http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2011/04/starting-my-garden-early.html

Ive never had much luck growing potatoes , so I thought Id try out the bucket method...  ( Ill be doing a blog post on the whole process once Ive harvested )  If you want more details, follow this link to my Facebook page 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.188441627869894.39828.118986254815432

I decided to try a 3 sisters planting ...  I kind of jumped the gun on this and planted the beans and squash a little to early .  I have two more plots , so I have another chance to get it right .  

:))  This is some ornamental corn I started inside ...    love this shot . 

The trellis for my peas,  I used freshly cut maple sticks ( MISTAKE!! ) hahaha they are trying to regrow.  Ooops , its too late now , but next time I'll use ones that are clearly dead.  

Someone suggested using an old chair to let peas trellis on , found this one .. so far so good.
In the corner is a mini greenhouse I made from a water bottle... the tomatoes needed just a little more warmth to get them growing . I left them on for a week, and it worked like a charm :) 

Spicy Shepherds Pie

I grew up eating Shepherds Pie,  and its always been a favourite of mine .   So you can imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when I found out it wasn't really Shepherds pie , but was in fact a Cottage Pie.  The difference you ask ?  Is really just the meat.   A Shepherds Pie is made with lamb or mutton, while a Cottage pie is made with beef, which is what I grew up with.  After reading that, I was determined to try a real one.  It actually took me a month just to find ground lamb at a reasonable price..  but I did and made my first real Shepherds Pie :) It was awesome !! Since then I make sure to call them by their correct names . You can make them as fancy as you like or just keep them plain and simple.   This one has a few extras , but turned out really well.  

For a basic pie, you will need :

1lb of ground lamb

2 medium onions

2 large or 4 medium potatoes 

2 large carrots 

2 cups of brown gravy ( http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/12/who-doesnt-love-gravy.html ) 

1 cup of peas

Everything else is a bonus :)  The extras 

2 chili peppers

1 jalapeno pepper

3 cloves of garlic 

2 parsnips

jar of stewed tomatoes

baby corn 

Chili Powder

Mozzarella, and cheddar 

Most of the ingredients :)  Everything is local, and half of it was organic .  

Slice and dice all the veggies into small bite sized pieces,  and give them a quick saute. They do not need to be cooked thru as it will be going into the oven.  Pour into the bottom of a lasagna pan.  

Less Words, More Food 2 :)

Its been a strange week for food for me,  a few days of cooking like a mad man ,  then a couple of days surviving on cheese and toast :)  Also,oddly enough it started with meatballs, and ended with meatballs :)

Here is a quick look at what has been coming out of my kitchen :)

Grass fed Beef Meatballs with Garlic Latkes

More free range beef, all from a local farm :) Today was -20C a good stew was needed .

Garlic Potato Latkes, my 1st attempt

Ive got to say,  prior to last night  I had only ever tried Latkes once,several years ago, and those were grey and tasteless.. and not very inspiring.  So imagine my surprise when I find myself making, and liking, them on a whim.. well actually after a conversation on FB about them.   True  to form, I couldn't even stick the recipe I had found on a fellow foodies site even though I usually try really hard  to follow it the first time :) So here is my first take on Latkes. 

To make 2 large Latkes you will need:

• 1 large russet potato
• 1 large egg ( Free range if you can )
• 1 Clove of Garlic, minced
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• Sea Salt & Black Pepper  
• Lea & Perrins 
• Bourbon Street Bad Hot Sauce 
• Oven Safe Frying Pan

First up grate your potato into a mixing bowl, I prefer the plastic grater for potato.  

Once grated add in the flour, garlic and salt and pepper. 

Easy Hand Cut Chips

I just love potatoes...  mashed, baked, roasted, even boiled, pan fried to name a few .  Or as in this post , deep fried.   I call them chips, potato chips to me are crisps  :)   but to most they are fries or french fries.  Probably due to years of advertising on TV, whenever I hear the word fries, i think of red cardboard sleeves stuffed full of salty / greasy mass produced shoestrings.  

Growing up we had chips a fair bit , Almost every Monday night it was cold meat & chips night ( the cold meat being the leftover Sunday roast )    always hand cut and deep fried in vegetable oil on a big pot on the stove.  I used that method until I nearly caught the stove on fire , and severely burned my hand avoiding just such a disaster.  After that I bought a little hot pot deep fryer, not the automatic ones but a nice simple bucket with no exposed elements , and a quick release power cord.  Ive also switched the oil over to sunflower or canola oil , currently its a blend of both I'm using. 

 This post was requested thru my FaceBook Food Page ( link at bottom of page ) on which I regularly post my dinners,  and keeping with tradition . I really enjoy my Monday night cold meat and chips dinner.  Its a nice simple, and fast way to get food on the table . Okay , on to the chip making. 

Start with a washed potato, I like russets, or Yukon golds, but any will do.  Simply cut it in half lengthwise, and then cut each half lengthwise again. ( Quartering it )  
Don't forget to get your oil warming up , I like 375F for mine.   

Normally cutting in half , and then slicing into quarters is good enough, but this year the spuds are HUGE , this one topped 1lb (450gm) .  So i cut a 1/2  inch (1 cm) slice from the cut side.