Saturday, February 14, 2009
V-Day Recipe... Jai Maharashtra!
- 500g piece orange sweet potato
- 400-500g beetroot
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 4 cups rocket
- 6 small bocconcini, quartered
- 2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
- 1 tbsp red wine or balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp Equal Spoon for Spoon
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp dry sherry
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- grated zest and juice of 1/2 small orange
- freshly ground pepper to taste
Wrap sweet potato and beetroot individually in foil, place in oven and roast at 200 degrees celsius for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in foil. When cool enough to handle, peel and cut beetroot and potato into similar sized chunks. Lightly blanch asparagus for 1 minute until crisp. Refresh under cold water and place in a large bowl with beetroot and sweet potato. Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss through the vegetables. Place rocket in a serving dish, top with the vegetables, bocconcini and pine nuts. Serve with some crusty Italian or rye bread.
Main Course
Ingredients
For the cabbage parcels
400g/14oz fresh chestnuts or 200g/7oz vacuum-packed chestnuts and 3 fresh bay leaves
50g/2oz dried porcini mushrooms
16 outer leaves of savoy cabbage (from 2 heads of cabbage)
6 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
400g/14oz button mushrooms, sliced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
100g/4oz fresh white breadcrumbs (not too fine)
50g/2oz parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh marjoram or fresh thyme
2 free-range eggs, beaten
50g/2oz toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
For the sauce
75g/3oz butter
20g/¾oz plain flour
120ml/4fl oz white wine
120ml/4fl oz soured cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. If using fresh chestnuts, drop the chestnuts into a pan of boiling salted water, add the bay leaves and simmer for 40 minutes, until tender. Drain and when they are cool enough to handle, peel them, coarsely chop and place in a bowl. If using vacuum-packed chestnuts, chop or crumble and place in a bowl. (The taste of fresh chestnuts is superior to vacuum-packed, so try to use fresh if time permits.)
2. Preheat the oven to 240C/465F/Gas 9.
3. Meanwhile, put the porcini mushrooms into a bowl, cover with lukewarm water and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Then scoop out the mushrooms, squeeze out the excess liquid, and finely chop. Strain the soaking liquid through a fine sieve and reserve.
4. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cut out the hard stalks from the centre of each cabbage leaf, drop them into the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes until just tender. Drain and refresh them under running cold water. Set aside.
5. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the onion and the garlic and fry gently until soft and lightly golden. Add the fresh mushrooms and the chopped porcini and fry gently for a further 3-4 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
6. Place the breadcrumbs, cheese, nutmeg, parsley and marjoram or thyme into a bowl with the beaten eggs and plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix together, then stir into the onion and mushroom mixture. Add the chestnuts and toasted hazelnuts and add salt and freshly ground black pepper if necessary.
7. To make the parcels, take one cabbage leaf and spoon two heaped tablespoons of the chestnut and mushroom mixture into the centre. Cover with another leaf and tuck the edges under the filling. Bring the sides of the bottom leaf up over the top and tie into a parcel with kitchen string. Repeat with the remaining leaves.
8. Place the cabbage parcels side by side on a large, well-oiled baking tray, cover with foil and tuck in well at the edges. Bake for 15 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, for the sauce, melt the butter in a pan, stir in the flour and cook for a few seconds. Then take the pan off the heat and gradually stir in the wine and a little of the porcini soaking liquid.
10. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring. Leave to simmer for five minutes, adding a little more of the porcini soaking liquid until you have a sauce with a good consistency. Stir in the soured cream and add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve with the cabbage parcels
Desert
Chocolate fondant with poached strawberries (serves 2)
Ingredients
For the chocolate fondants
25g/1oz butter, softened
4 tbsp cocoa powder
50g/1¾oz butter
50g/1¾oz dark chocolate
2 free-range eggs
140g/5oz caster sugar
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
For the poached strawberries
250g/8¾oz fresh strawberries
100ml/3½fl oz white wine
3 tbsp caster sugar
2 fresh mint sprigs
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Grease the bases and sides of two ramekins with the softened butter. Sprinkle two tablespoons of the cocoa powder around the sides of the ramekins.
3. For the chocolate fondants, place the butter and chocolate into a bowl and place over a saucepan of just-simmering water. Stir over the heat until completely melted and smooth.
4. Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk the eggs and sugar together using an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy. Carefully fold in the flour and remaining cocoa powder.
5. Fold in the melted chocolate and butter, then pour into the ramekins. Place on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes or until just set.
6. For the poached strawberries, measure the strawberries into a saucepan with the wine and sugar. Gently simmer for 3-4 minutes.
7. To serve, tip the hot chocolate fondants upside down onto two serving plates and carefully remove the ramekins. Spoon the strawberries into a small bowl and serve next to the fondants. Garnish with the fresh mint sprigs.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Intelligent Design
Let's consider 2 examples:
1) Setting 1: 5000 BC, you are living in some nomadic tribe and you observe a lightning in the sky. You are scared and so are most people in your tribe. You probably will consider one or more of the following questions (not exhaustive, there may be other questions as well):
a) Who did that?
b) How did he/she do it?
c) Why did he/she do it?
Given that it is 5000 BC and there isn't much for you to do around, you decide to pursue these questions seriously. You launch a detective operation with your friends and ask questions
For a): Who else observed it, did they see anyone generating the lighting, does anyone know who might have done it, etc.
For b): Does anyone know how to do it? What tools/conditions are needed (clouds?, rain?)
For c): Was it because I did something wrong? Was it because my tribe did something wrong? Was it because someone else did something wrong?
Questions for a) will yield either no answers or speculative answers --> you reach a dead end
Question for b) will yield some information (clouds are always present during lighting, rain may or may not fall but typically does etc), but in the end you will get stuck
Questions for c) will tend to spread more anxiety and will yield more speculative answers
You decide to keep a note of all your findings and resolve that someone down the line will answer these questions. Lo and behold, several thousand years later, people following your train of thought make progress for b) and figure out an explanation for the lightning. Along the way they make fabulous useful discoveries (e.g., electricity). For a) and c), all those thousand years yielded more and more speculative answers (and still are!).
Now lets take another example:
2) Setting 2: 20th century, you have just discovered crop circles. You are scared and so are s0me other people in your town. You probably will consider one or more of the following questions (not exhaustive, there may be other questions as well):
a) Who did that?
b) How did he/she do it?
c) Why did he/she do it?
Let's assume again that there isn't much for you to do around, and you decide to pursue these questions seriously. You launch a detective operation with your friends and ask questions
For a): Who else observed it, did they see anyone generating the circles, does anyone know who might have done it, etc.
For b): Does anyone know how to do it? What tools/conditions are needed (tractors?, certain types of fields?)
For c): Was it because I did something wrong? Was it because my town/tribe/country/etc did something wrong? Was it because someone else did something wrong?
Questions for a) will yield allegations and speculative answers --> you don't know who to believe and whom to not. Maybe you get lucky and someone admits or you find answer to b) and that helps you track who did it.
Questions for b): you talk to agricultural experts, try out making crop circles yourselves etc. and if you are persistent enough, you will figure out that this is humanly possible
Questions for c) will yield speculations, allegations, and maybe some truth (especially if you are able to answer a) )
End of examples ------------------
In both cases above, the b) line of questioning generated insight. In setting 1) it led to many practical and useful discoveries, in 2) it led to discovery of something that probably has no practical use (and is therefore art!?!), but it explained that crop circles can be made by humans.
Now I do not want to say that a) and c) are not useful lines of questioning (in fact, those are critical if you are a real detective trying to solve a crime). But I think, you would agree that b) will always generate insight -- the insight may be that this phenomenon is trickery (like magic shows), but it will generate insight ... eventually (maybe thousands of years later).
Now having put forth my case that you should always strive to pursue the b) line of questioning, I ask this question: why don't proponents of intelligent design pursue the question "How does the intelligent agency do it?"? Wouldn't that be a better use of their scientific efforts than arguing in public that Intelligent Design is science? Or do they fear they'll end up discovering evolution?
Labels: Intelligent design
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Stuff so far...
I finally sent out my document to XXXX; the law firm that'll do my H1 for XXXX. It took me 10 days to get all my documents! That is taking procrastination to new heights.
Oh I bought a projector too. Its an Optoma Movietime DV10 DLP projector. The thing's got good reviews on the web so it better not disappoint me. I had to shell out $929 and I get a free 92" screen with it.
I got these memory foam pillows from the web. They are supposed to give you a good night's sleep. It doesn't seem to work that well for me. I'll give it a try for a few more nights before giving them to somebody else.
