h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hmm more flakiness this evening, pages wouldn't load and it was only after I managed to convince the site that I'd signed out, before signing in again, and getting my page was possible.

I haven't managed to see any shooting stars from this garden, even though I can see quite a few stars. But I suppose it's only the brightest that shine through in suburbuia.

I saw ten or fifteen from the midst of urban glare last week.

[B]

[GDZ]

Amy:
Yes, there are litttle black ants walking out of the blades of grass and onto the circular patch of cement, dutifully carrying the teensy black bodies of dead ants. They find one of the depressions from the lettering, crawl down into it, find a cozy spot, and gingerly deposit another expired myrmecoid amongst the rest of the chitinous piles. So far, they've managed to fill the lettering to level, yet I have a feeling they won't stop until the whole swatch of cement is heaped high with the detritous of their kin.



B4icallinamyrmecoidcounsellor4thelotofthem

What are the spelling B4? A message from the ants may be very important.

I need those curry recipes, Z. I was going to try to make curry, I bought most of the necessary ingredients, but the recipe I was using called for mango chutney, and the only mango chutney I could find had corn syrup in it, something that I am allergic to. So no curry. I was thinking of substituting orange marmalade but I'm not sure that would be right.

Lil, I'm keeping an eye on your clock. My fingers are crossed that you get at least twice what the bids are now.

How very strange ...

So subdomains are organizing entities. That makes sense.

On August 13 the annual stargazing party will take place in Lincoln, at the pageant grounds. The local observatory (Sunspot, in Mayhill) sends a bunch of astronomers with telescopes and a slide show and lecture. The astronomers pre-set their telescopes so that attendees can look at various planets or stellar phenomena. Some amazing equipment will be there, telescopes nearly as interesting as what they are pointing at.

Speaking of stars, for your information Mercury went retrograde yesterday afternoon, and will continue apparent backward motion until next month.

Here is an Alton Brown recipe for mango chutney that doesn't contain corn syrup:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_19594,00.html

First things first. Don?t substitute orange marmalade for mango chutney! They are nothing like each other, at all, and it would taste foul.

Making curry isn't an exact science, it's just a matter of trial and error, and a good part of making it how you like it. Nothing is an exact science, including amounts.

There are two basic methods, the one with dried spices and the one with pre cooked spices. Pre cooked spices are those in curry paste or in a pre cooked curry sauce. It's easier not to balls up if you use curry paste.

Basic curry, tomato based style - bearing in mind this is my curry recipe, so curry for a lazy bloke, rather than a dinner party!
,
Essential Ingredients.

Half onion per person, or more if you want - don't worry it's not an exact science.

1 tin tomatoes per person (chopped), you can also use pureed spinach or coconut milk, but I've got no experience of these, so I'll have to experiment.

The other ingredients are pretty variable, I tend to choose one or more from each of these categories,

Carb: Potatoes (par boil them first and cut into small cubes), chick peas, kidney beans, lentils (I use tinned ones, not sure about dried ones) or any other sort of beans apart from baked ones, it's quicker to buy the tinned ones because they don't need soaking the night before, as most of the dried ones do.

Main Veg/or meat: Spinach, (tinned is easiest, but you can use fresh), mushrooms, carrots, whatever. Not sure about dead animal but people seem to put it instead of spinach. Being vegetarian is much much easier with Indian style food, because there is a very strong vegetarian tradition in India. Pannier, an Indian style of cheese is a gorgeous choice, but I can only find it in specialist shops so I'm not sure if USAians can get hold of it. All the brands I can find only say ?Paneer? (or Panyr) in the Hindi/Urdu label, on the English label they translate it as ?Cottage Cheese? or ?Feta Cheese?, but it?s nothing at all like either of those cheeses. Don?t subsite any other sorts of cheese it just won?t work!

Spices: about four tablespoons of dried spice, the type you choose depends on what sort of curry you make, you can get 'Curry Powder' or 'Tikka flavouring' or use the individual sorts of spice if you prefer my basic curry is to use two tablespoons of Curry powder, one of cumin and one of chilli powder, but experiment with whatever you want. Turmeric makes things go yellow so is nice if you are using potatoes or white vegetables, such as cauliflower. If you are using curry paste the jar will tell you how much to use, the brand I use, Pataks, says that you should use about four tablespoons full.

Extra stuff: experiment with these none of them are essential, but I add either garlic paste, tomato puree, or pickled ginger garlic, mango chutney can make it a bit sweater, but is likely to get drowned in the spice, so it's a bit of a waste of time IMHO. It's more often used on Barjis or popadoms as starters.

Method.



1, Find a clean pan, if this fails wash up a pain, either a large frying pan or wok,or a study 'proper pan'. If you are going to eat your curry with rice, and are using a brand that *isn't* easy cook, then put that on the back burner and keep an eye on the time.

2. Add a splosh of oil, enough to cover the base, the more oil the less you stir. Heat pan. Add onions, and any other fresh veg that takes a while to cook, if you are using carrots then grate them first. b

3. Wait until onions are soft then add dried spices if you are using dried ones.

POTENTIAL BALLS UP MOMENT - make sure all the spice is covered in oil, keep stirring until it starts to bubble a bit. Burnt spice is a bugger to clean of the bottom of a pan.

5. Add carbs, stir until the spices cover all the carb

6. Add any pre cooked tinned veg you are using or mushroom, or any veg that hasn't gone in. I think this would be when you add the meat but I'm not sure, have never made curry with meet.

7. Add tinned tomatoes, including the liquid, there should be enough liquid to just cover all the contents of the pan. If there isn't then make up some stock and add it.

8. Cover and go and look at h2g2, stir every five minutes or so until cooked. Leave it on the lowest heat you can. This needs to cook slowly. If all the liquid boils away then add more (I keep a jug of stock next to the cooker whilst I'm doing this all)

If you are using curry paste then the spices are pre cooked, so all you have to worry about is cooking the veg/meat. So it doesn't take that long.

If you are using dried spices there is a potential balls up moment, you have to make sure that the spices are cooked as well. KEEP TASTING, uncooked spices taste gritty and not too spicy. It's pretty darn impossible to over cook. I find that this last stage takes about 20 minutes with dried spices. It's pretty difficult to over cook them.

9 Add extra bits.

KEEP TASTING AS YOU GO If its too spicy add natural yogurt, if it's too bland add more spices - but bear in mind then it will take longer to cook,

10. Eat. Either with rice (you were keeping an eye on it as you went weren't you?) or nan bread, or jacket potato, or on it's own, or in a toastie, or with normal bread, or pitta bread, or rolls or in a sandwich.

All except for the curry powder, that mango chutney looks terrific!

And I think you can make paneer yourself by wrapping some plain yogurt in cheesecloth, suspending the cloth over a bowl, and letting the yogurt's liquid drain off for a day or so in the fridge. I might be wrong on the amount of time...but, when you unmold the yogurt from the cheesecloth you have a very simple cheese.

But the nice thing about Mango chutney is that it's slightly spicy.
I use it as relish on s.

I've been told that you can make your own paneer, by none other than the Edited Guide - A1143794 aparently it's milk not yogurt. I just don't have the space in my kitchenette to leave it.

Sag Paneer ! *drifts off into fantasy*

[GD]

We seem to have missed the weather. It's just been warm and sunny here, much like it has been for the last couple of months.

How dull

I had a recipe somewhere for palak paneer - the paneer was made by boiling milk, then adding lemon juice to make a simple cheese.

Of course, my mom makes yogurt cheese by filling a cheesecloth with homemade yogurt, then suspending it over a bowl for a day or so and letting the water drip out of it. What you get is a very tangy, milky sort of cream-cheese thing. Her version has no fat in it, so it can be a bit overwhelming.

(The paneer recipe I had involved pressing the boiled-milk/lemon juice in a piece of cloth to dejuice it.)

"1, Find a clean pan, if this fails wash up a pan..."
it's like you have PEERED INTO MY KITCHEN!

Thanks Z. That sounds easy.

Third call for scribe ...

I would gladly do so Lil but, with the monsters, I could not guarantee the notes would ever get done. Sorry

If no one else would like a go, I will gladly take care of them Lil.

And that would be your third time as scribe then, wouldn't it? Marv, you are sterling.

I did well with the clock! Now to start dispersing the stamp collection. Ordinarily a collection should be sold whole, but my brother gutted it and pawned the best parts for beer money, so I am now faced with several thousand tiny auctions, mint sheet by mint sheet, block by block...

Third or fourth, I can't really recall. I'd be happy to.

But can I be titanium over silver? I like Ti better.