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

Or, would just laura suffice? My name's actually darrell. I'm a reasonably eccentric individual, & like yourself, "not coordinated enough to follow the mad free-for-all that is the chat room." I'm relatively new here, myself, so, I'm just popping in on some of the new arrivals/registrants, to say 'hello' & 'welcome aboard'. In a big place like this, I think it helps, to know as many people as possible, so to speak. Oh, & I don't know how many cultural oddities it'll bring up, but I'm in western Canada (north of Montana.)

Laura will suffice! And thanks for the hello, Darrell, it's nice to hear from someone else so quickly. I'm looking forward to browsing this message board more completely as time allows--it seems really cool so far. What kind of work do you do out there in Western Canada, eh? Sorry about that last, I really couldn't resist, hope you don't mind

Oooh, I just read your space and am very impressed! I adore Indian food and cook a little of it myself (just a newbie to the art, really.) Lamb saag is one of my specialties and I like to cook baingan bharta, too. Do you have any good pakora recipes?

Actually, no I don't have any Pakora recipes, but will get right on it, for you. And, no, I didn't mind the 'eh'

Ooooh, seems like I found you some great recipes, including 1 for prawn pakoras. But, I'm sure you're familiar with the 'search results' thing, ie, so many that just don't pan out. I was using the teoma search engine, www.teoma.com & typed in " +pakora +recipes". The '+' helps to maximize your search, just be sure to leave a space, before it.

Thanks so much! I'm printing recipes right now I've never used teoma.com before--I'm pretty much a google girl myself. Well, Darrell, I have you to thank for making my dinner party this weekend a little spicier than usual!

Actually, I had used google quite a bit...& still do. I came across teoma, in a magazine called Smart Computing - published in Nebraska (needless to say, that I'm hoping will make me a bit smarter about computing ...but, thats a "long & winding road"). Hope that dinner party's a success, ok.

I just thought I'd add/contribute a few recipes to, what I'm sure is already a sizeable collection. A site you might want to try, is, ' chicken.allrecipes.com/A-Z/FruitedCurryChickenSalad.asp '. There're also a whole cache of recipes, here...click on either "life", "the universe", or "everything", up near the 'search' button (I believe, its "life", that should do it...but, follow the food-related links, in any case. One of those rare mornings, I'm up early, just thought I'd drop you a note. Should be able to get some prime items, at the local Farmer's Mkt. Bye for now.

Hi, Darrell! Thanks for the recipes. I've used allrecipes.com before--the web has allowed me to gorge myself and satisfy my cookbook habit quite cheaply! Since I'm a busy mom on the go most of the time, I usually find some nice recipes at justcrockpotrecipes.com. I use the crock pot at least twice a week and even found a moroccan lamb stew recipe that was just amazing.

The party went well--I did gobi pakoras as an appetizer and they must have been good because there aren't any left! And I only got one! I hope all is well with you!
Laura

I kind of assumed that being a busy Mom, you might already have that site/link - I'm sure keeping those boys fed, is a fairly full time job, in itself.Have to get a crockpot, that morrocan lamb stew sounds great! Another site, you might not have (& 1 I've actually submitted a couple recipes to), is called 'Death By Curry', they have various categorizations, ie, Curries by strength, Vegetarian Curries, etc. Its just, rubymurray.com . Glad that both your pakoras, & the dinner party were such a success.

Oh, I was going to give you another site, earlier. Its an East Indian company, in the U.K., Pataks - they make a variety of products, in fact, right now I have; a jar of their Korma sauce, in my pantry, some garlic papadums, in my cupboard, & both pickles & mango/lime chutney, in my fridge. The sauces are great, for taking a bit of a shortcut, now & then. The sites just www.pataks.co.uk/ . It has links to the U.S. site, the Canadian site, etc. I used their Rogan Josh sauce (which is tomato & cardamom-or, is it coriander?), with some Bison sausage...a perfect match. And, later, I'd spoken to my brother - who had been a chef, & he agreed, that was an ideal combination. He had worked in Australia, & I guess there're a fair number of East Indians, there. So,I imagine, having worked with them, you kind of pick up on their cooking sensibilities - watching how they do things, etc.

Thanks for the site suggestion! I checked it out and I think my local Indian grocery carries some of their stuff. I've never tried the pre-packaged stuff but have been thinking about it since I like Indian food so much.

Your brother is a chef! Wow, that's something I've always wondered about--I have enough trouble juggling a big dinner party, I can only imagine how difficult it must be doing that every day! What do you do for a living--if you don't mind my asking. I'm a librarian/sys admin for a medium sized public library--I think I put that in my profile, but I can never remember.

And I completely recommend a crock pot--it's really great in the summer, too, because it doesn't heat up the kitchen to cook a meal. Well, got to get back to the grind--talk to you soon, Darrell,
Laura

By the way, where do you get Bison sausage? I had buffalo meat at a restaurant once and enjoyed it very much, but I don't know where to buy any.

Something I should've mentioned, about the Pataks sauces (I recommended them, because they were a big help, when I was beginning my forays, into East Indian cooking - & I still do use them now & then.) The same brother, had mentioned to me (I had kind of meant to look into it on the internet) that apparently, there's a lawsuit against Pataks, in the U.K. - could ask about it, here! -, I believe he'd said, alleging some cancer causing agent/ingredient.I thought I had best mention that, before you become too reliant on them, or anything...it had kind of slipped my mind, since I don't use them quite as often, now.

Actually, I'm currently unemployed, & considering a career change...I had done library work, for our local university's extension library, however, you know the restructuring process. I am sort of pursuing some online instruction, hoping to aquire marginal computer skills. I do stay fairly active, with a few volunteer obligations, & I realize those hinder the computer learning process. So, I will have to stop 'sitting on the fence', & take some definite action.