Kitchen adventures: Masale dose

For a south Indian, me making this dish and blogging about it could be 'duh! big deal' - well fellas welcome to my world, anything that needs constant attention near the stove is a big deal - so bear with me.

Over time, I have almost mastered making some things just right, coconut chutney and potato palya - both very important for a successful dose (dosa for other south Indians)

In simplistic terms here is how you make the above combination in the picture:

Dose: 1 cup idly rice, 4 tbsp chana dal, 2 tbsp menthya - soak for about 6 hours - grid to smooth paste - let it ferment for about 8 hours (If the normal temperature is cooler, keep it in your oven with the lights on)

aloo palya: peel and cube 2 potatoes and microwave with little water for about 8 minutes or until just about cooked - after tadka of whatever you want (that's the way I roll ;) add some hot chillies (split along the length) and sauté for a while before adding onions and sauté until translucent. You can add some turmeric with onions if you want. Finally, add the cooked potatoes with some water - after a while sprinkle coriander and lemon juice.

chutney: a good recipe here http://www.syvum.com/cgi/online/serve.cgi/recipes/srcpm2.tdf?0

And off you go, make your own dose :)

Kitchen adventures: Baking an apple cake

Rule #1 in baking - You have to precise with the measurements. Unless you are a pastry chef and know what you are doing, stick to the measurements - 1tbsp is 3 tea spoons -  not more not less.

We had a dessert potluck at lunch Friday last and I decided on baking a apple-cake this time - bundt style.

Found a recipe online which was a 'tube pan' version. Also found a variation of it using a 'bundt' version. All credit to web 2.0 - the link to the variation was in one of the comments of people who tried the recipes.

The reason for the bundt version is obvious. I don't have a tube pan (note to self: get a tube pan)

The recipe is simple enough.

Step 1: Get 6 apples (Macintosh, Gala), peel, core and chop to bite sizes, toss with a tablespoon of cinnamon and 5 table spoons of bakers sugar

Step 2: Mix 2 and 3/4 cups of all purpose flour (don't forget to sift), 1 table spoon of baking powder, a tea spoon of salt.

Step 3: Mix 1 cup vegetable oil, 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 1/2 tea spoons vanilla extract and 2 cups bakers sugar

Step 4: Fold wet (step 3) to dry (step 2) ingredients, and mix 4 eggs into the mixture, one at a time

I hope you had preheated the oven to 350, it's time to bake.

Final step: Grease the pan, layer 1/2 of batter and 1/2 of the apples, and repeat. Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Check the cake every 5 minutes after the hour with a stick until it comes out clean.

You got yourself a fantastic cake!

Credit where it's due:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/moms-apple-cake/
http://cookingupaphd.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/apple-cake-two-ways/#more-290

You see what I see? Search war?

Microsoft today struck a search deal with twitter and facebook -
.. Microsoft has reached collaboration agreements with Twitter and Facebook to get their members' public status updates and messages indexed and presented in useful ways on the Bing search engine...
Read more here: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/174061/microsoft_strikes_search_deals_with_twitter_facebook.html


And Google posted this on their offical blog
... we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results....
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/rt-google-tweets-and-updates-and-search.html

Seems to me that twitter integrated with both search engines, and not the other way around :) Oh! well, what do I know!

Call me crazy, but I jumped

Jumped off a 40 foot cliff at the southern most point of the United States! Risky, might not do it again, but could not resist the temptation at that time! Madhu took the pictures.

Full size pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vinayms/MyCliffJump

Pronounce Linux as Linux

I have heard a lot of pronunciations for "Linux", anything from Lienux, Lienex to Linux - I always wondered who was right, until I heard it from the creator - Linus Torvalds

http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/
Listen for yourself: http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.wav

Sorry, you are not my [blood] type!

A conversation in a Japan's night club, could go something like this:
Boy: Hey there, what's your [blood] type?
Girl: I am a A, and you?
Boy: Sorry, you are not my type [literally]

Japan, as advanced as it is - is apparently obsessed with blood types of people

Ref: http://www.physorg.com/news152723712.html
In the year just ended, four of Japan's top 10 best-sellers were about how blood type determines personality, according to Japan's largest book distributor, Tohan Co. The books' publisher, Bungeisha, says the series - one each for types B, O, A, and AB - has combined sales of well over 5 million copies.

Some employers are discriminating on assignments to employees based on the blood type! Even children at schools are reportedly grouped based on blood type!

I used to laugh at Linda Goodman's Joke books, still do! But this Japan obsession is no joking matter at all, this is really at the core racism. On second thoughts, we need another word for it - because the color of blood is really the same.