Okay, let's do something different and share around a great curry Recipe.
Someone recently emailed, and asked what nerds like Big Passy eat to create a BMI battle with themselves. So here is just one of many possible answers.
Chicken Curry Tamil Nadu
This is an Indian curry from the southern "Tamil Nadu" state of India. It is neither sweet nor sour, and has a unique rich creamy flavour. Big Passy developed this recipe by fusing together a few different recipes from some Indian cook books.
This chicken curry is his son's favorite, and A.J. says it tastes as good as Indian restaurant food. (He even eats up all of the vegetables that are in it!)
So let's get into how it is made. I will mention some brand names here, which might not exist outside of Australia, but equivalents should easily be found.
What we need: The Ingredients
Around 400g of diced and crushed tomatoes. You can buy a tin of these, but they will usually be very salty, and make the curry very acidic and even sour. This will need to be balanced out by adding some soft brown sugar to taste near the end of cooking. It is much better to buy 6 or 7 medium sized tomatoes and make our own diced tomatoes like this. Prick all of the tomatoes about 8 times with the tip of a sharp pointy knife, and then drop them into a bowl of boiled water. After about 5 minutes, we should be able to peel off and discard the skins, and cut out the cores. (Use a fork to spear and hold them, and a knife to peel off the skin). Slice up these peeled tomatoes in a casserole dish, and then use a potato masher to completely mush them up.
Three or Four large chicken breasts need to be cut up into bite size chunks. Put these raw chunks into a shallow sealable contained, add 2 heaped table spoons of Maharaji brand Tandoori curry paste, and stir the chicken chunks so they are all coated in it. Leave these in the sealed container for at least 2 hours in the fridge to marinate.
Combine the following spices in a mortar and pestel grinder and crush them all together with each other:
1 heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds 2 teaspoons of crushed ground black peppercorns 1 heaped teaspoon of dried red chilli flakes One quarter heaped teaspoon of ground cardamom seeds 1 flat teaspoon of ground Nutmeg
Additional ingredients that are required: 1 heaped tablespoon of crushed Ginger (can use supermarket jar variety) 1 large brown onion sliced up into thin wedges. 1 Red Capsicum bell pepper sliced into bitesize pieces 1 handful of fresh green beans sliced up 5 leaves of Chard, Silver Beat, Spinach, or Boc Choy (to fill a small soup bowl) 1 x 400ml can of Trident brand Coconut Cream (not the light type, but full strength). 1 x 140g tub of tomato paste, but only use about 80g of it. 2 x Star Anise to add into the curry while it is being simmered
Some Rice cooked separately: 2 cups of water and 1 cup of Basmati or Jasmin rice that needs to be cooked by absorption method.
How we cook the Curry:
We need to use a cast iron pot, or a Wok, or Electric Frypan that we can cover with a lid while the curry is simmered. I like to use a Sunbeam brand Electric Frypan.
Cook the chicken in some oil on high heat in 2 batches, and set aside on a plate.
Now cook the onion until clear, then add in the beans, red pepper, and Ginger and only cook for 1 or 2 minutes. Now add the cooked chicken, the ground spice mix, and the crushed up tomatoes, the tomato paste, and stir together.
Next add the coconut cream, the 2 star anise, stir together, and then simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on.
After this, add the Chard or equivalent green leaves, stir them in until they shrivel up. Now simmer for 20 minutes with the lid off, until the chicken is tender and the sauce has thickened.
Serve on the boiled rice, and bon apetit. (So easy that even nerds can make it).
Now if you really want to learn to cook all sorts of interesting things, then check out these great web sites:
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This week we're going way out in left field; into a field full of cows actually, and that's no Bull.
We have been inspired by a recent trip that Big Passy and his son made out to a friend's farm in the country. It was quite an experience being away from computers and guitars for a few days, and we had to mingle with the cows as our alternative source of amusement.
So since returning home, we have been on the net, and had a cow of a time finding anything really hilarious to do with cows. So this week's Friday Funny, might be more of a Friday Funny with the Fresians, or maybe a joke with the Jerseys, or perhaps a happy smile with the Herefords.
First up we have some You Tube Videos involving cow humor, from TV ads through to music videos and techno remixes. Smile and say Cheese, and let's get into it.
Here is one of my son's favourite books when he was a youngster:
Here are some "out there" cow inspired Music Videos.
Hope you enjoyed that one, because here is another one that is a real off the wall original.
And finally we have one more essential cowful masterpiece from YouTube:
Image Source: http://www.saynotocrack.com
COW JOKES
Q: Why did the blonde buy a brown cow? A: To get chocolate milk.
Q: What do you call a grumpy cow? A: Moo-dy
Q: What do cows do for entertainment? A: Go to moo-vies.
Q: What do you call a sleeping bull? A: A bull-dozer.
Q: Why don't cows have any money? A: Because the farmers milk them dry.
Q: What do you call a cow that doesn't give milk? A: An udder failure.
Q: What do you call cattle with a sense of humor? A: Laughing stock.
Q: What happened to the lost cattle? A: Nobody's herd.
Q: Why can't you shock cows? A: They've herd it all.
Q: What is it when one cow spies on another cow? A: A steak out.
Q: Where does a cow stop to drink? A: The milky way!
Q: What does an invisible man drink? A: Evaporated milk!
Q: Where do cows go for lunch? A: The calf-eteria.
Q: Where do cows go on dates? A: The moo-vies!
Q: Where do Russians get their milk? A: From Mos-cows
Q: What does a cow ride when his car is broken? A: A COW-asaki MOO-torcycle!
Q: Where do cows go on their space vacation? A: The moooooon!
Q: What are cows favorite party games? A: MOO-sical chairs!
Q: Why did the cow jump over the moon? A: To get to the Milky Way!
Q: What do cows like to listen to? A: Moo-sic!
Q: What do you call a cow eating grass in a paddock? A: A lawn mooer.
One day two cows were chatting over the fence between their two fields. The first cow said, "I'm telling you, this mad cow disease is getting pretty scary! I've heard it's spreading so fast that it's already on Farmer Rubin's land just down the road!" - The second cow replied, "So what? It doesn't affect us chickens!" Image Source: http://tkey.co.uk
Cow-a-Bunga, and all that sort of surfing jive, have a cow of a weekend, and make it back here alive, standing upright on all hooves.
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This post is part of our continuing series about how to build your own website using Adobe CS3.
Making a "Contact Us" page involves creating a webpage that includes a "form" for people visiting the page to fill in with their comments or questions. We can build this using Adobe Dreamweaver.
We then need to also create a "PHP Script" that will run on our web hosting server, and can collect the information from the form, and then mail it to an email inbox of our choice.
Creating the webpage involved using Fireworks to make the background image for the page. We then set this as the document background in Dreamweaver and followed a tutorial from the internet at: http://dreamweaverspot.com to create the feedback form onto the page using Dreamweaver.
Obtaining and modifying some PHP to do the emailing on the host server proved to be a bit difficult, but with help from our webhost, and using some of the PHP from dreamweaverspot.com we got there eventually. The details are all documented in the PDF document below.
If you would like to have your own full size copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.
Alternatively, you can view or save the full size PDF by clicking the link below:
Keep an eye on our blog for some further posts on our "Passy World" website building project. We still have several more pages that we need to make on the site over the next few weeks.
DON'T FORGET TO DO OUR ONE CLICK SURVEY AT THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THIS WEB PAGE. JUST CLICK ONE OPTION IN, AND THEN CLICK THE "VOTE" BUTTON.
Here is an iframe peak into his website's Home page. You can use the above weblink to go there and check it out "full-size".
Robert is an excellent Blues guitar teacher, and has plenty of free lessons and material on this site. The free lessons are mainly under the "Guitar Video Lessons" tab at the top of his homepage.
Here is a really great beginners Blues Guitar song by Robert:
Here is a "Jump Blues Guitar Lick" Lesson playing in the style of Brian Setzer. It features some really cool pinky finger pull offs, that are really well demonstrated and explained by Robert.
Robert also has premium lessons available that cost around $8 U.S, and are around 30 minutes long on video. He usually also supplies a PDF and backing track to play along with, as well as Guitar Pro 5 tab files. So considering the quality and detail of material he gives to you, these are excellent value.
Here is a trailer for one of these premium lessons:
On his website there are lots of other goodies and freebies, such as some very nice downloadable backing tracks to jam along to at: http://www.dolphinstreet.com/backing_tracks/
To finish off, here is an excellent free 8mins 30 secs lesson about a 10 note blues lick, using the E minor blues scale that you can repeat often:
So check out Dolphin Street, and get yourself into playing some really nice Blues Guitar music.
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The above is a photoshopped image of "Luna Park" which is a famous landmark in the city of Melbourne Australia where Big Passy resides. I have been out and about with a good friend, using my new Panasonic Lumix ZS3 camera, to none other than St Kilda, which is the famous suburb of Melbourne where Luna Park is located.
I have also been using Adobe Photoshop "Filter Gallery" to reprocess some of the Photos into abstract art works. Using Filters in Photoshop is very easy and lots of fun using the presets that are provided. If you can afford the price, Photoshop is a great product for working on photos.
The folowing Wondershare Slideshow contains 36 photos taken around St Kilda today. When you get through the whole show, the last picture should be of two women walking down the famous Acland Street. The first picture should have been of a very abstract painting of the beach and buildings. If you missed any pictures then click on the arrow when the slideshow ends.
Note that we can click on the bottom of the slideshow on the "Manual Play" option at any time. We can then advance through the photos one by one at our own pace. This allows us to stop for longer on the photos that we really like, and quickly bypass the ones that we are not interested in.
(Push the Play button arrow below if the slideshow is not already running).
Here is some information about the fabulous suburb of St Kilda from Wikipedia:
"St Kilda has many distinctive local landmarks, most centred around the St Kilda Esplanade and foreshore area, several featuring domes of a Moorish architecture theme established at the turn of the century. Perhaps the best known is Luna Park an early 20th century amusement park with its famous "Moonface" entry and its historic scenic railway roller coaster.
The St Kilda Pier is another local landmark and major tourist attraction. The pier is terminated by the St Kilda Pavilion, an eccentric Edwardian building in the mould of English pier pavilions which is considered of high cultural importance to Melburnians. It was recently reconstructed and listed on the Victorian Heritage Register after burning down. The pier has a long breakwater which shelters St Kilda Harbour and hosts a Fairy Penguin colony The pier is also the starting point for a ferry which runs between St Kilda and Williamstown.
St Kilda Beach is a beach with gentle bay waves popular with swimmers and sunbathers during the summer months. It is often criticized by locals and visitors alike for its pollution, but significant recent efforts have been made by government organisations to keep it clean.
The St Kilda Sea Baths, also called South Pacific, a Moorish themed building was built in the late 1920s, and demolished in the 1990s. It was rebuilt in a Moorish style, continuing a history of sea baths in St Kilda dating back to the 1850s.
Acland Street is a shopping and restaurant precinct famous for its cake shops and cafes. It also features a number of public artworks."
If you are ever in Melbourne during the summertime, a visit to St Kilda with lunch at any of the fine cafes in Acland Street is a must.
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Okay let's talk about speed. Not the speed of a person's heartbeat as they watch an exciting tennis match, but how fast a tennis ball goes when it is served.
Big Passy has been very busy at the Australian Open Tennis Tournament, conducting some highly in-depth research for this blog post:
(See the Wondershare Photo Slideshow at the end of this post for further details).
Tennis Serve Speed
At the 2010 Australian Open, IBM are supplying the serve speed technology.
From IBM's own website:
"For fans and players who need to know how serves measure up to Roddick's record-breaker in 2006, IBM provides the Speed-of-Serve Radar. Radar guns behind the server record the ball's speed within millimetres of it leaving the racket. The information flashes onto courtside screens in under a second, reaching the official Web site and the world's TV screens a second or two later.
The ball's speed is measured within millimetres of leaving the racket
The radar guns are positioned on the court in a static position behind the servers.
The speed of the serve is flashed up on courtside screens in less than a second.
Andy Roddick (USA) and Greg Rusedski (GBR) share the world's fastest serve clocked at 241.4 kph.
Data travels to the official Australian Open website in seconds. The integrated scoring solution is but one of the measurements used in putting together the match analysis DVD, to assist coaches and players improve their game".
The radar used in sports like tennis is basically the same as the Radar that Police use to measure speeding cars. The Radar typically locates a speed within 1/100 of a second after a target is put in motion. (Eg. Immediately when the player's raquet hits the ball). The radar then continuously tracks the target, producing a reading 100 times a second. This way it doesn't miss the fastest speed or the final speed.
How Does the Radar Work
The following information is from: http://www.howstuffworks.com/radar-detector1.htm Go to that link to get a deeper discussion about radar guns as well as radar gun detectors, and more sophisticated ways of measuring speed using Lidar Guns.
A basic radar speed gun is just a radio transmitter and receiver combined into one unit. A radio transmitter is a device that oscillates an electrical current so the voltage goes up and down at a certain frequency.
This electricity generates electromagnetic energy, and when the current is oscillated, the energy travels through the air as an electromagnetic wave. A transmitter also has an amplifier that increases the intensity of the electromagnetic energy and an antenna that broadcasts it into the air.
Radar can be used to measure the speed of an object, due to a phenomenon called Doppler shift. You've probably noticed the pitch of an ambulance siren rise as it approaches, then fall once it passes. You're hearing the "Doppler effect".
Note that the waves with the peaks closer together have higher frequency, and the further apart flatter ones have lower frequency.
Like sound waves, radio waves have a certain frequency, the number of oscillations per unit of time. When the radar gun and the tennis ball are both standing still, the echo will have the same wave frequency as the original signal. Each part of the signal is reflected when it reaches the tennis ball, mirroring the original signal exactly.
But when the ball is moving, each part of the radio signal is reflected at a different point in space, which changes the wave pattern. When the ball is moving away from the radar gun, the second segment of the signal has to travel a greater distance to reach the ball than the first segment of the signal. This has the effect of "stretching out" or "flattenning out" the wave, or lowering its frequency. Based on how much the frequency changes, a radar gun can calculate how quickly the ball is moving away from it.
Okay, so how does the Radar measure the ball speed and ignore the speed of the player's arm moving? Most radars detect the speed of the strongest return target and the speed of the fastest target. The strongest return is usually from the nearest object, (like the player), and this speed is lower, and slows down much quicker than the ball speed. So it is very basic Maths to select the higher and longer lasting speed of the ball.
Anyway, thanks to electronics and computers to cheaply do the Mathematics, we can even buy "toy" radar guns for our kids. They can use them to measure speeds of bikes and skateboards going down big hills and the like.
Image Source: http://www.hothardware.com
Movement Detection by Digital Cameras
There is also some amazing movement detection technology that is inside digital cameras these days.
I recently purchased a Panasonic Lumix ZS3 12x fully automatic 10MP Digital Camera. There are many special modes that the camera can be set to, including "Sports Mode". I have been very impressed with the quality of the pictures taken in sports mode. The camera is able to follow the action and stay in perfect focus without any of the blurring that I used to get with my old camera. There is also no need to use a tripod when at full zoom in this mode. The shake correction is absolutely brilliant. Watch out for an upcoming post that gives a full review of this marvelous camera.
So combining the new camera and Wondershare, here is a slideshow of photos that Big Passy took as a special guest at the Australian Open Tennis.
Note that several photos have been cropped, and had the image contrast, brightness, and so on, auto adjusted using Adobe Photoshop CS3. Photoshop is brilliant for adding some Gaussian Blur to unwanted background items as well.
(You should have noticed a little bit of Photoshopping on the intro photo. Eg. "Passy World" is not an official sponsor of the Australian Open).
And before we get another influx of emails about sexist content, let me just clarify that the matches BPW attended were the "Ladies Qualifying Matches". No men were playing, and hence no pictures of men were taken!
(Push the Play button arrow below if the slideshow is not already running).
Sleepless nights, then bothered by sunlight; loss of appetite, but an insatiable thirst for raw energy; adrenaline rushes with the feeling that you can have bursts of uncommon speed & strength; the desire to stalk and watch the intended victim...
Ooops, I'm sorry... I've got these mixed up with the signs that you are worried about an upcoming first date!
Source: http://www.blurtit.com/q6022722.html
Signs that You are a NERD
Now if you are worried about having seen some SIGNS that you are a Nerd, then you'd better take this Online test. This will fully verify the situation for you.
(Use the scroll bars on this window to move down to where the quiz starts).
SIGNS that You are a Social-Mediaholic
1. You have more friends in your virtual life than in real life.
2. Social Networks are your main points of contact with your friends.
3. You rather choose to hold on to your toilet urgency rather than to miss out on a status update.
4. You constantly check your friend’s status, tweets or IM availability more than 15 times a day.
5. You have installed Facebook, Twitter, Fring, IM and Skype on your mobile.
6. You no longer take pictures for preserving memories but for your next social networking profile portrait.
7. You have replaced “call me” to “Facebook me”.
8. When you hear a funny joke, your first response is to say the word “LOL”, rather than actually laughing.
9. You go through withdrawals when you cannot access your favourite social media site due to the server being down, the site getting blocked at work, or the loss of wi-fi connection.
10. You are seeing this post and nodding in agreement, and about to twit it to all of your friends.
