mountain masala

messing with Tim's head

yeah, in case you don't know, I've been playing with the head of my colleague and friend Tim Hein. It started somehow with a comment of his late last year about liking The Pet Shop Boys. So now Tim gets to appear occasionally in classic album covers... He has tried to get me back a couple of times but I have vastly superior Photoshop skills. Of course, part of the beauty of this is starting with the same photo of him each time... (I now like to call him "the pet shop boy" behind his back... just kidding fatboy...)

I'm taking orders for birthday cards... and yes my college colleagues, I already have ideas for the rest of you...

Mexican Chilli-Beef Soup

I adapted this excellent soup from Rick Bayless' "Mexican Kitchen", my main Mex cookbook.

Roast 1 medium brown onion and 1/2 head of garlic in oven. Dice onion and remove garlic from cloves.

Cut 750g-1kg rump steak into cubes. Brown in pan.

Put 2 litres beef stock, steak, 1/2 of the garlic and 1/2 of the onion into a soup pot with 1/2 tsp salt, 3 bay leaves, a big pinch of cloves, 1/4 tsp ground cumin and 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1 hour.

Rehydrate 2 dried Ancho chillies in warm water for 30 mins. Puree with the rest of the onion, garlic and 1 x 400g can of diced tomatoes. If you don't have access to Mexican chillies, you'll have to work out what other kind of chilli to use. Just bear in mind that its soup and too much chilli will overpower the whole dish.

Slice 2 chorizos thinly and saute. Dry on paper towels to remove excess oil.

After 1 hour, add chilli mixture to soup pot, along with 2 diced carrots and another 400g can of diced tomatoes. Simmer for 10 mins. Add 2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubed. Simmer for 5 mins.

Add 2 zucchinis, cubed, the cooked chorizo, 1/2 can corn kernels (or better still - 2 ears of corn sliced to 2cm thickness), and a handful of chopped coriander leaves. Simmer for about 8 mins.

If the soup seems a bit thin, add 3 tsp cornflour mixed with water.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top (we didnt have any) and a wedge of lime. Very excellent.

Multimedia in Ministry group

The "Multimedia in Ministry" group on Facebook now has 145 members. It's an open group and you're welcome to join - https://www.facebook.com/groups/197294490370704/

Abide in Me

Having taken a few photos of our autumn grape vines on my iPhone a couple of days ago using Hipstamatic, I thought I'd turn them into Powerpoint slides for this Sunday's lectionary reading. You're welcome to use them for non-commercial purposes. They're 1024 x 768 pixel JPGs, so if your slides are 800 x 600 you'll need to downsize them. I used a "nice" font (Bickley Script) rather than something funky.... Click on each image for the full-size version, then right-click or control-click to download it.

Download Vine Leaves - original photos unedited, no text (4.9 mb zip file)

Communities of Practice and Church Councils

"The most distinctive, valuable knowledge in organisations is difficult or impossible to codify and is tightly associated with a professional person's identity. Developing and disseminating such knowledge depends on informal learning much more than formal - on conversation, storytelling, mentorships, and lessons learned through experience. This informal learning, in turn, depends on collegial relationships with those you trust and who are willing to help when you ask. Informal learning activities amd personal relationships among colleagues are the hallmark of communities of practice. Hence, we see an increasing focus on informal community structures whose aggregate purpose is to steward the learning of an organisation and its invaluable knowledge assets."

William Snyder and Etienne Wenger 2004, 'Our world as a learning system: A communities-of-practice approach' in Conner, ML and Clawson, JG (eds), Creating a Learning Culture: Strategy, Technology and Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp35-58.

While the above quote focuses on informailty and relationships, I see another aspect to this. There seems to be a fundamental tension between the trend toward executive leadership by a few and the goals of forming 'reflective practicioners' and reflective communities of practice. The more that discussion about the critical challenges of life and faith are removed from the life of a community, not only is the capacity to learn together from experience undeveloped, but the personal and interpersonal practices and disciplines that might make such learning and discernment possible lose their power and purpose. The less that a synod or presbytery meeting or a church council is allowed to have deep and ongoing conversation about those things that matter most (and instead 'rubber stamp' the thinking done by a few people), the less the whole group is able to function as a self-transforming entity. Not only is an unhealthy trust and dependence built, those who see the dichotomy are likely to withdraw their participation, thereby depriving the whole of their own critically reflective capacities.

In this regard there is a fundamental problem in the notion of church councils dealing with a lot of busniess efficiently. Might we instead choose wisely about which few issues we will wrestle with deeply and prayerfully over time. Let us choose to frame our gatherings around ongoing conversations about those things that are most critical to our life and mission, and thereby build our capacity as a community of faith to make learning and discernment part of our lives.

Pork Noodle baskets and Asian Omlette

OK, this is the Last Post on food for a bit... Plenty of leftover pork from last night which will keep us happy for days. So I decided to try something that I'd seen in.. wait for it... the Women's Weekly Chinese Cookbook! We still have a lot of this series from the er... 80s?... and use them all the time!

Step one was to make noodle baskets. I spent years looking occasionally for these little wire baskets on a stick and then discovered them at Marion in January when we were house-sitting at Seacliff. The recipe said egg noodles but we just had cheap chow mein noodles. whatever.

Cook them, put them on a wire rack to dry a bit. DON'T try to dry the noodles with a paper towel beacuse it sticks! Place them between the two little baskets and deep fry them. It took a little while, but I've learned a new party trick. Before the party, not at the party.. ("Hey, lets go and deep fry some noodles...")

I'm also reminded how countries like China which have many people living a subsistence lifestyle use simple ingredients like wheat, water and oil, and time, to make food that we consider fancy (this is one of the things about food that interests me - including the fact that many of our exotic herbs and spices are cheap and everyday for them...) I do love the "foodie" setting on the Hipstamatic iPhoto app...

Red Asian Pork

Here's the third in my series of cooking posts for the past week. You can expect this to decline as I spend most of the next 6 weeks travelling the country. I guess that means travel and winery pics instead...

I bought a shoulder of pork on sale and made Red-Cooked Pork Hock from Kylie Kwong's "Recipes and Stories". I love her books although to be honest I havent made too many recipes from them yet. However I have fallen in love with a "masterstock" like the following. The recipe is for a 1kg fresh (not smoked!) pork hock, but I had a 3 kg shoulder so I cut it into 3 pieces.

Place the following stock ingredients into a large pot, bring to boil and simmer for 20 mins.

2 litres cold water (I used chicken stock which had been half price at the supermarket. Usually I make my own). Because I had more meat I had to add more water.
1 cup shao xing rice wine
1 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup light soy sauce
2/3 cup yellow rock sugar
6 garlic cloves, crushed
10 ginger shards (I have no idea what this means so i added about 8 slices fresh ginger root)
3 medium green spring onion stems, cut in half
1/4 cup shitake mushroom pieces (Kylie has a more complex thing about making braised, dried Chinese mushrooms - go buy the book...)
1 tsp sesame oil
3 whole star anise
2 cinnamon stick
1 medium piece dried orange peel (I used 2 'medium'... 3-4 cm pieces of fresh orange peel)

Place pork in the stock, cover the pan and bring it to the boil. Simmer it for 2-3 hours until very soft. Add more water if you need to keep the meat covered.

This stuff is fabulous hot or cold. We had it with steamed rice and steamed veg.

Pumpkin Soup

Yeah, its a bit of a rush of food posts. It was that kind of week. Our pumpkin harvest is just coming in, so there'll be a few pumpkin recipes. This recipe is actually for Pumpkin and Lentil soup, but the twins are allergic to lentils (as well and chickpeas and other stuff), so we're denied a whole range of vego food. The recipe is therefore adapted - from "Bill's Basics" by Bill Granger. I changed some stuff...

Place the following in a large baking tray, cover and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 1 1/2 hours.

1.5 kg butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 3 cm chunks
750 g tomatoes, quartered (I guessed the quantity)
6 garlic cloves, peeled (I just cut a whole head of garlic in half and threw it in)
3 carrots, quartered lengthways
1 large brown onion, peeled, halved then quartered (optional - not in original recipe, but added for flavour and texture in lieu of the lentils)

Drizzle with 1/4 cup olive oil and then sprinkle with the following spice mix - 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp paprika, 1/2-1 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp garam masala, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp sea salt and 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper. ( the garam masala and ginger were my additions...)

Remove from oven. Take out the onion and chop it finely. If you used a whole garlic head like I did, remove it and squeeze out the cooked garlic paste.

Mash the rest of the vegetables in the baking tray with a fork. Place in a pot along with the onion and garlic. Add 1.25 litres chicken or vegetable stock and bring to the boil.

If you want to add lentils, add 180g or 3/4 cup now and simmer for 15-20 mins. Add extra stock if needed but the soup should be chunky.

Serve with a dollop of yoghurt on top and a sprinkle of sumac (or a bit of lemon zest).

I made some pizza bread to accompany it.

And then made quince jam that night, but that's another story...

Orange and Date Cake

On Anzac Day I attempted another Orange Cake, this time with dates and walnuts and a syrup that you pour over the top when it comes out of the oven. It was from the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts. I've never really made desserts or cakes. This is about my fourth cake ever, and I think this book will be a regular source of recipes. The Moosewood Books are excellent.

Sift together 3 cups plain flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp bicarb soda.

Cream 1 cup butter at room temp and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Add 3 eggs, one at a time as you continue to beat.

To the butter mixture, add dry ingredients, one-third at a time, alternated with 1 cup milk (they say buttermilk), half a cup at a time.

Then stir in the following - 2/3 cup finely chopped dates, 2/3 cup chopped walnuts (or pecane), 2 tbsp orange zest. 1 tsp pure vanilla extract.

Pour into a buttered and floured cake time and cook at 180 degrees Celsius for 35-45 mins.

While it is cooking, mix 1/2 cup fresh orange juice, 2 tbsp fresh orange zest, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract.

When you remove the cake from the oven, prick it all over with a toothpick or skewer and pour the syrup over the top.

Mine sunk in the middle a bit, but it was really yummy with some cream. Yvonne actually made some chocolate sauce to go with it too....

Alive@5 in May