mountain masala

Faith Formation Learning Exchange

John Roberto's Faith Formation Learning Exchange website has been completely redesigned. Go and have a look here.

Social Media Stats from 2012

These are incredibly interesting: 100 Fascinating Social Media Statistics and Figures From 2012 and this very cool visual summary (thanks Duncan for the tip).

My Top Twelve Albums of 2012

OK, here they are in no particular order....

"Tempest" - Bob Dylan

"Port of Morrow" - The Shins

"Old Ideas" - Leonard Cohen

"Shields" - Grizzly Bear

"The Magic Door" - Chris Robinson Brotherhood

"Strand of Oaks" - Dark Shores

"I Know What Love Isn't" - Jens Lekman

 "Mid Air" - Paul Buchanan

"Green Corn songs: Live at McCabes" - Grant-Lee Phillips

"Field Report" - Field Report

"LUX" - Brian Eno

"Where Are The Arms" - Gabriel Kahane

and almost made the list...

NoiseTrade Sampler - Rah Rah

"Valtari" - Sigur Ros

"Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices" - The Welcome Wagon

"Among the Leaves" - Sun Kil Moon

"The Ol' Razzle Dazzle" - Missy Higgins

"Luxury Problems" - Andy Stott

"Red Shadow Landing" - All India Radio

The following albums weren't made in 2012, but that's when I acquired them, and they're fantastic.

"Cicada" - Hazmat Modine

"El Camino" - The Black Keys

"Drunkard's Prayer" = Over The Rhine

"American Hearts" - A.A. Bondy

"Summertown" - The Mayflies USA

"Oh Fortune" - Dan Mangan

"Seeds" - Hey Rosetta!

 

Garfish in Dukkah Crumbs

Great having Darren and Holly over for dinner last night. We had thai chicken kebabs for starters and then went Moroccan. I'm recording this so I remember what we did! No photos...

Salads

Grilled sliced zucchini with currants, goats chevre and a lemon dressing

Rocket lettuce, halved mini roma tomatoes, sliced red onion, pomegranate seeds, pomegranate syrup dressing and sumac

Sliced orange, sliced red onion, black olives, cumin seeds, dried thyme, sumac

Sliced fennel, watercress leaves, sliced radish, avocado, lime juice (or something like that)...

Now, the fish was fantastic, so here's the recipe from "Malouf" by Greg and Lucy Malouf

Garfish in Dukkah Crumbs

First, make some Dukkah...

Toast the following separately in a dry, heavy-based frypan
- 50g hazelnuts
- 8 tbsp sesame seeds
- 4 tbsp coriander seeds
- 3 tbsp cumin seeds

Rub hazelnuts in a tea towel to remove skins. Chop nuts and seeds in a food processor - hazelnuts and sesame seeds separately. Do not over-process - it needs coarse texture. Mix with 1 tsp sea salt anf 1/2 tsp ground black pepper.

Mix 2 heaped tbsp dukkah with 2 cups coarse breadcrumbs (we used panko crumbs).

Whisk 2 eggs with 250 ml milk.

Dip garfish in plain flour, then egg and milk mixture, then dukkah mixture. Fry in 100ml olive oil and 25g butter.

Amazing light screen

Firewall from Aaron Sherwood on Vimeo.

New David Bridie album

I just pre-bought David's new album. I'm a HUGE fan of his solo work, as well as "Not Drowning, Waving" and "My Friend The Chocolate Cake"... go and support him if you like his stuff.

Cherries, cherries, cherries

So the price of cherries is down and going down at the moment, Currently here in the Hills where they are grown you can get a 5 kilo box for $20.

So Yvonne pitted the whole 5 kilos and I bought some preserving jars.

Brandied cherries

The recipe suggested washing them and leaving the stems (but clipping the ends?) on but we had already pitted them.

Dissolve 6 to 7 tbsp sugar in 1 cup brandy along with 2 tbsp water. Pack fruit into sterilised jars and cover with liquid. Seal jars and tap to release air bubbles. Store in a cool place for a few weeks to allow flavours to mix and then refrigerate (the fridge will slow the flavour mixing).

If serving the brandied cherries raw, open a few hours before and put cherries and liquid in an open bowl to allow some of the alcohol to evaporate.

We've done hardly any preserving ever. In fact the last and first time that we bottled cherries, most weren't sealed properly and they fermented and had to be tossed. So we're hoping this works better. We sterlisied the jars in the oven (15 mins at 150 C) and boiled the lids in water at the same time. Our ig pot isnt big enough to submerge these jars...

For the cherries in syrup we used the ratio from the Time-Life presrrving book of 125g sugar to 500g fruit, and simeply simmered it until the surga was well dissiolved and the fruit not overcooked. The book also has a recipe where you add 3 or 4 cloved and a small cinnamon stick to the syrup as you cook it, and then brandy at the end.

Ther fruit & veg shop has boxes of apricots for $15 at the moment too...