Egg Curry for Systemabuser

Madhur Jaffrey's Egg Curry - Yum

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2ozs (50gms) onion, peeled and finely chopped
1" (2.5cm) cube of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
½ -1 fresh, hot green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
½ pint (275ml) single cream
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
one eighth teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon garam masala (see footnote)
2 teaspoons tomato purée
¼ pint (150ml) chicken/vegetable stock
6-8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut crosswise into halves
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander

Heal oil over medium heat in large, non-stick frying pan. When hot, put in onions. Stir and fry for about 3 mins, or until the pieces are browned at the edges. Put in the ginger and chilli. Stir and fry for a minute. Now put in
the cream, lemon juice, ground roasted cumin, cayenne, salt, garam masala, tomato purée and chicken stock. Stir to mix thoroughly, then bring to simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes on a meduim heat or until the sauce has thickened. Add the halved eggs and simmer 1 min more to warm through. Serve with rice.

I sometimes put in 1tsp of turmeric. Enjoy, xxx

I like it rough!

The embroidery on this top says, "I like it rough". Brilliant. I know it's a bit girly to blog about clothes but I saw this top today from a link on a food blog and think the collection is amazing. I want all the tops and as a note to myself really I thought I better make a record of this for when I can afford them!

Homage to the Calder Valley: The most beautiful place in the world

There's one little spot up i' Yorkshire,
It's net mich to crack on at t' best,
But to me it's a kingdom most lovely,
An' it holds t' warmest place i' my breast.
Compared wi' that kingdom, all others
Are worthless as bubbles o' fooam,
For one thing my rovin' has towt me,
An' that is, there's no place like hooam.

I know there'll be one theer to greet me
At's proved faithful through many dark days,
An' little feet runnin' to meet me,
An' een at(1) howd love i' their gaze.
An' there's neighbours both hooamly an' kindly,
An' mates at are wor'thy to trust,
An' friends my adversity's tested,
At proved to be generous an' just.

An' net far away there's green valleys,
An' greeat craggy, towerin' hills,
An' breezes at mingle their sweetness
Wi' t' music o' sparklin' rills;
An' meadows all decked wi' wild-flaars,
An' hedges wi' blossom all white,
An' a blue sky wheer t' skylark is singin',
Just to mak known his joy an' delight.

From Tykes Abrooad (W. Nicholson, Wakefield, 1911).

Walter Hampson.

New Year's Resolutions

1. Stop shopping at supermarkets.
Ideally I would like to stop giving my money to all big companies, in particular the ones that make huge profits at the expense of so many others but I am not sure how to go about this yet. For now this is something I can do. Here are some of the reasons why:

· I do not want to give money to companies that fly in produce from all over the world at the cost of the environment so that I can eat whatever I want at any time of year.

· I no longer want add to the demand for cheaply produced food that undercuts small local businesses.

· I do not want to encourage production methods that prioritise appearance, speed and yield over taste.

· I do not want to shop in places that take excessively from the seas without regard to the irreversible damage that is being done to the fish stocks and the seabed.

· I do not want to encourage the mass production of meat, eggs and dairy that is necessary to keep every possible type of animal product on the supermarket shelves everyday. I think that the way animals are treated to create this endless supply of flesh for us to eat is appalling. Battery farms are one of the most horrendous inventions of the human race and I never want to give another penny to this industry.

· I do want to buy products that come in excessive packaging using up the earth’s energy unnecessarily and creating needless waste.

· I want to give my money to small businesses, I want to support the local community, I want to pay a price that gives the growers a decent wage and above all I want to buy varied and tasty food.


2. Stop picking my spots.
I’m 30 now, I really should have grown out of this habit! I know that this might seem a small thing but I think that this will be my most difficult resolution!

3. Exercise at home twice a week.
Well, it’s free and it’s good for me!

4. Stop putting salt on my dinner.
I do this far too much, it’s bad for me and it prevents me from appreciating other flavours fully.

5. Have fun!
I make this resolution every year. It is the most important. It may seem easy but it is so easy to forget to have fun. I believe that if you give yourself time and space and do the things you enjoy you will be a happier person and in doing so you can make the people around you happier. And if not then at very least I will have a good time!

White Poppies

I cannot abide war. I think that there are so few circumstances that warrant the killing of hundreds or thousands of people in an attempt to solve some problem. I do not want to belittle the enormous hardship and loss that has been suffered in wars in the past. I will not however support those who choose to fight, those who sign up to the armed forces in peace time with the knowledge that they will have to murder others.

When Tony Blair chose to go to war I tried to go to protests but I could not handle the aggressive chants and hate that was so apparent in the voice of the people. I realise that protest is incredibly important and I applaud those that can do it. I just cannot feel that hate and I do not want to be aggressive in my remonstration, even in the form of words. Instead I wrote to the prime minister and to MPs and I told them about the trip to the battlefields in Ypres and the Somme that I had participated in at school. I saw more graves than I could comprehend. We had a map of the area and red dots were place wherever there was a graveyard or a monument to unrecovered bodies. There was more red on the page than any other colour, you could barely see the roads or the fields for the dots. I cried and cried. It did not matter whether the graves were British or French or German. Each soldier had had a family, every grave represented a wasted life and the pain that the relatives that were left behind had suffered.

When I think of all the fighting that is still going on, all the people that are dying because of our countries actions, no matter where they are from I can hardly believe it. It is incredible that we still continue to use this level of violence to solve problems.

Terrorism

As I embark on my masters I thought I should look at a few people's view on 'tackling terrorism'. Right now I think that the concept itself is nonsensical, but I will keep an open mind as I do my research.

Here is Liberty's view:

Governments have a duty to take steps to protect citizens from terrorism, but this does not justify side-stepping democratic values. Since the Prevention of Terrorism Acts of the 1970s terrorism laws have done little to ensure that we are safe from terrorist attack, but much to infringe the human rights and civil liberties of those living in the UK. - After 9/11 the Government introduced indefinite detention without charge of foreign nationals. This was replaced by the control order regime which allows government ministers to impose sweeping restrictions on individual freedoms on the basis of secret intelligence and suspicion. - Pre-charge detention has been increased from 14 days to 28 days, with further extensions threatened. - Broad new speech offences impact on free speech rights and non-violent groups have been outlawed. - Our right to protest has been seriously curtailed, including by the misuse of police powers. Terrorism can and must be fought without sacrificing our human rights. Repression and injustice, and the criminalisation of non-violent speech and protest make us less safe, not more. They act as a recruiting sergeant to extremism and marginalise those whose engagement is vital to the effective fight against terrorism. They undermine the values that separate us from the terrorist, the very values we should be fighting to protect.

When the sky turns grey

To Autumn

1.SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.


2.Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.


3.Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Keats

Utah Saints

So I'm reading a book called Under the Banner of Heaven by a guy called Jon Krakauer. It's about Mormon fundamentalism, polygamous marriage, rape of teenage girls and their subsequent pregnancies, incest, abductions and murder. All pretty scary stuff. Mainstream mormons call themselves Saints, hence Utah saints, something I never knew. I have only read the first quarter but so far I have learnt that:
* polygamous mormons make up only 1% of the whole religion. They reside mainly in Northern Arizona
* Girls are often married into arranged marriages between the ages of 13 to 16
* There is a phenomenally high birth rate and girls start having children from the age of 13 in some cases
* It is illegal to have sex except when a girl/woman is ovulating, even if they are married
* Polygamy is illegal in all 50 States but this is often got round by not having a legal marriage ceremony

Scary