January 2009 – Page 2

Curry: Wok-cooked Chicken in Tomato & Fenugreek Sauce

13. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink

Episode three in my curry cooking adventure – this time with vegetables! See parts 1 and 2 for the exciting initial chapters. I've finally used up all the garlic and ginger paste I made for the first one.

I'm getting used to some of the standard manoeuvres in Indian curries: marinating meat in lime juice and salt; frying spices (but not burning them); finely chopped onion; garam masala and fresh herbs going in only at the end etc. This time I also did cumin-scented aubergine & potato curry, at the same time! It was quite a logistical challenge, flipping between two recipes in the same book, both of which were complex and unfamiliar whilst trying not to mix up the two of them. But it was a huge success I reckon. No problems to report, and a super-tasty result.

It was quite hot though – with three large fresh green chillies chopped and incorporate to both dishes. Not to mention the hot chilli powder and other spices. The missus found it all a bit too much actually, but I was in curry heaven. And then I went back into the kitchen and discovered the small pile of fresh chopped coriander leaves that I had intended to use as a garnish. Oh well.

Getting Twitchy

11. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

I was stumbling along in the gloom of another grey day at the WWA. And at 3:30pm it was starting to get dark. Very poor conditions for wildlife photography! Then I noticed a small blue bird on a branch and bingo, there was one of the kingfishers in a spot I'd never seen it before, and handy for me to rest my camera on the rail of a bridge only about 8m away. Here are the best couple of shots I got (the first was actually entirely handheld).

These are the best shots I've ever managed to get of kingfishers so I'm very pleased. They're a long way from decent by any professional standards (the things I see on TV or in magazines make me sick with envy and incredulity) but the opportunity was fleeting and the light dim, with my kit and technique straining at their very limits: 400mm, ISO 3200, f5.6, 1/100s. To top it all, the elusive water rail then walked along beneath it, though I didn't manage to get a shot of that, and still never have.

Beer Review: Meantime London Pale Ale

10. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Beer, Food and Drink

A light but fairly complex taste that's reasonably bitter and hoppy, with a slightly burnt/roasted edge which I'd only usually expect to fine in dark beers and stouts. The bitterness and 4.3% ABV make it highly quaffable, but maybe it's a shade too bitter not to get wearing after a while.

Apparently "the International Beer Challenge 2007 awarded Meantime Pale Ale 'World's Top 50 Beers' Status." I can't say that I agree with them on this occasion. It's a quality beer for sure, but not one that will stick in the mind. I can name quite a lot of beers that have blown me away and I remember fondly. This isn't one of those, though it might be more impressive outdoors on a hot summery day.

Google App Engine: First Thoughts

10. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Programming, Web/Tech

Having ploughed through much of the documentation, done the tutorial and started writing my own little web app, I have some half-formed thoughts about Google App Engine to throw out to the world.

As far as I can tell, any sort of data aggregation functionality (counting, averaging etc.) just won't be possible as the Datastore APIs don't allow for it. I've tried to think of ways to fake it but even my most elaborate machinations come up against the buffers. The only way to manage it at all is to do counting and averaging piecemeal, manually keeping the aggregate values you need up to date with each individual entity modification. Unfortunately, that means that you can't introduce new functionality requiring new aggregate values after you've already got a million users, because you've missed the chance to record those aggregates along the way.
Python's OK, but I don't like using indentation as the sole way to define blocks. But I'm sure I can get used to that.
I really don't like having to put an empty __init__.py file in any subdirectories of my python code. If I don't do that it seems I can't import foo.bar.Thingy. Breaking up code into multiple files in a sensible directory structure is surely a fairly common thing to do, so I'm amazed that Python makes it strangely difficult. I hope I've simply missed something and it's actually easier than that.
In fact all those double underscores look horrid and are a pain to type. Surely a single underscore would have been quite adequate?
The overall experience for learning GAE is very sorted. Smooth and well integrated – all you need to supply is your own decent text editor. I'm trying out TextMate, the darling of Mac OS X code editors, but I'm worried to see that it doesn't seem to have been updated for over a year.

Google App Engine Experiments

07. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Me, Programming, Ruby, Web/Tech, Weblogs

It seems to be the done thing these days to learn how to use Google App Engine (and thus Python) within a couple of hours and then hack out a simple web application to prove how easy it is.

So with the missus out of town tonight, I'm staying out of trouble by doing just that. I've run through the getting started tutorial, which is a delight I have to say, especially because it's so darned simple to get going on Mac OS X. Python is already installed and there's a neat app to download from Google which installs the app engine SDK bits and puts a nice GUI front end on it for you to fire up the local test environment and various other handy things, as well as installing the command line tools if you prefer them. Start up TextMate or any other editor of your choice and you're away!

You'll have to take my word for it though, because I'm tired and won't get onto writing my own app tonight.

Footnote: Python seems OK, but so far I prefer Ruby, though they seem to share a lot in common.

First Capital Connect Thameslink – Silly Pillar(ks)

06. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Travel

Oh dear. Look what they've put right in the middle of platform 4 at St Albans. Right where everybody walks to get to and from the exit. Right where people will smack into it amid a bustling crowd, or whilst walking along looking at the display boards just out of shot on the right. And all packaged up in dull grey for maximum "don't see it till you've walked into it" effect.

Just what's in that small box that absolutely had to exist at that exact point in space, rather than being attached to one of the many other existing uprights within only a few metres? Answers on a postcard please!

Xmas Tree Takedown

05. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Current Affairs, Me

It only seems like days ago that I put it up, but now the fake Xmas tree must come down again. I always dread this bit as it wrecks my hands trying to get all the fronds folded together into a streamlined torpedo of bristly green foliage. This year I fought back with heavy duty gloves!

Unfortunately I don't have any gardening gloves, what with not having a garden, so instead I made do with magic potato scrubbing gloves. I can't say I've ever used these for their intended purpose but the idea is that you wear them whilst viciously manhandling potatoes under running water and the dirt and skin just falls off. They're just as rough on the inside so it's touch and go whether it's the potato's skin or your own that sloughs off. Still, they made a fine job of the Xmas tree, whilst exfoliating my hands beautifully.

Curry: Lamb in Cinnamon Scented Fenugreek Sauce

04. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink

Here’s my second curry adventure from the Curry Bible my wife bought me for Xmas. My first attempt was Butter Chicken and was thoroughly awesome. This one was just as good I’d say, and it should be given all the ingredients that went into it: 8 different herbs and spices!

The hardest thing to find was dried fenugreek leaves. The supermarket didn’t have any so we walked to Hatfield Road, where St Albans’ Asian community has a strong presence. The first shop we tried didn’t have any but the proprietor was thoroughly helpful in pointing us to his competitor down the road who “has everything”. He wasn’t wrong – Madina Store is an Aladdin’s Cave of wonderful foodstuffs, stacked floor to ceiling. It took us a while and some assistance before finding what we wanted, though it was in a packet akin to a family size box of Cornflakes. I only needed a tablespoon! Luckily my wife spotted a much smaller box (more Kellogg’s Variety pack size) on the way out so we got that. We could also have got fresh Fenugreek leaves and anything else that has ever been used in Indian cooking as far as I could tell.

The cooking was relatively straightforward with all the ingredients assembled, and almost a one-pot job. Marinate the lamb cubes in red wine vinegar and salt for a bit (which quickly turns it a funny colour), make up the sauce by adding various things to a saucepan as per the recipe and leave to simmer with the meat in it for 50 minutes or so. This is the only cooking the meat gets – no frying. One issue I did have was that the cinnamon stick (only a small piece) disintegrates quite readily and is then a pain to pick out in shards whilst eating it. The recipe made no mention of the stick after adding it, so it’s a mystery what was supposed to happen to it.

The only downer on the washing up front is that you have to use a separate pan to fry the garam masala (only 1/4 of a teaspoon of it) at the very end, before adding it to the rest. I messed this bit up by burning the spices in oil that was too hot, and had to throw it away and try that bit again. No damage done.

The result was served with some curried veg from Waitrose – they seem to have a new range – to bulk it out, and garlic and coriander naan. It was another great meal from the good book, though it doesn’t make a great deal and needed the bulking out.

Kingfisher Dive

02. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

I took this sequence of shots of a kingfisher fishing (unsuccessfully this time) at the WWA – the very local nature reserve down the road. It's taken from about 40 yards away with a 400mm lens, and significantly cropped for this montage. Not great, but still rather pleasing!

Do click for the full-size version with a bit more detail.

World of Goo

01. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Games, Me

I've just completed the computer game World of Goo, having been thoroughly absorbed by it for the last week or so. I seldom play computer games, but this one hooked me good and proper. I think it's the engineer in me that always love this sort of game, as it's based on a decent 2D physics model that involves building towers, bridges and lots more out of various pieces, most of them gooey and continually swaying.

The game is also an artistic tour de force: wacky, surrealistic, humorous and stylish. I'd really struggle to pick out a weak point in fact, which is probably why it's won so many awards this past year (on Mac, PC and Wii). Best of all is the demo version contains the whole of the first chapter (out of five) and the whole game only cost me £13 to download.

Download the demo and have a go today!

JustTheSam