It was last spring in Paris when friends from Britain we knew from Dresden had us over for some curry.  It was okay curry although I think it might have come out of a jar.  So I decided then to try making my own. 

I was at a bit of a loss though because I didn’t really know anything about Indian cuisine, India being a vast land of diverse cultures and all.  Secondly I found it exceptionally difficult to get the “gist” of the many many recipes one readily finds online, something I always try to do when learning a new dish.

Fortunately I was able to find a generic sort of recipe which I took to, although I’ve since lost the link.  So the curry I now make is pretty good, although I wouldn’t presume to claim that I really know anything about Indian food.  Ha-cha-cha-chaaa:

Lightly toast some black mustard seeds in a pan.  Add oil.  When at temperature add chopped onions.  You can add some ginger, garlic, and chillies now, or later if you have a habit of burning them. Actually, ginger is pretty robust against the heat but the other two I tend to burn.

 When the onions go translucent is the time to add curry powder.  Some people swear by grinding the seeds on the day, and they are probably right.  I however have a good powder from the India Laden on Luisenstrasse and I am pretty happy with it.  Brown the pasty mixture just a tad.  Set that stuff aside.

Heat your veggies in a pot, with some stock if you’d like, and add your curry paste.  Which veggies?  I usually put in two different ones.  Some go better with others.  Broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini are faves, spinach, chickpeas, potatoes, bell peppers are no strangers either.  Of course lamb or chicken can work too, but Doc is a vegetarian which makes me guilty by association.

Now you’ll want to add chopped or canned tomatoes, or pureed tomatoes.  Or add plain yogurt instead.

Right about now I often like to add some garam masala to the mix.  It might be overkill, but I love it.

You’ll want to let all that jazz simmer for a while, to thicken it all up a bit.  If it’s still too soupy a little flour can take care of that.

Finally you’ll want to add salt.

Serve with rice — basmati ideally, and/or with yogurt, chapatis.  Those are flat bread.  Did I post a recipe for that?  Also, just between us: if you don’t feel like chapatis you can also do baking powder biscuits.  It’s a  nice, down home touch.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Coraline Mystery Box Roundup

Coraline opens in theaters today, so it’s time to do a roundup of all the known Coraline Mystery Boxes. Click through to discover amazing treasures. “The braver you are, the more you’ll see.”

Already quite a few months back, the creators of the film Coraline sent out a slew of mystery boxes to various “blogs”. Each box was unique and contained neat swag for the film. Altogether a very nice, personal touch.

Above is a complete list of said boxes.

This considered, it is rather puzzling that (from what I’ve read) people all about were quite nonplussed by the Coraline “Visual Companion”, the accompanying artbook to the film. By all accounts, it appears to be quite shoddy, put together by yahoos, and otherwise shitty.

It’s 1 degree and raining.  Underfoot it’s crunchy and frozen.  A cold snap seems on its way.  It’s cold, wet, and disgusting outside.  And there are no shadows to see anywhere.

This is good news.

And was it ever about time at that. On two counts: the first being that I’ve needed to get a new wallet since at least a year ago (Julie gave me my last one as a present shortly after we met 3 years ago).
And the second being that I have been dying to try my hand at making something out of fused plastic since I first heard about it about two years ago.  Killing two boids in a single shot, I made a wallet out of fuse plastic. 

Fusing plastic bags in concept is simple enough: you cut and flatten out about five layers of plastic bags, either the thin produce kind, or trash bags or whatever.  You heat them with a hot iron, keeping baking paper between plastic and iron.  Crack a window, Space Ghost.  More at Etsy.

From my fused plastic I cut a piece a bit larger than A4 and followed the instructions for a paper wallet.  With the following changes: in step four, I only cut out the diamond.  Also after folding the tabs on the ends I fused them shut with the iron.

Hackszine.com: Evaporation fridge

This solar refrigerator, invented by Emily Cummins, is a brilliantly simple solution for keeping food cool in a hot, dry environment. It’s basically a metal cylinder surrounded by wet material, surrounded by a mesh sleeve to hold it all together.

Watch hundreds of films online for free at NFB.ca » Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

NFB.ca launched tthis week. NFB.ca is the National Film Board of Canada’s new online film site that puts hundreds of animated films, documentaries, and experimental films back in front of the people that created and paid for them.

Gnarly. Here is one of my favorites, I saw this one over ten years ago and I still sing the song to it now and then. The Cat Came Back

Today is the birthday of writer Gérard de Nerval who inspired the surrealist movement, and also had a pet lobster, Thibault, whom he rescued from a lobster net while on vacation in La Rochelle.

Where ya house at?


Daniel pointing out his house using the map on the label of a bottle of wine from Île de Ré. 
The Island is famous not for its vinyards, but for its salt farms.  And rightly so: the wine tastes like rock salt.