In preparation for it I dug out some of my old notes and found these sketches (made in class)
Monday 28 November 2011
Digging out old Physics notes
My viva is in less than a months' time! ARGHHHH....
In preparation for it I dug out some of my old notes and found these sketches (made in class)
In preparation for it I dug out some of my old notes and found these sketches (made in class)
Sunday 27 November 2011
More adventures with CSS!
So, I'm trying to put screenshots of the game on the site, and I'm wondering if there's an easier way for viewers to see an enlarged version of the picture without having to use javascript (just to avoid compatibility issues).
Then I stumbled upon this site:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/csslibrary/item/css-popup-image-viewer/#thumb
HALLELUJAAAAAAAH!
Problem solved :D
Then I stumbled upon this site:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/csslibrary/item/css-popup-image-viewer/#thumb
HALLELUJAAAAAAAH!
Problem solved :D
Friday 25 November 2011
Chicken and Tomato Soup
This aromatic and flavourful soup is a real crowd pleaser for cold days. The chicken, having been marinated overnight, is tender and savoury, and there is a subtle hint of sourness from the tomatoes. The finishing touch of generous amounts of coriander gives the clear broth a very oriental note. Best served with rice or noodles.
I first tasted this soup in my friend Mindy's house - apparently she drinks it every time she feels tired/cold, and I can completely understand why. The soup had a very refreshing and wholesome feel to it and obviously after the first sip or so I demanded that she send me the recipe, which I'm going to post here (with some minor alterations).
This is another one of ultimate brainless simple recipes that busy mums should keep in their arsenal - it's healthy, it's easy and it's fast!
Chicken and Tomato Soup
Marinade:
500 - 800g chicken drumsticks/legs/thighs, deboned and diced into bite sized chunks
2 tbsp Cornflour,
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp white wine (1/2 cap of chinese ShaoXing wine),
2 tbsp oyster sauce,
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp or more light soy sauce (to taste!),
A few drops of sesame oil,
A few drops of sesame oil,
3-4 thin slices ginger.
Ingredients:
4-5 tomatoes, quartered or with slits cut into them
4-5 tomatoes, quartered or with slits cut into them
12g fresh coriander
1.2 - 1.5 litres of water
Marinade the chicken, and leave in a fridge overnight.
Bring the water to the boil, then put tomatoes and chicken in. Bring it back to the boil, then simmer over a low heat for no more than 20 minutes. Serve with generous amounts of coriander. TADAAAAA! Finito.
Additional notes:
Using a shallow ladle, scoop up all the foamy scum stuff and oil that float up to the surface while the soup is simmering. This will ensure a really clear and non-greasy soup. I did not quarter my tomatoes because I don't actually like mushy tomato all over my soup - thus I made a cross-slit on the top of the tomato so that it will flavour the soup, but without becoming overly soft and mushy.
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Misadventures with CSS
I've been spending the past week or so designing a new look for the Cent Hope website (watch that space, it's going to be BAZINGA, I tell you!). And since I haven't touched HTML properly for almost a decade, I've had to do a lot of reading on the web and research and some serious trial and error. And yesterday at 0:00 am I learned two important things:
- Browser incompatibilities with paddings/borders/width sizes are usually resolved with declaring the right Doctype. Me, I used: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">,
which according to http://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/tag_doctype.asp , contains "all HTML elements and attributes, INCLUDING presentational and deprecated elements (like font). Framesets are not allowed." - This particular doctype does NOT like spaces in between your width digits and the word "px". i.e. if you are declaring
width: 50%;
it doesn't bark at you, but as soon as you try
width: 500 px;
it just ignores you altogether. The fix is simple. Take the space away.
width: 500px;
and the world is a much better space.
I know this may be elementary to some, but I hope this is helpful for people out there who want fixed width DIVs and inadvertently left a space in between the numbers and the px and have spent a whole night trawling the net wondering why and finding out that actually most programmers don't like fixed widths and prefer to use percentages instead. (On that subject, while I completely understand the rationale behind leaving it flexi, I need a fixed width for this particular site. No offense).
And that's my contribution for today.
Sunday 20 November 2011
You've Got a Friend In Me (Cover Version) with William and Jacq
Well, as the description says, my son was watching Toy Story 1 and 2 today (yes, i know, excessive television watching, but he'd already done his homework so what could I say -_-") and I was reminded of this old recording that William and I made a long time ago.... an hour and a lot of laughter after browsing through hilarious old videos and photos later, I uploaded this vid onto Youtube. So. This is my offering for this week - an old MV :) Enjoy!
The most important components for a wantan/wonton noodle dish!
The key to a good wantan/wonton noodle dish, besides the actual wontons, lies in the execution of a good sauce, and a nice sharp condiment in the form of pickled green chilies.
I find that most people have their own interpretations of what constitutes the perfect wantan/wonton. Some will add prawns, some, water chestnut. Soy sauce, mushrooms, you name it, people will put it in yellow pastry and wrap it. Some people will swear by their wantan/wonton recipes so I am not really going to bother putting in my version here (in case you ARE wondering, I go with chives, pork, mushrooms and carrots and hideous amounts of salt). Neither am I going to put instructions on how to prepare the noodles, because I'd look really silly if I formally wrote "Put noodles in hot, slightly oiled stock and boil until al dente".
But surely there is more to a wantan mee dish than just the contents of the parcels, and here are the recipes for them - the sauce mix for the noodles, and a nice piquant accompaniment in the form of pickled green chillies...
Wantan Noodle /Wonton Noodle Sauce / (possibly also Kon Loh Mein sauce) for ~2 portions
Ingredients:
2 tbsp lard
2-3 tsp light soy sauce (to taste)
A generous dash of white pepper
2 cloves garlic (or 1 big one), finely chopped
2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
400 ml hot chicken stock
Heat the lard and gently saute the garlic until the oil is fragrant and aromatic. Mix in all the other ingredients. Stir into noodles about a teaspoon at a time, to taste (generally i find that about 2 teaspoons per noodle nest works fine), with a small ladleful of chicken stock to wet the noodles a bit. Voila. A proper wantan mee with sauce!
Pickled Green Chilies (to be prepared at LEAST the night before you want to eat the wantan mee)
1 cup vinegar (Chinese rice vinegar, or if you live in the UK, malt vinegar also tastes fine. Not tried Japanese rice vinegar yet, let me know if you have and it turns out good)
3-4 Green chilies
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
De-seed, de-vein and slice the green chillies, and put them in a bowl. Pour hot boiling water over the chilies and leave them to soak for about a minute (the longer they soak for, the less spicy they will become, and the softer the chilies - ie if you want them really hot and crunchy, blanch them for only about 15 seconds or so). Drain the water, and put the chilies in a suitable jar or container (glass or ceramic). Mix in the other ingredients and stir well. Refrigerate. The chilies should have absorbed the flavour by the next day. Yummy!
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Sambal Sotong (Squid in chili paste)
This sambal sotong (squid in chili paste) dish is a spice sensation - succulent squid with a hot and zingy sauce of dried chilies, with a subtle sour sharpness coming from the tamarind and tomatoes. In this particular recipe we have used leftover chili paste from another dish, but hopefully i will post one soon with instructions on how to make the paste from scratch.
If, like me, you cooked char kuey teow yesterday according to the proportions recommended by the recipe by Rasa Malaysia, you would be left 2-3 teaspoonsful of leftover chili paste. The question is, what to do with it? It seems a bit wasteful to throw it ALL away. A few options spring to mind - use it up a teaspoon at a time with a dash of lime juice squeezed on top, or make a sambal dish.
Blitz the above ingredients in a blender until it forms a nice yellow paste. (If you are worried about damaging the blade of your blender, I'd recommend putting the nuts in a food freezer bag and bashing it into smaller bits before pouring into the blender).
Heat a small frying pan with about 1 tbsp of oil (or more, if it's not a non-stick pan), and saute the sauce for a few minutes, or until the oil splits from the paste, taking care not to burn it. Add the leftover chili paste. Add about 100 ml of water to prevent the paste from drying out. Squeeze the tamarind paste to extract the juice, and pour the tamarind juice in to taste. Add the quartered tomatoes with about 100 ml more water, and allow it to simmer until the tomatoes turn mushy. (Keep adding water to maintain a nice smooth consistency)
Stir in the onions, and cook until al dente. Lastly, stir in the squid, and leave it in there for a minute or so to cook (do not overcook! In fact best to leave it slightly undercooked). Turn the heat off and allow it to rest for about 5-10 minutes (the residual heat will continue cooking the squid while the squid absorbs the sambal flavour). Serve warm with rice.
Some comments
Feel free to add more chili paste than 1 tbsp if you feel the sambal looks anaemic, but be warned! I made the mistake of throwing ALL my leftover paste in there (which was about 3 tbsps?) and I ended up having to have a sip of yogurt for every mouthful of rice+sambal.
If you really want to you can flash fry the squid separately to brown it a little before putting it in the sambal, but I'm a mummy in a hurry and thus didn't bother :P
Let me know how you like it!
If, like me, you cooked char kuey teow yesterday according to the proportions recommended by the recipe by Rasa Malaysia, you would be left 2-3 teaspoonsful of leftover chili paste. The question is, what to do with it? It seems a bit wasteful to throw it ALL away. A few options spring to mind - use it up a teaspoon at a time with a dash of lime juice squeezed on top, or make a sambal dish.
Sambal Sotong (Squid in chili paste), serves 2
Ingredients
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 large onion, sliced
1 tbsp leftover chili paste
200 g squid, cleaned
1 tbsp tamarind paste, soaked in 200 ml of water
Salt to taste (I'd say slightly less than 1/2 tsp is a good starting point)
Sugar, preferably palm or brown, to taste (1 tsp)
To blend:
2 shallots
2 small cloves of garlic (or one really big one)
4 candlenuts (buah keras), or macadamia nuts as a substitute
1 tbsp oil
Heat a small frying pan with about 1 tbsp of oil (or more, if it's not a non-stick pan), and saute the sauce for a few minutes, or until the oil splits from the paste, taking care not to burn it. Add the leftover chili paste. Add about 100 ml of water to prevent the paste from drying out. Squeeze the tamarind paste to extract the juice, and pour the tamarind juice in to taste. Add the quartered tomatoes with about 100 ml more water, and allow it to simmer until the tomatoes turn mushy. (Keep adding water to maintain a nice smooth consistency)
Stir in the onions, and cook until al dente. Lastly, stir in the squid, and leave it in there for a minute or so to cook (do not overcook! In fact best to leave it slightly undercooked). Turn the heat off and allow it to rest for about 5-10 minutes (the residual heat will continue cooking the squid while the squid absorbs the sambal flavour). Serve warm with rice.
Some comments
Feel free to add more chili paste than 1 tbsp if you feel the sambal looks anaemic, but be warned! I made the mistake of throwing ALL my leftover paste in there (which was about 3 tbsps?) and I ended up having to have a sip of yogurt for every mouthful of rice+sambal.
If you really want to you can flash fry the squid separately to brown it a little before putting it in the sambal, but I'm a mummy in a hurry and thus didn't bother :P
Let me know how you like it!
Tuesday 15 November 2011
Grilled Turmeric Chicken (recipe)
Light crispy skin, salty and slightly sweet with honey, this chicken wing dish goes down a treat with children, and is simple enough for even the most stressed and harried mums to prepare.
As mentioned in the previous post, the two adults of the family had char kuey teow for dinner. Which meant that the fussy little one (what, I am allowed to call a spade a spade, I'm his mum!) had to have separate dinner arrangements. Since char kuey teow involved a lot of preparation and required the use of the wok I opted for a really simple, easy, brainless, and low maintenance recipe - grilled turmeric chicken wings.
Marinade the chicken wings with the above ingredients for at least 15 minutes while you preheat the grill (unless like me you own a flame grill, in which case no preheating is necessary).
Put the chicken on a foil-lined grill pan and grill for 20-25 minutes, turning once every 7 minutes or so to avoid burning the honey. Skin side up first, then turn, then finish with skin side up again to dry and crisp the skin)
Serve hot.
Some extra tidbits -
Feel free to substitute the chicken wings with chicken fillets (I never use breastmeat, but if you are using thigh and drumstick fillets extend the cooking time to 25-30 minutes).
Do not marinade the chicken in a PLASTIC bowl, not unless you like fluorescent yellow. Likewise do not use your hands to marinade the chicken, and don't do it while wearing your best clothes, as turmeric stains don't come off easily.
Eat while hot for optimum crispiness!
Theoretically this dish can be done in an oven, although I've never tried it. May experiment one day with an oven and let you know how it goes. I hypothesize that in order to get the skin really crispy a baking rack as well higher oven temperatures will be needed, presumably gas mark 7-8. If any of you dear readers do decide to try it let me know how it goes.
As mentioned in the previous post, the two adults of the family had char kuey teow for dinner. Which meant that the fussy little one (what, I am allowed to call a spade a spade, I'm his mum!) had to have separate dinner arrangements. Since char kuey teow involved a lot of preparation and required the use of the wok I opted for a really simple, easy, brainless, and low maintenance recipe - grilled turmeric chicken wings.
Grilled Turmeric Chicken (Wings)
[for 500 g chicken wings]
Marinade:
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp salt (maximum! don't put any more than this!)
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp corn flour
Marinade the chicken wings with the above ingredients for at least 15 minutes while you preheat the grill (unless like me you own a flame grill, in which case no preheating is necessary).
Put the chicken on a foil-lined grill pan and grill for 20-25 minutes, turning once every 7 minutes or so to avoid burning the honey. Skin side up first, then turn, then finish with skin side up again to dry and crisp the skin)
Serve hot.
Some extra tidbits -
Feel free to substitute the chicken wings with chicken fillets (I never use breastmeat, but if you are using thigh and drumstick fillets extend the cooking time to 25-30 minutes).
Do not marinade the chicken in a PLASTIC bowl, not unless you like fluorescent yellow. Likewise do not use your hands to marinade the chicken, and don't do it while wearing your best clothes, as turmeric stains don't come off easily.
Eat while hot for optimum crispiness!
Theoretically this dish can be done in an oven, although I've never tried it. May experiment one day with an oven and let you know how it goes. I hypothesize that in order to get the skin really crispy a baking rack as well higher oven temperatures will be needed, presumably gas mark 7-8. If any of you dear readers do decide to try it let me know how it goes.
Char Kuey Teow for dinner!
Char Kuey Teow is a highly popular Malaysian rice noodle dish - particularly Penang Char Kuey Teow from the northern region. The rice noodles are fried over high heat with aromatic and savoury ingredients, resulting in an irresistable-smelling dish with a mild kick of chili spice in the background.
After my husband came back from London and sighed about the char kuey teow that his friend ordered at the Hare and Tortoise which he didn't dare try because he doesn't like taking food off other peoples' plates, I decided to cook char kuey teow for dinner (which meant that I had to provide something else for my 5 year old, the recipe for which is in the next post here). The char kuey teow recipe I followed (and have always followed, with great success) is this one: http://rasamalaysia.com/char-kuey-teow/2/ , but with some very neccessary changes to the recipe:
After my husband came back from London and sighed about the char kuey teow that his friend ordered at the Hare and Tortoise which he didn't dare try because he doesn't like taking food off other peoples' plates, I decided to cook char kuey teow for dinner (which meant that I had to provide something else for my 5 year old, the recipe for which is in the next post here). The char kuey teow recipe I followed (and have always followed, with great success) is this one: http://rasamalaysia.com/char-kuey-teow/2/ , but with some very neccessary changes to the recipe:
- Don't bother soaking your prawns in sugar. It may just be me, I don't like the idea of soaking prawns in sugar, but I don't think it adds anything to the sweetness of the prawn anyway. Besides, I would want my prawns to be as dry as possible otherwise the wok will just be wet and the temperature would be reduced.
- The list of sauce ingredients calls for 1 TBSP of sugar. I highly disagree and have reduced this to about 1 TSP or less (what is with the author and sugar?!)
- The same list of ingredients ALSO calls for "Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt". No idea what they meant, but from my experience anything more than a pinch or a light shake of salt will make the dish too salty.
- (this one is just a personal preference) - The best char kuey teow I have EVER tasted hails not from Penang, but from Pahang, where the kuey teow is nice and dark. As such, I usually increase the amount of dark soy sauce in the sauce to 2 tbsp.
The final result? Husband said "I'm glad I didn't bother ordering this in Hare and Tortoise - this is very good". AWWWWWW.
PS - If you followed their recipe to the T, you would probably end up with a fair bit of leftover sambal. I used my leftovers to prepare Sambal Sotong, and the recipe can be viewed here.
PS - If you followed their recipe to the T, you would probably end up with a fair bit of leftover sambal. I used my leftovers to prepare Sambal Sotong, and the recipe can be viewed here.
Sunday 13 November 2011
Party Animal
Well! It's been another brilliant weekend, and after all the fun I had I was reminded of an old sketch I did which expressed my, errr, excitement about returning to the glorious realms of research the next day (inevitably a Monday). Decided to put off procrastinating and colour it in... although to be honest I quite like the pen doodle just as much....
Hope your weekend was as good as mine :D
Friday 11 November 2011
The Jacq-of-all-trades dilemma
The problem with being an Asian kid is often this - you may like something, but unless you are a super prodigy of some sort, most people (relatives especially) are deeply convinced (consciously or otherwise) that an arts-related career may not be the best route to wealth. Take my parents - they praised me for my abilities, forced me to learn piano (which I am eternally grateful for), essentially nurtured me and helped me to develop. But when it came to the crunch, when I suggested to them that I would really like to learn graphic design in the One Academy back home (seriously, have you seen their prospectus? It's awesome!), the inevitable answer was - "Do a science degree". Even my sister, thoroughly more gifted than me and apparently infinitely more world-wise, said "Do a science-oriented degree, that way you'll have something to fall back on".
They were, of course, completely right.
Fast forward to the present, and here I am. A BSc in Physics (high five to fellow physicists reading this!!), and, hopefully, in a months' time, a PhD in Optoelectronics.
And my dilemma is ever the same. I want to do arts, but there is no money in it for me. Often, in the shower I have new ideas for, well, music. Videos I would love to upload on Youtube. Occasionally, an idea for phone Apps. Stories for books or animations. But I am held back by the same self-doubt that plagued me all those years ago - am I good enough to compete with other super-talentos out there? Where's the money?
They were, of course, completely right.
Fast forward to the present, and here I am. A BSc in Physics (high five to fellow physicists reading this!!), and, hopefully, in a months' time, a PhD in Optoelectronics.
And my dilemma is ever the same. I want to do arts, but there is no money in it for me. Often, in the shower I have new ideas for, well, music. Videos I would love to upload on Youtube. Occasionally, an idea for phone Apps. Stories for books or animations. But I am held back by the same self-doubt that plagued me all those years ago - am I good enough to compete with other super-talentos out there? Where's the money?
Well, here I am. Here is my beginning. For display, for all the world to see - links to my doodles, my vids, and perhaps occasionally a story or two. If it's good enough, someone will probably advise me how to make money off it :P
Love,
Jacq
Love,
Jacq
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