A light interlude

There is nothing that I like more than calamari - a common enough but slightly tricky dish as the squid have to be pristine and fresh, the batter crisp on the outside and the squid soft and succulent on the inside. My previous attempts were a little challenged to say the least, as I often found my batter falling off the squid or being too doughy for comfort.

So here is the perfected recipe for calamari that Ben has labelled as "very finger-licking delicious"!


Fried Calamari Recipe

Ingredients
1. 4 - 5 medium to large fresh squid, cleaned and sliced into 1/2 inch width rings
2. 1 1/2 cups of rice flour
3. 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
4. 2 tbsp light soy sauce
5. 1 tbsp white rice vinegar
6. 1 tsp vegetable oil
7. 1 tsp sugar
8. 1 tsp salt
9. 1/4 tsp coarse ground black pepper +/- paprika (to taste)

Method
1. Dry prepared squid with some kitchen towels
2. Mix 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of rice flour, soy sauce, vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and pepper with approximately 1 cup of water. The batter should be thick.
3. Mix 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup rice flour and toss squid into the flour mixture. Give a few good grinds of sea salt and black pepper over the mixture, and place in a sieve to shake off the excess flour.
4. Heat up a pot of vegetable oil (at least 1 inch deep)
5. Mix flour-coated squid to the batter and fry till golden brown.
6. Drain on kitchen towels, then serve immediately with salad, a lemon wedge and some garlic aioli.

Trust His Heart

Trust His Heart
Cynthia Clausen

All things work for our good
though sometimes we can't see how they could.
Struggles that break our hearts in two
sometimes blind us to the truth.
Our Father knows what's best for us;
His ways are not our own.
So, when your pathway grows dim,
and you just can't see Him,
Remember He's still on the throne.

God is too wise to be mistaken.
God is too good to be unkind.
So when you don't understand,
when you don't see His plan,
When you can't trace His hand, trust His heart.

He sees the Master plan.
He holds the future in His hands.
So don't live as those who have no hope.
All our hope is found in Him.
We walk in present knowledge,
but He sees the first and the last.
And like a tapestry, He's weaving you and me
to someday be just like Him.

God is too wise to be mistaken.
God is too good to be unkind.
So when you don't understand,
when you don't see His plan,
When you can't trace His hand, trust His heart.

The 2 wrecks in my life

I've been a little too busy to blog lately - May is a horrendous month, with grant writing and stuff to do. Plus I went to Bali for 3 days, to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary with significant other (how have we survived each other for so long?!?), which was really fun, except that had major gastroenteritis (merlion act)for the next 2 days. Bali was lovely, and the massages were divine. I think that tourists hadn't quite come back after the bombings. Significant other went swimming one morning and the waves were so rough that when a giant wave crashed on him, he lost both his glasses and his swimming costume. Luckily, he managed to save his swimsuit if not he'd have been quite a show for the hotel.



On the way back from the airport, we got into an accident - Car #3 in a 3 car pile up (honestly it was the 1st car's fault for swerving into the right lane!). That in itself was pretty eventful because we couldnt drive our car after that because the side was dented in and rubbing against the wheel. Had to wait for the tow truck, and I got to ride on the tow truck with pieces of luggage piled on top of me...



The second wreck of course is poor roomie who had her FESS done for her chronic sinusitis. Needless to say, she had her usual slaves running circles around her (her long suffering mum and Ning). She actually allowed me to take a picture of her post-op, but refused to look at it after it was taken. Anyway, she's gone home now, and probably will be functional in a couple of days' time (sort of).