2016 Secondary 1 Week 23 Update

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Its the start of the school holidays and we’re in Yogyakarta as I write this. 
Both BB and GG had to go back to school earlier this week, GG for choir practice and BB for a space camp at the Singapore Science Centre. The highlight of the camp at the Science Centre was using their super powerful telescope to see the sky and stars. Unfortunately, the day they were to see this, the sky was cloudy and they didn’t see the stars. BB also had his Math Olympiad test this week and he said it was a very tough one. I am hoping he makes it to the school team (if they have one) as this will help in his DSA application if he plans do so next year (for Sec 3) as well as in junior college and/or polytechnic. 

They do have holiday homework and we need to start working on that as soon as we are back. I am also thinking of using the school holidays to tutor them in humanities, subjects which I am fairly strong in. This should help them in the next semester. This trip was also good in terms of both history and geography, both subjects which they are studying and will continue to study next year. 
I am also planning some holiday activities locally, so the idea is to spend more time with them – the whole idea of me taking a break from work!

In My Hands Today…

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Trail of Broken Wings – Sejal Badani

24228353When her father falls into a coma, Indian American photographer Sonya reluctantly returns to the family she’d fled years before. Since she left home, Sonya has lived on the run, free of any ties, while her soft-spoken sister, Trisha, has created a perfect suburban life, and her ambitious sister, Marin, has built her own successful career. But as these women come together, their various methods of coping with a terrifying history can no longer hold their memories at bay.

Buried secrets rise to the surface as their father—the victim of humiliating racism and perpetrator of horrible violence—remains unconscious. As his condition worsens, the daughters and their mother wrestle with private hopes for his survival or death, as well as their own demons and buried secrets.

Told with forceful honesty, Trail of Broken Wings reveals the burden of shame and secrets, the toxicity of cruelty and aggression, and the exquisite, liberating power of speaking and owning truth.

Recipe: Cabbage Salad

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Cabbage Salad 1I’m typing this from Yogyakarta, Indonesia where we are for our semi-annual holiday. We’ve been here for just a day now, but I love what I saw so far!

Before leaving, I wanted to finish off the vegetables in the fridge and saw this quarter head of purple cabbage. I decided to make a salad out of this and it was such a hit, I made it three times this week! I experimented with purple cabbage and green cabbage as well as other vegetables, and each variation was superb! Even S who would not eat a salad if he could was raving about it.

This recipe requires a bit of prep work beforehand, but it is completely worth it!

Cabbage Salad

Cabbage Salad 3Ingredients:

  • 1 half head of cabbage (I used purple cabbage in this photo, but you can also use green cabbage)
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 onions
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • Coriander leaves to garnish

For the dressing

  • 3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tbsps lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • a pinch of sugar
  • a handful of cashewnuts
  • a handful of almonds
  • 2 tsps white sesame seeds

Cabbage Salad 4Method:

  • Shred the cabbage (you can do this easily using a madolin slicer, otherwise, just shred finely with a knife)
  • Grate the carrots
  • Chop the onions and bell pepper lengthwise in fine strips
  • Chop the cashewnuts and almonds into small pieces or silvers and dry roast them in a pan till crisp. Remove from flame and dry roast the sesame seeds till they are slightly brown and crisp. Let this cool completely.
  • Toss and mix the shredded and chopped vegetables well. Add the coriander leaves and keep aside till it’s time to eat. You can pop it into the fridge till needed.
  • Around 15-20 minutes before it’s time to eat, remove the salad from the fridge and make the dressing.
  • For the dressing, in a small bowl, add all the dressing ingredients – olive oil, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper and stir well.
  • Pour over the salad and toss well. Add the chopped and roasted nuts and serve.

I also added grated radish to one of my versions, and that too tasted great!

Cabbage Salad 2

 

In My Hands Today…

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Silent House – Orhan Pamuk (Translated by Robert Finn)

16125533In an old mansion in Cennethisar (formerly a fishing village, now a posh resort near Istanbul) the old widow Fatma awaits the annual summer visit of her grandchildren: Faruk, a dissipated failed historian; his sensitive leftist sister, Nilgun; and the younger grandson, Metin, a high school student drawn to the fast life of the nouveaux riches, who dreams of going to America. The widow has lived in the village for decades, ever since her husband, an idealistic young doctor, first arrived to serve the poor fishermen. Now mostly bedridden, she is attended by her faithful servant Recep, a dwarf–and the doctor’s illegitimate son. Mistress and servant share memories, and grievances, of those early years. But it is Recep’s cousin Hassan, a high school dropout, and fervent right-wing nationalist, who will draw the visiting family into the growing political cataclysm, in this spell-binding novel depicting Turkey’s tumultuous century-long struggle for modernity.

Recipe: Hummus and Tahini

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I’ve made Hummus years and years back when I was on a food experimentation drive. The past few weeks, in a bid to increase good protein, I was thinking of making hummus again, but somehow this did not happen. Then the other day, I read about someone who was raving about Tesco’s caramelized onion hummus and I was intrigued. This made me want to try making hummus again, and also try it with caramelized onion. As luck would be, I also had some dry chickpeas or garbazano beans which were going to go bad soon and so this recipe of hummus soon saw the light of the day.

When I made Hummus earlier, I didn’t add Tahini paste to it, thinking I won’t get it here in Singapore. Then when I went online and found how to make it, I realised it was very simple and so this time, I made it as authentic as I could….

Hummus and Tahini

Ingredients:

Tahini 2For the Tahini Paste 

  • 2 tbsps white sesame seeds
  • 3-4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

Hummus 2For the Hummus

  • 2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked in a pressure cooker until soft
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 3-4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tbsps tahini
  • 2 tbsps lemon juice
  • salt to taste

Method:

For the Tahini

  • Soak the sesame seeds in a bowl of water and drain it.
  • In a dry pan, dry roast it till it starts to crackle. This should take not more than 5-6 minutes. Do not let it brown too much and burn.
  • Take it off the gas and let it cool completely.
  • In a small mixer/blender, blend the sesame seeds to a powder, then add the olive oil and blend till it becomes a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Hummus 2For the Hummus

  • In another pan, add 1 tsp oil (I used a canola olive blend) and when it warms, add the chopped garlic and stir, letting it brown and caramalize.
  • When it browns, remove and keep aside. In the same pan, with the remaining oil, add in the chopped onions and let them brown and caramalize. Once it has browned, remove and keep aside.
  • In another mixer blender, add the chickpeas, caramalized onions and garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and tahini and blend well.
  • You can blend it smooth like I did or keep it slightly coarse. You can also keep some onions aside to use as a topping.
  • Check for salt and serve. You can also add some red chilli powder to use as a topping when serving.

I usually eat this plain, or add in my red chilli chutney and eat….

Hummus 4