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Lemon and herb crusted Hammour
Photographs of Recipes on August 20, 2011
I’ve been meaning to try my hand at a herb-crusted rack of Lamb ever since I saw one at Taste of Dubai, but all I ever get when I ask for one at Spinneys is a shoulder shrug – literally. So I chose the orange-spotted Grouper instead, which is better known as Hammour in the Middle East.
This recipe was inspired by BBC Good Food and takes less than an hour to prepare. It’s important to note that Hammour has been over-fished to the point where it is now endangered, so steer clear of baby Hammour and cut back on Hammour itself if you’re a regular.
- Marinate a fresh Hammour fillet for half an hour in the juice of half a Lemon, ½ tsp of salt, ½ tsp of red Chilli powder, ¼ tsp of ground black Pepper and a pinch of Turmeric.
- Place the fillet on a baking tray drizzled with olive oil and smear it with a coarse paste made out of 2 crushed cloves of Garlic, 2 tsp of Dijon Mustard, 1 tsp of yoghurt and ¼ tsp of red Chilli powder.
- Cover the fillet with a crumble made out of 75g of powdered bread crumbs, the juice of one quarter of a Lemon, the rind of a Lemon and 3 tbsp of chopped Coriander leaves.
- Bake the fillet for 15-18 minutes in an oven preheated to 200c.
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Gamma matters
Thoughts about The Internet on August 12, 2011
The eighties were a simpler time. Publishers were happy if their typewriters came with eraser ribbons and users were thrilled if the text on their monitors appeared in white. However, with the advent of the Internet in the late nineties, publishers were forced to prepare their content for constantly changing browsers, ever increasing screen resolutions and – given the explosion of mobile computing over the last few years – a myriad of devices too.
The one thing that you could count on amidst all the change was that your reds would be red, your blues, blue, and your greens, well, green; but how about the terracotta reds, lime greens and cerulean blues? With the increasing age of today’s computer screens and the growth of new display technologies, you now need to consider the influence of color shift and gamma on the colors in your designs too – especially on the colors in between.
If you’ve never heard of gamma before, it’s simply an indicator of how bright your mid-tones are. The concept was crucial in the design of CRT monitors and holds true even for LCDs. It has no effect on black, white and primary colors, but affects everything in between.
The image above illustrates how this photograph appears on my four year old screen with a blue color shift on the left – notice the cooler hues – and how it appears on my new screen with high gamma on the right – notice the dark mid-tones. Of course, you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about, because your screen’s color calibration is entirely different from that of mine. In fact, to you the image may appear washed out on the left and warm on the right.
Sadly, there is neither substantial research on the average color shift and gamma of screens around the world, nor is there a perfect solution to ensure that your colors are reproduced in the exact same manner on every screen. However, you can do a few things to save your designs:
- Calibrate your screen’s colors to prevent your designs from being tainted by a color shift.
- Preview your templates on screens with different levels of gamma, just as publishers test their content on multiple browsers. Try an old laptop, a brand new desktop and so on.
- Embed color profiles in your images so that users with different color profiles can see them as they were intended. Most modern browsers handle this well.
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The street that time forgot
Photographs of Dubai on August 7, 2011
When people think of Dubai, the first things that usually come to mind are the tallest, the largest or even the smallest. Yet nestled between the superlatives and the pre-fabricated wind towers that remind the city of its humble beginnings, is a street that time forgot.
The cabbage-patched street runs right through the heart of Jumeira 1 and is lined with villas that were once the homes of Dubai’s middle-class families. They now lie abandoned, silently awaiting their rebirth as something more ostentatious. Perhaps another shopping mall.
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Udon with Ginger glazed Tuna
Photographs of Recipes on August 5, 2011
I’ve been cooking dishes inspired by bits of BBC Food, Masterchef Australia and Gordon Ramsay for a while now and thought it’s about time I shared them. This one takes just over an hour to prepare from the market to the plate if you’re in a hurry on a Friday afternoon. The glaze could have been thicker in the photograph, but I’ll have to try that again some time.
- Marinate 300g of fresh Tuna steak pieces for thirty minutes in the juice of a grated 2 inch piece of Ginger, 1 tsp of freshly ground black Pepper, 1 tsp of Coriander powder, ½ tsp of Cumin powder, ½ tsp of sea salt, ¼ tsp of Turmeric powder and the juice of a small Lime.
- Sear the Tuna pieces on a hot pan for 1 to 2½ minutes on each side, depending on whether you prefer them medium-rare or well done and serve them on top of freshly boiled Udon.
- Finish the dish with a glaze made by caramelizing the juice of a grated 2 inch piece of Ginger, 3 tbsp of Soy sauce, 1 tbsp of freshly chopped Coriander and 1 tbsp of sugar.
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The other Burj Khalifa
Photographs of Dubai on May 6, 2011
You may have heard of the 828 meter tall Burj Khalifa that stands in Downtown Dubai, but what you probably haven’t heard of is a freshly veneered jaliboot that goes by the same name just a few kilometers due west. I happened to be strolling through Dubai’s Jumeirah beach when I came across this magnificent craft’s sails being unfurled for the first time.
It took a team of five men a whole ten minutes to untie and raise the main sail, but the captain – a young Emirati man – was visibly ecstatic when it held its first breath of the Persian Gulf. He wiped his brow and waved a proud victory sign, before the five men continued on to the second sail.
I’m sure there are several other Burj Khalifas in the country by now. Have you come across one?