Knowledge, Biology and Ontologies
Went to an interesting workshop on EPSRC’s LSI programme. One of the interesting things which came out of this, is that most people who actually have LSI funding are not aware of the fact.
I was a bit surprised about this. So were the people in charge of the LSI. However, they later admitted that the main reason for this was probably that they had made a strategic decision not to tell people when they got funding.
Originally published on my old blog site.
Caught an announcement on the radio that the daily service was being moved to make way for the cricket. There is a certain irony that religion is being moved out of the way for sport; having lived just down the road from White Hart Lane, then Maine Road, and now overlooking St. James Park, this makes a certain amount of sense.
Originally published on my old blog site.
I bought some soya mince the other day, mostly for old time sake. Soya mince much like the larger equivalent, soya chunks, are fairly horrible. They tend to be overly chewy, with a slightly unappealing texture. But they are cheap, and about 50% protein. I used to eat lots of this stuff when I was a student and then stopped, because I could afford nicer food. But I saw some the other day, and remembered that I had one dish where it was quite nice. This is it.
1 Red Onion
Handful Soya Mince
Handful Rice
Tomato Puree
2 potatoes
Toast
Garlic Puree
Various Curry Spices
Essentially, this is your basic curry — fry the onions, then add garlic puree. After it’s cooked for a while, add some lime juice, then cumin, coriander, tumeric and any other spices you fancy. This makes it pretty dry, so before it burns add tomato paste, and then water. Today, I also washed added some garlic pickle. Milk is good as well. Cook for about 10 minutes. Then add the soya mince.
While this is doing, parboil the potatoes, then add them to the curry. Follow this by part cooking the rice in the same saucepan, and add this to the curry.
The combination of the rice and soya mince will soak up a lot of the moisture. Add a bit more water if needed: there should not be much left by the time everything is finished; it’s supposed to be dry.
At this point, it tastes okay, but sort of wish you hadn’t added the soya mince. But this is the good bit; make some toast, then spoon the biryani on top of it, and stick the whole lot under the grill for a couple of minutes and serve.
Originally published on my old blog site.
The Semantic Enrichment workshop has left me thinking about the presentation of science. The thesis or long dissertation of post-graduate courses, is surely one of the oddities of the scientific education system. If you read "Origin of the Species", and other literature of the time, with its slow, gentlemanly meanderings, then then, perhaps, it makes sense. But, in this day and age, almost no scientific research is publishing in long-hand, book form. Everything happens in the papers. Even our books are normally a collection of papers.
So, why do we force PhD students to write a thesis? It clearly is not the best training for what is to come after.
Originally published on my old blog site.
Today, I tried some bulgar wheat which I haven’t cooked with for several years. I think it was fairly succesful.
1/2 Red Onion
Large Handful Bulgar Wheat
Garlic Puree
Dark Soy Sauce
MSG
Rice Vinegar
Chilli Sauce
Pepper
Veggie Oxo cube
Fry red onion, with some garlic and pepper and the Oxo cube in a small pan, with olive oil. When half done add decent splosh of soy. Wait till the soy starts to brown somewhat. Add the vinegar to shift the soy stuck to the pan. Wait till most of the vinegar has evaporated off, then ad the bulgar wheat, followed by a cup of water, put a lid on and simmer.
The wheat takes about 10 minutes to cook, after which most of the water is poured off, leaving enough to keep it moist. Then, it’s served and garnished with a some few threads of the chilli sauce.
In this case, I used this to accompany some quorn garlic and herb chicken things. And topped it off with some garlic bread that’s been hanging around for ages.
So, yeah, this meal had a lot of garlic in it (the olive oil was garlic infused as well). It was reasonably hot. I really like the MSG/Soy/Rice Vinegar combination which I discovered recently and currently using in lots of food.
I quite like the Bulgar wheat; it’s nice to have another staple to play around with.
Originally published on my old blog site.
Went to the theatre for the first time in ages, to see Mike Leigh’s 2000 Years. I’ve not been to the Royal Theatre in Newcastle before — it’s quite an impressive building but the seats are uncomfortable and the acoustics aren’t great.
The play was good. The father was great, being a crotchity old man of the type that I hope to grow old to be. It was rather like his earlier films; lots of middle class people, all of whom seem to have developed a particularly good line in witty repartee for no adequately explained reason.
But you can forgive anybody who can finish a play discussing the political situation Israel, with a bad pun about Noah.
Originally published on my old blog site.
