Temeraire

Just finished reading In His Majesty's Service by Naomi Novik, which collects the first three books in her Temeraire series, and I am thoroughly impressed.

When I thought of how to describe these books, the first thing that came to mind was Anne McCaffrey + Patrick O'Brian (and just a dash of Jane Austen in the first book). And I guess I wasn't the only one with this impression since the blurb on Amazon describes the series with McCaffrey and O'Brian as well.

If you've ever wondered what the world would have been like if dragons existed during Napoleonic era, then you've got to give these books a chance. Oh so well written, and utterly believable.

The good news for me is that books 4 and 5 are already out, and book 6 will be out in July. The bad news is that there are only 3 more books for me to read, and I'll be sad indeed to leave her world.

Palak Challenged

Cooked a couple Indian dishes for dinner tonight: a lamb stew/curry and palak paneer. The lamb dish was a first attempt, and with the pressure cooker to boot (a wedding gift that's sat unused for the past three years). C and I both thought that it turned out very well, and given that there's virtually nothing to it other than throwing prepped ingredients into the pot, it will probably be entering my standard repertoire.

And just so I have a record of it somewhere, here's the recipe:

1. Mix well in bowl:
   • 1 lb. of meat (I used boned shoulder of lamb) in 1" cubes,
   • 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
   • 1" piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
   • 1 medium-sized tomato, peeled and finely chopped
   • 1-2 fresh, hot green chiles, cut into fine rings (do not remove seeds) 1 teaspoon chili powder
   • 1/4 teaspoon ground tumeric
   • 2 teaspoons garam masala
   • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
   • 1/4 cup plain yogurt
   • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
   • 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in pressure cooker and saute 4 finely chopped cloves of garlic till medium brown.
3. Add seasoned meat and stir a few times
4. Cover pressure cooker and cook lamb for 15 minutes at full pressure.
5. Reduce pressure quickly. Uncover and cook over high heat, stirring gently until the sauce is thick.
6. Sprinkle with black pepper and stir again.
7. Eat.

The other dish, unfortunately, was not as successful. This was my third attempt at palak paneer and the best so far, but still no where close to what you'd get at a restaurant. I tried following a friend's recipe this time, but it was fairly obvious as I got close to the end that it just wasn't going to be right. I'm also not familiar enough with the ingredients to figure out how to fix it and get the desired result.

If anyone has a foolproof method of making good palak paneer, I'd love to learn.

Customer Service

Every now and then I get so shocked by a company's customer service that I have to blog about it.

During our remodel, I went with a couple dual flush toilets from Caroma. One of them started leaking recently and continuously released a small but steady stream of water into the bowl after flushing.

Since the flushing mechanism isn't something I can just pick up at Home Depot, I gave them a call to see what my options were. I was dreading an exorbitant fee for a replacement part, but instead, they just asked me for my address and said they'd mail me one right away.

Now that's going above and beyond anything I could have hoped for.

Thanks Caroma.