Archive for February, 2010

Don’t want an iPad? Let me give you another idea

Friday, February 19th, 2010

According to Ashley Vance of the New York Times:

Fujitsu has built a smartphone that splits into two pieces: the display and the keyboard. NTT DoCoMo, another Japanese company that is part of the NTT Group, will sell the device under the Prime Series F-04B name.

DoCoMo pitched the product as the answer for gamers who want to set their display down and hold the keyboard like a controller. But the phone may appeal to businesspeople as well, since users can swap the keyboard for a tiny projector for presentations.

If you ask me, this is a much better idea than the iPad, or for that matter, any useless tablet product that will be rolled out. If I were designing a new computer, I would eliminate the screen, not the keyword!

Here is my suggestion. Rather than eliminate the input part of the laptop, turning it into a media consumption device, leave the keyboard, processor, SS hard drive and i/o ports in the device, add a monochrome LCD screen, 80 character wide and 10 character long, so it can be used by itself. And provide a port for connecting to an external monitor. This will leave it as a production device, a very low cost/low energy computing platform.

As for screen, offer a choice of electronic ink screen for reading books and working on documents, low energy average quality (SVGA/XVGA) LCD color screen for browsing and general use on the road, and high resolution color screen for those who need/want it. At home, it can be attached to a HDTV or any type of monitor one has or buys for the purpose.

Now THAT is a netbook I would look forward to buying – not an expensive tablet with no keyboard!

Acer, are you listening? Acer? Oh well…

Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »

Final lesson – hummus conversions

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

This is for those who look for an idea about converting dry beans to finished product, after cooking. Hummus beans are known also as garbanzo beans or chick peas. I use these terms interchangeably.

1 cup dry garbanzo beans = 180 grams dry beans

100 grams dry hummus = 250-275 grams soaked and cooked

1 cup dry beans = 2.5 cups cooked beans

The cooked weight depends on whether you soaked in water with baking soda, or plain water.

Posted in Food, Cooking and Recipes, Hummus | 2 Comments »

Experiment 1. Final – effect of baking soda on soaked chick peas

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Additional Soaking

I left the beans, one with a new dose of baking soda, the other covered with water. Again, each batch was soaked in 3 cups of water, and again left overnight, so the new soaking time was 27 hours, and in total the soaking time was 41 hours.

After the second soaking, there was little change in the weight of the beans, 393g with baking soda (up from 388g before) and 396 without soda (no change from the day before).

Both pots had a foam or froth on top of the water, but not much. This is similar to the foam that is created when one boils the beans after soaking, and is probably a sign that something is leached out and maybe ferments. Soaking is known to partially remove the gas inducing components in the beans, so maybe this is it.

The beans with the baking soda had a funky, musty smell. Fortunately, it disappeared in boiling, later on.

Boiling

Each batch of hummus (garbanzo beans or chick peas) was covered in 3 cups of tap water, brought to a rolling boil with highest setting of the range (it took about 7 minutes to reach boiling), then simmered for 90 minutes, then left to air cool, separated from the cooking liquid, weighed and tested.

After cooking, the beans soaked with baking soda were substantially heavier than the ones who were soaked in water (482 grams vs. 452 grams final weight). The volume was about the same with both batches, but the beans soaked with baking soda were softer and mealier. The baking soda soaked beans felt ready to disintegrate, while the water soaked beans felt more structurally integral. The peels remained in both cases, so all the beans actually remained intact.

Conclusions

1. Soaking beans with a little baking soda makes them softer when cooked, but does not affect them much during the soaking process.

2. Overnight soaking is probably sufficient – I do not have a comparison of cooking after one night and two night soaking, but I did not like the way the beans smelled when left for so long.

3. Something has to be done about the peel, especially if attempting to make M’shawsha – hand mashed hummus.

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Experiment 1. Part 2

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

After about 14.25 hours of soaking, the following was observed:

Hummus with baking soda
Volume after soaking: 20 Oz.
Weight after soaking: 388 gr (original 180).

Water is a little colored (yellowish).

Hummus with no soda (water only)
Volume after soaking: 20 Oz.
Weight after soaking: 396 gr (original 180).

Water is clear.

Initial Conclusion: The addition of soda does not have an effect on the amount of water absorbed through soaking of 14 hours.

Note: weight was determined by pouring off the liquid and tossing the beans to remove liquid water. The beans were still humid on the outside (what is known as saturated surface dry), but not wet.

The beans were covered again with 3 cups of water, with and without baking soda, and left for another day.

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Experiment 1. Soaking the beans with and without baking soda

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Introduction:

Before I get into the experiment, let me be clear what I am doing.

My quest is to create a hummus that is smooth. I reside in Costa Rica, where I have little control on the source and quality of beans, since most dishes here do not mash the beans like is done for hummus.

According to humus101 web site I should use middle eastern beans for best results. Unfortunately, I don’t have these available, so I have to find a way to optimize the local stuff.

My hummus is pretty good, but not as smooth as the ones in Israel. I suspect it may be one of a number of things:

  • the beans are not inherently soft
  • the skin of the beans has to be removed
  • the soaking process has to be modified
  • the cooking process has to be modified

As I am not likely to change the beans, and removing the skin is a solution of last resort (you try and peel several cups of beans every time you make hummus!), I am going to start with experiments regarding the soaking and cooking of the beans.

In the good old days, I would use software like Design Expert, SPSS or JMP to create a series of experiments, with variables including the source of the beans, their size, etc. and results containing the size and softness of the beans. Alas, I am no longer in possession of my old software, and the companies charge in excess of $1000 per package, so I would have to do the experiments one at a time, and only draw relative conclusions.

Experiment 1:

I got a bag of local garbanzo beans (Costa Rican), which seem much smaller to the eye then the usual variety I get at the local Walmart (Walmart controls most retail here, with chains called Mas X Menos, MaxiBodega, Hypermas and Pali. They sell whatever import they can get cheaper, and I usually shop there. Today, however, I found out I have no beans for my lunch tomorrow (slow cooked oxtail with vegetables), so I ran to the local mini-market, and got their beans.

The package says 400 grams, but my scale says 409 grams. My measuring cup measures a little over 2 cups. I am going to take one cup and soak it overnight in regular water, and the other cup in water plus 1 teaspoon of baking soda. I will report the experimental details bean’s weight and size before and after soaking in the next post.

By the way, in studying soaking, my hypotheses are:

1. Baking soda makes the beans larger, possibly softer after cooking.
2. Soaking for 8 hours or 24 hours or 72 hours make little difference.

See you in the next post.

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The hummus saga begins

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

I make hummus at home, from scratch, or rather from dry beans which I soak and cook, sesame paste, etc. My hummus recipe is based on a Joan Nathan’s recipe for Jerusalem Hummus. It is delicious, but I have never made it exactly the same twice.

The reasons vary. First, the beans here are vary from batch to batch. Second, I do not cook them to decomposition.  Third, the sesame paste here tends to be settled, meaning that the top is rich in sesame oil, and the bottom is an almost solid paste of pulverized seeds. Finally, I don’t always follow the same amounts – I rather prefer to add lemon juice and cooking liquids until I get the right consistency.

Having visited a number of excellent hummus joints in Tel Aviv on a recent trip, I noticed that their chick peas (garbanzo beans) were a lot softer than mine. The hummus was smoother, too, and a lot blander. I decided that I have to delve more deeply into the art and science of making hummus, and try to come up with a plate of hummus that is soft, tasty, and reproducible, using cooking methods that will help get the same outcome every time.

In the coming entries I plan to outline what I do, what I plan to change or at least test, and how my changes are working out. Cooking a dish is like having a baby – the journey is at least as much fun as the destination. So even if I do not make the perfect hummus, I should have plenty of excellent, almost perfect, meals!

Posted in Food, Cooking and Recipes, Hummus | No Comments »

Announcing new topics

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Having just found that my web site has climbed all the way up to position 9,210,426 on the web, according to Alexa.com, I am going to add a couple of new categories/topics for you not to read about.

The first one is Hummus, in which I will be exploring the literature and researching the methods and ingredients for making the world’s best humms.

The second is Ubuntu Linux Server Administration. In it, I will try to do a Julie and Julia on a number of books on administering, securing, and hack-proofing my server. Unlike Julie, though, I do not put a deadline on finishing the book or testing all the recipes.

So for you lonely readers out there, who somehow stumble unto my blog, you will have a couple more reasons to stay – or go elsewhere – as the case may be.

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