Spanish Chicken Casserole INGREDIENTS: 900 gm diced, boneless chicken ¼ cup olive oil 2 medium onions, sliced 4 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tbsp ground cumin 1 ½ tbsp grated ginger 200 gm each, carrots and beans, chopped into chunks 2 cups, diced red and yellow peppers Salt and pepper to taste 2-3 tbsp dry white wine (optional) 2 ½ tbsp cornflour METHOD: Preheat the oven to 180°C. Using half the oil; fry the chicken in one or two batchestill sealed but not fully cooked. Drain and transfer to an ovenproof casserole. Add more oil to the pan and sauté the onion and garlic until softened. Add ginger and stir for a few le minutes, followed by the carrots and beans. After tossing briefly, add the peppers and fry for a further 2 minutes. Remove the vegetables and place over the chicken pieces in the casserole. Pour 2 cups of water and the wine (if using), into the pan. Season lightly and thicken with cornflour, already RICH FRUIT CAKE INGREDIENTS: 450 gm currants 175 gm each, raisins & sultanas 50 gm each, glace-cherries & mixed peel 3/4 cup brandy 225 gm maida 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg 1/2 tsp mixed spice 225 gm butter 225 gm sugar 1 tsp vanilla 4 eggs, beaten 50 gm chopped almonds 1 ½ -2 tbsp milk Grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange METHOD: Chop all the dried fruits and peel and soak in brandy for at least 12 hours.(A longer soak will not hurt). Remove onto a paper towel. Grease and line an 8-inch round cake tin with brown paper. Tie a band of brown paper round the outside of the cake-tin to protect the peripheral area of cake from getting scorched. Sift together the flour, salt, nutmeg, vanilla and· spices.’ Sprinkle a little of the flour into the drained and dried fruit and toss together till evenly coated. Beat the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy and add the eggs, a little at a time with the beater still on. Gently fold in the flour and spices. Stir in the dried fruit, peel and the grated rind, swirling in the milk, only to achieve a dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, spreading out evenly so that there are no air pockets. Bake in the lower shelf of a pre-heated oven at 140/275F for [...]
Archive for December 28th, 2007
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THE DOLLAR IN DECLINE
December 28th, 2007 
Kareena THE DOLLAR IN DECLINE For a quarter-century after World War IT, money was based on a loose version of the gold standard. The U.S. dollar was pegged to gold; other currencies were pegged to the dollar; stable prices underpinned the prosperity and soaring trade of the 1950s and 1960s. Then in 1971 Richard Nixon balked at the high interest rates necessary to maintain the dollar’s link to gold. For the rest of the decade, inflation ripped. The cure, starting in 1979, involved two recessions in the United States and the Third World debt crisis. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. Now we face another potential watershed in the world’s system of money. Since the breaking of the gold link, the dollar has become the world’s primary measure of value, so much so that bank deposits in Uruguay and bribes paid in Russia are mostly denominated in dollars. But the dollar, like the gold standard before it, is under pressure. Last week even Giselle Bundchen, the world’s top supermodel, was reported to be steering clear of greenbacks. Inflation was the cause of the gold standard’s collapse as well as its main consequence. As long as the dollar was convertible, investors could choose between owning one dollar and owning one-35th of an ounce of gold; when inflation eroded the greenback’s. Inflation was the cause of the gold standard’s collapse as well as its main consequence. As long as the dollar was convertible, investors could choose between owning one dollar and owning one-35th of an ounce of gold; when inflation eroded the greenback’s purchasing power, gold was the more attractive option. Foreigners traded in their dollars until U.S. gold stocks were close to exhaustion. Higher U.S. interest rates could have lured foreigners back into dollars. But Nixon wouldn’t tolerate high rates the year before an election. Today’s problem is different. The US Federal Reserve Bank has kept a lid on inflation, but the dollar’s vulnerability is caused by debt – the debt of the federal government and of American households. Year after year, foreigners have provided Americans with the savings that they refuse to generate themselves, and this stream of money has supported the U.S. currency. But if foreigners tire of handing over their savings, the unsupported dollar is almost bound to fall. That is what has happened recently. You can hardly blame the foreigners. They sent [...]
