Daikon

Cooking up a storm here in Wellington.

I have a few recipes to share on my day off. You might be able to tell what the secret ingredient is in the third one by the title ;D

Recipe number one:
Adapted slightly from a food magazine in order to get correct serving size. It serves two :)

Honey Chicken Stir Fry
Ingredients:
Enough chicken for two
Veges for two (Carrot, broccoli, mushrooms, beans etc etc.) I used half frozen veges and half fresh)
1 clove of garlic
3 Tbsp honey
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp flour
1 Tbsp water

Method:
1. Chop up garlic and cook in some oil until garlic aroma fills your kitchen. Add chicken and cook.
2. Add veges when chicken is cooked through (if using frozen anyway).
3. Mix other ingredients together in a small bowl and add to the mixture. Stir fry until it thickens.

Garnish with sesame seeds and spring onion if so desired :)

The second recipe involves chocolate.


Yes, chocolate of the kit-kat variety.


At least, only if you want to be fancy like me. Otherwise chocolate chips will suffice :)

Chocolate chip cookies!
Or if you're me, kit-kat cookies ;D

Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour (sifted)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 mini kit-kats

Method:
1. Beat butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla essence. Beating well after adding each.
2. Add flour (and salt) bit by bit, mixing well after each addition.
3. Divide mixture into four and add crushed up kit-kats to mixture (separated based on flavour, of course). Or, if you aren't Erin, don't divide it and just chuck some chocolate chips in ^^
4. Spoon out mixture onto greased baking tray. I got about four cookies per kit kat flavour. So that's 16 overall (this recipe is halved from another I found).
5. Cook at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes (give or take).

I used four flavours of kit-kats. The blueberry one was definitely the best. The flavour was really strong and it totally took over the whole biscuit. Yum :)

Now finally, onto the daikon.

I bought a daikon today:


It was from Moore Wilsons and cost me like $3.00 which is really good considering how huge it was. Here is a visual which might enable to you visualise said daikon:


So, about that big! The one I got wasn't even the biggest one either. Some of them were HUGE!!!

On to the recipe...
Miso soup! It was so exciting to make. And eating daikon just transported me right back to Japan. Ahh, sweet nostalgia...

Miso soup:
Ingredients (to make a big ol' pot full):
4 cups of dashi stock (eg 4 cups of water + 1 tsp instant dashi)
1 carrot
170g daikon
1/2 an onion
50g tofu
80g miso paste (I used white but you can get different types. You can also buy miso paste that already has dashi stock infused into it!)
1 Tbsp mirin

Method:
1. Chop up veges into fairly thin half moon shapes. Cut onion long and thin and cook in microwave for 1 1/2 mins, and cut tofu into cubes.
2. Bring dashi to a boil and add daikon, carrot and onion. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until soft.
3. Mix together mirin and miso and add to dashi. Add tofu. Bring to boil.

Done!

I feel extremely accomplished. Can't wait to have a Japanese style breakfast tomorrow and I also can't wait to try many interesting things with my dear daikon.

Not much longer until I'm home!! I can't wait for these tests to be over. They are positively killing me.

Oh! I'll write a birthday list like I said I would.
I must brace myself for some intense thinking, this could take a while...
Cooking books are always good - absolutely any kind!
Mascara!
Skin coloured lipstick
Japanese lunch box (bento box) - from fancy world. Claire knows the kind.
Julie and Julia (DVD)
Sets of anime on DVD!!!! Such as fruits basket.
Exciting kitchen utensils that I could make use of in my culinary adventures. Like a bamboo steamer!!!! That would be very very cool!
New stockings - skin coloured, black, exciting ones!!!
A lifetime supply of daikon...

That's the extent of my thinking for the moment. It's late, i'm tired. Thus, bedtime!!

Ciao~

A day in the life of Erin

This is your (average) day in the life of Erin:

Wake up, eat breakfast, walk up hill, lectures/tutorials, lunch, lectures/tutorials, walk down hill, watch friends, dinner, study, shower, sleep.

I usually do all of these things each and every day.

Thrilling, huh?

I bet you wish you were me.

Then you'd have strong strong legs but also a million things to do concerning studying.

I got my first assignment back on Monday. It was pretty much just a referencing assignment. We had to write a passage but that was only worth 4/20 marks. But the whole thing was 20% of our total grade! Insane!! I got 18/20 :) Next linguistics assignment is due tomorrow and I just finished. It was the hardest essay I've ever written. We had to discuss whether or not this dog (Rico) was able to use language. There was just so much to write and we were restricted to 1000 words (no going over!). So I wrestled with that a lot. But I've got it finished and at 999 words (after cutting out about 150). I'm going to post it here actually. So if you're a) Really really bored. b) interested in what we learn in linguistics. c) Interested in the language learning abilities of dogs. Or d) all of the above feel free to read it :) I don't really mind either way.

Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: Evidence for "Fast Mapping"

Language and Rico the Border Collie

In 2004, a dog was discovered to have the skills to learn a new concept based on single exposure, a process called ‘fast mapping.’ Rico the Border Collie was shown to be able to distinguish between over 200 items with a high accuracy; but does skill give Rico the ability to use ‘language’? Human language is often defined by a number of ‘design features’ and it is through five of these features – semanticity, displacement, productivity, cultural transmission and interchangeability – that I will assess this statement and prove that while Rico’s capabilities may show elements of language, he is far from possessing the ability to use language.

Many animals possess rich communication systems, but they are thought to be limited to sending and understanding approximately 35 different messages (Bauer, Holmes and Warren, 2006:49). Recent research has shown that surprisingly, dogs (as opposed to apes) possess social-cognitive skills similar to those of young children (Tomasello and Kaminiski, 2009:1212-1214). One example of this, is Rico the border collie who was revealed to have the skill to fast-map. Rico has been continuously introduced to new items since he was only 10 months of age. His familiarity with items is achieved by a game of fetch – the owners show him the item, repeating the name and subsequently place it somewhere around the house where Rico fetches the item on command. Upon completing this task, he is rewarded with food or play. By the time he was 10, Rico could differentiate between around 200 different items. Although this number is incomparable to human children of the same age, his vocabulary size is akin to other language trained animals, including apes (Kaminski, Call and Fischer, 2004:1682-183).

In order to assess Rico’s ability to use language, ‘language’ must first be defined. For the purpose of this essay, ‘language’ will be used with reference to the 13 (now 16) ‘design features’, first conceptualised by Charles Hockett in 1960(88-96), which aim to identify the characteristics that illustrate the uniqueness of human language. All systems of animal communication possess some of these features but only human language has them all (Trask and Stockwell, 2007:22). Thus, we can assess Rico’s ability to use language by discussing whether or not his use of language possesses five of the design features: Semanticity, displacement, productivity, cultural transmission and interchangeability.

The primary function of language is to enable efficient communication of meaning. Semantics is the study of meaning, and semanticity accordingly refers to the link between words and their meanings (Allen, 1975:18-19). On the surface, this would seem to be the case with Rico. The article by Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683) suggests that Rico is able to differentiate between items in relation to their names, and was able to retrieve hidden items 37 out of 40 times. Yet language is far more than the mere association of a name to an object. Rico’s understanding seems to be limited to this association, while humans are able to understand the meaning of the word itself, including the ways words are conceptually linked to one another (Harley,2001:57-58).

Displacement is the ability to discuss things in a remote time or place, for example the past or the future, or outside of here and now (Trask, 1995:5). Rico was shown to be able to retrieve an item from a remote place (another room) upon being asked (Kaminski et al., 2004:1682-1683). This kind of ability is reported by Bauer et al., (2006:51) to be “arguably displacement.” While Rico seems to understand such a statement, he is unable to produce one himself, in order to tell us something like “I got the sock yesterday.”

Productivity is the ability to both construct and understand sentences that have never been heard before; such sentences might concern things which have not occurred or situations that have no possibility of ever happening (Lyons, 1970:12-13). Because of the means of the experiments, it remains uncertain as to whether or not Rico is able to comprehend things he has never heard before. As most of his word-learning is done in a fetching context, this is unlikely, but Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683) note that there is anecdotal evidence that he is able to understand other sentences, a claim that would have to be tested by further experimental means.

Humans learn language through a process of teaching and learning from their surrounding community from a very young age, a process called cultural transmission (Allen, 1975:19). This contrasts with the ability to acquire a language, which is thought to be inbuilt into our genes (Hockett, 1960:88-96). Rico shows some evidence of cultural transmission through his process of learning. In the tests done by Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683), Rico was shown to be able infer the names of objects through a process of elimination. In addition, he was shown to retain this knowledge four weeks later. Children on the other hand learn words much more naturally, by hearing and imitating in a completely immersed environment (Allen, 1975:18-19). Rico’s ability to learn is limited to a fetching game. Furthermore, there is no evidence to show that he is able to infer anything more than simply the names of objects.

‘Interchangeability’ is perhaps the design feature which best exemplifies that Rico is unable to use language. Interchangeablity is the ability to both send and receive messages – to reproduce the messages that have been heard (Hockett, 1960). While Rico has been shown to comprehend the things said to him, his language ability is limited to understanding – he is not able to use language to communicate himself (Kaminski et al., 2004:1682-1683). The design features are frequently talked about in terms of one’s ability to produce said feature, rather than just understand. They require the subject to take on an active role, rather than a passive one. Rico does not tell others to get socks for him – he is limited to being the receiver of such orders and as such, ultimately cannot be seen as using language.

In conclusion, Rico’s abilities certainly display a great deal of understanding, including connecting names and objects, and understanding commands referring to something outside his immediate environment. But because design features rely on the active input of language, Rico’s inability to directly communicate renders him overall unable to use ‘language’ as defined by the design features.

References:

Allen, J.P.B. 1975. Some Basic Concepts in Linguistics. In J.P.B. Allen (ed.) The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics. London: Oxford University Press. 16-44.

Bauer, Laurie, Janet Holmes and Paul Warren 2006. Language Matters. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Harley, Trevor 2001. The Psychology of Language: From Data to Theory. East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Hockett, Charles 1960. The Origin of Speech. Scientific American 203: 88-96.

Kaminski, J., Josep Call and Julia Fischer 2004. Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: Evidence for "Fast Mapping". Science 304(5677): 1682-1683.

Lyons, John 1970. Introduction. In John Lyons (ed.) New Horizons in Linguistics. Middlesex, England: Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd. 7-28.

Tomasello, Michael and Juliane Kaminski 2009. Behaviour: Like Infant, Like Dog. Science 325(5945): 1212-1214.

Trask, Robert and Peter Stockwell 2007. Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts (2^nd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge.

Trask, R.L. 1995. Language; The Basics. London: Routledge.

My brain is officially overloaded.

And now I have a Japanese essay to write.

Wish me luck!

Love Erin.

PS. I don't know if I said this, but i'll be coming home NEXT FRIDAY. That's a week away people. I hope you're excited!! :)

Chicken

It saddens me to hear that everyone is getting sick at the moment! Actually, I can join the club cos I was sick too last week but luckily it passed. I hope everyone else is feeling better too!

Last night was the Weir house ball. It wasn't extraordinarily fun because I didn't really know anyone, and Ryan didn't actually know that many people either, but it was fun to dress up. To wear my ball dress again! I ended up buying some new shoes for the occasion which go perfectly with the dress. And I kind of just arranged my hair quickly because I wasn't too fussed about it. To top my outfit off, I wore my fur jacket. I felt rather glamorous actually. So that part was groovy.


And I must say: tonight I had the most delicious dinner ever. So some recipes will be coming right here.

First a visual:


Almond couscous:
1/3 cup couscous
2 pinches of coriander
1/4 cup sliced almonds
salt and pepper.

Just cook the couscous and add it all together. VERY tasty.

Coronation Chicken:
Enough chicken for one
1/4 onion
clove of garlic
butter
1tsp curry powder
40mL mayonnaise
1/2 tsp honey

1. Cook garlic and onion in butter until soft. Add chicken and curry powder and cook for 5-8 minutes.
2. Mix together the mayo and honey.
3. Once the chicken is cooked, mix through mayo-honey.

Yumyumyum.

And then some broccoli on the side.

Wednesday

I feel like I haven't posted in quite some time - I apologise for that. So i'll make this post nice and pretty with a few photos of the things i've been doing in art class and one food product that i made with Ryan.

Prepare yourselves!

So Ryan and I are both fond of Japanese food and occasionally we cook it together. In the weekend we made katsudon. Katsudon is basically fried pork cutlet (see previous entry) on rice. So I don't need to give you a recipe really but I will give you a visual indication of how awesome it was:


Seasoned with tonkatsu sauce and spring onion. Oh, and there's a mini omelette underneath the meat as well. It was quite literally deliciousness in a bowl :)

On Tuesday night we made hiroshima-yaki. This is something Ryan introduced to me as he had it in Japan. Basically, it's like okonomiyaki but hiroshima styled. Overall, I think it's quite different. It didn't look very pretty so I didn't take a picture. But here's a video of it being made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuVuFP3Somg

And here's an explanation I found:

Hiroshima-yaki, on the other hand, requires a progressive layering of ingredients. It begins with a small circle of batter on the grill, after which comes a heap of cabbage and fillings, proceeding to a fresh egg cracked on top of it all which is allowed to trickle down through the fillings and sort of glue them together.

What happens next depends on the chef, the style, and the fillings. But usually, after the cabbage has cooked down quite a bit, the chef drizzles on another thin layer of batter, and then flips it to cook on the other side.

The effect is to create sort of a stuffed pancake. And because the fillings and the egg are not mixed homogenously, the layered and varied textures of the pancake create an enjoyably interesting eating experience.

So it's kind of like okonomiyaki, but not mixed together with batter. Nevertheless, it's very messy to make but also very tasty!

And then I had another art class yesterday! This week it was all about textures. We were supposed to bring textured things but I didn't really have any. THey had a draw full of them there anyway, so I just had less control over what I was doing really.

First, here are some pictures of what I did last week. They're really bright and vibrant:



And the following two are what I did yesterday. As you can see, they're quite different from one another. And I decided to use the texture idea in a different way by inking up a board and then wiping away the colour and adding more to create really painterly pictures. I like using my hands and getting right into the paint like that.


So I had lots of fun :)

Oh, and here's another recipe I made last night for dinner. It's called 'yakisoba' which literally translates as fried noodles. Basically, you use yakisoba noodles which I found in the metro new world on willis street. It came with two packets and yakisoba sauce powder. Otherwise, you could use 3 minute noodles and for the sauce, the internet says 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup sake and two tsp sugar OR one tsp honey. I don't know how authentic this recipe is though, I guess it sounds reasonable...? Basically, you just fry everything together. I'd recommend cabbage, onion, mushrooms and carrot and whatever meat you want, but you can add whatever floats your boat.

Really easy recipe if you have the right ingredients.