BlackDragon

while we are on cookin the chookin heres another ripper: CHAR GRILLED TIKA-DOORI CHICKEN with NAAN and goodies Bread machine Naan Ok, so you or your parents may have an old bread machine around the place that hasnt been used in ages? This is a ripper naan that does all the hard work in the bread machine. I spose you could get your hands dirty and mix and knead all the ingredients if you like... Serves 2-3 Chuck into bread machine, in no particular order: 1/3 cup warm skim milk 1 teaspoon melted butter or ghee 1 teaspoon active dry yeast 225g bread/pizza flour or similar type(all porpose) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teasppon baking power 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/3 cup plain low fat yogurt 1/2 egg combined 1 teaspoon sugar Select mix/knead for pizza dough, or similar 45 min dough runtime. Allow to rest/rise for1-2 hours after program has stopped. Rip dough into small palmsize balls, and roll out falt on a floured board, till around 2-3mm thick. Oval shape or whatever... Nice and thin.. Place thick bottom frypan on stovetop, set heat to med-high and allow to heat up dry. When hot, cook flat dough till puffs up on one side(a little burnt bit is ok) then flip over and finish off on the other side till goldenbrown blotches appear. Cook one at a time. Brush a little melted ghee over the bread while hot if you like. Repeat with the leftover dough.... This is the best Naan i have had yet!! Yummmmm.... And now for the chicken TIKA-DOORI CHICKEN Ive called it Tika-doori chicken, cause ita basically a mix of both tikka chicken and tandoori chicken..... Serves 2 2 large chicken breasts Juice 1 lime or lemon 1 teaspoon cayenne chilli powder Salt 125ml yogurt 1/2 teaspoon corriander powder 1/2 teaspooon cumin powder 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder 1/2 teaspoon tandoor colour(anatto red) 1 1/2 tablespoons garam marsala 1/2 teaspoon cinammon or cassia powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder or 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger 1 teaspoon sea salt 1 teaspoon cayene chilli powder Ghee Ok, Cut the breasts into medium pieces. Place into a glass bowl with the juice of a lime and cayenne, and a pich of salt. Allow to marinade for 10-20 min at room temp. Mix yogurt and all other spices and combine with the chicken pieces. Allow to marinade for 1-3 hours. . After the chookin is swimming in the spiced yogurt for an hour or so, set up your fav charcoal grill and fire it up. Or you can also set the oven to 250dC. Melt some ghee for basting the skewers. Place chicken on skewers reasonably tightly and using paper towel and pat the excess yogurt off the chicken. When max temp has just rolled off the char, place skewers on grill and grill till just hints of char are showing on one side. Baste with melted ghee well, turn the skewers, baste again and place the lid on, dropping the temp down a bit. Cook until just cooked thru. Wrap the cooked hot chicken skewers in foil and allow to rest for about 5 min. Serve with Naan, jasmine or white rice, Mint Sauce and Mango chuckney(Sharwoods is great) Quick mint sauce. 2 tablespoons yogurt pinch of cumin powder,paprika, salt and pepper and sugar 5-10pair mint leaves, cut fine. water or buttermilk to thin to a nice consisitency. Allow to rest in fridge for 1-3 hours if possible. Hope you enjoy!!

Yeah, 5 years ago people laughed at me when i said this... even today people just dont grasp the damage it does.

HA! Mustve been piri beer can heaven last few nights!! We did the piri bird too last night!! Yep dam nice., As i was almost too scared to infuse my chicken with aluminium too, i opted to spend $50.00 on a webber poultry cooker(cast ali but coated too, still good!). Basically its a beercan, thick ali dish and infuser. Expensie little gem but should last a lifetime... I must say it was delish,best BBQ chook in ages and the carcas had all but colapsed it was that tender! 1 hour in the weber was enough. I love my webber and nothing beats it..... ah meat, salt and charcoal

Great pics! Is the pup with the dark red spines t.parallensis?

Im happy to leave them be, I like the different look and as they arnt showing signs of "pointy" elioation(which i normally look for, like actual thinning of the tip or lightening of the ttips colour), ill let em go like they are. It will be interesting to see what hey look like in another 5 yrs! Ok, $10 they are normal Just different. Nothing wrong with that If light is the problem, then only this particular batch of seed is showing this sign, no other loph in the collection are streaching at all.

From the local gardens round here, flowering finished around two to three months ago. Pretty much no point sowing in the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the year. After that should be fine. Expect nicer flowers later in the year tho. Also, if you do grow 2 varieties together, there is a very strong chance they will produce hybrid seed.. This maybe desired, maybe not. Bd

Ok, hypotheticaly, you want them to finish when its hot and dry, and when the photoperiod is long. So that means you want to sow out three months back from that time. Bd.

No, they are long photo period flowering plants. Early/late winter to early late spring thru to early summer best times to sow. Depending where you are. Really, sow 2-3 months before a dry spell when the days are going to be long. ie. the daylight is shorter when you sow them compared to when they fllower. Gee, hope that mad sense. hang on, so sow in sept for dec flower finish Yep...

Ps, Im pretty sure that the o.g. seed came from europe somewhere back then. I would be suprised if a number of aussie stores carried the same seed stocks back then i think they were all sharing stock... Just a guess...

Glad someone else is thinking like this, this was my first impression with this physiology. I hope its not the case, means alot of seed in the future could be potentially non-standard genetics if so. It could also be result from the recombination of the genes, maybe there was a caesp in the liniage somewhere. I also have other caesp that dont or havent grown tall, only this particular batch of seed, no others have shown it. Growing up a little is different than this, its def something odd. Do you have pics of other tall caesp plants to show what you mean? Within a selection of same sourced seed, you would expect a little or no(no is far to definative ) differentiation in light requirements, why would there be? I dont think this is the case here. Morseo geneology. Mesc, where did you get the seed from, and roughly whats the light exposure there? eg, shaded, windowsil etc..

any footage Andy??

Conans must be getting the right light, the other one in the photo looks fine. As long as they are in the same environment, feeding etc there should be no difference but genetic variation. Heres some of my tall lophs. All are situated in the same environment, and have been for at least 4 years. NON GRAFTED And a normal loph, same location, ie, no eliolation. And a new shot of that grafted one, i agree, grafting can, but not always cause columnar growth. These grafted and non grafted are from the same seed batch. The taller ones did grow quicker at the start, but then slowed down dramatically once pupping begain. They are just seeing signs of new growth this year, after a stagnent year last year after repotting.

If the seed stock was from SAB quite a few years ago, it may be genetic. Im pretty sure mine was from SAB. I also have a few taller lophs, only from one seed batch tho. Its not light intensity, just the way they grow. Escpecially not light as you have said they are both in the same environmental conditions. Im pretty sure this graft is from the same seed stock. Ill try to take some pics of my other non-grafted talls too. 90-95% sure its genetics. Bd

Amulte, Are you serious about the big fly spirit? If so, thats kinda cool....

Nah, doesnt look like a marchie. Its bum was soo wide and fat, i thought I was looking at a giant black bumblebee at first, before i realised i was looking at a fly... but that bum was soo... how you say.. bee like (cant believe im analyzing a fly's bum!) Pics are from RICOH Caplio RR1 i brought in honkers many years back. Only 4 megapixies. Back then they said it wasnt a camera , but an "ICD, Image Capturing Device" whaaa? isnt that what a camera is anyway? Thanks for the feedback people, I always see weird insect action around my collection, ill be sure to capture some more now i know people enjoy it!

Heyall. This morning i was watering my collection, when i noticed the soil moving around the base of one of my fattest trichs. As i hit the pot wth water, this massive, and i mean MASSSIVE fly crawled out from the soil!! Ive been kinda studying insects relationships with my cacti, tyring to work out the predators and the unwanteds, but i have never seen this type of fly before. Ever. Anyone know what its is? and why it may have been there? I didt know there were many burrowing flys, I wonder if it lay eggs in my rootball!?! Here some macros.. here it is in scale to a 250mm pot. you can see the hole, just next to the trich, to the right of the fly.. And a closeup of th fly with water on its head Top view...look at its fat booty! Fav shot... And wing detail.. just beautiful !! As i assume most flys are fruit or meat eaters, no root eaters like gnats. Could this guy just have been having a rest from the extreme heat of the day?

Ok, heres one of my fav fish dishes. Taken and adapted from good ol "fish mongers" at byron, but that was a looong time ago... POPPY AND SPICE ENCRUSTED SALMON FILLETS with ROAST SWEET POTATO & PESTO. (hope you like my dodgy pic) Serves 2 Ingredients. 2X Salmon fillets, deboned and skin ON *CRUST* 1 tsp cumin powder 1 tsp fennel powder 1 tsp dill weed tips 1 tblsp white poppy seeds 1 tblsp blue/black poppy seed Salt(flaked sea or murray) and pepper to taste Olive oil to moisten fillets. *ROAST SPUDS* 1X sweet potato, gold, orange or whatever 2X medium normal potato(insert your fav spud here!) 1 tsp paprika, sweet 1/2 tsp dill tips Salt and pepper to taste Olive oil to coat. *PESTO* Your fav pesto in the jar or whip up some fresh basil and rocket pesto Instructions. *ROAST SPUDS* Get the spuds going first, peel the sweet spud if ya like, i dont bother peeling normal spuds. Chop up into 1/4 or managable pieces. Par-boil or microwave with tiny bit of water for 4 min on high. Turn on the oven to 200dC. Remove any water from spuds and allow them to dry in the air for a min or two. Add paprika and dill, salt, pepper and tablespoon or two of olive oil to coat the spunds thoroughly. Roast for 20 min at 200, then drop it down to 150 or so. Sweet spuds burn quickly due to their high sugar content. You want a little few burnt tips on the sweet spuds when they are done. *SALMON* Check there are no bones in the fillets. coat the fillets in a "little" olive oil, even though they are naturally oily, it helps hold the crust on. Sprinkle over the dill, fennel, cumin, and finally both types of poppy seed. Pat firmly to insure that it sticks all around, except the skin side. Turn the fillets over and salt and pepper the skin. HEAT up your pan, and get it very hot. Add a few drops of olive oil to the pan and place the salmon skin side down first, and give it plenty of heat till you see that skin start to get nice and crispy. Turn the salmon to the side, cook for min or two each of the remaining 3 sides. Re-crisp the skin if needed near the end. I know a few fisheaters that dont like their fish overcooked. If you do this correctly, you will have crunchy skin, and crispy browned all over and melt in the mouth center. Not overcooked Plate up with the roast sweet and normal spuds, and a dollop of pesto. It a rich meal, a bit of crunchy italian bread goes well with it. Hope you enjoy!! BD