SEVERUS! (WARNING: HP7 with spoilers)

in order the aviod the ending being broadcasted and heard (accidently) before the finishing reading the final instalment of HP, the only way i knew (to deal with it is) was to read it as quickly as possible... panda eyes to start the week was nothing compared to a spoilt ending (ie -dumbledore and HP6) ... and it was worth it... the series ended in the best possible way (doubts with "nighteen years later" segment though)...

WARNING: spoilers coming up...

and the predictions from HP6 were right on target!

the 7th horcrux is HP - tick!

double double agent snape - tick!

"HP" must "die" (and "rise again" - thinking of the matrix? JC?) - tick!



and the best moments in the book?

when snape is sacrificed and says, "look at me!" straight into HP's eyes... the yearning!!! - heart-breaking...

snippets of snape's life through the pensive..."...after all these years?"... the dove petronus, " Always." - the hope of love... eternal...



and the best character in the series?

SEVERUS! of course! - with a complex mix of good and evil, love and hate... a true

mystery - until the very end...

fatty snacks - beef n pork jerkies

there was mass production of chinese sweet chilli jerkies the last few days... fatty snacks to up our weight and cholesterol levels (and gas bill too)... the recipe for chinese jerky was so hard to find... i only managed to find one and i modified it to make it my own... and here is how it was done...
for each batch (of 1kg meat) i started off with the above ingredients : 1kg fatty pork or fatty beef (i reckoned it had 50% fat or close to it), 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbsp shaoshing wine, 2tbsp light soy, 2tbsp dark soy, 1 heaped tsp salt, big pinch of pepper, 2.5 tbsp chilli flakes, 2 tbsp chilli powder, 1tbsp heaped 5 spice powder, maltose-water syrup for brushing on beef jerky to get the gloss, baking paper & st st mixing bowl, spoon and fork for mixing...
put the meat and seasoning all in the st st bowl and start mixing with the fork - in one direction only until the minced meat feels elastic... gotta use meat at room temp, otherwise this will take a long time...
mixing fatty pork was easy (easier)... but beef was damn hard, so best to get your hands in there and do abit of kneading - like making bread... the heat of the hand melts the fat gobules and the beefy mince becomes sticky sooner...
then it is time to spread the meat on the baking sheet - thinly - i'm talking 2mm-3mm here! evenly & smoothly over the baking tray... just use the back of the spoon...

it's gotta be thin like this...
then ready to be baked at low heat... 125 degrees celcius in a fan forced oven... best to put the baking sheet directly on the rack so it is aerated (so to dry quicker)... the most annoying thing is to keep an eye on it and every 10-15 mins have to take the baking sheet out and drain out the x-s liquid (coming out of the meat)... this a especially a problem with the beef jerky... after 1st 5-10 min there was a pool of sweet chilli gravy drowning the beef sheet i had to pour it out and wipe the baking sheet and the beef (both sides) with a cloth... the best cloth is the microfiber ones and it can be washed and reused (it is environmentally more sound cos the x-s juice had to be wiped mutiple times)... pork jerkies have x-s juice coming out of it too... but definitely less of it... and how long does the baking take??

this is one of the "checking for juices" moment... see how thin the sheet of meat is and the juices on the baking sheet (gotta be wiped off)...
... the baking is finally done (usually at least 1 hour)... take it out with the baking sheet... let it rest... wait until the jerky is cooled then cut it up with scissors... for the beef jerky... it came out very matte... so a paint job of gloss (with maltose + abit of water = sugary solution) made it look more attactrative... the fat in the pork jerky was enough to self-gloss
this was 1kg raw beef and 1kg raw pork worth of jerkies - but of course the finished product was much reduced in weight... by the end of the night 30% was polished off by snowflake and mcduck already!... just imagine the amount of fat, sugar and calories they consumed in one sitting! one should not make this or come near this when one is on a diet...