Kurma

Ah, time! What a magnificent and mysterious thing. The year 2009 is almost over. Here are some quotes about time that I thought I'd share with you:

"Sometimes I feel that life is passing me by, not slowly either, but with ropes of steam and spark-spattered wheels and a hoarse roar of power or terror. It's passing, yet I'm the one who's doing all the moving." ~ Martin Amis, Money

"Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them." ~ Dion Boucicault

"In reality, killing time is only the name for another of the multifarious ways by which Time kills us." ~ Osbert Sitwell

"For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work." ~ Doug Larson

"But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day." ~ Benjamin Disraeli

"Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go." ~ Henry Austin Dobson

"Old Time, that greatest and longest established spinner of all!.... his factory is a secret place, his work is noiseless, and his hands are mutes." ~ Charles Dickens

"Time wastes our bodies and our wits, but we waste time, so we are quits." ~ Author Unknown

"Time is the fire in which we burn." ~ Delmore Schwartz,

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day" ~ William Shakespeare

"It strikes! one, two,
Three, four, five, six. Enough, enough, dear watch,
Thy pulse hath beat enough. Now sleep and rest;
Would thou could'st make the time to do so too;
I'll wind thee up no more."
~ Ben Jonson

"The flower that you hold in your hands was born today and already it is as old as you are. " ~ Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

"It's a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up." ~ J.K. Rowling, "The Hungarian Horntail," Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000

"Who forces time is pushed back by time; who yields to time finds time on his side." ~ The Talmud

"Old Time, in whose banks we deposit our notes
Is a miser who always wants guineas for groats;
He keeps all his customers still in arrears
By lending them minutes and charging them years."
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Time is like the wind, it lifts the light and leaves the heavy." ~Doménico Cieri Estrada

"Time is making fools of us again." ~ J.K. Rowling

"El tiempo da buen consejo." ~ Proverb

"There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time." ~ Napoleon I, Maxims, 1815

"Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations." ~ Faith Baldwin

"The years like great black oxen tread the world
And God, the herdsman, goads them on behind."
~ William Butler Yeats, The Countess Cathleen

"Time! the corrector when our judgments err." ~ Lord Byron

"Time flies on restless pinions - constant never." ~ Friedrich Schiller

"Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new... but who can understand and measure its sharp breath, its mystery and its design?" ~ Paracelsus

"The time you think you're missing, misses you too." ~ Ymber Delecto

"What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know." ~ Saint Augustine

"Each moment has its sickle, emulous
Of Time's enormous scythe, whose ample sweep
Strikes empires from the root."
~ Edward Young

"Watches are so named as a reminder - if you don't watch carefully what you do with your time, it will slip away from you." ~ Drew Sirtors

"Time is the wisest counsellor of all." ~ Pericles

"Time is the only thief we can't get justice against." ~ Astrid Alauda

"There are whole years for which I hope I'll never be cross-examined, for I could not give an alibi." ~ Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

"Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires." ~ Charles Caleb Colton

"Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst." ~ Willaim Penn

"Time is the longest distance between two places." ~ Tennessee Williams

"Man goes nowhere. Everything comes to man, like tomorrow." ~ Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

"Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time."
~ Edward Fitzgerald

"The Present is a Point just passed." ~ David Russell

"Methinks I see the wanton hours flee,
And as they pass, turn back and laugh at me."
~George Villiers

"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. " ~ Louis Hector Berlioz

"Time I am, the destroyer of the worlds, who has come to annihilate everyone.
~ Sri Krishna, Bhagavad-gita

"Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead."
~ Sukadeva Gosvami, "The Srimad Bhagavatam".

Discuss Comment [0] The Time Factor

I get dozens of recipe requests weekly. Some enquiries are redirected to my recipe page. Others are advised to search my cookbooks.

And some, like this one from Isvari Rani Dasi (from India I think), are answered as a blog entry. Isvari wanted me to share my Tamarind Rice recipe. My recipe looks exactly like the picture below.

I don't have the original photos from my cookbooks. They are securely kept in a vault at my publishers. My scanner is not working, so I have used a picture from cookingand me.com.

And here's that delicious recipe, originally given to me by the wife of a South Indian Hare Krishna devotee friend Vijay Gopikesh, many years ago, when I was collecting recipes for my second cookbook Cooking with Kurma.

South Indian Hot, Sweet-and-Sour Tamarind Rice

This is a well-known and favourite rice dish amongst the Iyengars of South India who are followers of the Ramanuja Sampradaya. The recipe is over 1000 years old and is traditionally called puliogre. Makes enough for 4 or 5 persons.

1 walnut-sized ball of seeded tamarind pulp,
½ cup hot water,
3 cups water,
1½ cups basmati rice,
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds,
½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns,
¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds,
2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds,
3 tablespoons dried coconut,
2 teaspoons rasam powder,
1 teaspoon salt,
2 tablespoons brown sugar,
3 tablespoons peanut oil,
2 tablespoons raw peanut halves,
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds,
8 - 10 small curry leaves.

Combine the ball of seeded tamarind pulp with the ½ cup hot water and set aside to soak.

Bring to the boil the 3 cups of unsalted water in a small saucepan. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a heavy saucepan and lightly toast the rice.

Add the boiling liquid to the rice. Stir until the water returns to a boil; then reduce the heat to a simmer, put on a tight-fitting lid, and leave undisturbed for 15 or 20 minutes or until the rice is dry and tender. Remove the rice from the heat and set aside, covered.

Squeeze and strain all the pulp from the soaking tamarind with the aid of a seive. Keep all the liquid puree and discard the dry pulp.

Dry-roast the cumin seeds, black peppercorns, fenugreek, and sesame seeds in a small, heavy pan over moderately low heat. Stir constantly for about 3 minutes until the sesame seeds become aromatic and the spices darken a few shades.

Remove the seeds and spices from the pan, allow them to cool, and then grind them in a small coffee grinder or blender until they are powdered. Combine them with the coconut, mix well, and place them in a small bowl.

Combine the tamarind puree, rasam powder, salt, and sugar and simmer the mixture over moderate heat in a small saucepan until slightly thickened (about 3 - 5 minutes). Remove from the heat. Add the ground spices, seeds, and coconut mixture into the tamarind syrup and mix well.

Heat the peanut oil in the small pan in which you roasted the spices. Place over moderate heat. When the oil is hot, add the peanuts and stir-fry them until they are golden brown (about 2 minutes). Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels. Continue heating the remaining oil and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. When the seeds crackle, pour the contents of the pan into the tamarind syrup and mix well.

Finally carefully fold the peanuts and spicy tamarind syrup into the cooked rice and serve immediately.

Discuss (2 responses) Comment [2] Tamarind Rice