Ingredients

• 400g slow-cook beef in bite sized cubes
• 1 large potato cut to your preferred potato cube size (large is good)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/4 cup madras paste (I used Pataks but am going to make my own next time, promise!)
• 1 beef stock cube (or 1 cup liquid) beef stock
• 160ml coconut milk

Method

On high heat, fry beef until brown and then add half of the madras paste and stir for a further minute. Place into the slow-cooker on low heat.

Fry onion, garlic and ginger in the pan until soft and lightly browned and then add the remainder of the madras paste and stir for one minute. Add the stock cube and 1 cup of water (or liquid stock instead) and then the coconut milk, stirring until bubbling.

Add the onion mixture to the slow-cooker with the beef and cook for 6 hours, stirring (and tasting) occasionally.

Serve with rice and pappadums or naan bread.

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1. My “Jessie’s Moussaka!”

Ingredients

• 500g beef mince
• 2 aubergines, sliced approx. 1cm thick
• 1 cup diced parsley
• 1 jar béchamel sauce
• 1 zucchini, diced into small cubes
• 1 handful of mushrooms, diced
• 1 tin diced tomatoes
• 1 sachet tomato paste
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tbsp garlic
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp tumeric
• 2 tbsp kecap manis (ABC sauce)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cups finely grated cheese
• Tabasco
• chilli flakes
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Fry aubergines on high heat in the largest available pan you have, adding oil as required until they are soft and brown. Place to the side on absorbent paper towel to remove excess oil.

Fry onions, garlic, mince and zucchini until browned. Then add the tomatoes, parsley, mushrooms, tomato paste, kecap manis and spices. Add salt, pepper, Tabasco and chilli flakes to taste.

Place half the mince mixture into a large baking tray, and then layer half of the aubergines, followed by half of the béchamel sauce. Repeat once more.

Cover the top with grated cheese and cook until cheese is browned.

Enjoy!

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp powdered ginger (fresh would be better, but this is all we had)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Something spicy, whatever quantity you like (I used a few shakes of “Louisiana Style Hot Sauce”)
• 2 racks of spare ribs (1 per person)

Method

Cut the spare ribs into separate pieces, being careful to leave an even amount of meat on each rib and place in a baking tray. Stir together all other ingredients to create a marinade and cover the ribs. Cover and place in the fridge until ready to be used. (Suggest at least one hour)

Place baking tray into a 180 degree oven for an hour, turning and basting the ribs regularly.

Once finished, if the sauce is too runny for your liking, pour into a saucepan and boil while stiring until it thickens. Add honey or tomato sauce to taste plus additional chili if desired.

All done, yum yum.

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function slug($string) {
    $string = trim($string);
    $string = strtolower($string);
    $string = str_replace('&', 'and', $string);
    $string = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9-]/', '-', $string);
    $string = preg_replace('/-+/', "-", $string);
    return $string;
}

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1. MySQL string escaping in PHP

My latest personal project – a dating website!

Domains: purchased
Database structure: structured
Logo(s): designed

Lets just say I have some experience using various dating websites, and I think by now I know what works and what doesn’t. The plan is to build the ultimate gay dating website combining the best aspects of various other sites, as well as a few of my own ideas thrown in. At this stage the plan is to be a completely free website until the cost of maintaining it becomes too much and then I’ll look at my options.

Stay tuned for more!

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function force_ssl() {
    if ($_SERVER['HTTPS'] != 'on') {
        header("Location: https://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']}");
        exit();
    }
}

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function mysql_escape($string) {
    if (get_magic_quotes_gpc() == 1) {
        $string = stripslashes($string);
    }
    $string = mysql_real_escape_string($string);
    return $string;
}

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Most people will probably understand and appreciate what this does, but for those that don’t, it simply displays the contents of an array in a very human readable way by using the <pre> tag to preserve the spacing of the print_r() command.

// Debug Array
function da($array) {
    echo "<pre>\n";
    print_r($array);
    echo "</pre>\n";
}

Enjoy!

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# Search In Files
sif() {
    grep -EiIrl "$*" ./*
}

Either use the grep command by itself, replacing the $* with your search string for a one time use, or add this to your .bashrc file to be able to search by typing: sif search string

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.vimrc (The first two lines are for MacVim or GVim)

colorscheme elflord
set backspace=indent,eol,start

syntax on
set nowrap
set expandtab
set shiftwidth=4
set smarttab
set smartindent
set formatoptions-=t
set textwidth=79
set ruler
set incsearch
set ignorecase
set smartcase
set scrolloff=5
set showmatch matchtime=3
set showmode
set showcmd
set nomodeline

.screenrc

autodetach on
hardcopy_append on
vbell off
startup_message off
silencewait 15
defscrollback 1000
msgwait 9999
shell bash
#idle           1800
blankerprg lockscreen
zombie ^[
sorendition KW
pow_detach_msg  "BYE"
activity "activity in %n (%t) [%w:%s]~"
bell_msg "bell in window %n (%t)"
termcapinfo xterm-color ti@:te@

caption always "%{= KW}[%H]%=%-w%{= wk}%50>%n %t%{-}%+w%<"

# bindings
bind w
bindkey -k F2 next     # F12 = next
bindkey -k F1 prev     # F11 = previous

# startup

screen -t bash 0

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