Saturday 19 January 2019

Mama Tu's Donuts

I first learned to make this version of "Raro donuts", simple bread; around the age of 13. It is a really basic recipe designed to be mass produced to help with the meals prepared for large crowds at Cook Island functions. A plate is usually made up of, chop-suey (lamb & vermecilli), boiled rice, raro mainaise, and a single donut.

Ingredients
I'm using pictures here of the exact ingredients I use today, the brands may be different but the out come is still the same.


4 cups of flour: I use High Grade, makes it easier to knead, back in the day this never existed

1/2 cup sugar

Some salt: I like salt so I use more than 1/2 teaspoon .. should be 1/2 teaspoon

Yeast: 1 sachet .. I really prefer the sachet. But if you use yeast from a bottle, 1 sachet is equivalent to 2 heaped teaspoons. In the old days we used yeast from bottles but bear in mind we made huge batches. The yeast from bottles age with time and become least effective. I tend to make these donuts once every 3 months.

Butter 50g: On the side of the butter packaging you see lines, I cut of 1 section. Is this really 50g ? no idea but works for me.

Eggs 3 (size 6)

Dripping 454g: should really have used 6 in a deep pot but this stuff is expensive. The bigger the pot the more donuts you can deep fry at the same time. NOTE, it has to be dripping, not an alternative Oil.

Water 1 Cup: should be warm, which is fine if you live in a place like Australia. Here in Wellington NZ where it's freezing all year round, a cup of HOT water should wake up those yeast micro-organisms.

Method: just like making normal bread

1: In a large bowl add dry ingredients, sifting each 1 as they are added

2: Melt the butter, add the water, mix then add to the dry

3: After mixing for like 20seconds, break in the eggs

4: On a floured surface, place the dough from the bowl and commence kneading, keep kneading while adding flour until you get the dough at the right consistency. This can only be learned from practice, trial and error etc. Videos showing bread-making on Youtube can help you here.

5: Put the dough in a warm place to rise 3 Times in size

6: Remove the dough then punch it and knead again only for like 1minute.

7: Cut into 16 equal portions and place on top of grease proof paper in a warm area, cover with clean clothe and let it rise again. (this bit is not easy if you live in a cold area, I sometimes use a roasting dish with oven set to bake on minimum setting, just be careful we don't want the dogh to turn to bread at this stage)

8: Melt dripping in large pot, you know its ready when you drop in the 1st donut, it sinks, starts to bubble, then it rises up and floats on the surface. Do not have it too high.

9: When the donut is golden brown, flip it over.

9: Finally, place on a grill to allow excess dripping to drain of.

This is all from memory and dedicated to my mother who passed it down to me. Hopefully others in my family will give it a try!

Friday 18 January 2019

Are Photo Prints Still Relevant

It's been well over 6 years since I have actually got a photo printed, and that was at Noel Lemmings in Lower Hutt. It was about that time I joined an online photo printing service call Snapfish (www.snapfish.co.nz).


This is a recent screenshot of their website to give you a fair idea what service they provide.

After a recent cycling event (The Taupo Cycle Challenge which I still haven't decided whether or not to create a video of my experience). I bought the downloadable images (of me on the course) to use for my own personal use by the events official photographers (they remain the copyright holders) at $48.00NZ for 20 images.

This was the perfect opportunity to finally try snapfish, so quickly selecting 10 of those images, I put in an order. To be fair I wasn't really excited about it, knowing once the prints arrived I have no idea what to do with them. As I'm writing up this blog post, I realize I don't have a single photo album in this house.

Here's 2 of these images I selected:-

The prints finally arrived a few days ago, I had completely forgotten about them but I'm happy to once again show them of to the family, who have already seen most of the images via whatsapp.



Thoughts:
I would most likely purchase one of those frames that allow multiple pictures and hang it up on the wall, maybe in the hallway.

What I am excited about, is from the prints I came up with a design for a unique mousemat, which I am definitely going to buy.


I'm curious, do other people still get photo images printed ?

Thursday 17 January 2019

LED COB Chip 220V 20W Review

After spotting this on EBay I just had to have a play with it. LED driven directly from my 240Vac 50Hz Power Supply (standard 1Ph distribution voltage supplied to NZ homes). So I went ahead and bought 3 of the 20W variety!


Wiring seemed pretty straight forward, just solder the appropriate rated cable to these welding points as shown in the above image, apply voltage and lets see what happens.

Well actually no, I had a some concerns:-

- that's 240V mains voltage on exposed terminals
- 20W on something so thin ? I need find some way to dissipate heat.

Solve the Problem No2 First: Heat Dissipation.

Working with computers I get access to a lot of bits and pieces and I knew 1 day I'll find a use for all those Pentium 4 heatsinks. Drill 2 holes, screw the COB to the heatsink, and I didn't even use thermal paste. Solder on some wires from a discarded appliance cable, plug it in a wall socket and let it run for about an hour.

Result: After removing the mains, did the "carefully feel the heatsink" method, happy to say the heatsink felt only slightly warm. At this point I should mention Do Not Look Directly at the COB when it is powered on.

Solving Problem No1: Exposed 240V Terminals.

Last year I have been replacing all the light fittings as shown above with LED fittings.

I now have a container to mount these 20W COBS safely.

Note the 3 screws (near the centre) screwed directly into the fins of the heatsink, this worked out quite well.

All 3 mounted onto the rafters out in the old shed.

Conclusion:
I'm really pleased how this small project worked out, especially re-purposing old light fittings I would normally have thrown away. I am in the process of buying more of these 20W COBs even though I cannot think of where they are to be used. As always the trick to doing this type of project comes down to appropriate case/fitting that adequately mounts for both COB and heatsink, with safe termination while still looking good.

Note, the heatsink was significantly warmer after a time when mounted inside the light fitting.

MyScore: 9/10

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