milan rice

RICE WITH SAFFRON

(Riso alla Milanese con Zafferano

Wash and dry the rice and put it in boiling broth (beef or chicken broth). When the rice is half cooked add half its weight of marrow of beef bone, cut into small pieces. A few minutes

 are sufficient for the cooking of the marrow. Add grated cheese and remove the kettle from the fire.

Dissolve some saffron in one or two tablespoonfuls of broth; sift it through a sieve and mix with rice, which is to be served very hot, and makes an excellent soup.

nam FOOD

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

 

Spring Rolls - [Chả giò]

Ingredients  makes 50 rolls

1 x spring roll pastry 5'
150g minced pork shoulder
500g peeled, de-veined king prawns, coarsely chopped
250g julienne carrots
40g sliced black fungus mushrooms- soak for an hour
1/2 bulb garlic
100g glass noodle (soak in cold water for less than 10 mins)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
100g julienne yam (optional)
50g sliced shitake - soak for an hour (optional)
50g bean-sprouts (optional)

Sauce/ Dressing
8 tbs hot water
4 tbs cider vinegar
4 tbs sugar
4 tbs premium quality fish sauce
2 x cloves minced finely chopped
2 x birdeye chilli finely chopped

Prep all the ingredients, soak the dry ingredients and slice when they are rehydrated. The glass noodles should also be cut shorter to about 2 inches long. Make sure all the ingredients are dry so that it does not cause the spring roll pastry to go soggy.

Mix together well and season with salt, pepper and sugar.Test a small portion. When you are perfectly happy with the flavour, make the rolls by adding a tablespoon of the mixture onto the wrapper, fold the corners to make an envelop and roll as tightly as possible, sealing the lid with some oil.

Deep fry for about 4 mins at 140° or until golden brown. Serve with lettuce and herbs - roll the lettuce around the spring roll and dip into fish sauce dressing. Can also be served with a cold vermicelli salad.

phone i.5

If you're anything like us, you'll be sweating with excitement at the thought that the latest iPhone is almost upon us. But what will it actually be like? With Apple's security tighter than a nun's gardening schedule, it can be hard to fight your way through the rumours. Have no fear, though -- CNET UK is here to weigh up the evidence.

Name

There are several potential names for the new iPhone:

• iPhone 5 is the Mr Serious of titles. There's no messing around here.
• iPhone 4S is a solid candidate for the title of the next-generation iPhone. Alternatively, it could be the title for a new, cheaper 8GB iPhone 4, but, unless the cheaper iPhone 4 is given a new processor, the name might be unjustified -- you might remember how the 'S' in the iPhone 3GS' name stood for 'speed'.
• iPhone 4G is possible but only if Apple lets the new phone support the ultra-fast 4G mobile network, which it probably won't this time around. If it does, it will be wasted on the 4G-free UK anyway.

Release date

Apple will finally reveal its new iPhone on 4 October, making it likely that we'll get our greasy thumbs on the new gadget at some point within the same month. Tell your beloved piggy bank that it won't see another November.

When exactly can we get in line to buy the new iPhone? Many observers think Friday 14 October will see the launch of the phone in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan. That would tally with the usual gap between Apple's announcement and the actual release date.

Apple Store assistants will have to iron their blue T-shirts ready for 9 to 12 and 14 to 15 October, with Appleblocking all holiday time on those dates. This is more likely to do with a product launch than Tim Cook being a nasty dictator, because he's not. He's a nice dictator.

The chief executive of France Telecom let slip that 15 October will be the big day, but it's hard to believe Apple would release its golden product on a Saturday, when media types are busy nursing a hangover. Still, the CEO's comments are further evidence that the iPhone 5 will be out in mid-October.

Interestingly, the invite for Apple's launch event uses the iPhone's calendar, clock and maps icons to show the date, time and place of the announcement. But the fourth icon, a phone, also features a notification badge that shows the number 1.

Is this Apple's way of saying it will only announce one phone, rather than the rumoured iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S? Or is it simply to whip journalists into a frenzy?

The more obvious hint is the line 'Let's talk iPhone'. Phones are clearly for talking into, but this phrase could also be a clue that Apple is about to make voice recognition a key feature, in the form of the rumoured 'Assistant' software.

Assistant

Speech recognition has been available in iOS for a few years, but it's about to fill out on protein shakes. It used to only allow simple drive-time functions like placing a call or playing music, but now the consensus is that an advanced voice-control system will be the lead feature of the new iPhone.

How would you like your iPhone to become your own personal assistant? Apple's acquisition last year of artificial-intelligence company Siri laid the foundation for a service that lets you talk to your phone as if it were your own employee.

Don't be put off by memories of poor voice recognition in the PC era just yet. The tech behind the new software is said to be remarkably accurate, and will do much more than placing calls and taking notes.

Imagine you're rushing out the door for a meeting, but don't know the exact directions. Your partner shouts after you, saying you need to get milk on the way home later -- oh, and you've been invited to dinner next week. You don't have time to open apps to update your to-do list, make a calendar entry and prepare a route in Maps -- you're late for work, for Pete's sake.

Now you can get in the car, hold the iPhone's home button for 2 seconds to call up Assistant, and say: "I need to remember to buy milk from the shop when I finish work at 5, and I have a meal next Thursday evening at 7. Am I free? Oh, and I need directions to this meeting."

The Assistant app will respond to you, perhaps explaining that you're not available for dinner that evening, and automatically entering everything into the relevant apps before you forget.

As an example, this must-see video demo of the original, unreleased Siri app demonstrates how you can ask for a restaurant reservation before going to the cinema. The app registers your demands and presents the information you need, arranging the two activities around each other so they don't clash.

Don't think the Assistant functionality ends there. Apparently, the app will plug into Wolfram Alpha, a search engine with a vast supercomputer full of facts. Want to know the population of Barbados, or how many employees worked at Apple between 1986 and 2011? Just ask Assistant. Pub quizzes will never be the same.

The original Wolfram Alpha can be awkward to use -- you have to be accurate in the search terms you input. With Apple's Assistant divining your intention before making its own search, the factual power of Wolfram Alpha will finally benefit the masses.

The potential for Assistant is staggering, and integration of this feature into iOS 5 could represent the moment Apple moves into the search business. Google will be cross.

The catch? Apple will probably say you need the new souped-up iPhone, or an iPad 2, to get your own personal assistant. If there were a single reason to upgrade, this is it.

Design

Most debate concerning the iPhone 5 centres around the design of the phone itself. There's certainly been no shortage of madcap mock-up images, as our round-up shows.

Apple pundits are stuck at a crossroads with the design. There have only been a few hints of a design overhaul, but, if Apple doesn't surprise us with a bigger screen, smart-phone buyers could turn their lust towards HTC phones instead, what with their 4.7-inch screens that eclipse the sun.

Early speculation suggested the new model would look like a thinner iPhone 4, but leaked case designs suggest the next-gen phone may ditch the much-bemoaned external antenna design for a 3GS-style curved back. Such case designs might have been unreliable in the past, but they did accurately confirm the iPad 2's dimensions. Also, Case-Mate posted its forthcoming iPhone 5 case recently, complete with a rendered iPhone 5. The design could be pure speculation on Case-Mate's part, but the fact that the page was pulled shortly after it went live makes us suspicious.

The Case-Mate image showcased the rear of a brushed-aluminium iPhone 5 with tapered edges, in line with other case schematics. The older case-design leaks indicate that Apple has crammed a bigger display -- up to 4 inches -- on the face of what will be a similarly sized handset to the iPhone 4, even though there hasn't been any news of display orders out there in the rumour jungle. Let's hope we can kiss that bezel goodbye.

If the next iPhone does have a bigger screen, developers might have issues regarding the scaling of existing apps, unless the pixel density is reduced, but then the so-called 'retina display' won't be as crisp as winter air.

Most curious of all is what appears to be a wider 'home' button. Ever since the first-generation iPhone, Apple's devices have had a round home button. One theory is that an elongated button would allow some kind of touch functionality -- beyond pressing it, smarty-pants. There's even a chance that Apple will do away with the physical button altogether.

A 4-inch retina display might be the stuff of fantasy, but, as October draws nearer, new hints are emerging that our dream will come true. The first leaked photos of a prototype, dubbed the 'N94', show something very much like an iPhone 4. Some think this could be the rumoured cheap iPhone 4, which is thought to have reduced storage space of 8GB.

iPhone fans may be disappointed if the N94 design turns out to be the final iPhone 5. Hopefully, Apple just has a better grip on iPhone security than we've been used to, and everyone will weep and cheer at a brand new design come October. 

Anyone wishing for a white iPhone 4 in 2010 threw their pennies down the wrong well, because technical difficulties forced Apple to delay its release. Thankfully, we've seen leaks of both white and black iPhone 5 parts on the Web, and the difficulties involved in producing white iPhone 4s have long been overcome. Expect both colours to be available on launch day. 

One wild card in the iPhone 5 rumour deck is the photo of what could be the next iPhone being used in public. Sadly, the shot is as clear as Vaseline, but we judged the mysterious handset to be thinner than an iPhone 4, with a curved back. If that's correct, it would fit the leaked case designs. Then again, the case designs point to the flash being next to the lens, whereas the photo places it beneath. Has the happy snapper spotted an iPhone 6?

One person who has a better idea than most of us as to what the next iPhone will be like is the lucky boozer who found a prototype in a tequila bar. A similar loss led to the infamous Gizmodo episode in April 2010, whereby the tech website was sent an iPhone 4 months ahead of the official release. We're starting to think Apple's field engineers should learn not to get drunk while they're in possession of the most lusted-after phone in the universe.

Processor

Apple will almost certainly slap an A5 processor in the iPhone 5. That's the same dual-core processor that you'd find in your iPad 2 if you were crazy enough to crack it open. The A5 upgrade is inevitable, and photos of a purported iPhone 5 logic board featuring the chip itself are as convincing as a leak gets.

The same photo shows an improved battery cell to feed the hungry dual-core beast, but even its bigger cousin, the iPad 2, can manage up to 10 hours of use with an A5.

Why would you want so much processing power in a little mobile? Well, the iPhone 4 runs beautifully until you become an app-switching ninja or try to open a database-heavy app. The A5 will solve both of these problems, and allow frame-perfect gaming on the rumoured bigger screen.

Will the new phone see a memory boost? Considering that both the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 offer 512MB of memory, it would set a healthy precedent for the iPad 3. Then again, slapping 1GB of memory in a mobile is like putting a jet engine on a tricycle -- awesome but overkill.

Camera

Another likelihood is the inclusion of an 8-megapixel camera. Some sources are saying there won't be an upgraded camera, though, and it's not like Apple to upgrade a camera within one generation.

Despite the naysayers, there's a fair case that the new iPhone will get a camera-resolution boost. A photo posted to Flickr by an Apple software engineer might have given the game away. Pictures posted to Flickr tend to include stats on the camera they were taken with, and, while this image claims to have been taken with an iPhone 4, the picture is of an 8-megapixel resolution, and suggests an improved aperture and focal length.

Besides that, two Taiwanese companies claim to building an 8-megapixel camera for Apple. If it's not part of the next iPhone, there's no doubt they'll drop it into a 2012 model.

Put it this way. If Apple doesn't offer an external redesign, it'll need a better camera to keep upgrading fans happy. Conversely, if Apple does enhance the exterior, the company could get away with leaving the snapper as it is, at 5 megapixels.

Also on the camera front, a rumour once suggested that the new iPhone would have a dual flash. Another leak, however, indicates that the iPhone 5's camera will have a flash much like the iPhone 4's, suggesting that a twin flash isn't on the cards.

Network

At present, the UK version of the iPhone connects to the GSM network, but many countries -- including the US, India and Japan -- use CDMA. In the past, Apple was essentially producing two different types of phone, and that meant globetrotters could get a spanking good signal in some places but not others. Now Apple is likely to develop a single phone that works on all networks.

St Malo omelette alle oops!!!!!!

3 apples (Macintosh if possible)

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 4 tablespoons of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons of whipping cream
• Optional: 2 pinches of cinnamon OR 1 tablespoon of Calvados (apple alcohol)
Directions:
Peel three apples and dice them into 1/4 inch cubes. Put the diced apples in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar on top. Cook with high heat until they begin to soften and brown (about 5-7 minutes). Stir them slowly every minute during cooking. Prepare a mixture with 4 eggs, 

2 tablespoons of sugar and 4 tablespoons of whipping cream. Add either 2 pinches of cinnamon or 1 tablespoon of Calvados (or nothing if you prefer but it is not as good!). When apples start to brown, pour the egg mixture on top of the apples (in the frying pan) and cook it like an omelette. When ready, flip into a plate and serve immediately. 

ravioli

RAVIOLI

Put on the bread board about two pounds of flour in a heap; make a hollow in the middle and put in it a piece of butter, three egg-yolks, salt and three or four tablespoonfuls of lukewarm water. Make a paste and knead it well, then let it stand for an hour, wrapped or covered with a linen cloth. Then spread the paste to a thin sheet, as thin as a ten-cent piece

Chop and grind pieces of roast or boiled chicken meat: add to it an equal part of marrow from the bones of beef and pieces of brains, three yolks, some crumbs of bread soaked in milk or broth and some grated cheese (Parmesan or Swiss). Rub through a sieve and make little balls as big as a hazel-nut, which are to be placed at equal distances (a little more than an inch) in a line over the sheet of paste.Beat a whole egg and pass it over the paste with a brush all around the little balls. Cover these with another sheet of paste, press down the intervals between each ball, and then separate each section from the other with a knife. Moisten the edges of each section with the finger dipped in cold water, to make them stick together, and press them down with the fingers or the prongs of a fork. Then put to boil in water seasoned with salt or, better still, in broth. The ravioli are then to be served hot seasoned with cheese and butter or with brown stock or tomato sauce.

MACARONI NAPOLITAINE

MACARONI NAPOLITAINE

(Maccheroni alla Napoletana)

Grind ¼ lb. salt pork or bacon and fry it out in a saucepan.
 While it is frying put one small onion through the grinder.
 As soon as the pork begins to brown add the onion,
 the parsley chopped,
 a clove (or small section) of garlic shredded fine, 
and a few dried mushrooms which have been softened by soaking in warm water.
 When the vegetables are very brown (great care must be taken not to burn the onion, which scorches very easily) add ½ lb. round steak ground coarsely or cut up in little cubes. 
When the meat is a good brown color, add some fresh or canned tomatoes or half a tablespoonful of tomato paste
 and simmer slowly until all has cooked down to a thick creamy sauce.
 It will probably take ¾ hour.
 The sauce may be bound together with a little flour if it shows a tendency to separate.

This sauce is used to dress all kinds of macaroni and spaghetti, also for boiled rice (see Risotto). 
The macaroni or spaghetti should be left unbroken when cooked. If they are too long to fit in the kettle immerse one end in the boiling salted water and in a very few minutes the ends of the spaghetti under the water will become softened so that the rest can be pushed down into the kettle.
 Be careful not to overcook it, and it will not be pasty, but firm and tender. Drain it carefully and put in a hot soup tureen. Sprinkle a handful of grated cheese over it and pour on the sauce. Lift with two forks until thoroughly mixed.

Minestrone alla Milanese

VEGETABLE CHOWDER

Add caption

(Minestrone alla Milanese)

Cut off the rind of ½ lb. salt pork and put it into two quarts of water to boil. Cut off a small slice of the pork and beat it to a paste with two or three sprigs of parsley, a little celery and one kernel of garlic. Add this paste to the pork and water. Slice two carrots, cut the rib out of the leaves of ¼ medium sized cabbage. Add the carrots, cabbage leaves, other vegetables, seasoning and butter to the soup, and let it boil slowly for 2½ hours. The last ½ hour add one small handful of rice for each person.

When the pork is very soft, remove and slice in little ribbons and put it back.

The minestrone is equally good eaten cold.

MACARONI FRIED WITH OIL

MACARONI FRIED WITH OIL

(Maccheroni all'olio)

After the macaroni have boiled drain them and put them in a saucepan in which some good olive oil has already boiled, with a clove of garlic chopped fine. Let the paste fry, taking care that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the saucepan, and when it is well browned on one side, turn it to have the other side browned. Serve the macaroni very hot. Add no cheese
.

MACARONI A LA CORINNA

MACARONI A LA CORINNA

(Maccheroni alla Corinna)

Put on the fire a pot with two quarts of salted water to which add a small piece of butter. When it begins to boil put in it ¾ lb. macaroni. Let
 it boil for five minutes, then drain them in a colander. Put them again in new boiling water, prepared as above and let them cook on a slow fire. Drain them again. Cover the bottom of a plate with macaroni and cover this first layer with grated cheese and with some vegetables in macédoine, that is, chopped fine and fried brown with butter. Repeat the draining, moisten the macaroni with the water in which they have previously cooked and keep on a low fire for ten minutes more.

The Macédoine of vegetables can be made with a dozen Bruxelles sprouts or one cabbage, half a dozen big asparagus cut in little pieces, a carrot cut in thin slices, a dozen small onions, some turnips and half a dozen mushrooms. The mushrooms and the asparagus can be omitted. Melt some butter in a saucepan and when the turnips, the carrots and the onions are half cooked, add the cabbage or sprouts. Put in some water and some more butter, boil for ten minutes and then add the mushrooms and the asparagus, adding salt and pepper, and a little sugar if this is desired.

(Maccheroni al gratin)

MACARONI "AU GRATIN"

(Maccheroni al gratin)

Boil the macaroni in salted water until tender and drain them. Butter slightly a fireproof casse
role and lay on the bottom some grated cheese and grated bread. Alternate the layers of cheese with macaroni and on the top layer of macaroni put more cheese and bread grated. Over the whole pour some melted butter, cover the casserole, (or pyrex plate) and put it in the oven with a low fire. Keep for ten minutes or more, until the top appears browned.

ANCHOVY SAUCE

ANCHOVY SAUCE

(Salsa d'Acciughe)

This recipe does not call for the filets of anchovies prepared for hors d'œuvre, but the less expensive and larger whole anchovies in salt to be had in bulk or cans at large dealers. Wash them thoroughly in plenty of water. Remove head, tail, backbone and skin and they are ready for use.

Put five or six anchovies into a colander and dip quickly into boiling water to loosen the skins, remove the salt, skin and bone them. Chop them and put over the fire in a saucepan with a generous quantity of oil and some pepper. Do not let them boil, but when they are hot add two tablespoons of butter and three or four tablespoons of concentrated tomato juice made by cooking down canned tomatoes and rubbing through a sieve. When this sauce is used to season spaghetti, these must be boiled in water that is only slightly salted and care must be taken not to let them become too soft. The quantities above mentioned ought to be sufficient for about one pound of spaghetti.

Coscia di Manzo al Forno (Rump Steak)

 Coscia di Manzo al Forno (Rump Steak)

Ingredients: Rump steak, ham, salt, pepper, spice, fat bacon, onion, stock, white wine.

Lard a bit of good rump steak with bits of lean ham, and season it with salt, pepper, and a little spice, slightly brown it in butter for a few minutes, then cover it with three or four slices of fat bacon and put it into a stewpan with an onion chopped up, a cup of good stock, and half a glass of white wine; cook with the cover on the stewpan for about an hour. You may add a clove of garlic for ten minutes.

Despair at asda

this is about your lot as regards anything wearable at asda, the ywo cardigans are nice to be honest and their plain t.shirts are always worth getting and jeans too, but in general what a shambles , who are their buyers and why do they buy crap?Team the black jacket with white levis otherwise it looks bland.

iHTC Rhym

iHTC Rhym

s an Android smart phone that's looking to hit the big time. With its purple body, updated user interface and range of accessories, is the Rhyme sublime or a waste of time?

The Rhyme will emerge in October for a currently undisclosed price. Here are our first impressions.

Design

The Rhyme has a two-tone unibody design that's purpler than Prince's underpants. If you don't like purple, tough -- the other two colours that the phone comes in won't be available in the UK.

One of the first things we noticed about the Rhyme is that it's very light for its size. The phone also boasts a decently sized, 3.7-inch, Super LCD display. It's clear and crisp, and shows off whizzy animations well as it zips between home screens and apps. A 1GHz processor keeps everything ticking along.

Camera

The 5-megapixel camera includes an autofocus, LED flash and instant shutter. It has a bunch of features that you'd find in a compact camera, including face detection, which ensures that friends are always in focus, a burst mode, and a panorama mode. The burst mode automatically takes five consecutive photos to capture fast-moving action, and you can choose to keep or chuck the individual images. A panorama mode stitches several photos together and includes a handy on-screen horizon line so you can keep your wide landscape shots straight.

The camera offers a range of impressive features.

A high-dynamic-range mode fires three shots at different exposure levels and knits them together, so that there's extra detail in both the light and dark areas. This mode is handy for snapping a scene such as dark trees against a light sky, or a friend stood with the light behind them.

Inside the phone are a back-illuminated CMOS sensor, and a 28mm wide-angle lens with an f2.2 aperture.

Android

The Rhyme is powered by Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread software, which means you can personalise the look and feel of the phone to your heart's content. You can fill the phone with apps, which are mini bits of software that perform a specific task, like displaying the weather or giving access to a particular website, such as Facebook or Twitter.

You can grab apps from the Android Market with just a couple of taps of your finger, and they automatically install themselves over a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, with no need to plug your phone into a computer.

The phone has several home screens, which you move through by swiping your finger left or right. You can personalise these screens with shortcuts to your favourite apps, or with widgets. 

Widgets can show all sorts of information, from the latest messages and social network updates from friends, including their photos, to the weather, complete with nifty animations of clouds and sunshine. Widgets can display your appointments, messages or pretty much whatever you want. They also update automatically, so you don't have to open an app or surf the Web to see the latest information. Widgets display even if the Rhyme's screen is locked, so you can see important information at a glance without having to unlock your phone.

Sense 3.5

To make things even easier, HTC has added its own improvements to the look and feel of Android with its Sense interface. The Rhyme features Sense 3.5 -- the latest version -- which offers a new home-screen widget: a vertical bar of four icons on the left of the screen.

You can customise which apps or shortcuts appear in the bar, and each app or widget can be expanded on the home screen with a tap, revealing the latest update, like a drawer opening. You don't have to tap exactly in the right place, but it's still fiddly -- whenever we tried to open the drawer, we found ourselves launching the full app.

Another problem is that the bar of apps is basically one big widget, and, if you have it on one home screen, you can't add any more apps or widgets to that screen. Still, at least your wallpaper isn't covered by tonnes of widgets, so, if you have a picture of friends or loved ones as your background, they won't be hidden.

Facebook Chat is built in as a separate app from the main Facebook one. That means you can see which of your friends are available to chat and then have instant-message conversations with them, without having to delve into Facebook itself.

Another nifty app that comes built in is Dropbox, an online storage service that lets you save your movies, music and files online and access them from anywhere. When you buy the Rhyme, you get 3GB of storage for free.

Speaker dock

The Rhyme comes with a nifty speaker dock that both recharges the phone and turns it into an alarm clock or stereo. The charging contacts are three subtle little dots on the back of the phone, so you simply lay the phone in the docking cradle rather than having to jam it into a socket.