I saw Jamie Oliver's video the other day and really wanted to try out his way of cooking tuna steak... I didn't have the seasoning ingredients that he used, so I used a mix of what I had on hand...

Ingredients:

• Tuna steak (slice thickness of 2cm or more)
• Olive oil
• Fajita seasoning
• Italian seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper

Method:

• Mix the fajita and Italian seasonings, along with some salt and pepper. Rub on both sides of the steak
• Drizzle some olive oil and rub into the steak
• Set frying pan on medium heat
• Cook both sides of the steak for 2-3 minutes each. Don't let it cook all the way through (the middle part should be less cooked than the outside, otherwise you'll get a rather dry steak).
• Take the steak off the pan and rub some olive oil in it.
• Enjoy!

Tuna Steak and Mashed Potatoes © Osama Sidat

A few days ago, a friend gave me a recipe that sounded interesting. I decided to give it a shot...

Shrimp, Onions, and Bell Peppers, in a Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 package shrimp (around 350g, I think) - cooked, peeled, and de-tailed
• 2 Bell Peppers (Red, Yellow)
• 1 Medium Onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2-3 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp Sambal Oelak (chili garlic sauce)
• 1-1.5 tsp garlic paste
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• Soy Sauce
• Barbecue Sauce
• Salt
• Pepper

Method:

• Melt the butter in a dish. Marinate the shrimps in the butter
• Heat oil in a wok, medium heat. Add onions, garlic, and sambal oelak. Sauteed for a bit.
• Add garlic paste, salt, pepper, bell peppers, soy sauce and garlic sauce. (I don't have exact measurements for the latter two, maybe 1/4-1/3 cup each...)
• Let the sauce and veggies cook for a while.
• Once the sauce starts to bubble, add the shrimp to the wok. Toss well. Set stove to low-medium heat.
• Serve! I made mine with spaghetti!

Shrimp with Spaghetti

A couple of days ago, my Mom gave me an interesting recipe that I tweaked based on ingredient availability and instinct. The results were pretty good, even if I say so myself.



Ingredients

• 1 lb. beef stew (chopped into small chunks)
• 1 large potato, boiled and mashed
• 1 small onion
• 1 egg
• 1-2 cups water
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup oil
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp green onion (chopped)
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 - 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Method

• Mix together pepper, chilli powder, garlic powder, ginger powder, salt and soy sauce in a bowl.
• In a pot, add beef, 3/4 of the chopped onion, spices and water. Boil the beef over a steady heat until beef is tender and water has dried out.
• Mash the boiled beef. Throughly mix it with potato, egg, and green onion and the remaining onion.
• Form kebabs from the mixture. I was able to get 8, your mileage may vary based on thickness and length of the kebabs.
• Brush the kebabs with oil.

• Heat the remaining oil in a skillet. Fry kebabs until light brown. I was able to fry 4 at a time, 5-7 minutes each.
• Serve with parathas!

Enjoy!

It's that time of a year again... time for a summary of my life in 2013...

Doodles, 'cuz.. why not? © Osama Sidat

January: The start of the year was followed by a move to Cardill Crescent, about 15 minutes of a walk away from University. It was a fairly nice place, with some awesome house-mates!

I started the year with a full course load, consisting of three core Computer Science courses, an Applied Cryptography course and a business course at Wilfred Laurier.

Also, since I was aiming for a more Computer Science - related job for my next term, I started going through the nuisances (there's no other way to put it, UWaterloo folks understand this!) of JobMine!

February: We saw a massive amount of snow one Friday... caused a snow day (my first at UWaterloo... ) I remember the day especially because I had an interview scheduled that day, which got cancelled...

Snow on the Patio © Osama Sidat

Nevertheless, a few interviews (IBM, Zynga, Desire2Learn, BlackBerry, and Kaleidescape, as far as I can recall) happened in the following few weeks... some went well, some were okay...

Interview Season © Osama Sidat

Soon came Reading Week, a much needed break from the tough academic schedule... Since I stayed back in Waterloo, I participated in tubing and skiing, awesomely fun snow activities!

Me, with a friend's GoPro strapped to the head, ready to go downhill © Osama Sidat

Skis Strapped On © Osama Sidat

March: The JobMine round finally came to an end, and I was offered a role as Quality Assurance Analyst at Desire2Learn, a provider of learning solutions, head-quartered in downtown Kitchener! I was extremely thankful that I got a job in the first round!

Desire2Learn © Osama Sidat

Unfortunately, on the academic front, I wasn't faring very well with Crypto. Based on the prof's advice, I dropped the course, and I hope to get a shot at it again next year...

Random note: Paintball is an amazing sport!

Headshot! © Osama Sidat

April: The month brought with it...

Freezing Rain... © Osama Sidat

Studying... © Osama Sidat

... and exams at the PAC © Osama Sidat

Exams went okay, meaning I passed all of my courses... although if I were given another chance, I would not bother with BU111 at Laurier... I'd possibly look for an alternative...

May: Yet another move at the end of April and beginning of May... this time to Erb Street, 15-20 minutes south of campus...

I started work on May 6th. It was definitely a beginning of a different experience, compared to my past work terms... It was my first exposure to Agile software development. And boy, there was a whole lot of co-ops working for Desire2Learn in summer - lots of new friends and acquaintances!

Also started a Legal Studies 101 online course. To anyone planning on taking this course, it's fairly boring. I listened to the lectures while engrossed in other stuff, and didn't bother with most of the readings... I did, though, start watching Suits :P .

Since it was the work term, I found a lot more time for cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.. I even started a recipe section on the blog to make sure I could replicate my experiments in the future...

Tuna Sandwich © Osama Sidat

June: Work started becoming more interesting, especially since I understood more of what I was doing.

I got a chance to visit Victoria Park in Kitchener. Nice place, got some awesome shots, and I did discover that benches and bridges are two of my favourite subjects..

Bench in Victoria Park © Osama Sidat

My Project 365 finally came to an end... my HTC One S served me faithfully throughout the year...

July: Ramadan started. Also, I found a new place for Fall and forward...

August: Started wrapping up the work term. Found a part time Dev/Analyst role with my company for the Fall term, since my schedule for classes was constrained to Tuesday and Thursday...

The Legal Studies course exam was fun... I just prepared using the course notes in about 6-8 hours... It had been a while since I wrote an exam involving essays... given the effort I put in the course, the exam went fairly well...

Welcomed my brother to Waterloo (finally, I have another test subject, other than myself, to try out my cooking!)... and made another move, just down the street!

I also got an offer from my team to come back in Winter as a Developer, which I happily accepted.

September: Started the term, this time with Operating Systems, and Databases, with a couple of electives, Physics of How Things Work, and Public Speaking.

Yet more experimentation - Nutella-Cinnamon French Toast © Osama Sidat

Since my cellular contract with Fido was up for renewal, I called them up for a better plan combination, with the new iPhone 5S... Got a great promised plan, but... more on this later...

October: Started learning why Operating Systems is considered hard... Luckily, I had a good team to work with...

Went out on an astrophotography trip with the UW Photo Club, got my first "good" images of the Milky Way...

The Milky Way © Osama Sidat

So a week before my iPhone was to be delivered (right before the weekend before Thanksgiving), and I was on a phone call with a customer service rep, I was told that the plan that Fido agreed to give me a few weeks ago was no longer valid. For a moment, I was livid (I haven't needed to call KESC or Worldcall in a long time now!). Three CSRs later, Fido refused to budge - whatever they offered me was lesser in features and greater in price compared to my original offer...

At some point on the weekend, I got fed up, and took to social media to explain my problem... Fido's social media specialists reached out to me... a week of negotiation, twenty email exchanges, and some well-reasoned arguments later, my plan was set back to the original offer Fido made to me, my phone was shipped and the matter was resolved. The ordeal was certainly a little frustrating, but it taught me a fair bit about dealing with cellular companies in Canada...

By the way, if anyone's interested in some Pakistani Hunter Beef, I think I'm qualified to make some now...

November: Crazy busy week, full of late- and all-nighters. Along with my team, this cool dude helped one day:

Tofu © Osama Sidat

In any case, we made it at the end. Piece of advice to folks taking OS: start early, work on it continuously.

Also, SPCOM 223 and SCI 206 are extremely fun, highly recommended courses. If you're at UWaterloo, take 'em if you get the chance.

December: I finished up with exams pretty early this term (since my physics prof was kind enough to schedule an alternative final exam; the original exam was on the last slot of the last day of the exam period). Spent until the end of my contract working full-time in my part-time role... the last two weeks of work were definitely more fulfilling than the first three-ish months. There's this thing about part-time when part of an active team - you can rarely finish off what you start...

Just before the holiday week, we had an icestorm in Ontario... everything just froze...

Frozen Twigs © Osama Sidat

On Boxing Day, went to watch my first hockey game at Air Canada Centre...

Toronto Marlies vs Hamilton Bulldogs © Osama Sidat

All in all, an interesting year. Learned a great many things, met some awesome people and had a number of new experiences. Based on current calculations, I am now two work terms and three academic terms away from completing undergrad.

Next week, I'm back on co-op, this time as a Developer at Desire2Learn. I look forward to the challenge.

By the way, I've started posting photos on Instagram, if any of you peruse that platform...

Finally,

Hunter beef is a delicacy from Pakistan. Since I started cooking, I had always wanted to replicate it, and, finally, last weekend, right before Eid-ul-Adha, I was able to experiment... There are lots of variations one could make, here's the recipe I got from my Mom, and tried to follow to the letter...

Ingredients:

• 3 lb. (1.5 kg) boneless beef (I asked the butcher for a log-shaped piece to roast/bake)
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 8-10 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 pkt (~ 25g) Shaan Bihari Kabab Masala
• 1 Tbsp meat tenderizer
• 1 tsp paprika powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp lemon juice

Method:

• Create a marinade by mixing yogurt, garlic, lemon juice and all the spices.
• Make about 3/4 to 1-inch deep cuts, about one to two inches apart, across the length of the beef log. Use the tip of your knife to prick in random places. This is to ensure maximum absorption of the marinade.
• Thoroughly rub the marinade into the beef, ensuring that it gets spread evenly, including on the inside of the cuts made earlier.
• Place the beef in a dish, cover with plastic, and place it in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. (I prepared it on Saturday, took it out temporarily on Sunday to re-rub the marinade that had flowed off, and cooked it on Monday).
• Before cooking, take the meat out at least two hours earlier, to make sure that it reaches room temperature.
• Preheat oven by setting it at 450°F (230°C).
• Place the meat in a covered dish, suitable for baking. I used a roasting pan with a lid. Put it in the oven.
• After 30 minutes, take out the baking dish. Turn over the meat, and place it back inside the oven again.
• Total cooking time will vary based on cut and size of beef. I took out the meat every 20 minutes after the first 30, and checked "doneness" using a meat thermometer (according to mine, "well-done" is at 170°C - that is the internal temperature of the meat). When I finally took it out for the last time, the total cooking time was around 1 hour 20 minutes (and the meat thermometer registered slightly higher than "well-done" - I should have taken it out slightly earlier)
• After taking it out of the oven, remove the beef from baking dish, and cover it with a dishcloth. Allow it to cool before slicing.

Enjoy!