30.4.13

South Indian Filter Coffee...

These days I drink tea. because after have tasted the best filter coffee it is often difficult to compromise.... so in memory of my glorious coffee drinking years, here is a shot of an early morning  coffee from my Chennai days..
also, I recently stumbled upon this article in Times of India  on HOW TO MAKE FILTER COFFEE. perhaps its time to convert back... lets see....

Sending the photograph to Black and White Wednesday #81, a photography event started by Susan of  The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar and hosted this week by Lynne of Cafe Lynnylu.

Orange Yogurt Cake with Syrup (Yaourtopitta me Syropi)

Yesterday I baked Orange Yogurt Cake and then poured tons of honey syrup over it. The recipe was Greek and i found it in Aphrodite Polemis's cookbook From a Traditional Greek Kitchen. 

besides wanting to bake something new and different, the thing that drove me to try this particular recipe was farina, one of the 'star' ingredients in the cake. i had never used farina before. in fact i had no idea as to what it was until yesterday. so you may say it was curiosity that made me try this cake. in case you too are ignorant about it, farina is a cereal food similar in texture to suji or semolina. once i saw how its texture was i thought, may be this cake was going to taste a bit like halwa. so i wasn't very surprised when the final product resembled a 'mithai' more than a cake. i mean cake in the sense of "birthday cake." however it is a nice sweet which i'll like plating out for Holi or Diwali or for Bijaya Dashomi, with an additional garnish of raisins and/or silvered almonds. though the recipe itself is pretty straight forward, soaking the cake in the syrup might take a while(at least it took my cake quite some time to absorb the syrup). so if you plan to bake it for any occasion, you'll probably want to get it done a day before.

28.4.13

Moroccan Orange Couscous

Last Monday we treated ourselves to yet another Orange dish.  Moroccan Orange Couscous. After trying my hands at Spiced Orange Buns, Orange-Scented Lentil Soup and Strawberry cake i felt tempted to sneak in oranges and orange peel in every other dish. but as always i did not feel confident enough to develop a recipe from the scratch. so i consulted my cookbooks and the  Google. and this time google hit the spot.  my search ended at the Moroccan Orange Couscous. Inspired by a meal at the Tangierine Cafe, at the Morocco Pavilion in Epcot - Orlando, Brenda from a farm girl's dabbles had created a recipe that had all the ingredients I wanted and a little more. oranges, couscous, a mix of Indian spices and all in the same dish to create a Mediterranean flavor. Ahaa !! what more could i ask for.  

so i went ahead and cooked it and this is what Mr MN said,  'this is restaurant quality stuff !!'  of course all he meant by that was 'this is very good indeed. you should make it more often.' "oh yes. don't you worry. i will. i loved it too," said i and helped myself to some more of this Moroccan delight.

26.4.13

Partybrot

Bread Baking Day is a monthly event created by Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte aka kochtopf and Cindy of cindystar blog is hosting it this month. As part of the event, a theme is chosen for the month and everyone interested bakes a bread that is in tune with the theme. for April Cindy decided on Breads with Seeds and Flakes. and as soon as i saw it i knew what i was going to bake. Partybrot. of course.  

Partybrot is a special Swiss-German bread made up of rolls from different types of doughs that are hand-shaped and placed together in a round baking pan. they are then sprinkled with seeds and baked and served at parties and get-togethers. I had wanted to bake this bread ever since i first saw its image in Tom Lacalamita's Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook. the recipe in his book recommended the combination of Pain Paisan and Burebrot. since i am new to bread making and make my doughs in the bread machine, i worried that the first dough would probably over rise by the time  i get the second one done and then the bread as a whole wouldn't be so good. however from the recipe of Spelt and Einkorn PartyBrot given in Bread Experience blog  i learnt that over-rising can be done off by simply allowing the first dough to slow rise in the refrigerator. she also mentioned that bread baked from dough retarded in the fridge for a while always tastes better... oh. of. course. why had i not thought about this earlier. probably because my first attempt with ciabatta wasn't a huge success. but thats a story for another day.. 

anyway relieved that no harm in the form of over rising would be caused to my brot i then set about kneading the doughs in my bread machine. in my first attempt i made a bread using the recipe from Bread Experience, only substituting all-purpose-flour for spelt in the milk rolls and whole wheat flour for Einkorn in the wheat rolls. the result was nice...
but i wasn't completely satisfied since the whole wheat rolls were slightly more dense than how i would have liked them. so on my second attempt, while i kept the milk roll recipe untouched, i decided to replace the wheat roll recipe with an adaptation from Tom Lacalamita's recipe of Pain Paisan. the result was great. we were really happy with this bread. it looked fantastic and tasted great. in fact we liked the wheat rolls more this time. they were incredibly soft and delicious with a spread of butter. since the quantity of the doughs  were enough to make two Partybrots,
instead of another big bread i made few small partybrot buns... those looked cute and were real handy... we enjoyed them much over the next three days with our bowl of soup and as well as with butter for breakfast.... i stored them in the fridge and microved them for 30 seconds before serving.


25.4.13

Eggless Strawberry Cake

Last Saturday the local market was overflowing with strawberries. the prices had come down. and the strawberries looked so.... o fresh and tempting that i could not resist grabbing a box. 
i had strawberry cake in mind. a recipe that i had bookmarked for a while and these would just fit in just right... so i came back i tried my recipe right away making necessary changes to convert it into an eggless one.  result : disastrous ! i didn't want to rave about it so i remained quite. but then this afternoon i realized that if i do not use the remaining strawberries right away... they will rot. so i dug up a recipe of an eggless strawberry cake and almost followed it to bits. ok. because i am me i added one little ingredient, juice from one orange, which i think was completely unnecessary or perhaps could be added a little less. nevertheless we loved this cake. it was soft, moist and yummy. the  perfect dessert for a lovely summer evening . 

Jaggery Appam : South vs North April Challenge

This month I joined yet another cooking event. Divya Pramil's  South Vs North Challenge. I had been following some of its members for a while and this month i decided to join in. to say the truth this cooking  group had been luring me for quite sometime. because. well. i am from Bengal and my husband though originally from Orissa, grew up in Pondicherry and therefore loves everything south has to offer. if he would have his way, we would probably be having idlis for breakfast, adai's for lunch and dosas for dinner. but that is not the case since my dosas are far from respectable. and idlis. oh...h don't even get me started on them. after trying several combinations of rice and dal for the batter i have finally come to the conclusion that instant idlis mixes yield the softest ones. however they are not as soft as the ones that our Tamil friends serve.  so to say the least, ever since we go married, cooking south indian food has been a real adventure for me. but since i am sworn not to give up, i joined the challenge hoping to learn a little about the culinary secrets of the South Indians and hopefully surprise my husband with a perfect homemade south Indian meal someday...

Sorry i digressed....  so i joined the Northern group... and as this month's challenge we had to tackle Karupatti Appam...
With very clear step-by-step instruction, Shama from Easy 2 Cook Recipes challenged the northern team to make these Appams. though i have tasted the salted appams before, Jaggery Appam was new to me. so I am not sure if i got them right. but what i managed to roll off my kadai was nice and crispy. we enjoyed it for breakfast with honey. even my little one liked his bit and asked for some more. 

now a shot of my appams and the recipe...
Recipe adapted from Easy2Cook Recipes

ingredients
1/2 cup raw rice
1/2 cup parboiled rice
1 1/2 tablespoon urad dal
125 gms south indian jaggery (this is what i got at the local indian store)

what i did
i made a thick jaggery syrup, strained off the impurities and kept it aside.
next i soaked the rice and the dals for 2 hours, then ground it to a smooth batter.
i mixed the jaggery syrup to the rice batter, taking care that no lumps were there. 
the first day i had no success with the appams. 
next day, i tried them again. now that the batter had thickened, i added some water until the batter consistency was slightly thinner than pancake batter and then tried making the appam. to do so, i heated the kadai, poured a ladle of the batter in it. then holding the handles i tilted the kadai around and spread the batter in it. 
i then put a spoon of oil on the  spread batter, covered the kadai with its lid and cooked the appam over medium low heat for 8 minutes, until it got done.
next i rolled it off the kadai and served with honey.

Thanks Shama for the recipe and the challenge and thanks to Divya for starting such an interesting event. 

Hoping to get your tips and feedback on my Appams.

Linking this to SHAMA'S EASY2COOK RECIPES & Divya's Space.

p.s : the Black and White photograph was meant for Black and White Wednesday # 80, a Culinary Photography Event started by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar. I however mismanaged my time terribly so could send my entry this week. however hop over to Anusha's space Tomato Blues to check out the other nice entries.

and here are few things that you might find useful if you want to try your hands at South Indian cooking...
         

23.4.13

Under the Magnolia...

read this poem at reading my leaves and could not resist posting...  its so apt for times like this when heinous crimes and tragedies strike all around... make us pause for a while but not too long.. because we are thankful that we were spared this time...

“Under the Magnolia” by Carolyn Miller

I give thanks because I do not have
a great sorrow. My village has not
burned, my child has not died, my body
is not ravaged. I sit here on the ground
lucky, lucky. Somewhere, villages are burning,
somewhere, not too far away, children
are dying; in this great urban park
painstakingly constructed over sand dunes,
people live in the flowering bushes. But
just here, in front of me, is a bride and groom;
here is a child running with
a red ball; another child is rolling on
the grass. All I have to do is to decide
how much fear to let inside my heart
in this fragile, created place, this bowl of grass
surrounded by palms and cypresses and
shaggy-barked cedars and trees
whose names I do not know, long fronds
falling, clusters of lilac fruits depending like
bouquets. All we can do is trust
that we belong here with the flowers: white
iris and Iceland poppies, a blur
of primroses, beds where flowers are
a crowd of color, where they close in the dark,
where the first light finds them starred
with dew. The trees seem to know
what I do not know; even the cultivated grass
understands some chain of being I can only
guess at, whether it is God’s mind, or
the erotic body of the Goddess, or some
abstract kind of love, or
some longing for existence that includes
the fern trees, the new buds of cones on the
conifers, the white butterflies, the skating boys,
the hooked new buds of the magnolia
that look like claws holding on
to life, the curved thick petals of magnolia
in the grass, some gone to rust, some creased,
some streaked, others freckled, others magenta
at the curved stem end, others cracked,
all lined with long veins branching out
to the petal’s edge.


the magnolias photographed from another spring.

19.4.13

Orange-Scented Lentil Soup : Not Quite Dorie's

For a while now I have been following Diane Balch's  "French Fridays with Dorie." She is a proud member of the club and gives very clear and honest reviews on the recipes she tries. I really enjoy reading her posts and had bookmarked this particular recipe because unlike many other French recipes the Orange-Scented Lentil Soup  seemed down-to-earth, cook-able yet chic. Of course with the limited supply of ingredients I had in hand and with Diane's review in mind, I modified the recipe a bit. so the version that you'll see here is not quite Dorie's though it is totally inspired by her's.

I figured that the essence of the soup was in simmering the veggies and the lentils along with strips of orange peels and spices. so i remained faithful to that part of the recipe. though instead of French lentils I used red lentils or masoor dal as we call it. and in place of coriander seeds I used a combination of Indian spices. namely, one whole anise star and ground roasted cumin. the result was delightful. even before tasting the soup I knew something wonderful was simmering in the pot.... the combined aroma of the oranges and the spices kept telling me so. and they really kept their promise. The soup was delicious. since the soup tasted delicious by itself I skipped the yogurt topping and the bacon all-together that were part of Dorie's recipe and we did not regret it at all. Also, I did not puree the soup. it felt like an unnecessary addition to the chores. i served the soup straight from the pot to the bowl... and before starting to slurp on our spoonfuls plucked out the anise star and cloves   from it.. it was the perfect dinner along with the Partybrot bread( pictures and recipe coming up soon) i had baked..

Eggless Chocolate Cake for Mr MN's birthday

So I landed upon the ultimate birthday cake recipe just in time to bake Mr MN a gorgeous chocolate cake for his birthday....
it was a small delicious eggless cake and we enjoyed every slice of it...  since my piping skills are far from perfect.... instead of the customary "Happy Birthday" icing on the cake... i scribbled a birthday note on a paper towel and perched it atop the cake. i thought the note looked more cute than lazy.  and i kind of loved the signature it lent to the cake specially with those 2 disorderly strokes that our boy drew for his dad......

anyway... so my cake of the week is the cake that i baked for Mr MN's birthday and this how the recipe went...

17.4.13

Oven dried oats vs Cheerios..



a while a back I had written a pretty lengthy post on how the chemical properties of oats makes it difficult to completely substitute all-purpose-flour with oat flour in most recipes. there i had also mentioned how soaking oats overnight and oven drying them before grinding helps increase the mineral absorption power of the oats. GNOWFGLINS is where i picked up all this information. and though that information was full-proof it wasn't for grabs for a busy mom... so i had been looking for alternatives. and last week the idea of ground Cheerios popped up...




for experiment sake i used it to bake a batch of chocochip cookies and it really worked.  so if you are also looking for an alternative to all that hard work... ground cheerios might be the solution. perhaps most of you knew it already... but thought i'll post it.. in case you have overlooked that cereal box lazing on your kitchen countertop.

Sending the image "CHEERIOS"  to Black and White Wednesday #79, a photography event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of  Cindystar and hosted this week by Shruthi of Food and Clicks.

16.4.13

Baking Partners Challenge: Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

I recently joined the Baking  Partner's group, a group of enthusiastic home bakers whose common aim is to bake their way through interesting and delicious baking challenges in order to learn, master, critic and perfect various baking techniques and recipes.  

The theme for this month's challenge was "Cheesecake," and as part of the challenge we had to bake a cheesecake following one of these recipes..... 

I chose to bake the Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake, also known as Chiizukeiki as a fellow blogger Samantha pointed out. and this turned out to be a real challenge for me... I actually tried the recipe thrice.... 

in my first attempt, my heart sank along with my bake :(
though the cake was soft and tasted great... it could not stand tall...
(for this i used the same recipe as below without the marbling effect... and baked the cake for 1 hour 10 minutes. i guess the problem in my first attempt was with the beating of the egg whites. i was interrupted several times and that might have caused the shrinkage. but other than that this cake tasted divine. in my opinion it tasted the best of the 3 that i baked.) 


so i decided to bake it again... second time it was too firm and too dry... i think i overbaked and also used an extra helping of flour and that messed my cake...
(for this i used almost the same recipe as below except that i used1/3 cup of APF instead of 1/4 cup and baked the cake for 1 hour 20 minutes )

so i gave it another try ... and the third time i got a little experimental. i tried marbling my bake... and though the marbling looked fine... there were issues with the cake... 
care to know what i did... then read on....

10.4.13

Dough Crafting....


Baby Boy's first craft... impression on flour-play-dough that  he made in his daycare


and mamma's regular dough craft ... delicious aloo parathas rolled and fried to perfection each time following recipe from  Manjula's Kitchen.

Sending the first photograph to  Black and White Wednesday, a photography event started by Susan of the Well Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar and hosted this week by Aparna Balasubramaniun at My Diverse Kitchen.

9.4.13

Sweet Strawberry Sop, an unsuccessful attempt (A Cake A Week : # 7 )

This week I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to bake. I knew I wanted to use strawberries. wanted to bake an eggless cake. and had at disposition 'n' number of recipes to choose from. but none of them pressed that note... you know what i am talking about ? None of the recipes were exciting enough. so i sat deliberating over my choices over the whole weekend, until i chanced upon Blueberry Boy Bait(BBB). Of course thats what I wanted to bake. but with strawberries instead of blueberries. and since BBB seemed like the catch-word, I coined my own name for the Strawberry bait.... decided to call it Sweet Strawberry Sop(SSS).  Now doesn't that sound like great ? well. i thought it did. and i was really excited about sharing this cake as part of my A Cake a Week Project. but then... damn.... the cake flopped. I had tried to squeeze too much batter into a little mold... thereby not giving the poor cake enough room to breathe and grow... so even after baking the cake for twice the mentioned time... my cake turned out to be a muddy mash.

at first the mash did make me a little sad. but then one bite into it and i was a happy "girl." not girl. well. happy mom. because even in its messy form the was delicious. not fluffy as it is supposed to be. more like a brownie in form. but delicious and addictive anyhow.

since my cake did not turn out to be the cake i had dreamt of, i'll skip the recipe this time. however I promise to share it with you by the end of the month... for today just some photos of my unsuccessful attempt and  two songs i am loving these days....


this one is from Before Sunset... love the movie. love the song and waiting eagerly for the sequel Before Midnight.


this one is our family favorite. my son loves it and Mr MN and I love dancing with the little to the tune of Skidamarinka dinka dinka skidamarinka doo... I love you....


Also I finally created a facebook page for Ma Niche. I intend to get more chatty there. If you please join me in FB. I'll love to know you a little more.

Take Care.   Have a great week !

5.4.13

Greek for Meatless Monday : Moussaka with Radish Salad

Last Monday I cooked Moussaka and Radish Salad for dinner.  Though we love Mediterranean food, we haven't ventured much into the vegetarian terrain. Usually whenever we eat out we order dishes loaded with chicken or lamb and enjoy it to bits. however cooking Greek for Meatless Mondays has been quite a revelation.  Mediterranean Veg dishes can be as delicious as the others.  (if not better). and the Greeks really know to play with their sauces and spices. I  think I am falling in love with Mediterranean food all over again....

Ok. Sorry. I got a little carried away. So, as popularly known and described by Lynn Livanos Athan, "Moussaka is a casserole made by layering eggplant with spiced meat filling then topping it off with a creamy bechamel sauce that is baked to golden perfection." I however spotted a vegetarian version of Moussaka in the book From a Traditional  Greek Kitchen : Vegetarian Cuisine and tried that out with some minor adaptations inspired by the Andy Harris's Zucchini Moussaka from Modern GreekFor the Radish Salad, I was faithful to the Aphrodite Polemis's recipe of Repanakia me Yaourti Salata .


3.4.13

Wordless Wednesday


My Wild... my child...

more here

Spiced Orange Buns

Besides the Ricotta Cake, I also baked these Spiced Orange Buns for Easter Sunday. Well. I actually had my mind set on Tsoureki, the Greek Easter Sweet Bread and was looking around for a bread machine recipe for it. and the first link that popped up was by  .  i had all the listed ingredients and the recipe seemed simple. so i went ahead with it. I understand that there are several other versions of Tsoureki that are spiced with Chios mastic, cardamom and vanilla. but this version is simple. it  just uses ground nutmeg. nevertheless it is flavorful. and with its blend of spices and citrusy flavor its makes a perfect bite to go with your breakfast milk or evening chai.

Tsoureki breads are traditionally braided  into a circle or into two large braids and sprinkled with nuts and  served with Easter eggs that have been dyed deep red to represent the blood of Christ or red rosebuds. however I wasn't aware of the symbolism before and therefore braided my buns the way i did and decided to call them the Spiced Orange Buns, just so that my ignorance does not  misguide someone else. 

Pastiera : Neapolitan Easter Pie aka Ricotta Cake (A Cake A Week # 6)

Celebrating Easter with food and crafts was all over the blogs. and though we do not celebrate Easter, the excitement around found its way in and I decided to indulge.I baked a traditional Italian Easter dessert, Pasteria also known as the Ricotta Cake. This is a delicious dessert made with creamy ricotta, eggs and arborio rice cooked in whole milk with a hint of cinnamon. Apparently, this dessert originated in Naples and there are several versions of it. I choose to baked the Martha Stewart version which I found at Our Italian Table and we were delighted at the outcome. 

Since I was baking the cake for just the two of the three of us, Mr MN, baby and me, initially I scaled down the recipe to one-third. however, because of my inexperience with  arborio rice, I found it difficult to cook as directed in the recipe. so, half way through the cooking I made some  minor changes. also, it had actually become quite late by the time i finished cooking the rice, so i refrigerated it right away and proceeded to make the cake the next day. thankfully none of that spoilt the cake and we relished it very much for our Sunday brunch.

now a quick look at my bake of the week and then off to the recipe...

Recipe Adapted from Our Italian Table

ingredients 
1 +1/3 + 3/4 cups whole milk
1/4 cup arborio rice 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt1 tespoon vanilla extract
3/4 +1/8 cups granulated sugarUnsalted butter, for pan
All-purpose flour, for pan

2 cups ricotta cheese

1 large whole egg + 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

chopped almonds and raisins


for the garnish
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Strawberry sauce (recipe given below)
what i did.
I started by boiling 1 + 1/3 cup of milk in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. when the milk started boiling, i stirred in the rice, cinnamon and salt. then reduced the heat to medium low and cooked, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. however my rice did not become tender in the time mentioned in the recipe, though most of the milk had evaporated. so i added about 1/4 cup of milk and stirred. and then repeated the process 2 more times till the rice became tender and creamy and all the liquid was absorbed.
i then added the 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla extract and refrigerated the cooked rice till next morning. ( note that refrigerating was not part of original recipe but i did so because it was pretty late and this did not meddle with the final product.)
next morning, i preheated the oven to 350 degree F, buttered and floured my 6 inch spring-foam pan, then combined the cooked rice with ricotta, the whole egg, the egg yolk and the remaining sugar. finally i poured the battered into the prepared pan, sprinkled the chopped almonds and raisin on top and baked for 75-80 minutes, until the surface of the cake looked golden and firm.
i then took the pa out and let the cake cool completely before transferring it into my inverted rubbermaid box and refrigerating till Sunday brunch.

On Sunday I served the cake with Martha Stewart's Strawberry Sauce.

For the sauce, i microwaved 3/4 cup frozed strawberry + 1 teaspoon sugar + freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 a lemon. The combination was refreshing and we really enjoyed it... and Easter or not around here we'll certainly be having lots of this...

Happy Baking and have a nice week !

Sharing this with 
Flavors of Cuisine ~ Italian, an event announced by Julie of Erivum Puliyum and hosted by Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes,  FR Event ~ Bookmarked recipes, an event announced by Swathi of Zesty South India Kitchen and hosted by Pallavi of Cook, Eat, Burp.
Tuesday Food:  Tempt my Tummy @Blessed with GraceTotally Tasty Tuesday @ Mandy's Recipe BoxTasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations,  Show Me What You Got @ Our Delightful Home,  Hand Made Tuesday @ Ladybug BlessingsShare it Link Party @ Winthrop ChroniclesWow Me WednesdayWhat's Cooking Wednesday @ Confessions of Overworked MomCast Party Wednesday @ Lady Behind the Curtain  Wednesday Whatsit @White Lights on Show and Share @ Semi Homemade MomWonderful Food Wednesdays at @ Home Take 2Seasonal Celebration @ Natural Mother's NetworkHearth and Soul Blog Hop : 145Thursday Food:Link it Up Thursday @ Seven AliveCreative Thursday @ Michelle's Tasty CreationsFantastic Thursday @ Three Little ChiefsThriving on Thursdays @ DomesblissityTasty Thursdays @ The Mandatory MoochFreedom Friday @ My TurnSpicy Thursday @ DC in Style
Friday Food: Foodie Friday @ Home Maid SimpleFriday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet HomeFoodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness MissFriday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts , Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club,  The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog  Recipes

2.4.13

Sealing the freshness...

Asparagus is in season. even a big brunch is pretty inexpensive. a reason good enough for us to buy it in bulk. however the quantity is way too much for our family of two and a quarter. so a portion of the bunch always needs preserving. and the way is do it is by
trimming the ends of the spears....
placing the trimmed stalks upright in a glass with at least an inch of water...
covering the spears loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerating. a very useful tip that i learnt from

Hop over to her space to gawk at her delicious asparagus topped pizza. i have it bookmarked for the weekend. don't you want a slice too ? 

Sending the first photograph to Black and White Wednesday, a photography event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of  Cindystar and hosted this week by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything.

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