The Sands Of Time

As I stroll along the lovely beach at Port d’Alcudia in Northern Mallorca I can’t help noticing the ‘growth’ of a new industry – sand sculpting. Most of the ‘creations’ I have seen are truly a patient ‘work of art’ and are very stunning, especially when viewed at night when surrounded by candles. Indeed there are several web sites dedicated to the work of these ‘sand sculpture artists’.

Two examples are: http://www.sculpturesinsand.com/ and http://www.sandsculpture.co.uk

I am told the secret to creating good sand sculptures, in addition to having the talent, is to dampen and compact the sand.

This got me thinking that whilst dampening and compacting a dry material such as sand is an essential plus for creating a sand sculpture, when it occurs in bulk dry material storage silos and hoppers such as cement silos and hoppers, it creates tremendous problems which result in reduced storage, poor material discharge, ratholing and bridging of material.

Thankfully all these problems can be prevented by the introduction of Acoustic Cleaners which both prevent side wall build up and also bridging over the silo outlets. Primasonics International has solved bulk material storage and flow problems in over 45 countries worldwide.

Octopus Hibernia

My local pub is the Crown Inn in a little village called Little Blencow, near Penrith in North Cumbria. The owner/chef is a fellow Irishman called Adrian Carroll and for a small pub, his ‘specials’ board is excellent. As I like to cook, I am forever asking him how you prepare ‘this’ and make ‘that’ and about a month ago we got onto the subject of cooking octopus, which I like to eat when abroad. It is such an interesting creature but usually only has a short life span of around six months. They have eight arms (you should not call them tentacles) and three hearts.

Anyway I digress. Adrian decided to devise an octopus dish with an Irish flavour and he named it ‘Octopus Hibernia’ (Hibernia being the classical Latin name for Ireland). I was not disappointed; it truly is a fantastic dish to make so I thought that I would provide you all with the recipe. By the way if you buy fresh octopus you must put it in the freezer for around 48 hours to break down the cell structure before defrosting and cooking. One of the reasons I was thinking about the octopus was that it has the same number of arms as Primasonics have models of Acoustic Cleaner! ()

Here is the recipe for Octopus Hibernia – cook and enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 x block of butter
1 x large Spanish onion
1 x green pepper
1 x orange pepper
6 x garlic cloves (crushed)
2 x medium octopus cut into finely slices tentacle rings - see NOTE below for preparation

Method:
Melt butter in a large paella type pan (20”)
Heat butter until it foams then add garlic, cook for 20 seconds
Add octopus and fry for 1 minute
Add slices onion and peppers and fry for 2 minutes
Season with salt & Pepper
Bake in the oven 150◦C for 1½ hours, if onions begin to brown too much, cover pan with foil.

NOTE: The fresh octopus should be first placed in a freezer for 12 hours. Then defrost thoroughly and wash. Clean the octopus by cutting the tentacles away from the head, below the beak. Cut away and discard the beak, turn rest of body inside out and remove ink sac plus internal organs.