Power Cut Prawn Curry

Now unless you live in Sri Lanka, I am 99% sure that you will have absolutely no idea of what I am talking about except for the prawn curry bit.

Basically, Sri Lanka has had some “issues” with island-wide electricity supply since Sunday the 13th of March when the entire country was without power for around 8 hours due to an explosion at a major power station. This caused another major power station to malfunction and (so we have been informed by various media sources and politicians here – make of that what you wish) that the latter power station was not built according to international standards and hence it is needing huge repairs, so daily power cuts of seven and half hours have been imposed throughout the country. Five and a half during the day and two at night. The citizens, residents and I expect the tourists not lucky enough to be in hotels with a generator are pretty pissed off. And with the power cuts come water cuts. A whole big barrel of laughs NOT.

Life by candlelight

People do take things like this in their stride though and Sri Lankans, who are notoriously laid back (in a great way) particularly so. People flocked to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with funny photos, comments and memes (#PowerCutSL). I meanwhile decided, as I didn’t want my laptop battery to die, to cook a yummy prawn curry. I had plenty of gas for cooking and plenty of candles (and wine!) so it really made the night time power cut bearable. Therefore, I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Power Cut Prawns

Power Cut Prawn Curry Recipe (serves 2 as a large portion or 3)

Ingredients

• 20 large prawns, shelled and keep some heads aside
• 6 garlic cloves, sliced
• 3 – 4 stems of curry leaves or 30 to 40 leaves
• 1 thumb size of fresh ginger, sliced
• 3/4/5 long green chillies, sliced (up to you!)
• 2-3 small red onions, sliced
• 4 cardamom pods, squashed
• 1 tbsp. fenugreek seeds
• 1 cinnamon, stick broken
• 4 cloves
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds
• 2 tbsp. ground cumin
• 2 tbsp. ground coriander
• 1 tbsp. red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp. ground turmeric
• 1L coconut milk (fresh is best, but I used the powdered milk and cans will be just as good)
• Oil (I used virgin coconut oil)
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Lime to taste

Method:

• In a large frying pan, add a little oil and cook the prawns in batches of 8 to 10 at a time, or about 1.5-2 minutes depending on the size of the prawn. Keep aside to cool
• In a large saucepan, heat the whole spices and cook until toasted and aromatic.  Add your oil to the pan and then add the garlic, curry leaves, ginger, chilli and shallots. Cook for 2 mins.
• Deshell the prawns and put the prawn heads in the saucepan with the spices.
• Add the rest of the powdered spices with the coconut milk and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain to remove prawn heads.
• Pour the sauce over the prawns in the frying pan, and season with salt, pepper and some fresh lime juice and you are ready!

Serve with rice and wedges of lime.

Power Cut Prawn Curry

There is always a silver lining behind every cloud! 🙂

A Translator’s Role Defined

A new document was created and published earlier this month that offers descriptions of linguist roles, i.e. translators, interpreters and terminologists. A BIG THANK YOU to the five professional associations and the industry professionals (see at the end of this post for the names) who worked on and supported this project, which is a valuable resource to all linguists and their clients.

You can download and read the document in PDF format here.

I wanted to highlight the Translator description, which also includes a description of what certified translators do.

TRANSLATOR

(from ATA’s website)
“Translators work with the written word, converting text from a source language into a target language. This is far more than replacing one word with another. The translator must also convey the style, tone, and intent of the text, while taking into account differences of culture and dialect.
Often, the finished document should read as if it had originally been written in the target language for the target audience. But this is not always the case. Highly specialized content may require the translator to retain elements of the source language culture in the target language translation. A professional translator will have the expertise to know the best approach for the translation.”

Translators must be familiar with the dialects, registers, and terminology needed for the type of translation project they are responsible for. When working in teams, translators may be responsible for editing, proofreading, summarizing, localizing, and transcreating.

My Bible

(from the Interagency Language Roundtable website)
Translation “is a complex skill requiring several abilities. Consequently, extreme care must be exercised in hiring translators or assigning translation tasks to them. To do otherwise entails the risk that imprecise or even wrong information will be conveyed. Competence in two languages is necessary but not sufficient for any translation task. Though the translator must be able to (1) read and comprehend the source language and (2) write comprehensibly in the target language, the translator must also be able to (3) choose the equivalent expression in the target language that both fully conveys and best matches the meaning intended in the source language (referred to as congruity judgment).”

Certified translators can provide documentation indicating the certifying or assessment body, any subject area expertise, the proficiency level, the specific language combination(s) assessed by translation testing and the direction of translation permitted (see US Federal Coordination and Compliance Section, Procurement Series Translation and Interpretation. What Does It Mean to Be a Certified Linguist?). Certified translators maintain their certification through continuing education credits and are bound by a code of professional conduct. When translation certification exams are not available for a particular language pair, sample translations reviewed by highly-qualified third parties may provide an acceptable practical alternative.

CONTRIBUTORS AND SUPPORTERS

Associations
Association internationale des interprètes de conférence (AIIC)
Mano a Mano
National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT)
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC)
Oregon Society of Translators and Interpreters (OSTI)

Team Leaders
Helen Eby, Esther M. Navarro-Hall

Drafting and Editorial Team
Helen Eby, Esther M. Navarro-Hall, Carol Velandia, Milena Waldron

Contributors and Consultants
Jennifer DeCamp, Barbara Inge Karsch, Judith Kenigson Kristy, Uwe Muegge, Sue Ellen Wright

Further reading
On Advocacy: An International Joint Effort
Translator and Interpreter Descriptions

By Catherine Christaki from Lingua Greca