After Many Slip-Ups, Mideast E-Commerce Gains Its Footing

DUBAI — Back in 2005, Souq.com was a new Web site modeled after eBay in the United States, catering to the nascent online retailing market in the Middle East. In the last week of October 2012, the fast-growing site received $45 million in funding from international investors, creating a new benchmark for the region’s evolving e-commerce scene.

“When we launched at the end of 2005, e-commerce was still in its infancy, and getting started that early gave us time to find a business model that works today,” said Ronaldo Meshawar, chief executive of Souq, which is based in Dubai. “It also helped us be an enabler in the region for businesses to sell their products online.”

The $45 million deal bolsters an industry that is still relatively young and fragmented, extremely capital intensive, and facing logistical hurdles that have led many sites to shut down.

The large size of the funding shows that money, particularly from foreign investors, is available for the right kind of business. That means one that appeals to consumers and has the potential to grow.

There have been a lot of mixed messages for the regional e-commerce community over the last year. The sudden exit of LivingSocial, the global daily deals site, from the Middle East in August seemed put a nail in the coffin of the regional online retailing market.

The demise of other promising, local sites, including Joob, Nahel and Mizado, in the months preceding the abrupt closure of LivingSocial’s regional operations suggested that e-commerce business models in the Gulf were not working.

But success stories are now starting to emerge from a handful of e-commerce sites that are figuring out how to run an online business in the area.

Namshi.com, a copycat of Zappos.com, which sells shoes online, has shown strong growth in its first year of operation. The site grew from three to 100 employees since it began in October 2011, and now manages 600 orders a day, according to Namshi’s founders.

Backed by e-commerce veterans, including Rocket Internet in Germany, Namshi also received $20 million in funding from J.P. Morgan and Blakeney Management in September to further grow the business.

“There are challenges around delivery of product, setting up efficient distribution centers and making the right decisions about styles to keep in our inventory base,” said Muhammed Mekki, one of Namshi’s three co-founders.

“The initial funding was there to test and see if fashion e-commerce can work in the Mideast,” he said. “Now that we’ve proven the model works, we’ll focus on expanding.”

MarkaVIP, a Jordanian site that provides discounts on luxury items, has also caught the eye of international investors, attracting $10 million in capital from European and American investment firms in April.

Souq is the latest and biggest in a string of new sites. The firm received funding from the South African group Naspers and Tiger Global, a New York hedge fund.

The firm’s parent company, Jabbar Internet Group, still holds a majority stake. Jabbar Internet manages the spin-off brands that were not purchased by Yahoo when Maktoob, a news site, was sold to Yahoo in 2009 for $175 million.

When Souq started up in 2005, the team brought eBay’s auction model to the region, in Arabic. They soon faced a slew of problems that smaller sites had been unable to resolve in the early years.

For one thing, transporting goods ordered on the Web across the Gulf countries was not easy because currencies and legal structures varied from place to place. Often, there was the added necessity of opening new bank accounts or finding a local partner to share the business. This also made it more difficult to manage inventory.

Online payment was also a hurdle. Many customers preferred to pay with cash on delivery rather than entering credit card details online. Cash on delivery put a strain on the company’s resources as it had to ship goods first and collect, or not, the money later.

Online payments are now becoming more widely accepted and some of the shipping issues have been resolved. As part of those efforts, Namshi joined with Aramex, a global shipping firm based in Amman. The arrangement lets Namshi use Aramex’s network of warehouses to store its inventory and ship orders in 24 hours.

To simplify things, Souq scrapped the eBay-style auction model in 2010 and instead adopted fixed prices. “You can’t take a model and just apply it to the region,” Mr. Meshawar said. “The copycat model doesn’t work, we had to execute on the ground and adapt.”

Now, Souq has 8 million to 9.5 million unique visits each month and a client base of 3.5 million customers across the Gulf, according to Mr. Meshawar. The site ships thousands of items a day.

The new funding will go toward setting up new distribution centers, expanding geographically and streamlining operations. Plans are in place to open logistics centers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the site already has a strong following.

The money will also help Souq expand into new categories, including fashion and lifestyle, following the site’s recent acquisition of the fashion site Sukar.com and the sports site run2sport.com.

This is the third round of financing for Souq, which has 200 employees and 50,000 sellers in its online marketplace.

“The failure of some sites just shows that the get-rich-quick, poorly managed sites won’t make it, and it’s a learning curve for entrepreneurs trying to enter the region’s market,” said Alexandra Toomey, an independent e-commerce analyst in Dubai. “Established e-commerce companies with a proven product can succeed if they adapt to the market correctly and have the right backing.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 8, 2012

A previous version of this article wrongly included the online bookseller Jamalon in a list of Web sites that have closed this year. Jamalon is still operating.

Read More..

Recipes for Health: Cabbage, Onion and Millet Kugel — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Light, nutty millet combines beautifully with the sweet, tender cabbage and onions in this kugel. I wouldn’t hesitate to serve this as a main dish.

 

1/2 medium head cabbage (1 1/2 pounds), cored and cut in thin strips

Salt to taste

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

Freshly ground pepper

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese

2 eggs

2 cups cooked millet

 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 2-quart baking dish. Toss the cabbage with salt to taste and let it sit for 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about 3 minutes, then add a generous pinch of salt and turn the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft and beginning to color, about 10 minutes. Add the cabbage, turn the heat to medium, and cook, stirring often, until the cabbage is quite tender and fragrant, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the dill, taste and adjust salt, and add pepper to taste. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, purée the cottage cheese until smooth. Add the eggs and process until the mixture is smooth. Add salt (I suggest about 1/2 teaspoon) and pepper and mix together. Scrape into the bowl with the cabbage. Add the millet and stir everything together. Scrape into the oiled baking dish. Drizzle the remaining oil over the top and place in the oven.

4. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the sides are nicely browned and the top is beginning to color. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into squares or wedges.

Yield: 6 servings.

Advance preparation: The cooked millet will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days and freezes well. The kugel will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat in a medium oven.

Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 195 calories; 7 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 64 milligrams cholesterol; 23 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 148 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 10 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

Read More..

Recipes for Health: Cabbage, Onion and Millet Kugel — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Light, nutty millet combines beautifully with the sweet, tender cabbage and onions in this kugel. I wouldn’t hesitate to serve this as a main dish.

 

1/2 medium head cabbage (1 1/2 pounds), cored and cut in thin strips

Salt to taste

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

Freshly ground pepper

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese

2 eggs

2 cups cooked millet

 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 2-quart baking dish. Toss the cabbage with salt to taste and let it sit for 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about 3 minutes, then add a generous pinch of salt and turn the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft and beginning to color, about 10 minutes. Add the cabbage, turn the heat to medium, and cook, stirring often, until the cabbage is quite tender and fragrant, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the dill, taste and adjust salt, and add pepper to taste. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, purée the cottage cheese until smooth. Add the eggs and process until the mixture is smooth. Add salt (I suggest about 1/2 teaspoon) and pepper and mix together. Scrape into the bowl with the cabbage. Add the millet and stir everything together. Scrape into the oiled baking dish. Drizzle the remaining oil over the top and place in the oven.

4. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the sides are nicely browned and the top is beginning to color. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into squares or wedges.

Yield: 6 servings.

Advance preparation: The cooked millet will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days and freezes well. The kugel will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat in a medium oven.

Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 195 calories; 7 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 64 milligrams cholesterol; 23 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 148 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 10 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

Read More..

DealBook: On Wall Street, Time to Mend Fences With Obama

Del Frisco’s, an expensive steakhouse with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Boston harbor, was a festive scene on Tuesday evening. The hedge fund billionaires Steven A. Cohen, Paul Singer and Daniel Loeb were among the titans of finance there dining among the gray velvet banquettes before heading several blocks away to what they hoped would be a victory party for their presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

The next morning was a cold, sobering one for these executives.

Few industries have made such a one-sided bet as Wall Street did in opposing President Obama and supporting his Republican rival. The top five sources of contributions to Mr. Romney, a former top private equity executive, were big banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Wealthy financiers — led by hedge fund investors — were the biggest group of givers to the main “super PAC” backing Mr. Romney, providing almost $33 million, and gave generously to outside groups in races around the country.

On Wednesday, Mr. Loeb, who had supported Mr. Obama in 2008, was sanguine. “You win some, you lose some,” he said in an interview. “We can all disagree. I have friends and we have spirited discussions. Sure, I am not getting invited to the White House anytime soon, but as citizens of the country we are all friendly.”

Wall Street, however, now has to come to terms with an administration it has vilified. What Washington does next will be critically important for the industry, as regulatory agencies work to put their final stamp on financial regulations and as tax increases and spending cuts are set to take effect in the new year unless a deal to avert them is reached. To not have a friend in the White House at this time is one thing, but to have an enemy is quite another.

“Wall Street is now going to have to figure out how to make this relationship work,” said Glenn Schorr, an analyst who follows the big banks for the investment bank Nomura. “It’s not impossible, but it’s not the starting point they had hoped for.”

Traditionally, the financial industry has tended to support Republican candidates, but, being pragmatic about power, has also donated to Democrats. That script got a rewrite in 2008, when many on Wall Street supported Mr. Obama as an intelligent leader for a country reeling from the financial crisis. Goldman employees were the leading source of campaign donations for Mr. Obama, who reaped far more contributions — roughly $16 million — from Wall Street than did his opponent, John McCain.

The love affair between Wall Street and Mr. Obama soured soon after he took office and championed an overhaul in financial regulations that became the Dodd-Frank Act.

Some financial executives complained that in meetings with the president, they found him uninterested and disengaged, while others on Wall Street never forgave Mr. Obama for calling them “fat cats.”

The disillusionment with the president spawned reams of critical commentary from Wall Street executives.

“So long as our leaders tell us that we must trust them to regulate and redistribute our way back to prosperity, we will not break out of this economic quagmire,” Mr. Loeb wrote in one letter to his investors.

The rhetoric at times became extreme, like the time Steven A. Schwarzman, co-founder of the private equity firm Blackstone Group, compared a tax proposal to “when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.” (Mr. Schwarzman later apologized for the remark.)

Mr. Loeb was not alone in switching allegiances in the recent presidential race. Hedge fund executives like Leon Cooperman who had supported Mr. Obama in 2008 were big backers of Mr. Romney in 2012. And Wall Street chieftains like Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, who have publicly been Democrats in the past, kept a low profile during this election. But their firms’ employees gave money to Mr. Romney in waves.

Starting over with the Obama White House will not be easy. One senior Wall Street lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity said Wall Street “made a bad mistake” in pushing so hard for Mr. Romney. “They are going to pay a price,” he said. “It will soften over time, but there will be a price.”

Mr. Obama is not without supporters on Wall Street. Prominent executives like Hamilton James of Blackstone, and Robert Wolf, a former top banker at UBS, were in Chicago on Tuesday night, celebrating with the president.

“What we learned is the people on Wall Street have one vote just like everyone else,” Mr. Wolf said. Still, while the support Wall Street gave Mr. Romney is undeniable, Mr. Wolf said, “Mr. Obama wants a healthy private sector, and that includes Wall Street.

“If you look at fiscal reform, infrastructure, immigration and education, they are all bipartisan issues and are more aligned than some people make it seem.”

Reshma Saujani, a former hedge fund lawyer who was among Mr. Obama’s top bundlers this year and is planning to run for city office next year, agreed.

“Most people in the financial services sector are social liberals who support gay marriage and believe in a woman’s right to choose, so I think many of them will swing back to Democrats in the future,” she said.

---

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 8, 2012

An earlier version of this article misidentified Reshma Saujani as a male.

Read More..

Obama Wins New Term as Electoral Advantage Holds

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Americans voted to give President Obama a second chance to change Washington.

Barack Hussein Obama was re-elected president of the United States on Tuesday, overcoming powerful economic headwinds, a lock-step resistance to his agenda by Republicans in Congress and an unprecedented torrent of advertising as a divided nation voted to give him more time.

In defeating Mitt Romney, the president carried Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin, a near sweep of the battleground states, and was holding a narrow advantage in Florida. The path to victory for Mr. Romney narrowed as the night wore along, with Mr. Obama winning at least 303 electoral votes.

A cheer of jubilation sounded at the Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago when the television networks began projecting him as the winner at 11:20 p.m., even as the ballots were still being counted in many states where voters had waited in line well into the night. The victory was far narrower than his historic election four years ago, but it was no less dramatic.

“Tonight in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back,” Mr. Obama told his supporters early Wednesday. “We know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.”

Mr. Obama’s re-election extended his place in history, carrying the tenure of the nation’s first black president into a second term. His path followed a pattern that has been an arc to his political career: faltering when he seemed to be at his strongest — the period before his first debate with Mr. Romney — before he redoubled his efforts to lift himself and his supporters to victory.

The evening was not without the drama that has come to mark so many recent elections: For more than 90 minutes after the networks projected Mr. Obama as the winner, Mr. Romney held off calling him to concede. And as the president waited to declare victory in Chicago, Mr. Romney’s aides were prepared to head to the airport, suitcases packed, potentially to contest several close results.

But as it became increasingly clear that no amount of contesting would bring him victory, he called Mr. Obama to concede shortly before 1 a.m.

“I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters,” Mr. Romney told his supporters in Boston. “This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.”

Hispanics made up an important part of Mr. Obama’s winning coalition, preliminary exit poll data showed. And before the night was through, there were already recriminations from Republican moderates who said Mr. Romney had gone too far during the primaries in his statements against those here illegally, including his promise that his get-tough policies would cause some to “self-deport.”

Mr. Obama, 51, faces governing in a deeply divided country and a partisan-rich capital, where Republicans retained their majority in the House and Democrats kept their control of the Senate. His re-election offers him a second chance that will quickly be tested, given the rapidly escalating fiscal showdown.

For Mr. Obama, the result brings a ratification of his sweeping health care act, which Mr. Romney had vowed to repeal. The law will now continue on course toward nearly full implementation in 2014, promising to change significantly the way medical services are administrated nationwide.

Confident that the economy is finally on a true path toward stability, Mr. Obama and his aides have hinted that he would seek to tackle some of the grand but unrealized promises of his first campaign, including the sort of immigration overhaul that has eluded presidents of both parties for decades.

But he will be venturing back into a Congressional environment similar to that of his first term, with the Senate under the control of Democrats and the House under the control of Republicans, whose leaders have hinted that they will be no less likely to challenge him than they were during the last four years.

Michael Cooper contributed reporting.

Read More..

Social Media Finds a Role in Case Against Zimmerman

MIAMI — When Mark O’Mara agreed to defend George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder case, one of his first major decisions was to embrace the Internet.

He set up a legal defense Web site for his client, a Twitter page and a Facebook account, all with the purpose of countering what he called the “avalanche of misinformation” about the case and Mr. Zimmerman.

It was a risky move, unorthodox for a criminal defense lawyer, legal experts said, but a bold one. Late last month, the judge in the case, rebuffing the prosecution, allowed Mr. O’Mara to keep the online presence.

In so doing, the judge sanctioned the use of social media in a high-profile murder case that was already steeped in the power of Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Not long after Mr. Martin was shot and killed, protesters took their cues from Facebook and demonstrated across the country. Angry words coursed through Twitter.

Mr. Zimmerman, in hiding, started a Web site to raise money. The Martin family’s lawyers, who made ample use of traditional media, used Twitter to bring attention to Mr. Martin’s death.

Social media is playing a role in the courtroom, too. Mr. O’Mara wants to use Mr. Martin’s Facebook page and Twitter feed to bolster Mr. Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense. But he will most likely face a protracted battle to authenticate the material, in part because Mr. Martin is no longer alive. Last month, the judge allowed Mr. O’Mara to subpoena Twitter and Facebook for the information.

In ways large and small, the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman is serving as a modernized blueprint for deploying social media in a murder case.

“The way the whole case has been playing out in social media is typical of our times, but more typical of civil cases than criminal cases,” said Robert Ambrogi, a lawyer and technology expert who writes a blog on the intersection of the legal profession and social media. “It’s not without precedent, but it’s on the cutting edge.”

In civil cases, lawyers routinely dig up Facebook photos of people claiming to have a back injury dancing atop bars or revealing posts from supposedly faithful spouses.

“In the world of electronic information, the amount of potentially relevant information in discovery has exploded,” said Kenneth Withers, the director of judicial education and content for The Sedona Conference, a nonprofit law and policy research organization, referring to the pretrial exchange of information and evidence between lawyers on both sides. “And with social media, there has been an explosion of an explosion.”

It no longer makes sense for criminal defense lawyers who have tread more cautiously into social media to brush it off or avoid it, legal experts said.

Nicole Black, a co-author of “Social Media for Lawyers,” said criminal lawyers are getting crash courses on how to best use social media to help their clients and themselves.

“There is almost hysteria among the lawyers to understand it and how it’s affecting their practice,” said Ms. Black, who is also the director of business development and community relations at MyCaseInc.com.

Mr. O’Mara said as much in court recently when he pressed for access to Mr. Martin’s Facebook page and for the continued use of the legal defense Web site and its Twitter feed. “This is 2012, and I’m sorry, I used to have the books on the shelf, and those days are long gone,” he said. “We now have an active vehicle for information. I will tell you that today, if every defense attorney is not searching for information on something like this, he will be committing malpractice.”

Mr. Zimmerman, a Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Mr. Martin, an unarmed black teenager who was killed in February as he walked to a house where he was staying as a guest.

Mr. O’Mara has been careful to hew to ethical requirements on his Twitter feed and Web site, which he uses to post legal documents, react to developments in the case and raise money for his client. He allows comments to be posted so long as they are not inflammatory. When the Facebook page “devolved into people bickering,” he said, he shut it down.

Social media is difficult to control, which for many is precisely its allure. Last month, Mr. Zimmerman’s brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr., fired off an angry post on Twitter at Natalie Jackson, one of the Martin family’s lawyers.

“My Life’s work = you WILL be held accountable for your words/actions. You A’INT seen NOTHIN’ yet ... I will see U disbarred,” he posted on Twitter.

Mr. O’Mara wrote a reaction on his Web site.

“Regarding Robert Zimmerman Jr.’s media campaign and Twitter comments, Robert is acting on behalf of his family, and he is not acting with the approval or the input of the defense team,” he wrote. He noted that, “The Zimmerman family has been through a lot, and they have been frequently misrepresented in the media, so we do not begrudge Robert for wanting to speak out and set the record straight.”

While Mr. O’Mara has become adept at social media, rattling off the number of Google hits on the words Trayvon Martin and the tally of visits to the legal defense site — 267,089 as of Monday — plunging into the world of Twitter, Facebook and blogs is not a welcome development for all in the courtroom.

“I’m new to this, quite frankly; I’m old,” a prosecutor, Bernie de la Rionda, said as the two sides faced off over social media in the courtroom.

Before long, Judge Debra S. Nelson will have to decide how to handle social media during the trial, which is scheduled to begin on June 10. Some jurors in other cases across the country have taken to posting about the proceedings on Facebook or Twitter, posing a risk of mistrials. Judges have cracked down.

Considering the publicity in the case, Judge Nelson may wind up following the lead of the judge in another high-profile Florida murder trial, that of Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of killing her young daughter. She could sequester the jury members, confiscate their cellphones and laptops, and monitor their calls and computer time.

If Judge Nelson does follow suit, she must be prepared to deal with another juror dilemma: extreme withdrawal.

Read More..

Recipes for Health: Sweet Millet Kugel — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Millet, a light, fluffy gluten-free grain that is a good source of magnesium, manganese and phosphorus, lends itself beautifully to both sweet and savory kugels. In fact, this kugel turned me into a millet convert.

 

2/3 cup millet

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups water

Salt to taste

1 cup cottage cheese

3 eggs

1/4 cup low-fat milk

1/4 cup mild honey or agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup (3 ounces) diced dried apricots

1/2 cup (3 ounces) raisins (or omit and use all apricots)

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

 

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter or oil over medium-high heat in a heavy 2- or 3-quart saucepan. Meanwhile, bring the water to a simmer in another saucepan or in the microwave. Add the millet to the heavy saucepan and toast, stirring, until it begins to smell fragrant and toasty, about 5 minutes. Add the boiling water and salt to taste, and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer 25 to 30 minutes, until the liquid in the saucepan has evaporated and the grains are fluffy. Transfer to a large bowl.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2-quart baking dish. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, blend the cottage cheese until smooth. Add the milk, eggs, vanilla and nutmeg and blend until smooth. Scrape into the bowl with the millet.

3. Stir together the millet and cottage cheese mixture. Stir in the apricots, raisins and lemon zest. Scrape into the prepared baking dish. Cut the remaining butter into small pieces and dot the top of the kugel with them. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until the kugel is set and beginning to color on the top.

4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes (longer if possible) before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Advance preparation: This will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator. It’s best if you warm it up, either in a low oven or in the microwave.

Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 306 calories; 8 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 105 milligrams cholesterol; 50 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 149 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 12 grams protein

Nutritional information per serving (8 servings): 229 calories; 6 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 79 milligrams cholesterol; 37 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 112 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 9 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

Read More..

Recipes for Health: Sweet Millet Kugel — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Millet, a light, fluffy gluten-free grain that is a good source of magnesium, manganese and phosphorus, lends itself beautifully to both sweet and savory kugels. In fact, this kugel turned me into a millet convert.

 

2/3 cup millet

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups water

Salt to taste

1 cup cottage cheese

3 eggs

1/4 cup low-fat milk

1/4 cup mild honey or agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup (3 ounces) diced dried apricots

1/2 cup (3 ounces) raisins (or omit and use all apricots)

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

 

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter or oil over medium-high heat in a heavy 2- or 3-quart saucepan. Meanwhile, bring the water to a simmer in another saucepan or in the microwave. Add the millet to the heavy saucepan and toast, stirring, until it begins to smell fragrant and toasty, about 5 minutes. Add the boiling water and salt to taste, and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer 25 to 30 minutes, until the liquid in the saucepan has evaporated and the grains are fluffy. Transfer to a large bowl.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2-quart baking dish. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, blend the cottage cheese until smooth. Add the milk, eggs, vanilla and nutmeg and blend until smooth. Scrape into the bowl with the millet.

3. Stir together the millet and cottage cheese mixture. Stir in the apricots, raisins and lemon zest. Scrape into the prepared baking dish. Cut the remaining butter into small pieces and dot the top of the kugel with them. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until the kugel is set and beginning to color on the top.

4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes (longer if possible) before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Advance preparation: This will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator. It’s best if you warm it up, either in a low oven or in the microwave.

Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 306 calories; 8 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 105 milligrams cholesterol; 50 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 149 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 12 grams protein

Nutritional information per serving (8 servings): 229 calories; 6 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 79 milligrams cholesterol; 37 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 112 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 9 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

Read More..

Putin Fires Defense Minister in Wake of Scandal

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin fired the country's defense minister on Tuesday, two weeks after a criminal probe was opened into alleged fraud in the sell-off of military assets.

Anatoly Serdyukov has been widely unpopular in the ranks because of his reforms that radically cut the number of military officers and army units, but Putin had staunchly backed him in the past and his dismissal came as a surprise. Some observers say that Serdyukov's successor may take a less radical approach to the military reform.

Putin made the announcement in a meeting with Moscow regional governor Sergei Shoigu, whom he appointed as the new minister.

Putin's comments appeared to connect the decision to a probe announced by the country's top investigative agency last month into the sale of military assets, including real estate, at prices far below market value.

The Investigative Committee says the state suffered damages of 3 billion rubles ($95 million) in just a few cases reviewed.

Putin did not give specifics in his televised remarks, but said he made the decision "in order to create the necessary conditions for the objective investigation of all issues" regarding the situation in the Defense Ministry.

Russia's military establishment has been haunted by corruption accusations for years and several top military officials have been convicted of embezzlement.

The case announced in October involves Oboronservice, a state-controlled company whose activities include servicing military aircraft and arms and constructing military facilities.

Investigators have searched Oboronservice's offices and the apartment of Yevgeniya Vasilyeva, a senior company official who formerly headed the Defense Ministry's property department and was a close aide of Serdyukov.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said Tuesday that Serdyukov would be questioned in the probe "if there is a reason" for doing so.

Serdyukov, a former furniture salesman, entered public service as a tax official and quickly rose through the ranks to become head of the Russian tax service before being appointed defense minister in 2007. Russian media have speculated that he owed his quick career to marrying a daughter of Viktor Zubkov, a close associate of Putin who was prime minister in 2007-8 and now serves as chairman of state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom.

Some Russian media reports linked Serdyukov's ouster to his connections with Vasilyeva, which reportedly angered his father-in-law. But most observers agreed that while a family conflict could have triggered his firing, the real reason behind it could be a clash of interests over a costly military modernization program.

Serdyukov was widely hated by many in the military for his reform that dismissed as many as 200,000 officers, disbanded many units and turned plenty of military assets over to civilian hands. Over the past few years, he also has been locked in conflicts with defense industries over purchasing new weapons, pushing them to lower prices.

Speculation about his dismissal had floated around for years, but he had received Putin's staunch backing until now. Putin authorized and publicly praised Serdyukov's reforms, and it was not immediately clear if his legacy will now be reviewed.

The appointment of Shoigu, who had served as the nation's Emergency Situations minister for two decades before being appointed the regional governor half a year ago, will likely be welcomed by many in the military.

"Shoigu may now find himself in a difficult position facing the pressure for revising what has been done," military analyst Alexander Golts said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

___

Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report.

Read More..

A Capitalist’s Dilemma, Whoever Wins the Election

WHATEVER happens on Election Day, Americans will keep asking the same question: When will this economy get better?

Victo Ngai

Clayton Christensen, author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” says the winner of the presidential election must face “the capitalist’s dilemma."

In many ways, the answer won’t depend on who wins on Tuesday. Anyone who says otherwise is overstating the power of the American president. But if the president doesn’t have the power to fix things, who does?

It’s not the Federal Reserve. The Fed has been injecting more and more capital into the economy because — at least in theory — capital fuels capitalism. And yet cash hoards in the billions are sitting unused on the pristine balance sheets of Fortune 500 corporations. Billions in capital is also sitting inert and uninvested at private equity funds.

Capitalists seem almost uninterested in capitalism, even as entrepreneurs eager to start companies find that they can’t get financing. Businesses and investors sound like the Ancient Mariner, who complained of “Water, water everywhere — nor any drop to drink.”

It’s a paradox, and at its nexus is what I’ll call the Doctrine of New Finance, which is taught with increasingly religious zeal by economists, and at times even by business professors like me who have failed to challenge it. This doctrine embraces measures of profitability that guide capitalists away from investments that can create real economic growth.

Executives and investors might finance three types of innovations with their capital. I’ll call the first type “empowering” innovations. These transform complicated and costly products available to a few into simpler, cheaper products available to the many.

The Ford Model T was an empowering innovation, as was the Sony transistor radio. So were the personal computers of I.B.M. and Compaq and online trading at Schwab. A more recent example is cloud computing. It transformed information technology that was previously accessible only to big companies into something that even small companies could afford.

Empowering innovations create jobs, because they require more and more people who can build, distribute, sell and service these products. Empowering investments also use capital — to expand capacity and to finance receivables and inventory.

The second type are “sustaining” innovations. These replace old products with new models. For example, the Toyota Prius hybrid is a marvelous product. But it’s not as if every time Toyota sells a Prius, the same customer also buys a Camry. There is a zero-sum aspect to sustaining innovations: They replace yesterday’s products with today’s products and create few jobs. They keep our economy vibrant — and, in dollars, they account for the most innovation. But they have a neutral effect on economic activity and on capital.

The third type are “efficiency” innovations. These reduce the cost of making and distributing existing products and services. Examples are minimills in steel and Geico in online insurance underwriting. Taken together in an industry, such innovations almost always reduce the net number of jobs, because they streamline processes. But they also preserve many of the remaining jobs — because without them entire companies and industries would disappear in competition against companies abroad that have innovated more efficiently.

Efficiency innovations also emancipate capital. Without them, much of an economy’s capital is held captive on balance sheets, with no way to redeploy it as fuel for new, empowering innovations. For example, Toyota’s just-in-time production system is an efficiency innovation, letting manufacturers operate with much less capital invested in inventory.

INDUSTRIES typically transition through these three types of innovations. By illustration, the early mainframe computers were so expensive and complicated that only big companies could own and use them. But personal computers were simple and affordable, empowering many more people.

Companies like I.B.M. and Hewlett-Packard had to hire hundreds of thousands of people to make and sell PC’s. These companies then designed and made better computers — sustaining innovations — that inspired us to keep buying newer and better products. Finally, companies like Dell made the industry much more efficient. This reduced net employment within the industry, but freed capital that had been used in the supply chain.

Clayton M. Christensen is a business professor at Harvard and a co-author of “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

Read More..