Adapted Bird of Paradise

Stumbled upon a very nice looking recipe (that is actually relatively easy to prepare) with fancy name - Bird of Paradise http://www.supermarketserenade.com/2008/10/bird-of-paradise.html

I follow the recipe to the fullest, served it with home made mash potato & here's the end result:



To be honest, I don't think the chicken is as nice as the originator descripe. I don't mind eating it again (if) but I won't purposedly cook it. Perhaps I expected too much? Perhaps something went wrong in my cooking process? Anyway, if anyone of you decided to try it out, please let me know what you think :)

Strawberry Sponge Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Was invited to a friend's birthday dinner and was told it will be a small and cosy one. Can't figure out what present to bring so I decided to bake a birthday cake.

Since I've baked white butter cream cake last time but I still insist on baking a white cake (to me, birthday cake has to be white, it feels more 'birthday', somehow). After rounds of searching, decided to bake a 2 layer sponge cake with strawberry filling, frost with whipped cream and garnish with fresh strawberries.

Adapt the sponge cake recipe from Boston cream pie: http://www.joyofbaking.com/BostonCreamPie.html

When assemble the cake, apply a layer of strawberry jam on top of the bottom layer. Upon complete, add a layer of whipped cream frosting. Try to be more generous, it tastes good :) For a 2 layer cake, I'd recommend to go for 2 portions of whipped cream frosting. I did my cake with 1 portion & I have to be very careful on the frosting for it to merely cover the cake.

Whipped cream frosting recipe:
http://joyofbaking.com/WhippedCreamFrosting.html

I garnish my cake with fresh strawberries (looks a bit dull but I don't have other fruits & shops are not open on Sunday) and finally zest some chocolate flakes on top of the cake.

And so...that's a story of a birthday cake =)

Wonton Soup

Chilly late autumn days, what is better than a bowl of hot soup to keep me warm? I'm in the mood of dumpling (wonton), so a trip to the asian shop to get the wonton wrapper & bak choy, and I'm all set.

Following the recipe here: http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2008/08/04/wonton-noodle-soup/, using 250g pork, I made 20 'various shapes' of wontons (I cannot seem to produce a uniform shape, unfortunately). The recipe works fine but I'd recommend using 2 teaspoon of cornstarch to smoothen the texture of the meat. The trick on adding in wonton when the water is warm but not boiling is really great. The wonton stay together & didn't open up.


Add in some egg noodles & boiled bak choy, my home made wonton soup is done. Mine looks much less interesting than the recipe website & I skipped scallion (I don't want to use a little & end up with a lot of scallion left overs) but personally I think it taste just fine. If I cook again next time, I'll probably add some pork into the soup & boil it to taste more than just chicken broth :)

Peanut Turmeric Chicken

I am suppose to make satay chicken but apparently it will take so much effort to cook the sauce & I don't have all the ingredients required for a proper satay meal. Being in lazy mode, I decided to modify the recipe based on what I have & came up with peanut turmeric chicken.

Ingredient (for the chicken):-
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast (cut into 3 stripes each)
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1½ tablespoons peanut butter (unsweetened)
1 teaspoons honey (optional)
2 teaspoon turmeric
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon peanut oil

Instructions:-
1. Combine soy sauce, honey, turmeric, garlic and oil in a bowl. Add chicken stripes. Turn to coat well. Cover. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. I marinated it overnight.

2. Bring chicken out and allow it to come to room temperature. Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick skillet & slowly pan fried chicken stripes until cooked. Serve with jasmin rice.

Simple isn't it? Except one has to be careful when pan frying the chicken. The oil 'splashes' everywhere (I stay furthest possible from the pan) & with turmeric as one of the ingredient, my kitchen wall is 'painted' with yellow oil marks which required much cleaning afterwards.

Next time, I'll try to grill it at 200degree Celcius for about 6 minutes or until chicken is cooked. I think it should work. We'll see ;)

Sweet Chili Prawn

I like seafood...actually I love them back home (still do).

Unfortunately, even though Denmark is literally surrounded by sea (which translate to lots of seafood to me) but the seafood available here are not what I'm used to. Fishes are different, not much (to be exact, none) squid/crabs spotted so far, not to mentioned they are usually frozen. One really need to sniff their way around to local fish stall to find limited selection of fresh seafood & please don't expect it to be cheap when it's fresh :)

So, lowering my expectation (again) when I crave for something other than meat & poultry, I go for frozen tiger prawns. How to prepare it?? Did the coated with breadcrumb thing before, don't want to repeat. Hmm...got me cracking my head for quite some time until I get inspired by my mom's chili paste (again).

Minced a clove of garlic, stir fried it with a tablespoon of oil & add in a tablespoon of CH's mom's chili paste. Fried until chili fragrant can be smelled, trust me, it's innegligible ;) & add in the prawns. When prawns are almost cooked (slightly orangy/reddish), add in 1 tablespoon of sweet thai chili sauce (the type with garlic) & 1 tablespoon of water. Continue stir fried until prawn cooked & serve with white rice. I'm telling you, it's finger licking good!


I like onion so I usually add in ½ small onion to the recipe. Just sliced the onion & stir fried it together with the garlic. When it turn slightly soft, add in chili paste. Don't want to mention it above because the prawn will still taste nice without the onion. It's an optional but recommended (why? because I like it) :p

Ok...I think I've mentioned more than a couple of times about my mom's chili paste. I will ask her the recipe (when I go home) and publish them for 'public sharing'...how nice of me to share my mom's love :p

For the time being, I hope you can at least enjoy the picture ;)

Depressed

I am depressed...very depressed...extremely depressed!!!

One of my colleague brought his 11-year old son to work. Strange enough, even though he speaks only little English & my Danish is nowhere near 'OK', we 'click' (maybe because I have a child in me? :p)

He was following me up & down at work and we bump into a female colleague from another department. Here's the problem: she asked me if the boy is my son. I almost fainted on the spot. NO WAY! Do I look like I'm old enough to have an 11-year old son??

I sprint back to my colleague (the boy's father) & complained. Unfortunately my complaining voice volume went a little high (because I was extremely 'hurt'), the whole row of colleagues heard that & was laughing at me. They said they'll help to call ethics line for such 'insult' that happens on me :s

I wonder & wonder & wonder what's wrong with my look. After rounds of confirmation with my colleagues that I don't look like a mom for 11-year old boy, I draw the conclusion that the female colleague needs a pair of new spectacle! That must be the reason.

Raspberry Pancake

Ingredients (serves 4)
95g all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
150ml cups milk
½ egg (if the egg is big, else, no concern to use full egg)
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions:-
1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium high heat. Pour the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Recipe adapt from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Good-Old-Fashioned-Pancakes/Detail.aspx

The pancake size that I'm used to is small & I prefer it slightly thick (my Danish friends call it 'American size'). I served the pancake to them & they were shocked to see my small thick pancakes. The 'normal' Danish ones are thin & of pan size, really big.

I like to eat my pancake with honey / maple syrup, apparently it's also nice to sprinkle some granulated sugar on the pancake, roll it up & eat it; the Danish way. The extra pancakes can be kept in fridge & just reheat at microwave oven & ta-da...'fresh' warm pancake ready again :)

Pic: my pancake breakfast