Indian Dinner

Found tandoori chicken recipe online http://winepairings.blogspot.com/2008/08/tandoori-chicken.html and tried it out. The result turns out to be far different from the tandoori chicken that I'm used to. To me, tandoori chicken should be reddish but this one...hmm...I was pretty sceptical when I read the ingredient list but was thinking to just give it a try.

The chicken has been marinated for 24hrs but the funny thing is: the taste doesn't go into the chicken. The skin taste of something but not the meat. Weird symptom for something that has been marinated a day. Don't think I'll try this recipe again. Too much effort & too little 'return', lol...

However, since I've worked hard to prepare it, I must publish the photo that I took ;)

Pic: Tandoori chicken

Pic: Butter Masala (instant :p)

Pic: Complete dinner

Tomatoes

What's new about tomato in Denmark that a lot of people might not know? well, apparently, the name of the farmer who plant & cultivate the tomato will be displayed on the package. Bought a pack tomato which is planted by Maria Isabel Gomez :s So, what do I with tomatoes that was planted by Maria? 2 solutions:-

1. Remkin Egg
Ingredient (serves 2):-
grated cheese (I use mozzarella)
1 tomato, diced
2oz ham
2 eggs
pepper & salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 (175c). Sautee tomatoes for one more minute then add the ham. Heat everything for an additional minute now. Put the mix in remkin, sprinkle grated cheese on top and crack an egg over them. Add salt & pepper to taste. Pop the remkins in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes. If after 15 minutes the egg white doesn’t look completely firm give it a few more minutes. Simple & easy.

Delicious or not? It's ok...but still feel like something is missing in the taste. Maybe next time I'll add some tomato puree / tomato paste ;)

Pic: Remkin egg

2. Tomato Fried Egg 番茄炒蛋

Ingredients:-
2 eggs
1 tomato, diced
salt & pepper to taste

Beat 2 eggs with salt & pepper. Diced tomato & sautee them with a teaspoon of oil. When the tomatoes turn soft, add in eggs. Heat until eggs are cooked. Ready to be served. Simpler & easier than remkin egg, hehe...

Pic: Tomato fried egg

Miso Salmon

Been longing to try miso glazed salmon but never manage to find miso until I 'discover' them in the Asian shop some time ago.

So, miso paste - checked. I found a 'look to be promising' recipe online which claims to be as nice as cheesecake factory's miso glazed salmon (I've never been there but the webpage owner makes it sound super yummy) so I decided to give it a try.

Serving with white rice, the result...

I'm not sure how the picture the picture looks to you but the taste was just so-so & it calls for too many ingredient, I think. That's why I'm not sharing the recipe here. Wait till I'm successful with the real nice miso salmon. Till then, I'll keep 'experimenting' :)

Square Cheese Cake

Graham Cracker Crust:
2 cups (200 grams) graham wafer crumbs or crushed digestive cookies
2 tablespoons (30 grams) granulated white sugar
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake Filling:
400 grams cream cheese, softened at room temperature so it won't 'bubble' when baked
*I used Philadelphia cream cheese, more solid texture
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice / lime juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Have ready a 9 x 13 x 2 inch square baking pan that has been lined with aluminum foil across the bottom and up two opposite sides of the pan. Set aside.

Graham Cracker Crust: Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

**Increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). I forget about this line, so I baked an extra 10minutes at 160 degrees C, turns out just fine, phew...

Cheesecake Filling: With electric mixer, or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, as needed. Pour the cheesecake filling over the graham cracker base and bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheesecake batter is just set.

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Place in the refrigerator for a few hours to make the squares easier to cut (I placed it overnight & cut the next day morning). With a sharp knife, cut into 2 inch squares. Have a damp cloth on hand to wipe the knife between cuts.

Recipe adapted from http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/CheesecakeSquaresprint.html

Pic (top): Cheese cake fresh from oven; (bot): after over night chilling

The recipe calls for 24 square pieces but considering I need to 'serve' a lot of people, I have to cut it into 36 pieces. Brought the cakes to work & also to my Danish class. Well, my colleagues & classmates loves it. One of my colleague even complained that such a small piece is not enough...well, too bad for him :p

I like cheese cake and the whole baking process takes just about an hour to bake, so easy. I'll definitely bake it again, perhaps with some variation in taste (maybe with chocolate?), but this time, I will eat a lot myself instead of just distributing it ;)

Pic: Square cheese cake side view, yum yum...

Cooking Failuresss

Well, I understand that cooking is not all about success but having 3 failures in a row within one dinner preparation is devastating.

I started with ambicious plan to have home baked bread with almost instant (well, it's instant but I have to heat it up) tomato soup and grill pork (had some really nice fresh pork slices).

First of all, bread baking. Everything goes well until the moment when the baking time is up but the bread is not 'expanding'. I noticed something wrong when the bread dough doesn't 'expand' but thought it might be okay after I subject it to oven heat. I was wrong. The 'bread' (if I can still call it bread) are so solid that I can use it as self defense weapon. Outer part is crunchy but it's absolutely 'raw' on the inside. Root cause: the yeast is expired!

While I was baking the bread, I grill the pork together as well, thought that I'm capable of multi-tasking, which is not (at all). I pre-marinated the pork with some crushed black peppers, salt & paprika and put it into the oven half way through bread baking time, planning to grill it for 10minutes so it can be ready the same time as the bread.

Unfortunately, I didn't consider of the fact that the bread could be 'problematic' so I added another 10minute to try to bake the bread further when it's not expanding much, forgetting all about the pork. So I end up with 'raw' bread & over-cooked, ultra dry pork.

So what can go wrong with instant tomato soup? Well, simple as: choosing the wrong brand of instant soup!!! It turns out to be on the salty side. At the end of the day, my dinner was crunchy bread 'skin' with salty tomato soup & ultra dry grilled pork. After battling with the super dry pork with my fork & knife, then chew endless time in my mouth but still find it difficult to swallow, I have to give up.

The 'food' (if I can still clasified them as food) were so bad that I'm so glad I didn't take any pictures because I won't have the courage to publish them. Conclusion: I shall never multitask, especially trying to integrate baking + grilling at a single time and never buy that particular brand of tomato soup again!

Security.Police

A friend read some local Danish news complaining about police and brought it up for discussion. The 'triggering' news goes like this: a cook caught a thief red-handed and held him retained while he contacted the police to pick up the thief. Unfortunately, he called twice and nobody from the police force come so he had no choice but to let the thief go.

The worst part is: during his phone call, he was told by the operator that he might be issued a fine ticket because the yelling of the theif in the background was heard and the cook is suspected to be mistreating the thief. I almost fainted when I hear this.

I mean, come on...if I'm the thief & I'm being captured, I would probably been screaming & cursing the cook. What's wrong with the operator? Since when the world change? Instead of protecting citizens & catching thieves, police nowadays refuse to carry out their duties and even worse, fining good citizen for capturing thief? I cannot figure out the logic, not even a single bit!

I was told that the situation wasn't this bad a couple of years back. Due to recent reduce in police station (in the effort to centralize & consolidate police stations) & resources issue, policeman coverage is not as good as before and they're not as responsive as well. But come on, just how big can a place be to be out of coverage? I find it absolutely ridiculous.

If it's only one single complaint, then it is an isolated case but if newspaper can publish at least 10 of these ridiculous police stories at one single time, I think it is seriously problematic.

Here's another one: a guy was sleeping in his car outdoor and was broken into & attacked by thieves. He filed a police report but ended up receiving a police fine ticket because he's not suppose to sleep in the car overnight. OMG, I'm absolutely speechless! I feel like the world has been turn upside down!

All these while, I feel safe walking on streets of Denmark and I've never heard of really severe / disturbing bad social news (compare to back home where female raped, tortured & killed cases are not rare). After hearing this, I seriously feel insecure. What if something happens to me and police is not coming to my rescue when I needed them the most? What am I going to do?

So this friend of mine who used to attend tai-chi class suggested me to learn tai-chi. Tai-chi? With the slow movement of tai-chi, the thief / bad guy probably already knocked me down & achieve his/her/their objective(s). I think I need to learn Taekwando or Karate instead.

Snow

It snowed, it snowed...in Denmark, November. A little out of season snow but I was thrilled with my first snow in Denmark. Started at about 10.50am, it was just hail and I was already happily hopping around in office (I don't care, to me, anything that looks like snow is snow :p). Here's a quick 6 second 'snowing' video from outside of my cubical (yes, I have train station view).

The day continued with real snow, on & off. I walked home in snow...was nice to see roads & roof tops turn white, snows falling & walking in the snow if only it was not so cold & not so slippery :p

I have full glass windows in my living room & bedroom so I can actually sit comfortably in warm living room / lying in bedroom, sipping hot coffee & enjoy the snow scene (even though the 'scene' is just a carpark).

Looking forward to my first snow fight / snow angel / snow anything in Denmark but I'm not sure when it'll snow again. Until then, please bear with the 6 second video clip. I'll definitely snap more when it REALLY snows :)