Baked Schnitzel . Cool Cucumber Salad . Rosemary Potato .

Whats on the menu for dinner tonight?

I haven't really appreciated public holiday until I started working. Waking up any time of the day, without having to dress up for work and without having to stand like packed sardines in the morning train. Just simply opening your eyes and thinking what to do for fun is FUN.

I had actually been planning to bake this all week, because its the first time I am preparing dinner, with proper food. Or rather with raw meat. Went grocery shopping with Sister Tan this morning and if the temperature had not be so cold in the supermarket, I would have stayed there the whole morning, stocking up the kitchen.

So dinner for tonight is Cool Cucumber Salad. Well The first time I had really good cucumber Salad was at ah huat's grandma's place. I honestly did not know this simply vegetable could taste that good! So I was searching for a nice simple recipe and found this chive cucumber salad recipe. I've modified a little because I prefer using dill instead of chives.

Ingredients

2 Large cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 C Yogurt

1.5 Tbs Fresh dill

1 Tbs vinegar

1/4 Tsp Garlic powder

1/4 Tsp Salt

1/4 Tsp Pepper

Salad: Mix all the ingredients and Store it in the fridge till ready to serve.

Afraid that the food might not be enough for the three of us, I decided to bake some herb potato which is super simple to make!

Ingredients

1 Bag New potatoes, scrubbed and diced. ( The potatoes were small enough for me to just halve them.)

Salt

Pepper ( for taste)

1 Tbs Rosemary

1 Tbs Garlic

2 Tbs Olive Oil

1) Preheat oven to 219 degree C.

2) Coat the base of your baking pan with olive oil

3) Mix the ingredients together with the potato, ensure that every potato is coated with the seasoning.

4) Place seasoned potato in the pan and drizzle some olive oil before baking for 20-25 mins.

The star for tonight is the Schnitzel of course! Its definitely not the typical wiener schnitzel!

Ingredients
2/3 Chicken Breast ( Depending on number of servings)
1 C Breadcrumbs
1/4 C Parmesan cheese
1/4 C Flour
1-2 Eggs ( Depending on quantity and size of meat)
1 Tbs Oregano
1/2 Tsp salt/ Pepper

1) Preheat oven to 218 degree C. On one plate combine flour, salt, pepper. On another plate Combine breadcrumbs, parmesan and oregano and in a bowl scramble the egg.
2) Place chicken breast in a bag and pound them. In assembly line fashion, dredge your meat in the flour first. Shake off any excess. Move on to the eggs and then to the breadcrumbs. Place on a baking sheet, coated with thin layer of oil.
3) Depending on how thin your meat is, bake for about 20mins. Tadah! Dinner is ready to serve!

The schnitzel was moist on the inside and not too oily on the outside. Serve it with a slice of lemon and mustard!  Together with the Refreshing cucumber salad and herb potato!

Herb Beer bread.

Sometimes, food for me is like a journal. The taste of certain food evokes a distinct feeling, a memory or simply captures the scene at that moment. I guess I like baking also because it momentarily brings me away to the time when I was traveling. Wondering along the streets and finding little surprises. The unpredictability of things!

Everyone remembers Köln for the Dom. Its never ending spiral stairs and of course the shopping!

But my first memory of Köln was walking in the rainy city with my friends, searching for something I can't quite remember. Feeling hungry and sad because we could not quite find what we were searching for and ended up at a bakery ( which happens to be a really good bakery, because about one year later I landed up there again to have lunch!). What caught my eye there was beer bread! In the cold rainy weather, feeling low and empty, beer bread came to the rescue, alright maybe I am dramatizing a little but I had really fantastic beer bread for the first time in my life. ( And I honestly thought it was beer flavored bread, well it isn't surprising to have this sort of stuff since we were in germany, where Beer is dirt cheap! )

And so today, I decided to recapture that memory. Its also partly because sister tan is complaining that I am baking too much sweet stuff and odd to quit sugar for once. Little did she know that I don't really like baking healthy stuff. hahaha!

I found a couple of beer bread recipe and decided to modify a little,

Adapted from Recipezaar

Ingredients

3 C Flour (Sifted. Very important step!)

3 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Salt

1/4 C Sugar

1 Tsp Garlic

1 Tsp Oregano
1/2 C Parmesan

1 (12 ounce) can Beer

1/4 C melted butter

1) Preheat oven to 178 degrees

2) Mix dry ingredients and beer

3) Pour into a greased loaf pan

4) Pour melted butter over mixture

5) Bake 1 hour, remove from pan and cool.

Its so simple, smells fantastic and taste even better than it looks!

Herb and cheese Muffin.

Decided to try savory muffins today. While I was searching for something to bake, that does not require any cooking, I found this cheese and herb muffin. Which seem pretty interesting. I decided to give it a try and used Dill for the herb and mixed cheese.

I like this recipe. It has a really good texture to, moist and soft. But its important to get the right amount of salt and pepper to it. ( My muffins tasted a little blend, because I was really bad at estimating the amount of salt and pepper.) And I would suggest cheese with a stronger taste, for a stronger flavor.

12 large muffins

• Flour - 2 cups
• Baking powder - 2 teaspoons
• Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt, pepper, spices to taste
• Sugar - 1/2 tablespoon
• Cheese (chedder, gouda, etc), grated - 100 g
• Herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro, etc), chopped - 25g
• Egg, slightly whisked - 1
• Plain yogurt - 1 1/2 cup (+ more if the the batter is too thick)
• Butter, melted - 4 tablespoons

- Preheat the oven to 400F (200C).

- Line the muffin tin with muffin cups and oil them.

- Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together in a large bowl.

- Add the cheese, herbs, salt, pepper and sugar. Mix.

- In a separate bowl whisk together yogurt, egg and melted butter.

- Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and mix just until it comes together. You might need to add a little more yogurt if the dough is too thick.

- Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin filling 3/4 full.

- Bake for about 20 minutes until the muffins are golden and risen and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.