Monday, April 25, 2011

Chocolate ginger brownies and Polish Easter bread

Chicken Kuurdak
Today's Food Diary

Breakfast: Boiled egg on flax seed sourdough toast
Dinner: Spaghetti with carrots and cauliflower in tomato sauce, spaghetti with soya beans 
Baking/sweets: Daim Chocolate Ginger Brownies, other sweets

Kuurdak (or kuyrdak or kuirdak) is a Central Asian dish which may sound exotic and complicated but it is really easy to prepare. It basically involves sautéing meat, potato and onions. With so few ingredients the quality of the ingredients becomes particularly important. 

A critical flavouring which I always use with restraint is fat. The fattiest cuts of meat are used and sometimes more fat is added. If you order Kuurdak in Central Asia and the plate appears with a generous amount of melted fat do not be shocked! On the contrary this may be a sign of a good restaurant. The recipe is available here

Daim Chocolate Ginger Brownies


Today's Favourite Photo
Source: Cioccolato Gatto
Polish Easter Bread




Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: 365 Days Without Sweets
This is my favourite but a bit sad blog. The blog author lives in Croatia and she embarked on a mission to go without sweets for 365 days. The mission came to an end on day 66 when she succumbed to Easter pressure and indulged in a cake. Though the mission failed, 66 days is a fine achievement.

I thought the goal was brave but it is something I would not attempt myself for the simple reason that I don’t set goals which I know I cannot achieve!  Sometimes I set a ‘no sweets until next weekend’ goal. This contradicts a saying that my friend told me “aim for the sky and you might get off the ground”!

10 comments:

  1. I saw some of that Easter bread on sale in my town today! I tried some, it was very nice :)

    Also, I saw that your industry is investment banking. Is that what you work in? Just wondering, because I am interning in sales and trading in an investment bank this summer :)

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  2. Thats a cute easter bread!

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  3. I really adore the pairing of chocolate and ginger! Those brownies look fantastic!

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  4. Two really nice ideas, love the bread, that is really cute. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. I don't think I could go a week without sweets! That's a beautiful Easter bread photo.

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  6. I admire her effort but there is no way I could go without sweets for that long. I'm luck if I last a day.

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  7. Xinmei: yes I do work in IB, focusing on high(est) risk markets. You will have a lot of fun, and long hours but you know that already:)

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  8. More interesting selections. Chocolate and ginger is an unusual but delicious combination if the use of ginger is restrained. I hope you have a great evening. Blessings...Mary

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  9. Chocolate! Ginger! Brownies! How delicious. And Daim is my favourite bar. I am going to have to check out IKEA for the chocolate drink mix.

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  10. Haha, yeah, I've been warned about the hours! Glad to find that you have time to eat good food though, and blog about it :) It gives me hope!

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