108: Let's talk about food

I told myself to blog as often as possible, partly cos I don't want to forget what I've done or achieve, be it something small or big. Most of the time, the highlight of the day will usually be food; what I've eaten or what I've made. Normally, it's the latter. That's because I now have all the time to cook and bake more than ever. In fact, to do just about anything I want =)

Yesterday, I tried to make lemon chicken for the family, since the kids don't fancy spicy food. It worked and they loved it. Not as yellow as I expected the sauce to be, but it still worked.


Then I tried making malaiko again, this time using a recipe my mom gave me. I probably used the wrong tin cos it came out too thin, and accidentally left it in the oven for too long. Problem is, my host family has no steam pot or anything to steam over the stove. They have a steam oven with multiple settings. Sadly, it's all in Finnish. So this malaiko attempt is an experiment for me, to see which setting suits best for Asian baking. This is the third attempt by the way.

To my surprise, the kids liked it. I was expecting them to say it's bad and call it another mushroom cake but it was the total opposite! It didn't meet my expectations, though. It was cooked baked alright, but the taste was different.

So I tried it again today, in smaller tins. Here, I used mini chiffon cake tins, cos they're the smallest tins I can find around here.

I probably found the right setting in the oven, but the taste is still not what I am looking for. The texture was also more compact than it should be; not light and fluffy. Thing is, there're only two types of brown sugar sold in the supermarket; organic and non-organic. Difference is of course in the price. I've always used the non-organic one in baking but it hasn't satisfied me once. I dunno if it's really the culprit but the brown sugar here is somehow wetter, if compared to the brown sugar available in Malaysia. Will try again with the brown sugar I saw in the Asian store.

Till then, hyvää ruokahalua!