Another task that has taken a fair share of my time has been beta-testing Delicious Library 2, as well as translating it to Norwegian. Looks very promising, and has a bunch of cool new features.

Oh, almost forgot the main reason for blogging today, I made a nice wok that was pretty tasty and very simple, so I thought I’d share the “recipe”:

What to buy (serves 2):
- 250/300 grams of pork or chicken
- 1 paprika
- 1 small broccoli
- 1 onion
- Teriyaki-sauce
- Noodles (I used pre-cooked cheater’s noodles, were tasty enough)

How to make:
- Cut the meat and vegetables into your preferred size chunks.
- Quickly fry the meat in a hot pan with a tablespoon or two of oil.
- Take the meat out, add a bit more oil to the pan, and start frying the vegetables. Put the broccoli in first, they need the most time. Remember to move the broccoli around so it doesn’t turn to charcoal.
- Once the broccoli has gotten a couple of minutes alone in the pan, add the onion and paprika, and put the meat back in.
- Turn down the heat to a medium-high temperature (e.g. 8/10 on my stove), and fry the whole mix for 2-4 minutes.
- Now add about 1dl of teriyaki sauce, or to taste.
- At the end, add the pre-cooked (or cheater’s) noodles, and as soon as the noodles are warm, you’re done.

Pretty simple and cheap dinner for two, and not the least healthy dish you can make.

Highlights: cheese is a mix of cheddar, gruyere, and buffalo mozzarella (thanks Jesper for the tip!), the pizza dough is based on a Jamie Oliver-recipe that uses honey insted of sugar, and 50/50 semolina-flour and ordinary flour, and the tomato sauce is a tin of finely chopped tomatoes with basil, some garlic, and some chili powder for heat.

Marianne’s topping: tomato sauce, cheese mix, ham, pineapple, and some freshly ground pepper on top. Before/after photos:

Looks pretty tasty, right? Well I can promise you it was really really good!

Eirik’s topping: tomato sauce, cheese mix, a few pieces of ham, plenty of peperoni, and pineapple. Before/after photos:

I’m already looking forward to eating leftovers tomorrow morning!

Chicken salad with indian spices and saffron rice

Ingredients (no measurements or amounts):
- Iceberg salad
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Bell pepper/Paprika
- Chicken breasts
- Tandoori Masala spice mix (Rajah)
- Marinated feta-cheese
- Basmati or jasmin rice
- Saffron

The ingredients above can be mixed and chopped to your own taste, I like chunky bits while Marianne likes smaller pieces, so we usually end up with a compromise.

How to make it?
- Boil the rice as you would normally, but add a small pinch of saffron to the water before you add the rice.
- Cut the chicken into cubes, and fry in a pan in a tablespoon or so of olive oil. When it’s almost done, add the tandoori masala spice mix and stir so all the chicken gets covered with the goodness. I also added some hot curry paste this time.
- While the rice and chicken is cooling down, cut the rest of the ingredients into your preferred size bits.
- Now layer all the ingredients into a large salad bowl, whip up (or fetch from the fridge) your favorite salad dressing, and serve with a glass of a premier- or grand cru Chablis (or a Coca Cola, which we had today).

Enjoy!

Pesto-marinated beef in pita-bread with feta and pineapple, and a curry-dressing:

What to buy? (serves 2)
- 350g of beef (sirloin or tenderloin)
- A glass of good pesto
- 1 pack of feta-cheese
- 1 tin of pineapple rings
- 2 pieces of pita-bread
- Sour cream
- Hot curry paste and curry powder (we used Rajah-products)

How to make it?
1. Slice the meat in 1x1x5cm pieces, and marinate it in plenty of pesto for just a few minutes.
2. Quickly sear the meat in a hot pan with just a little bit of oil, and when all sides of the meat have been sealed, take pan off the heat and let the meat rest for 5 minutes in the pan.

3. While the meat rests, you slice the feta in 0.5cm slices, and drain as much juice as possible from the pineapple rings. Then make the dressing by mixing sour cream with curry paste and -powder to taste.
4. Heat the pita-bread in a toaster (or in the oven) until it’s nice and warm on the inside, and slightly crispy on the outside.
5. Slice the pita-bread open, just like you’d split a hamburger-bread in half, and put the meat in the bottom, then a slice of feta, and then a ring or two of pineapple on top. Finally pour dressing over the pineapple and feta right before you dig in, and “close” with the top half of the pita-bread. Done!

Roast potatoes is something I’ve never tried making before, but will definitely make again!

The potatoes were par-boiled with the lemon and whole garlic cloves, and then roasted in the oven for 45 minutes with rosemary in the nice juicy fat from the chicken. Mmmmm tasty..

The menu was:

• Tandoori-marinated chicken breasts
• Pork chops
• Corn
• Baked potatoes
• Haloumi

Now if only we could get some nice sunny weather this summer, the BBQ won’t get much rest, and neither will my stomach!

I wanted to make a post about my recent restaurant-experiences, because they range from the top of the pops to the faaaaar end of the other side of the scale.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a pizzaplace called Casa Mia with Divisha, Kristian, Gerdur, Andre, and Daniel. The reason we went there was because they had 50% discount on all their pizzas… Guess we were fools who thought they would be able to handle the increase in customers that such an offer would generate. This is what happened:
1. We waited 15 minutes before they gave us a table.
2. We sat down, ordered our food and beverages, some orders were with some special requests (without olives, but with chili insted), but nothing they shouldn’t be able to handle.
3. After waiting about 40 minutes, and still no pizzas, we noticed that there were people sitting at two different tables who arrived after us who had been served already, so I went to the counter and asked them what was going on. After lots of back and forth between the waitress and the pizzaman, they finally decided that they had forgotten our order because the waitress had placed the note in the wrong place, so we had to wait 10 more minutes and the food would be ready.
4. After about 5 minutes, one of the waitresses came up and asked us if we wanted free coffee since the food was late. I said “can we have another serving of drinks instead?”. She nodded, and got us another serving of drinks. We were pretty satisfied with this, and thought “ok, they made up for a bit of the delay there”.
5. The food finally arrived, and it was fairly good. They hadn’t done any of the special orders, but we didn’t complain because we were almost starving to death, so we didn’t want to wait another hour…
6. We finished our meal, and asked for the bill. Just to be sure, we checked if they had charged us for the second serving of drinks, and they had. So I went to the counter again, and told them about the mistake. Apparently, it was my mistake. She hadn’t offered us free drinks, but free coffee. So to be nice, they offered to deduct the staggering amount of 60 NOK from the bill. After a very short argument I realized that there wasn’t much I could say, so we paid the bill, told them that they wouldn’t see us back again, and left.

My recommendation: NEVER eat at Casa Mia, especially not if they have a 50% discount day…

Moving up the scale, I want to mention a new Indian restaurant that opened a couple of months ago on Alexander Kiellands plass - Gutta fra Calcutta. At a reasonable price (main course 150 NOK), the food is very good, and the staff is very friendly and serviceminded. I definitely recommend a visit to this place if you like Indian food, and want a good meal at a fairly low price.

Moving to the top of the scale, we have Markveien Mat & Vinhus. The prices here are much higher, we paid 4500 NOK for a three course dinner for 6 people, but it was more than worth the price. I had swordfish as an entree, frog fish as main course, and raspberry sherbet for dessert.
The food: fantastic!
The service: they gave all the information we wanted, recommended wine that was perfect with the food, were always paying attention to our needs, and were all very friendly and professional. Just perfect!
The price: paying 750 NOK per person for a dinner sounds steep, but considering the quality and the service, I think it’s exactly where it should be. We could have gone to a nice place like Bagatelle, and would probably have paid twice as much for the same food and service.

My recommendation: if you’re going out to celebrate an event, or want to take your significant other out for a romantic and special night, go to Markveien Mat & Vinhus, you won’t regret it!