Winter 2010

November 28, 2010

SNOW ....It is official, now winter begins.  In most parts of Germany, the air is brisk to say the least.  We were having minus 10°C last night.  It started to snow 4 days ago, not too much but enough to leave a layer of 'icing sugar' over everything.  It's a time of warm cosy evenings in front of the fire with a cup of tea. 
Noooo, I'm not knitting !!    Put that out of your mind
Took a walk this morning and here are some photos I took...........

Simply Easy Sunday Lunch

It's first Advent Sunday.  
Did not feel like baking or doing anything
but still have to eat.  Have a pack of fresh
asparagus (yes, I know it's not asparagus time)
veal, some penne (pasta) and some garlic butter
 
Result : Veal ala natural, soft poached asparagus with garlic butter penne.  

Tahina Sauce Vegetables & Chicken

 

I am sure most of you are familiar with 'hummus'
which is a dip, ubiquitous in the middle east.
My dear friend in Isreal gave me a bottle of tahina
which is the key component of hummus.
Instead of hummus, I decided to turn it into a sauce
for vegetables, chinese way.   Afterall, the chinese
used sesame as oil as well as to flavour everything,
toasted and sprinkled on salads, as dips, in marinades
and soups.

The chinese have a similar paste called sesame sauce(芝麻酱)
It is not quite interchangeable with tahina because the
chinese paste is from ROASTED sesame.  
Taste wise, as one can expect, roasted sesame is
rocking nutty.


   

Broccoli with spicy Indonesian chilipaste

Lately, I was very busy and did not have time to
make my own paste to replenish my stock on homemade  'sambals'. 

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambal
My local asian shop had some 'new products'
on the shelf and I picked a bottle of sambal.

 
I have a few crowns  of broccoli left from the cooking course and before they start to degenerate to 'blonde crowns', I decided to cook them for lunch.

Rather sick of eating meat so it's a vegetarian lunch.

Curry Fried Rice with gherkins

Fried rice is usually flavoured with soy sauce or salt.   Some even with ketchup.
Here is my version with 'odds and ends' like some pickled gherkins, some mince meat and curry powder.  The curry powder in this instance is not spicy as it's a european adapted mixture.  It has high percentage of kukurma and has hardly any bite of spicyness but it gives the rice a happy yellow tinge. Even  suitable for young children.  
It is simple yet addictive.

Halloween Eyes

I am late as usual.  Was too busy with visitors and 'work'.  

Here are my spooky contributions without recipes.