It’s winter down here, even if we’ve been spoilt with some sunshine over the last few days. Still quite cold though and with uninsulated homes and no central heating a hot soup is worth a million dollars at some days. This recipe from Bill Granger is super quick and super yum. But I might need to get a new blender as the curry paste has turned mine into a weird looking yellow something. Well, it was worth it.
Enjoy and I hope it heats up my friends from the southern hemisphere.
Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.Ernestine Ulmer
Recently, I realised that my public library has cookbooks and food magazines. I still don’t get how I could miss that for months, but ever since I’ve been heading over there, it’s just across the street from my office, during lunch, flicking through magazines and books. I always felt kind of bad buying new books and magazines all the time, having hundreds of recipes that haven’t been cooked yet at home, plenty of cookbooks that have rarely been touched and a 100 meter long ‘to cook’ list from all the great online resources.
But now, without feeling bad, I can take books and magazines I like home, look at the beautiful photos, get inspired, cook the nice things and bring them back. It’s not the same – I know. But for me it’s a way out of my guilt without missing all the fun…
The recipe I’d like to share with you today is super easy and not rocket science, you probably wouldn’t even need a recipe for it. But for me, sometimes, it’s all about inspiration. Seeing some delicious prawns there, reading about citrus fruits here and having a craving for pasta. And that’s what comes out of it. Enjoy. I hope you like it.
Yes, yes, yes – Pancakes again. I put myself in for a challenge: find the best pancakes in the world. You can imagine how much Stefan loves me for that.
So I try as many recipes as possible and I will share all the good ones with you. So be prepared…
I like this one a lot, because it uses frozen berries. I love all kind of berries and have suffered a lot lately with being stucked in a cold and berry-less winter. So using frozen ones is a nice way of answering my craving for blueberries and more.
After a long day at work, I wasn’t in the mood of cooking and standing in the kitchen for too long. So we had Chickpea Salad with Feta and Rocket. But I wanted to make something to accompany that. So I thought: Pita Bread with Cucumber Yoghurt would be nice. And it was nice. Very nice. And so quick and easy…
I used to buy Pita Bread at the store and I have to admit that the home made one doesn’t taste that much different, but it is a lot more fun to see them puff. And it’s cheaper, too. And you can make them when you need them. And you can make different shapes and sizes. Convinced?
It’s easier as you might think… So let’s get floury in the kitchen.
Back in Germany we had a nice tradition for Saturday mornings. We would get up early to go grocery shopping and on our way to the supermarket, we would stop at our favourite Portuguese cafe. We would grab a Galao, which is a Latte the Portuguese way, and a Pasteis de Nata.
They are yummy littley pastries with vanilla custard. I didn’t think of them in a long time, but when I saw them on Deichrunner’s Kitchen, I had a flashback and an immediate craving.
So I made them the next day and they were so delicious. I think it’s amazing how flavours remind you of situations, places, people…
You have to try them. Really.
There is this lovely restaurant in Hamburg, Ottensen – the neighbourhood we used to live in. It’s called Eisenstein and has the most amazing Pizza.
I always struggled to choose between Fire & Flame, prawns, red onions, ginger and chilli and Dumb Goat, rosemary tomato base, goat cheese and crisp bacon.
When we moved to New Zealand, I missed this kind of Pizza a lot. So I tried to figure out how to make it myself and came up with this recipe for Pizza with Prawns. Have you tried it yet? If not, do so.
And then I came across Chaosqueen’s Kitchen’s recipe for the 21. Bread Baking Day: Dumb Goat a la Eisenstein. She simply made my day.
It is actually kind of tricky to find the right ingredients here in New Zealand, so I had to adjust the recipe. Even if not quite original, it was still yum… I hope you will like it.
I really like spicy curries with a lot of fresh vegetables. When I came across the recipe for a Cashew Curry on the beautiful 101 cookbooks site, I made it immediately. It’s simple, it’s yum and you can swap the vegetables with the ones you have at hand.
I’ve slightly changed the recipe, as I am not a big fan of tofu and I didn’t have any cashew nuts. I am sure it will be even better with the nuts, so make sure you try it.
Didn’t I tell you that I am into healthy things? And that I don’t bake very often because we can’t eat all the stuff? Forget about that for a minute. I have another cake for you. Well, it’s winter down here and it’s cold and windy and rainy. So I need some comfy food…
I made this simple Lemon Yoghurt Cake the other day for my french classmates. Yes, I am learning French. I am back to homework and listening to a teacher standing in front of a chalkboard. Actually, it’s not really a chalkboard. But anyway. I had it in school for 5 years and have forgotten pretty much everything. The Alliance Francaise is in the same building as my office and I am enyoing it a lot. And as it was the last lesson of this term, I thought cake might be nice.
I actually made a proper cake for mes amis, these small ones were for Stefan and me. A little treat for afternoon tea the next day at work…
Stefan doesn’t like pasta very much. If he would have to choose between rice and pasta he would always go for rice. But I’ll try to sneak some spaghetti and co into our dinner as often as possible…
So here is another simple and fresh dinner – great after a busy day at work.
On Saturday night we drove around the bay to have dinner with our dear friends. As usual the answer to ‘can I bring something’ was ‘No, not at all. Relax, don’t worry’… Mmh, but arriving with nothing is not very kind and nobody would dismiss some home made dessert I assumed.
The first thing that came into my mind was tiramisu. I haven’t had any for ages and my mouth was watering. But I didn’t have much time for grocery shopping and preparing… With the idea of coffee, chocolate and sweet in my mind, I browsed TasteSpotting and came across this Cinnamon Espresso Cake. It looked delicious, didn’t sound too complicated and so I found what I was looking for and gave it a try. I am not a big fan of icing, so I just dusted it with icing sugar and it worked just fine.
