Today's lunch from the crockpot: shrimp in a sauce

In an effort to eat (and feel) a little better, here's what I came with today for the crockpot's inaugural meal: crockpot barbecued shrimp. It was more Southern bbq than what I know from the North as bbq, but quite good anyway. Nothing pre-packaged or processed here, and no dairy. :-)

Here are the ingredients assembled. The 'olive oil spread' that I use in place of dairy butter was feeling camera shy.

I pared the recipe down a bit, I like things saucy, but 1 stick of butter sounds exhaustive, so I went with 2 spoonfuls. I also turned up the tabasco factor (although using a close hot sauce substitute) and only decided on 1 lemon once I saw how juicy it was. I didn't have fresh basil, so dried had to do.

As the shrimp were already peeled, they went into the crockpot for an hour only, on high. I toasted two small sandwich rolls and had it with that:

Total costs:

-the shrimp were a markdown that I had tucked in the freezer a while back. 1.55 for the package, and this was half of it, so around .78 p.

-1 lemon. A package of 6 m&s lemons were 2 GBP, so this was around .33 p.

-2 rolls - another markdown from the freezer, at .50 p for 6, from m&s, so around .17 p here.

-worcester sauce - this was not previously in my cupboard, it cost around 1.29 at Tesco, but there is plenty left in the bottle for future recipes, but we can estimate .10 p here.

-butter (olive oil spread instead from m&s or sainsburys), pepper, olive oil, hot sauce, and basil are all staples already existing in my pantry, so I didn't count them in. I guess we could estimate .12 p for all together.

Total cost: around 1.50 GBP for lunch.

I will definitely do this one again, although I'll try it next time with fresh basil. It's an interesting mix, lemony, but with a bit of a kick. Perfect for a chilly and dreary Sunday.

British humor and frugal eggs

Or should that be 'humour'? Can you imagine this cartoon egg making the same statement in an American supermarket?

I rarely buy full price eggs anymore. I had purchased these on Feb 2nd in the morning and they were down to half price. If one waits longer, they'll go to 75 or 90% off. My only requirement is that I only do free range eggs anymore. These have the added bonus of being produced in Suffolk, a neighboring area near to Essex.

When I get a great egg deal I usually fry and then freeze them on the day of purchase, although others put them raw in an ice cube tray and freeze. Then I carry on with my egg stock when the deals aren't coming.

Frugal side potatoes

I've had a busy week this week. I knew going into it that it would be busy, so I created a few big meals and spent the rest of the time combining them in leftover fashion. In addition, it was chilly this week in the UK so I made meals that could go into the oven for heating.

I started with the rooftop garden potatoes. I boiled them for 15 minutes and then put them into the roasting pan. I added a bit of onion and garlic (also from the garden). I added half of a leek from the market and a little oil (cost negligible). Full cost of the leek was .75 pence, so we're up to around .37 pence cost here:

Next I topped it with the remaining breadcrumb/parmesan cheese mixture from the Breaded mushrooms. As I calculated that cost into the mushroom recipe, I considered this one to be a free addition:

It went into the oven for 25 min at 175 C. Then I added a few chopped up tomatos for moisture and because they were reaching the end of their shelf life:

The final outcome was a side of potatoes with at least 5 meals this week:

Total cost per serving? Around 7 pence.

What ended up with it? One day I had leftover pasta bake for a carbfest, another day was a green salad, another day was assorted leftovers, and on and on...the above photo was the salad day, other day's portions were smaller.

Breaded mushrooms

I recently bought this book at Oxfam for 8.99 GBP. It was rather heavy to carry home, but it's absolutely superb. Every single page has a recipe and 4 photos: the final product and 3 steps leading up to it. I love photos in my cooking, mainly because I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. ;-)

If you'd like to try some vegetarian recipes which are slightly above basic skills, I'd highly recommend it. I also like that it includes the nutritional info with each recipe, so that you can see what you're getting into.

Below, I tried out 'Mushroom Bites with Aioli' (page 161 in my edition):



On the left are the mushrooms which were dipped in two egg whites and then dipped in a breadcrumb and parmesan cheese before going into the oven for around 15 minutes. On the right is the Aioli. I took some heavy liberties with this one. The recipe suggested 2 egg yolks, garlic cloves, olive oil, and salt/pepper. However, it also suggested a variation to try instead fresh herbs and sour cream instead of the egg yolks. I combined a bit from both ideas and it all came out right in the end.

I know you can get packaged frozen version of breaded mushrooms, but these were so much better than the ones I had like that in Germany or here in the pubs. There is no oil involved in the mushrooms of this recipe so they come out much lighter and it was simple to make. (Excluding the self-inflicted injury Ian suffered while trying to grate the frozen bread into breadcrumbs.)

Frugal Sunday lunch - a week late

I managed to get to the farmers' market on Saturday around closing time and came home with a few things as they lowered the prices to move them out:

1 large cauliflower + 1 giant bag of brussel sprout greens = 1 GBP
1 bag of brussel sprouts, around 75 of them = 1 GBP

Into this recipe went 1/3 of the cauliflower and 1 bunch of 4 of the sprout greens.
around 10 brussel sprouts went into the mix as well.

Already on hand:
a veg Thai green curry paste similar to this
a dented can of coconut milk, discounted to 51 p
rice and noodles
on sale tofu = 1 GBP
1 scotch bonnet/habenero pepper from my garden (ok, so not a perfect substitution, but in the vicinity)

Lunches made:
4.5 during the week and 1 for the freezer later for work

Estimated total cost:
.20 p for the cauliflower
.13 p for the greens
1 GBP for the tofu
.51 p for the coconut milk
.05 p for the paste
1 GBP for the rice/noodle servings
.15 p for the brussel sprouts
0 for the pepper (garden has already paid for itself)
=3.04 GBP

3.04 divided by the 5.5 meals = approximately .55 p per serving.

vegan eating - day 2 Mexican Sunday

It's difficult to find good Mexican food in Europe. Thankfully, finding the ingredients in the UK is a little easier and less expensive than it was in Germany.


Breakfast was coffee.

Here is the late lunch. Starting around the table, here we go...

11 o'clock is Old El Paso refried beans.

12 o'clock is a veg chili mix from Asda. The suggestion is to add mince to it, but it perks up nicely with dried soya chunks.

1 o'clock is some of those mushrooms from the freezer with Old El Paso Mild Fajita Sauce. I orginally bought this sauce because it was a markdown due to a torn label and I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It has a mild smokey flavor.

3 o'clock is partially hidden behind a glass, it's the lettuce, tomato and pepper salad from yesterday.

4 o'clock is fresh tomatoes, a smattering of garlic, and more garden fresh pepper - a light little flavor

6 o'clock is mild English cheddar for New Friend Ian.

7 o'clock is Heather's sauce. Chopped tomatoes, garlic, and Dave's Gourmet Insanity Sauce which I bought at Asda in the UK.

9 o'clock is some fajita wraps.

The setting is outdoors on my patio table, slightly in the shade because it was hot as heck.

Later in the day was leftover Chinese from yesterday.

Aug 1 - vegan eating day 1

Saturday started off with a long 'to do' list of things to do in town and tasks at home. As I've been living in this flat for almost two months, I'm starting to get more ideas about how I want to use the space in some areas.

Breakfast - coffee at home.

Lunch - since we were out and about in town, we went to Nosh+Coffee. The one in the center of my corner of Essex is relatively new...

On the plus side:

-they are less expensive than their coffee counterparts Costa or Starbucks

-their food selection is more expansive--salads, sandwiches, containers of fresh fruit for 1.50 GBP

-they have a vegan option - salad with beans, hummus, and falafel for 3.50 GBP (which I had), as well as plenty of decent veg options like a feta cheese salad or egg and mayo sandwich.

On the negative side:

-I suspect the people management is lacking at this particular one, or maybe they're all this this, it's the only one I've been to. When you go to the main Costa in my corner of Essex, it's staffed by friendly Eastern Europeans or Spaniards, the Costa above the bookstore is staffed by friendly students, the Coffee+Nosh people are always sour faced, or complaining to one another about their work hours. But anyway...the salad is quite nice...

Dinner: We start with fresh peppers from the garden...

I'm not a fan of eating peppers, but I enjoy growing them for my guests...

I did a stir-fry--it's broccoli from the Saturday market, zuchinni from my garden and tofu, which later had Sharwood's Kung Po sauce added:

The final results....

At 12 o'clock on the table is a fresh salad with lettuce, tomatos, and olive oil.

1 PM is a homemade dipping sauce: tamari sauce, olive oil, water, dried chilli pepers.

3 PM is homemade vegan spring rolls that oversprung

The bottom are our two plates in action

center of the table is the fresh peppers chopped up.

The fancy table setting is a giant cardboard moving box which gets a new round of paper to cover it weekly. I still haven't decided upon a dining room table or coffee table yet, so I'm making due with this one until I figure out how I want the layout of the flat to be.

English breakfast for lunch

I don't yet have a routine of shopping as I have only really been here a week in the new place. In addition, the new place has a tiny kitchen, so I don't have so much storage space so I'm still trying to figure out how to use it best. In coming back from Germany the other week, I was a bit stuck...I had nothing fresh due to being gone, I don't have frozen meals, as it's summer I don't even have soup, just a mishmash of things which came along with me on the move...gravy, mushrooms, and lots of dried pasta. The only ingredients that could make a proper meal...fixings for an English breakfast: veg sausages, baked beans, an egg, and mushrooms. No bread, was out. And there was enough to make two lunches.

I really need to figure out how I can get shopping into my schedule now that it's not on the way between the home and office and in addition since I'm on foot is becomes more difficult or more frequest--or to get clever and start the online veg delivery as was previously suggested.

In the meantime, breakfast it is!

4 months

It's been exactly four months to the day since I left DE. Oh the irony of being back here today.

How did I celebrate it? I went shopping at Lidl (walking distance to my colleague's flat) for breakfast cereal and lunch provisions. The one thing I cannot knock Germany for is their musli. The office mainly works through lunch at one's desk and I'm still a fan of the hot lunch. So on the menu for lunch the rest of the week for me:

Cheese tortellini with a side of salad and mixed veg, arrabiata pasta sauce, and some bread
all packed up in a tupperware container and good to go!

I'm spoiled here a bit on travel having access to a nice kitchen and all the dishes I need, along with containers for the leftovers to take for lunch. :-)

Eating in Guildford

On Saturday, I spent a few hours downtown exploring Guildford's High Street. I wasn't feeling up to either the Dutch pancakes or the German sausage. True to form, the German stall was selling jarred hotdogs and the Dutch lady (in the photo, she was on the way to talk to the German guy) had not only an orange apron, but also orange shoes.

I had a feeling that in a town like (upper crust and posh) Guildford, I'd be able to find somewhere with a strong vegetarian bent. Sure enough, found The Fooderie on Swan Lane just off of the High Street:


They have a tiny corner bar area for eating (where I caught the girl in the photo), but mainly it's a take away sandwich place. I had a lovely chat with the owner, she had started it about a year ago as a vegetarian/vegan sandwich place, but she had to expand outward a bit as business just wasn't good enough. So she also sells sandwiches with local free range eggs and local meats. She'll be expanding into an upstairs area to have actual seating.


I had asked for a recommendation for a hot vegan sandwich. She suggested grilled veg with hummus. My photo doesn't really do it justice, the sandwich was superb, so much so that I sucked down half of it before remembering to take a photo:

A work colleague had recommended to check out the Guildford Saturday market, knowing that I am a vegetarian. I had stumbled upon it early in the day but didn't want to have to carry things around, so I made it my last stop before leaving.

Overall, I thought it was OK, better than shopping at Tesco I guess. I was a little lucky, it was the end of the day and they were starting to drop the prices a bit to sell things off. Mostly they were selling pre-bagged items, the bags were around 1 or 1.20 GBP, but by the time I was there they were dropping most to 1 GBP if they weren't already. I bought 2 bags of tomoatos, zuchinni, mushrooms and pears. (And there are two bottles of organic wine, coffee, and a book I bought at Oxfam.)

Ever curious as to the source of my food, I was pleasantly surprised to find UK sourced spinach (OK, from Lancashire, not exactly from around the corner, but at least from on the happy island.) I was not so impressed upon inquiring about the asparagus....it came from Mexico, so I decided to skip that one. Not so impressive when you consider that Europe's asparagus season is almost upon us.

My colleague had mentioned that I should eat any of the cheese, veg or bread in the house which would go bad before her return, so I went a little creative here with some different things. My work colleague is German, so of course there was no jar of pasta sauce here. However, everything was here that I needed to make my own.

She had left half a yellow bell pepper. I combined it with garlic and half an onion, and added the market tomatos. I then sliced in a few of the mushrooms and one zuchinni and simmered it up. I had brought along the spinich ravioli and some goat's cheese from the Essex farmer's market. I put the whole thing on a bed of Italian watercress which I found in the fridge. Overall, I'm pleased the way this one turned out:

Next up, more Guildford adventures...

Veg English breakfast cost summary

The last time I did a vegetarian English breakfast post, it was in Germany.

Costs:
Approx 1/3 of the Heinz baked beans mega sale can: .25 p

Mushrooms: around .20 p

1/2 of 1 tomato which came in a 6 for 1 pound package: .08 p

1 free range egg: .25 -->I'm not fond of the yolk so I added it to D's egg.

1 Linda McCartney sausages, 1.89/6-->.31 p, one other veg sausage, guessing .31 p

1 piece of bread, toasted and lightly buttered (not in photos). -->let's guesstimate .12 p

Total cost--> around 1 pound
Frequency-->around once each week, usually Sunday

Two sandwich shops

On the street where I will probably live (fingers crossed!) there are two lunchtime sandwich shops. While I've been out and about, I've tried to interact with both, to get a feeling for the neighborhood.

Sandwich shop 1 (last week):
H: Can I have a jacket potato with cheese?
Sandwich lady 1: Oh......sorry, we're all out. But it's the only thing we're out of, you can pick anything else.
H: Hmm. What do you recommend, that is vegetarian?
SL: Well, we can do cheese on a roll, or a toasted cheese or an egg salad sandwich, or Tuna--if you're 'that kind of vegetarian', or you can say what to put on the sandwich and we'll make it.
H: Cheese on a roll sounds great.
SL: OK....type of bread?....toasted?....do you want a bit of salad on that? (good suggestive upselling there)
H: Super.
SL: Here you go. Apologies again on the potato.
H: Obviously I'll need to come back, they must be good to sell out!

Sandwich shop 2 (today), after waiting 3 minutes for someone to appear from the back:
H: (needing to break a 5 pound note to get parking meter change) One pack of M&M's please. (holding the 5)
SL2: Do you have 55 p by chance?
H: Sorry, no.
SL2: (pauses, with 5 in hand) Is this for change for the parking meter?
H: Yes.
SL2: We can't always be doing this, you know!!
H: (slightly shocked, after 2 stress-free weeks, mentally taken back to DE). (blink.) Sorry, I didn't know, I'm not from here.
SL2: (big German F-off sigh, and goes to the back. Comes back with change and then must go to the cash register.) Here....it has to be small change.
H: Sure.
SL2: Because we don't keep a lot of change.
H: Sorry, I'm a visitor, I didn't realize. (But don't worry, I won't bother you again!)

IF I live on this street--which shop do you think will get all of my business?

At the end of the day, both transactions completed successfully, I loosely got what I went in for (lunch, change). However, I was so turned off by the second shop experience. If I had visited there before I went to see the flat on that street, it probably would have colored my view of the flat. I was mentioning this experience to D later, who was completely peeved, as he explained that this was rude by UK standards. I was considering it by:

1. US Standards - as a business, you're sorta being stupid here. By not keeping change in stock and requiring a sale to give it, you're losing out on business.
2. German Standards - there would have been sighs about having to count out the change if it had been bigger than a 5 perhaps, but you buy something, you get change, none of this whining about not wanting to give it based on the purpose.

Sunday lunch - vegetarian Rogan Josh

One of the things I'm really looking forward to about moving to the UK will be the easy access to tasty, spicy Indian food--be it a proper restaurant or around the corner take away.

It's not that Germany doesn't have Indian restaurants, it's just that the German taste tends to avoid spicy, so it always seems that something is missing to me when eating out here. I even quizzed my Indian colleagues who have been here for some years:

'where would you recommend to go for good Indian food?'
'oh Heather--unfortunately no such thing here. Although there is a place in Leverkusen that sells authentic spices from India, I highly recommend it.'

(Having tried every Indian restaurant in Cologne, I sorta already expected such an answer.) It's like the elusive Mexican restaurant in Germany, the holy grail of US expats--just not to be found. Although if you know of one in the Cologne area, by all means prove me wrong. ;-)

One of my colleagues was very passionate about the subject. He had gone to the Indian restaurant near the Main train station in Cologne, and was appalled by the food, in particular because the proprietor was from his region in India. He accused the fellow of giving a bad reputation to their region, by serving such lackluster food. The owner explained--he had to modify the traditional recipes to make it appropriate for a German audience.

So in the meantime, I'll survive the best I can. Rogan Josh is traditionally made with lamb, here is a super recipe with photos. My vegetarian take on it instead includes tofu, broccoli, and lentils:

I'm not so good at making curries from scratch and I don't have the required cooking time during the week, so I rely on a jarred version. Here's a look inside the pantry, for those of you who like such photos. I mainly depend on Sharwoods, which I buy on periodic trips to Belgium and then ration myself until the next trip. The Sharwoods which can be found there is produced for that market--as well as for the Nordics from looking at the label languages, so it's not as expensive as an import from the UK found at the British shop here. I was just in Belgium two weeks ago, so currently well stocked. :-)

Front left is a Patak's, a gift from an expat leaving. Patak's is the only Indian food label I find at the Asian supermarkets here. Front and center is one of the few Hokkaido pumpkins still remaining. ;-)

Sunday lunch: Thai chickpeas and pumpkin soup

Christina G gives a great cooking lesson, and let's face it, I need all the visual help I can get--so I really liked the video! I never met a chickpea dish I didn't like, and this was no exception:


I needed to use another Hokkaido pumpkin, so I went out on a limb and tried another new recipe in the Thai genre. This recipe also turned out well, but I did spice it up a tiny bit more. The Hokkaidos provide the rich flavor such a soup needs, and a lovely balance to the coconut flavor.

Theae square containers are .5 liter, so a perfect size to take to the office as an afternoon snack or a compliment to the above. If lunch plans appear and if it looks like I won't be finishing these by Wed (ok, I ate one tonight already), they are actually freezer containers so they will get popped into the freezer to become an easy meal later.




A busy week is upcoming which I spent all weekend preparing for. More on that topic soon.

Friday lunch - Hokkaido pumpkin stir-fry

As I mentioned, I'm somewhat limited in what I can take to the office. The tiny 'Tea Kitchen' where the microwave is housed is constantly busy with people picking up tea and coffee, and the microwave is an older, smaller machine with limited power. So most of us use it for simple tasks, and as my colleague noted, always defrost in advance, else it takes 15 min!

I like to make multiple meals at a time so here was tonight's dinner, with a second portion for lunch on Friday, and probaly a smaller portion for Saturday's lunch.

I roasted another Hokkaido pumpkin. They're fully in season now, so they're down to 1.99 at my Kaufpark.

While it was in the oven I sliced some garlic and onions and fried them up.
Then I added the in-season brussel sprouts.
I had fried up some tofu, that went in.
I had some leftover fresh zucchini from last night, that went in.
I sliced up the roasted pumpkin and gave that a few minutes.
I put in 2 egg whites, which fried nicely.
I put in some chilli soy sauce and some vegetarian 'oyster' (read mushroom) sauce.
Sauted it up all together and off we go.
I threw in a handful of Thai basil at the end.
I had left some noodles from today's lunch in the fridge in the office so we're set for lunch.

What's for Sunday lunch - Hokkaido pumpkin in Germany

If your corner of Germany is anything like mine in NRW, you're seeing Hokkaido pumpkins, like the one I bought the other day. Pumpkins are like every other seasonal produce one finds in Germany, we'll be awash with them for maybe a month, and then just like that they're gone until next year. So I'm buying them like the dickens, squirreling them away in my cellar storage area (they last up to 3 months when stored in a cool place), and making 4 meals a week with them in the meantime.

I must admit, I was not a pumpkin eater prior to coming to Germany. The only pumpkin I had ever had was the stuff that came out of a can and was made into pie, and we all know my aversion for desserts. The second strike against US pumpkin for me, is that a lot of recipes with it also include cinnamon and/or nutmeg, the only two spices in the entire world I abhor. So back to the Hokkaido.

Step 1: Buy one at your local farmer's market or supermarket. I bought one at Aldi Sued for 1.79, my local Kaufpark/Rewe affiliate and Edeka sells them for 2.75 each. My farmer's market connection is usually around 2 Euros or so. Mainly they seem to be coming from Holland. Go for a Bio one if possible, as one of the best things about the Hokkaido is that the skin is edible, so you save yourself the peel time/effort, as well as raising the fiber content of your recipe.

Step 2: Wash er up. Slice the top off. Scoop out the seeds.



If you're feeling ambitious you can set the seeds aside to wash and roast. Or you can throw them in your garden compost. We have a communal area in the small forest nearby for such biodegradable items which is where mine went. Either a forest creature is going to find a nice treat or next spring the Germans will begin to wonder how pumpkins are growing wild in the forest.

After I remove all the seeds, I use my small knife to give the insides a scrape, to remove all of the stringy bits remaining. Then I wipe the insides out with a paper towel to be sure I got them all.


Step 3: Into the oven. This is a great activity for cold rainy days like today to heat up the flat. I put it into a ceramic pan, then put about 1.5 inches of water inside the pumpkin. Then put the top back on, but slightly at an angle to allow for a little of the steam to escape. Next, give the whole thing a quick rub with olive oil. Finally, put a piece of foil lightly over the pumpkin, to allow the inside to cook without the outside getting overdone.

I try for around 195C, for around 50 min, but it depends on your pumpkin size, oven, etc. You'll know it's done when you poke it with a fork and the skin is easily pierced. If you want, pull the foil off for the last few minutes to allow the skin to brown up a little.


Coming out of the oven, it will look like this:






Step 4: The pumpkin is usually hot as heck, especially as the outside is oiled. So you can let it sit for a few minutes to cool, and then dump out the inside water. Then let it sit for a few more minutes to cool further. Or speed up the whole process and carefully dump the water immediately after taking it out of the oven.

Step 5: Slice and serve. Slice anyway you want. Sometimes I try chunks, today I went with slices.

Today's plate, starting at 12 o'clock is the pumpkin. I had a decent sized one, and here is about half of it. I so enjoy the warm rich taste of the Hokkaido, I purposely left it without any sauce or dressing for a change today. Continuing clockwise, in the 4 o'clock region are some pan-seared brussel sprouts, flavored with Bragg Liquid Aminos, although soy sauce would give you a similar result. 7 o'clock has some leftover beans which were spiced up with chili and onions when cooking them. 11 o'clock has some of those lovely Dutch sausages.


Because I take a lot of convenient 'one plate' meals to the office such as stir frys (due to our lack of on-site meal facilities and a shared microwave), on the weekends I like to prepare 'independent' items which aren't all mixed together in the same sauce.

The above is actually vegan, excluding the sausages which contain egg and milk. That wasn't my intention either way, but moreso to make something a little healthier as I was pretty run-down last week and wasn't eating so good in the days prior. In a time-saving maneuver I created double of the above, so tomorrow's dinner will be the same.

How to make a full English vegetarian breakfast (in Germany)

Pre-requisite task: Find a nice-looking British person to execute all of the below steps for added authenticity. ;-)

1. Pop over to the closest British store to buy UK Heinz baked beans, or remember to pack a few cans in your suitcase the next time you're in the UK. Scoff greatly if someone suggests that you use German baked beans, or the Heinz baked beans sold in the Netherlands. Heat those up in a saucepan for a few minutes.

2. Buy some regular mushrooms, slice into halves, and heat those up in a saucepan with a little olive oil. (Humor the colonial and 'undercook' them, so that she doesn't whine later about them being overcooked.)

3. Fry up an egg. In particular, some free-range eggs from Muensterland will do quite nicely.

4. Top right, someone was feeling artistic with the balcony tomatoes. Normally it would be a larger one or two, sliced in half and fried, but these were raw as they are quite small, and so good anyway in their freshness.

5. Center, the Pièce de résistance, fry up some vegetarian sausages in a little olive oil. This variety comes from the Netherlands, from Goodbite, they are mildly spicy and very juicy for a soy product. Two thumbs up.



Need more info?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_breakfast

Tuesday's balcony lunch and Nasturtium

Right now it's tomato season on the balcony in the tiny town of B. We have our usual culprits:
-lettuce
-the never-failing cucumber
-cherry tomatos in excess (there's one yellow, and a tiny undersized red one hidden there)
-nasturtium (the red flower petals mixed in)
-olive oil (not from the balcony)

So what's with the Nasturtium, h? My Polish teacher knows I'm into gardening and gave me a few seeds two months back. For kicks I threw each in an empty spot. And boy did the suckers sprout up:

I researched online, the whole thing is edible. (OK, not that buggy leaf in the bottom right). The leaves and/or the flowers may be used raw in salads, or in a myriad of recipes. I was reading online that it's close to watercress in taste when raw, and when dried the leaves can be used as a substitute for black pepper.

Wowie does it have a sharp taste. I researched further, the younger leaves are less sharp, so I gave them a spin, no dice. I've resigned myself to only eating the red blossoms, as it's the only thing I can reasonably tolerate; as well as they look so lively in the salad with the bright red color. But in the meantime, because I'm not chopping off leaves, it's gaining steam. This was three days ago, and and since then I have 3 more blossoms.

One day I may wake up to a giant red flowered plant knocking on my closed balconey door (demanding I don't know what?) if I don't find an alternate use soon...

Saturday lunch - Lemon and Ginger Tofu with Beautiful Sauce

I had stopped by my local Aldi Sued on Friday on the way into the office, I decided in the morning that I was in a salad mood. While there, I bought some of their bio Tofu. Big props to Aldi Sued--they are the only 'mainstream' store in my area to carry fresh tofu. Their tofu is firm and holds up well in cooking. It is highly recommended, in particular when compared to its closest competitors: the 'non-refrigerated Kaufpark tofu in a glass jar and some kind of oil designed to last years', or the 'slightly pricy Bioladen which has limited hours' tofu.

On Saturday I was in the mood for something coconut. On a whim I tried this recipe and wow was it spectacular, even if my photo was not so hot. I'd say it rivals my old standby, General Tao's Tofu.

I followed the recipe exactly as it is written (except for putting it over noodles instead of rice), and the next time I make it, I'd make it exactly the same. Beware, however, you may have the desire to scarf down the whole batch, which sorta sucks when you were hoping to get two lunch meals during the week out of it. ;-)

Saturday lunch: Vegetarian Thai green curry

I fell in love with green curry when I first had it at a Thai restaurant in Milwaukee. I ate the same dish multiple times just to cement in my head the full taste so that I could (try to) recreate it later.

Before I became vegetarian I used to always get Pad Thai when as my Thai food of choice, but as it tends to be made with fish sauce, I've since abandoned ship on that one unless I'm at a completely vegetarian restaurant. I've tried making it at home but it never quite has the right flavor.

However, you can easily make a green curry without fish sauce without compromising on the flavor. A lot of recipes for green curry are very complex, but here is a simplified version that I make in 15 minutes.

1. The most difficult part-find vegetarian green curry paste. I buy mine in Holland, this tends to be the main one sold in Asian food shops there. It is an import from Thailand to Holland, and it will set you back a few Euros, but with one this container you can make this meal at least 20 times.

Maybe Christina G knows where to buy it in Germany. I have seen the Thai Kitchen and Blue Dragon brands have it, but it's more of an oily sauce than a dry paste, and both contain fish sauce.

2. Fry tofu squares in oil. Then set the tofu aside.

3. Open a can of coconut milk. Personally I go for the 'light' coconut milk, but regular is also ok. I buy a refrigerated version from an Asian shop in Koeln or from Holland, but you can get the non-refrigerated kind also.

4. Put the coconut milk into a skillet on low heat. Put 1 or 2 tablespoons of the curry paste into the skillet also (depending on how strong of a curry taste you like). Keep stirring constantly. One clove of chopped garlic can also be added now, if you like.

In the meantime put the container of unused curry paste into an airtight container or ziploc baggy and put it into the refrigerator.

5. Throw in a few handfuls of chopped up mangold (chard), including the chopped up stems. Any dark, leafy green thing could also be substituted if you're not in Germany where mangold is currently abundant.

6. I like my dark, leafy greens to be barely cooked, so at this point I throw my tofu back into the skillet, so that it gets coated with the sauce. Stir some more.

7. If you're feeling especially adventurous, throw in a chopped up green Thai chili pepper (optional). Throw in a few basil leaves (optional). Take off heat.

8. Serve over rice or noodles of your choice. Today I was in the mood to have some Japanese noodles.

The final result: