Finally, its actually hot enough to be called summer in Berlin! Along with the rising temperature comes late nights and lazy days in the park, and that feeling of not wanting to eat anything too hot or substantial. My latest solution is to make big salads filled with the delicious cherries appearing in Kaiser's. My first try was to combine them with field greens and chopped kohlrabi. (If you don't know what it is, don't be worried: I thought it was fennel and got a strange surprise when it tasted more like a broccoli stalk mixed with jicama.) Yesterday I made an awesome huge salad for S. and I to eat in the park, this one featured
cherries, avocado, carrots, field greens, and thin sliced onions tossed in a apple-cider vinegar based dressing. Who knew avocados and cherries went so naturally together? (Oder, "togesser" if you want to sound like a German.)
And even though hot food is a bit of annoyance in this weather, dinner requires something a bit more substantial. And although latkes (or "potato pancakes") are kind of associated with Hannukah season, I figured they are cheap to make and could be at home alongside a salad in the summertime as a light dinner. Not only that, but when you are on a budget its always handy to have a lot of recipes involving potatoes and carrots. Latkes are a little extra effort but scrumptious any time of year.
Here is my basic "recipe," without strict measurements. I want to point out that I omit any real binder here other than flour, but if you've never made them before you might find this a bit tricky. (The traditional recipe uses a few eggs.) I've seen other recipes using cornstarch or egg replacer and I imagine this might be easier for beginners, but if you don't have those ingredients on hand this always works for me!
Potato Carrot Latkes*1.) Peel 2 carrots and a few potatoes (3-4). Grate them into a bowl using a hand-held grater.
Now here comes my innovation: use a potato ricer to squeeze all of the excess liquid out of the grated veggies. This works because they aren't cooked and won't go totally through the ricer, but the pressure is perfect for squeezing out all the juice without using 50 paper towels to do it by hand.
2.) Add to the squeezed and grated veggies a small onion, diced tiny, and an equally tiny diced garlic clove. Toss with liberal salt and pepper.
3.) Sprinkle a good bit of flour and a few dashes cornstarch over the veggies, and mix with your hands. Add in more flour as necessary to coat the entire bowl, not so much that you can see the flour, but enough that you can form a small handful of the mixture into a ball that stays pretty well together.
4.) In a skillet, heat equal parts oil and margarine over medium heat, enough that margarine sizzles but not until oil is smoking. (You can also test a small clump to see if its ready, like you might with pancakes.)
5.) Drop in smallish balls of the veggie mix (about 3 at a time is good) and flatten into a thick disk using a spatula. Cook on first side for about 4 minutes, then flip to cook on other side another 2-3. Each pancake should be crispy and browned, and the time varies from batch to batch so keep an eye on them.
6.) After each set, the oil and margarine should be used up, so clean out any loose browned bits and replace oil and margarine for each new batch. Keep finished latkes in the oven on low heat until ready to serve.
7.) Serve with soy sour cream and applesauce, if ya got it!
*Potatoes and carrots are just the beginning- you can also use sweet potatoes, apples, beets, zuchinni... yum!
Song of the day: Cursive- Hymns for the Heathen
Here's a photo of our window herb-garden blooming to represent the fact that: it's Spring! That's nice and all, but I am in a total tizzy! In two weeks I'll be heading back to the USA for an extended visit, and then coming back to Berlin only to head directly to Budapest for a summer internship. In the meantime, there's Passover, Easter, a ton of friend's birthdays, and all the normal stresses associated with being a cleaning lady.
In the meantime I've been having some casual meals like the one pictured above: my take on blini w/ caviar. My friends and I made these little pancakes w/ a bit of onion mixed in, then topped them with a sauteed mince of mushroom and peppers laced with balsamic and soy sauce to make it a bit salty. On top, a dollop of soy yogurt (sour cream would also be nice) and spring onions. Perfect fancy little dinner.
Now that I actually have a job (my dream job, as a cleaning lady in a kindergarten) my weekends have taken on extra significance. I used to be happy eating a little bread and jam, but not anymore... now I have to clean out my fridge and eat huge, epic, brunch-like feasts on Saturdays and Sundays. It just makes my celebration that I don't have to use a mop that day all the more enjoyable. This weekend, I made tofu scramble for the first time in, it feels like, years. (In fact, I think it has been years...) This is partly due to the fact that I *finally* found some local tofu that doesn't have the consistency of feta cheese, so now I have to eat it everyday in some form. The above pictured foray back into scrambled tofu territory brought me back to my college days,when me and my 3 roommates would often cook together and tofu scrambles were pretty much standard on weekends. (This was before I mastered pancakes.) Just a bit of tofu, some red peppers and onions, and a bit of turmeric and thyme, and you are cooking with gas. (Or electric. Whatever.)
Sunday I took advantage of the bulk of frozen blueberries in my fridge to whip up some banana blueberry pancakes for S. and I... they were gone before we had finished our first cup of coffee.
Now, feeling fortified from the weekend, its on to the freezing, mop filled days of the working week... let's hope Spring comes soon...
bs of sweet corn and the rest of the avocado-lime-cream. All the recipes I've seen for them would have made Paula Deen blush by how packed with butter and eggs they were, so I was a little skeptical about coming up with a vegan version. I shouldn't have been, obviously! It never ceases to amaze how unnecessary eggs and butter often are. Not only were these awesomely yummy without being totally heart-attack inducing, but they brought to mind the kind of easy and hearty food cowboys might eat around the campfire, after a long day of... hmmm, what exactly do cowboys do, other than get in fights in saloons? Anybody know?
