The Vegan Experiment - Day1

It's day one of my vegan experiment. 

For all of you who haven't heard about it, yet: 

!!!For about a week I will try to only eat vegan food!!!

Given the fact that meat&chocolate is my favorite food, this means quite a challenge to me. 

I can totally imagine not eating meat for a week. Really, that's fine with me. 

The worst is to not consume dairy products such as butter, cheese, milk or yoghurt 

and food that contains egg. Chocolate usually contains milk, as well, at least the chocolate I like.

So this is going to be a tough call for me.

The reason why I'm doing it is first of all to challenge myself.

But I also want to find out more about the vegan diet and if it is really that hard to be a vegan. 

Let's be honest, I actually struggle with these kind of movements.
Not because I think it's bullshit to only live of "salad and grains".
What I dislike are militant activists who insist of convincing me of their healthier, better lifestyle while constantly rubbing "I'm better and smarter than you and you don't have a clue" under my nose.

I think we all know that the conditions in slaughterhouses are dire. This really is no news to me.
But I love to eat. Indulging in good food makes me happy and is a major part of my life.
I love to try stuff and to have choices, and yes, I love eating meat, cheese, eggs & co
(at least as much as I like to pet animals), and at this point I cannot imagine not eating those things anymore...

...oh well, for the next few days I guess I have to, if I want to fulfill my mission.
I will try to experience the whole spectrum. Therefore I will try some of the meat substitutes, as well as cooking and baking at home and eating at restaurants and cafés.

Will Julia turn into a vegan activist herself? Will she feel better than ever? Or maybe worse?
Will she turn into a bad-tempered monster?

We'll find out soon...

So here is the first day!

Breakfast started for me with a fruit smoothie (only fruits!) and vanilla-soy coffee, which I think is pretty disgusting. I'll try to get used to it...maybe skip the vanilla soy milk and use plain soy milk instead.

Later this day I had a pumkinseed bagel with sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, roasted pine nuts and balsamico date essence. And no surprise: this was expectingly good.

Thumbs up for bagel with avocado and tomatoes!

After that I tried a bit of the soy vanilla yoghurt...man, that stuff really isn't very pleasing. 

It's not really bad. But there is something - some weird flavour that makes me cringe. 

I don't know if I can eat this again.

But hey, the bagel was good!

(It was actually a hommage to Harriett and Aimee, 

the lovely non-militant vegan/vegetarian ladies of The Bright Young Twins)

Dinner was quite a disappointment. I had these breadcrumbed and fried mushroom cutlets that were DISGUSTING! Far too salty and the flavor was unbearable.

NO!

NO, NO, NO!

 As for dessert I had a little chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing. It was moist and soft but
far too sweet (and I usually cannot get enough sugar) and there was this weird soy flavor again.
It did not satisfy my needs at all.
The whole thing lacked the richness that you would find in cream and eggs.

Looks are deceiving: this wasn't good, at all.

To sum up the first day:
I didn't really have any withdrawal symptons.
But all of the ready-made food tasted really unpleasant.
The food I prepared myself with fresh bread and vegetables on the other hand (the bagel) was delicious. So I guess, I'll try to cook more myself.
 I can tell you that, it will definitely cheaper.
for only a few tiny things (that pretty much all didn't taste good) I spent 23€.
That's ridiculous. 

Pasta with mushroom-whisky sauce ON FIRE!

The mushroom season is in full bloom, 

and I still haven't posted our favorite mushroom recipe of all time, yet. 

But this is about to change... 

NOW!

Forest in Schorfheide/Barnim near Berlin - photo by Beau Lark

Wil and I came up with the idea to this recipe cause we wanted to do something different than just mushroom risotto. So we decided to make pasta with a delicious self-created mushroom sauce you cannot go wrong with. The top-components for cooking mushrooms are definitely rosemary, onions, pepper and (smoked wooly pig-)bacon, and guess what: you can find all of these in this wonderful dish! Plus cream, whisky (WHISKY!) and balsamico-date essence. 

Me and the Steinpilz (Porcini) - photo by Beau Lark

Our harvest: Chanterelles, Porcini, Slippery Jack and Bay Boletes

We picked the mushrooms ourselves (I even found a pretty neat looking porcini!), and took tomatoes and rosemary from our little vegetable garden. The wooly pig bacon was from a small local market and the balsamico-date essence was a gift my best friend Kirsten gave to me a while ago.

Cooking at Anna and Beau's - photo by Beau Lark

What you need for a maximum of 4 people:

500g pasta (fussili, penne...)

400-500g mushrooms (about 2 cups, or a small basket, e.g. chanterelles and/or porcinis)

200g-250g bacon cubes/bits (for example from happy wooly pigs...the smokier the better!)

200g cream

3-4 twigs of rosemary, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

(a handful cherry tomatos, halved)

3-4cl whisky (same as with the bacon: the smokier the better e.g. a nice Bourbon)

1 Tbsp balsamico-date essence

4 Tbsp parmesan, freshly grated 

Ceaning and cutting the mushrooms - photo by Beau Lark

Clean the mushrooms by brushing them gently to remove the dirt. Do not wash them! Otherwise they'll lose their aroma. If too big cut the mushrooms into slices or smaller pieces. 

Wil cutting wooly pig bacon - photo by Beau Lark

Fry the bacon in a pan until crisp, remove from pan and set aside. 

Sautee the onions and garlic in the remaining bacon fat until translucent and golden. 

 Add the bacon, mushrooms sautee all-together for a minute or two on medium heat. 

Right before the fire action - photo by Beau Lark

Turn up to maxium heat, add the whisky and carefully 

with a lighter or long match set the whisky on fire. 

Flambé until the fire goes off (after about a minute or so). 

Rosemary and tomatoes - photo by Beau Lark

Add cherry tomatoes and rosemary, let the sauce simmer for another two minutes. 

Add the cream and the balsamico-date essence. 

Let it reduce for a few minutes. 

In the meantime cook the  pasta in boiling water with salt until al dente 

(9-12 minutes, depending on what the packaging says). 

Season the sauce with pepper and salt, if required 

(careful, the bacon and parmesan are already salty).

Dish up the pasta and pour the mushroom whisky cream sauce over it. 

Sprinkle with parmesan. 

Serve!

Ready!

PS:

• If you don not have balsamico-date essence, you can use a  plain balsamico essence or balsamico vinegar mixed with maple syrup, honey or brown sugar, instead. 
• This sauce is also good with a nice piece of meat (deer or beef). 
• I tried to write down the measurements as exact as possible, which isn't that easy, cause you can pretty much vary everything. Add more or less rosemary, garlic or balsamico-date essence, use more pasta, less mushrooms...whatever you want. It is really hard to ruin this one! 

Bon apetit.

Special thanks to Beau Lark for taking all these wonderful pictures I didn't take...

Königsberger Klopse or meatballs in white sauce with capers...

Königsberger Klopse is a Prussian specialty and one of Berlin's national dishes. 

It's meatballs served in a creamy white sauce with capers and usually potatoes on the side, 

and every kid loves them. Except for the capers, maybe. 

But kids can just pick them out of the sauce. I did that, too when I was little.  

Anyway not only being a Berliner, but also having some Prussian blood running through my veins, 

I decided to  introduce my non-German friends to this wonderful meal of my and a lot of German's childhood.

There is some "rules" about how to make proper Königsberger Klopse, though. 

One would think it's adding simply adding capers. 

No, that's far too easy! Let's just take this for granted. 

The rules I'm talking about are a little more subtle and not that obvious at first sight.

I have to admit I never really made Königsberger Klopse myself and do not even know if I have ever eaten the original version. I don't even think there is THE original version to it. But two things seem to be quite important: The original is made with ground veil and anchovy. 

I think no one I know, including my parents or grandparents, ever made them with ground veil. 

I'm not sure of they added anchovy, either. 

Since I cannot afford a baby these days I decided to stick with what I'm familiar with when making meatballs, which is a mix of ground beef and pork. 

I was curious about adding anchovy to the ground meat mass, though. 

Therefore I decided to at least try this.

And hell, were they delicious!

You really won't taste anything fishy. 

I don't think I would like that.

We still have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow, as well...

Here's what you need for the meatballs:

500-600g mix of gound beef and pork, or the gourmet version: ground veil

2-2.5 anchovy filets

1.5 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 onion finely copped

1 tbsp butter

1 stale bun

1 tsp mustard

one egg

salt

pepper

For the sauce:

600ml of beef broth

2 bay leaves

3 black peppercorns

1 tbsp lemon juice

2Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp butter

200g cream

3 Tbsp of capers (small, pickled with pickle juice...)

salt

pepper

Starting with the meatballs, you soak the stale bun in water until soft and fully soaked, 

then press out the surplus water.

In a pan melt butter and sauté the finely chopped onion until translucent. 

Finely chop the anchovy filets. 

In a bowl mix ground meat, anchovy filets, soaked bun, egg, mustard, lemon juice, onion, salt and pepper and knead everything with your hands until even.

 Form golf ball sized meatballs from the mix.

meatballs simmering in beef broth with bay leaves, lemon juice and pepper corns

In a wide saucepan heat up the beef broth and add lemon juice, bay leaves and peppercorns.

Carefully place the meatballs in the saucepan. 

The broth should not boil. Otherwise the meatballs might fall apart. 

Cover with a lid and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove the meatballs from the broth and toss the bay leaves.

In a separate pan melt butter. Stir in the flour. 

It will be all crumbly and might look weird. 

But everything is ok. That's how you make a roux!

Now slowly whisk in the broth. 

Don't pour in everything at once and stir really well after every step, 

so lumps dissolve and the sauce gets even.

Add the cream and let the sauce boil slightly for another 10 minutes.

Now add the capers and their pickle juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

The sauce should be creamy and thicker. But if you think it's still too thick, mix more broth or water in it.

Add the meatballs to the caper sauce and heat everything up, in case you need to reheat the meatballs.

Serve with potatoes!

PS: You have to add capers.
Otherwise it won't taste as good.
They and the juice add a very unique flavour and nice acidity to the sauce.

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!

So, Wil is a very, very good and dedicated gardener and has been taking care of our tiny balcony and the plants. 

We grew tons of tomatoes this year which are all ripening now.

As promised, here are some pics of our harvest!

before picking

after picking

 

 

They taste sweet and fruity... almost like candy.

 

Wil made a salad with our first tomatoes adding arugula, mozzarella, 

chanterelles sauteed in butter and balsamico, bacon and pine nuts...

Vive la Provence!

After a couple of days of acclimatization I guess I’m finally ready for Berlin City again.

Well, I have to be anyway...

My trip to Provence was simply wonderful and a total success in terms of food, wine and love.

As I already mentioned in my last post: This region of France is a feast for your senses.

The landscape is beautiful. It smells like flowers, fruits, fresh soil and food everywhere.

It is quiet except for the lovely sound of singing birds and the crickets at night. 

And wine and food are so, so good!

By far the best country to visit in order to indulge your desire for culinary richness.

Depending on where you stay you will find vineyards who offer you wine degustations every few metres. With hundreds, probably thousands of different vineyards it’s impossible to try all wines in the region. You either have a recommendation on where to go or you just go and find out.

We did both and it was a lot of fun.

I will write a separate blog post about the wines we tried later this week...

The other great thing is that there are markets every day.

They either start in the early morning and go until 12am/1pm or at night from 6pm to 8pm.

The best market is definitely the one in Arles.

It is HUGE!

I have never been to such a fantastic market in my life.

The range of fresh products is insane!

So many vegetables and fruits: Giant artichokes, tiny artichokes, zucchinis, fresh garlic, beans, peppers, carrots, potatoes, strawberries, cherries, oranges, olives..., and all were in season. Only some were imported from Spain, which pretty much is right around the corner.

Fresh meat, sausages, bread and pastries, spices, an incredible selection of cow and goat cheese (some looked and tasted really strange, but good!).

 
 












 Oh and the fish and sea fruits section... I almost forgot about that!

 The sea is only about an hour away. Therefore everything is 
 absolutely fresh.
 

 


I bought Wil some oysters cause I don’t like them, yet. 

But according to my experience in getting used to all kinds of foods, this might change at some point.

They were the biggest and best oysters he ever had in his life and, believe it or not, 
they were only 40 CENTS A PIECE!!!!

Ok, so that was in Arles... 
you can pretty much find all these different products on the other markets as well. But let me tell you: the market in Arles is one of a kind.

We left with heavy bags filled with yumminess.

 

 















 What we did pretty much every day was: 
cruising around, stopping here and there for wine degustations or walking over a market, maybe a church, a fort or a flea market in between, paying a visit to the local butcher and cheese store, driving home, eating, drinking, falling asleep.

In one word:

PARADISE! 

Oh, and on a side note:

Wil proposed to me in a vineyard in Chateau-Neuf du Pape (where else?), and I said yes!

As you can see, Provence treated me very good and I cannot wait to go back!

Pelmeni Imbiss at Ostbahnhof

Every Sunday there is this huge antique market at Berlin Ostbahnhof. 

From furniture, books, jewellery, pottery, records, 

you can find anything there even second world war nazi stuff 

(the swastikas get covered up with stickers). 

Aside from the market there is this weird Russian Imbiss stand that sells all kinds of Russian food: 

Pelmenis, Blini, Borschtsch, Soljanka, Pirogies, Russian beer and liquor etc. 

Vladimir Egozov, the owner, is a Russian original, who, with a significant Russian accent, 

gives you advices and recommendations on food and pieces of wisdom. 

You won't always get what you ordered, Bortsch seems to be out every time we go there, 

and even if you end up not liking the food 

(some dishes can be quite greasy):

it's quite inexpensive and definitely worth the experience!

I highly recommend the Pelmeni and Soljanka.

You can't go wrong with that!

Barbecue No2! or How to trick myself into liking salad...

After a long and exciting day on Schmachtenhagen's farmers market with our friends Anna and Beau we came home with tons of meat, some sausages, fresh warm sourdough bread, an ice machine that I bought for 10 bucks at the flea market there and a giant headache from all the beer we drank...

Nevertheless our hibachi was already waiting for us.

As soon as we got home we fired the grill and threw on some sausages and sirloins.

In order to have our dinner plates look more colourful and a bit healthier I decided to make a classic salad with lamb's lettuce, tomatos, cheese and avocados.

Ok. I have to admit I'm not a big salad fan. 

But with a few tricks and a bit of extra-pimping I manage to create one that even I don't mind eating.

First of all I caramelize the cherry tomatoes in butter adding a dash of sugar, salt and pepper.

Warm sweet tomatos in a salad taste insanely good!

Then of course adding roasted nuts (pine nuts and almonds preferably). 

You can't go wrong with crunchy roasted nuts! 

I also like adding Hass avocado cubes because of their creamy texture and fresh parmesan to sprinkle over it...

Very important, as well: good olive oil and balsamico vinegar.

Quality just tastes better! 

For example we bought 20 year old balsamico vinegar from our local Italian store.

That really makes a difference!

I can also highly recommend to do an olive oil degustation at some point.

You won't believe how different olive oil can taste!

I really like the greek ones. They taste very grassy and slightly bitter.

There you go! These are my tipps and tricks to make a simple salad more enjoyable.

You can also just add meat to it, though...

We drank a pretty decent French red wine with it: Chateau Capitoul Rocaille Rouge AOC

which contains the varietals syrah, grenache noir and carignan.

Panna Cotta with Rhubarb Sauce

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner.
After we all were stuffed from the "main course" (we made burgers again) I was happy that everyone of us still had a little room left for dessert.
The burgers were already quite rich  so I originally intended to prepare something light for dessert.
Well, since Panna Cotta is based on cream and sugar it cannot really be considered as being especially light. But with all that delicious fruit sauce it doesn't seem to be heavy at all!
See? You can actually trick yourself!
I can't promise you that you can trick your scale or your skintight jeans with that, though...

Panna Cotta is very easy to make.
It doesn't require many ingredients or complicated techniques.

All you need for 4 servings is:

four small bowls
500ml cream
50g white sugar
1 vanilla bean
2,5 leaves gelatine

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for about 5-ten minutes until soft.
Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon.
Pour the cream into a saucepan and mix in sugar and vanilla seeds.
add the scraped out vanilla bean, as well to for additional flavor.
Bring the cream to a boil. Then let it simmer (not boil anymore) for about 15 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Whisk occasionally.

Remove the cream from heat and also remove the vanilla bean.
Now squeeze out the excess water in the gelatine leaves and add them to the cream.
Whisk until the gelatine has dissolved.

Now pour the cream into four small bowls or cups, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours.

In order to unmold the Panna Cotta briefly dip the bottom of the bowls/cups into hot water.
Run a thin knife around the edge of each bowl/cup to losen the cream from the inside.
Place a plate topside down on top of each bowl. Invert the cream onto the plate and shake gently to release it. Then carefully lift off the bowl.

You can also just eat it out of the bowl, of course!

For the rhubarb sauce cut 500g of rhubarb into 2cm thick pieces.
Place the pieces in a saucepan.
Add approx. 100g white sugar, 4 Tbsp of water and 1 Tbsp of vanilla sugar and bring to boil.
Let it boil for about 5-10minutes (depends on how soft you want your rhubarb to be).
If the sauce is too thin mix a teaspoon of starch in a small bowl with water and slowly whisk in the starch-water mix into the rhubarb sauce. This will thicken the sauce.

Serve the rhubarb sauce with the Panna Cotta.

"Visa vis" with the T-Bones

Wil got his one year artist visa at the Ausländerbehörde Berlin yesterday!
In order to celebrate he bought two giant T-Bones at KaDeWe.
He always wanted to get some of those.
Yesterday his dream finally came true.
And what can I say?
I'm still stuffed!

















That was probably 500g of meat per steak...

As good as it was, I kind of am now looking forward to vegetable season!