Tag Archives: summer

drinks, vegan

The Power of Yellow

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Orange Mango Kurkuma Smoothie

My Grandmother always used to call me her little witch. I must have been an amiable child. Always full of crazy ideas. Always full of silliness. And mostly laughing. Since then nothing much has changed. Once a joker, always a joker. And after all the awkward puberty was gone… some day I actually could embrace my kind of crazy side.

But every once in a while you need a small push into the right direction to let the slightly crazy trait of yours come out to play again. The wintery world outside is grey and bare-branched after all. Cold. And a little bit uncomfortable. It weighs on the spirit and sometimes even on the circulation.

So we need colours! Bright and lively ones that shine and bring some sort of beautiful light back into our lives. And if they also manage to refresh, reanimate and make our senses work again it is even better.

Maybe this smoothie helps. It is yellow like the sun – or like the stars… you see much more of them these days anyway. And it delightens by merely looking at it. Additionally you get a nice and strong vitamin boost from delicious mango, oranges, apple, turmeric and ginger that help you to shield against a cold. And it also provides you with a wonderful refreshment.

Der Muntermacher

Smoothie with Orange, Mango, Apple, Ginger & Turmeric

Ingredients for about 4 glasses

  • 1/2 mango
  • 2 oranges, filleted
  • 1 sweet apple
  • 1/4 banana
  • 1 peanut-sized piece of ginger
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • a hand full of ice cubes

Peel the ginger and chop it into small pieces.

Put all the ingredients into the container of an an electric blender and mix until the drink is smooth.

Asian food, main dish, meat & fish, soul food

A Little Bit of Wellness for the Soul

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Miso Ramen

A good noodle soup is a treat: It makes you warm, saturates and it is filled with delicious ingredients. A really good noodle soup is far better though… a little bit of wellness for the soul. It is pleasing to the eye and has been cooked with love – with commitment and a lot of time spent already on the broth itself. It really makes you sigh out of pure happiness. The Japanese have made an art form out of their soup and maybe some day I will be able to go there… to go into a tiny little noodle bar to sit at the counter and order my first “real Japanese Ramen soup”. Until then I’ll have to try every other noodle bar with a good reputation (this one for example) to educate my palate and take everything I’ve learned back home. There I will try my best to make a soup of my own.

This recipe has been the best result since a long time: A ramen soup with an “own” miso mixture, broth-poached fillet of pork, mushrooms and egg. The soup is completed with a dash of soy milk, a small but effective trick I’ve come across on lovely Mandy’s blog. The miso mix is inprired by her recipe, too.

The spicy miso with sesame makes the soup wonderfully creamy and adds a nice fragrance of sesame, ginger, garlic and chili. The mild-flavoured prok loin indulges us with proteins, the mushrooms add a nice freshness, the egg makes it perfect and the nori finally reminds us of beautiful days at the sea. Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients: Most of it is spices and except of a little time the soup itself just needs simple attention. But it’s definitely worth it!

Miso Ramen

Ramen Soup with Miso, Fillet of Pork, Mushrooms, Nori and Shoyu Tamago

Ingredients for 2 big bowls

Miso mix:

  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 30 g ginger
  • 10 g chili paste
  • 30 g sesame
  • 3 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp oil for frying
  • 130 g red miso
  • 130 g white or yellow miso

Soy sauce eggs (“Shoyu Tamago”):

  • 1-2 eggs
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp sake or sherry
  • 1 tbsp sugar

Broth-poached fillet of pork:

  • 200 g fillet of pork
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 500-600 ml good, unsalted chicken broth (the homemade one is always the best choice)
  • 1/2 spring onion
  • 1 peanut-sized piece of ginger

Ramen soup:

  • the leftover broth from the poached fillet of pork (see above) – about 500 ml 
  • 160 ml miso mix
  • 100-150 ml soy milk
  • 2 portions Japanese soup noodles (ideally ramen)
  • 1/2 spring onions 
  • 1/2 sheet of nori
  • a few small mushrooms (like shiitake)

Additionally:

  • a few drops of sesame oil
  • a few drops of chili oil
  • sesame

Peel the ginger and garlic for the miso mix and add them to all the other ingredients in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with a hand blender, fill it into an airtight glass jar and store it in the fridge. You can let it stay there for a few weeks until you use it up.

For the shoyu eggs boil the eggs until they are soft (I always put them in boiling water and let them stay in there for exactly 7 minutes), then put them in ice water and let them cool down completely. Peel them carefully. Mix soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar and let the eggs marinate in that mixture for 2-3 hours.

Heat up a small casserole, pour in the oil. Fry the fillet of pork shortly on each side, then add the broth and the spring onion in one piece. Cut the ginger into slices and add to the pot. Heat the broth until it almost boils, skim off the foam that may rise to the surface and let the broth gently simmer at medium temperature for 30 minutes. Turn the meat after 15 minutes so it doesn’t dry out on one side. Get the pork out of the pot and strain the broth through a sieve – then pour the broth back into the pot. You will need it for the soup itself.

Add the right amount of miso mix to the broth and resolve it in there. A miso sieve or a ladle helps with that. In an extra pot cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package and strain through a sieve. Devide them into two soup bowls. Meanwhile bring the soup to a boil but don’t let it cook for too long.

Chop the spring onion into rings. Cut the pork into thin slices. Pour the hot soup over the noodles in the bowls. Garnisch with the remaining ingredients. Serve hot with a few drops of sesame and chili oil and a few sprinkles of sesame.

Miso Ramen

Asian food, meat & fish, soul food

They are Among Us: Tuna Onigiri

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Tuna Onigiri

I wish there was a clone ship for onigiri! Just like this huge Cylon thing in Battlestar Galactica: Filled with huge bath tubs where all the onigiri that have come to die are magically reborn again… an inexhaustible source. They would wonderfully reappear, freshly come back to life and immediately jump into the next spacecraft to fly right back to me and directly onto my plate… A girl can dream, right?

Yes, onigiri make me happy. Really happy. So happy in fact, that I almost can’t describe it. And yes, personally I could talk about them all day long. About how easy they are to make. About how beautiful they are. About how they can be eaten cold or warm and freshly roasted under the grill. About how you can fill them or mix the rice with the ingredients or just leave the rice plain. About how perfectly you can eat them just with your hands and about how much I love to actually touch the food I eat. About how well they can be prepared in advance – and therefore are the perfect food to bring to parties, picnics or lunch break in your bento.

Yes, I am madly in love with onigiri. We both are actually. So why isn’t wasn’t there a recipe on this blog yet? My bad. After all you can nicely take them with you to the sofa to indulge in a long-awaited Battlestar Galactica relapse again. It’s been too long!

How much you get addicted to them depends strongly on the quality of the rice you use and the other ingredients. They can turn your “ordinary ball of rice” into some sheer poetry. In our most favourite recipe we use Cheddar… not really traditionally Japanese, but well – it’s delicious, so what!?

Tuna Onigiri

Tuna Onigiri with Cheddar, Chili & Ginger

after this lovely recipe by Mandy

Ingredients for 8-10 rice balls

For the rice balls:

  • 2 cups (à 180 ml) sushi rice
  • 1 sheet nori
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • some sesame or furikake

For the filling:

  • 1/2 can tuna in oil (about 90 grams)
  • 2 tbsp freshly grated Cheddar
  • 1 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 2 tsp sesame
  • 1-2 tsp chopped ginger
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder or freshly chopped chili
  • 1/2 tsp red chili paste and/or a little Tabasco

Put the rice into a sieve and wash it under cold running water. Cook it in a rice cooker according to the producer’s instructions or in a pot on the stove: Add 2 cups of water to the rice in the pot. Close the lid and switch the stove to low (heat level about 2 of 10). After 10 minutes switch to medium heat (level 4-6 of 10 – depending on the kind of stove you have) and let the rice steam for 10-15 minutes. The water should not boil and you should keep the lid of the pot closed. After 15 minutes the rice should have absorbed all the cooking water and it should be tender und fluffy. Pull the pot away from the stove. Get a spoon and carefully fold the rice before closing the lid again and let the rice rest for 5 more minutes.

Let the cooked rice cool down. Drain the tuna and mix it with the other ingredients for the filling. Season to taste with additional chili, cheese or ginger if you like. Cut the Nori sheet in half and cut those halves again in 4-5 rectangles each.

Moisten one of your hand palms and put 2-3 well-heaped teaspoons of the rice on it. Gently press it down a bit. Add 1-2 teaspoons of the filling on top of it and cover with 2-3 more teaspoons of rice. You can also use an onigiri mould for this: Dip it into water too, before filling it, and fill it up loosely right up to the top.

Now use your other hand (or the lid of the onigiri mould if you use one) and press the onigiri to your preferred shape. Wrap the onigiri in nori, brush a little of the sesame oil over it and sprinkle it with sesame. Arrange on a plate and serve with soy sauce and green tea if you like. Or dip them in this sweet and sour chili sauce. Heaven!

The onigiri taste best when they are fresh but are also perfect companions for a bento on the next day.

Asian food, pantry, vegan

Catching the Summer: Sweet Sour Chili Sauce

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A storm is coming. The first storm during this autumn. It rips through the grass and over the land and roars mightily, like a lion, while it cleans up the remaining parts of summer. All the heat dust flies away, burning in the eyes one last time like sand, and is finally gone. I cannot await to face up to the wild nature, wrap myself up in warm clothes and go outside, right under the free sky. I confront the storm, throw my arms into the air and let the wind embrace me. Now we both are trying to outdo each other in roaring out of joy for the wuthering life.

Soon the storm will calm down and leave the world in a chaotic but natural order. A world, that has finally said its goodbye to this year’s summer and has devoted itself to autumn instead. And to start into the cooler part of the year I will cook myself a jar of chili sauce. Because with its refreshing acidity, comforting-mild sweetness and warming hotness it is exactly what we will need in the next months. Uncomplicated. Red like the last days of summer. Delicious!

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Chili Sauce

Sweet hot chili sauce

Ingredients for about 500 ml

  • 400-500 g chilis*
  • 500 ml white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
  • 500 g sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt

Wash the chilis, cut off the green part and halfen them lengthwise. Scrape off the seeds and keep them for later. Roughly chop the chills, put them in a blender and add about the half of the vinegar. Blend it finely, then pour the mixture in a pot. Add the rest of the vinegar, the sugar, the salt and the seeds from before (as much of them as you like) and bring everything to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium and let it bubble gently for about 30-45 minutes until the sauce has thickened (almost like ketchup).

While still hot fill it in sterilized jars or bottles, close them tightly and use the sauce up in the next 6 months.

*How hot the sauce will actually become depends on the chilis you use. For a prettier look I removed the seeds before blending the chills and added them later to the sauce. You can just add parts of the seeds and reduce the pungency with that as well or leave the seeds out all together. But keep in mind that already the types of chilis vary in how hot they are.

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Burning hands?

If your skin had too much contact with hot chilis during preparation and your hands start to feel like they are on fire it really helps to use curd cheese packings: Wet a clean kitchen towel and generously apply a layer of curd cheese – the more fat it contents the better. Wrap the cloth (with the curd-cheese side on your skin) around your hands. It cools, calms and pulls away the hot acidity.

main dish, meat & fish

Daydreams in the Grass…

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Do you remember? Back in the old days our world was so simple. Our real problems seemed so small to us and our little worries were so meaningful. We used to lie in the grass, giggling, arms and legs outstretched, and holding hands. And we stared into the sky, carefree. We counted the fluffy clouds that passed by and lovingly bickered about if that one looked more like a rabbit or like a unicorn. On that day our biggest concern was if there still was some ice cream in the freezer and that we had to leave for home eventually. We made plans for our future that should never happen this way, built castles in the air out of dreams and wishes whilst understanding each other without words. Continue reading Daydreams in the Grass… →

sweet tooth, vegan

Don’t let go! And treat yourself to a sorbet!

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red currant sorbet

Don’t let go of your happiness! Don’t let it go! Smile at it, whenever you can. Be glad about the little and still so precious things! Take your happiness by the hand and never let it go! Because together you are less alone. Look upon the vespertine starry sky, that twinkles down on us every day and delight in life. Don’t let go of your happiness, cling to it… 

… and treat yourself to a sorbet from time to time! You deserve it.

red currant sorbet

Red Currant Sorbet with Bitter Lemon

Ingredients for about 6 balls of sorbet

  • 500 g red currants (fresh or frozen – you can leave the stems on if you like)
  • 100 g sugar
  • 2-3 tbsp elderflower syrup
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 50 ml water
  • 250 ml bitter lemon of your choice

Put the red currants with the sugar, the syrup, the salt and the water in a pot. Bring it to a boil and let it gently cook under medium heat until all the berries broke open and the liquid is bright red.

Pour it through a sieve and use a spoon to press all of the liquid out. Let it cool down to room temperature and if you are patient enough put it into the fridge for an additional hour or more.

Give the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the producer’s advice or put it into a freezer for a few hours. Divide the sorbet into 1-6 bowls, pour a little bit of bitter lemon over it and enjoy it in the cooling evening heat under a pale blue sky.

red currant sorbet

drinks, vegan

Pineapple mango passion fruit smoothie

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Summer incompatibility is an earnest topic. Outside the sun is shining and burns the world already in May… too hot to even lift a single finger. So you start your day holing up in the shadows and hide from the world. And the heat. Stay inside where it is cool and nice. Or at least cooler than outside. You barricade yourself in your living room and peek through the closed curtains to catch a glimpse of the beautiful, sunny, colorful world outside. How lovely it would be to play with the other big children outside! To meet with them at the beer garden or the open air pool, bathing in the sun and enjoying life under a perfect blue sky. Frightened you could miss something you take a few cautious steps outside in the late afternoon. Right under the parasol of course and not without a thick layer of sun screen. Continue reading Pineapple mango passion fruit smoothie →