Retired from a long working life as secretary/assistant in UN and EU institutions. Freelance stress counsellor and proofreader/copyeditor. Now living in Berlin.
Blend
mustard, chili, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, yoghurt and coconut to a fine
paste.
Sizzle
cumin seeds and mustard seeds, add the onion and cook for about eight to ten
minutes till translucent but not browned.
Reduce the
heat and add the paste, stirring for a couple of minutes at low heat.
Turn heat
up to medium and add the asparagus except for the tips. Cook for a couple of
minutes, then add the asparagus tips and peas and cook for about a minute.
Season with the salt.
Note – if you want to use okra, they need to be added a bit earlier than beans.
30 g sesame seeds, toasted
2 tblsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
10 curry leaves, a couple of tblsp if they are dried and crumpled
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
400 g potatoes, scrubbed, each cut into six wedges
a packet of beans from the freezer
1 tsp chili flakes
1,5 tsp tamarind paste
0,5 tsp ground turmeric
Salt and black pepper
Sizzle the cumin and mustard seeds as well as the curry leaves in the oil, stirring until the seeds start to pop. Add the garlic.
Then add the potatoes, browning them for a couple of minutes, add a splash of water and cook for about ten minutes, covered. Add the beans, and if the potatoes stick to the bottom also another splash of water. Cook for a couple of minutes.
Add chili flakes, tamarind, turmeric, salt, black pepper and sesame seeds. Stir, cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender.
I had my balcony renovated in early spring of 2019, so before the scaffolding went up and all the troubles began (new surface on the floor as the most urgent and important factor, plus two marble shelves). I am sorry I did not take photos then – since I was assured my balcony would not be affected – but the floor did NOT look like this. It had neither the grey/black nor the white stains:
The grey/black stains, which appeared during the work done in spring and summer 2019, are also on the wall. (The ones on the marble shelf I was able to carefully scrape off, but on the floor, and especially on the wall, they seem too integrated for that to work). Of course nobody has bothered to tell me how to get rid of them, although they must have seen them, given the number of times they have been on the balcony.
Other documentation – wondering how that wall will look like when they have finally finished (it should be said the wall above that marble shelf needed a coat of paint already before all this started, but the cracks and the holes were not there before).
Added 31 October:
I have just spent about an hour cleaning my balcony – again – it does not mean it is clean, just cleaner, and I can use it again – for more rubble, a load of sawdust, dried-up cement stains – and four cigarette butts. Throwing your cigarette butts onto someone else’s balcony is kind of like the ultimate insult, and they can’t have come from anywhere else. It might also explain where these burn-holes in the seat of one of the chairs came from.
