In both the country I live in and the country I come from, this precious vegetable, extremely healthy and at the same time inexpensive, is served especially in winter, to accompany all the seasonal dishes from roast duck to pork with crackling
Here are two spicier alternatives, the first one with, among other ingredients, mustard seeds and ginger, and the second one with, among other ingredients, kalonji, onion and garlic:
Spicy cabbage number one:
2 tablespoons olive oil, coconut oil or ghee
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 knob ginger, chopped
1 green chili
10 curry leaves or 2 bay leaves
About 800 g coarsely shredded red cabbage
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
Salt
Vegetable stock or water, as needed
Sautée the mustard seeds in the oil or ghee till they begin to pop.
Add the cumin and curry leaves and sautée till fragrant.
Add the garlic, ginger and chili, sautée till starts to soften.
Add the cabbage and turmeric and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring. Season with salt. Add a dl of water and cook till the water has evaporated and the cabbage is tender but still with a little bit of “bite”, about five minutes.
Spicy cabbage number two:
2 tblsp avocado oil
2 tsp kalonji
1 heaped tsp cumin seeds
1 heaped tsp fenugreek seeds
Chili, in whichever form you have available, and to taste. I used chili flakes this time
2 medium red onions, sliced
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
About 800 g coarsely shredded red cabbage
Vegetable stock or water, as needed
1 tsp garam masala
Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the kalonji, and stir for a few seconds. Then add the other seeds, and the chili if using, and stir.
Add the onion and garlic, and fry for a few minutes, until softened.
Add the cabbage, and fry for a few minutes.
Add enough stock or water to cover the bottom of the pan, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender.
Uncover, stir in the garam masala, and simmer off any remaining water
Reposting, as this is a good winter dessert (despite the ice cream). Too heavy for summer.
When I saw this recipe in Olive Magazine, I was intrigued, not only by the celeriac in a sweet recipe but also because I had never heard of Parkin cake before. It turns out to be a time-honoured, tried and tested classic. That shows how much I know about food.
I made some adjustments along the way. For example, for the parkin cake, I don’t like the idea of “self-raising flour” (as they insist on spelling it, although it is actually “self-rising flour” – but I have discovered that you can’t trust their spelling at all despite the fact that it is an English mother-tongue magazine). I have also translated the rather cryptic “mixed spice” into part cinnamon and part nutmeg.
Also, since I do not have an ice cream machine – I know – big mistake, but they do take up a lot of room – I have changed the procedure of finishing the ice cream slightly. I whipped the cream separately, and since I used organic eggs in a country with strict salmonella control, I skipped the bit where the egg mixture is heated up.
For the ice cream:
1 celeriac, peeled and finely sliced, should yield about 500g
300 ml whipping cream
700 ml milk
160 g golden caster sugar (I used Rewe’s bio Rohrohrzucker)
9 egg yolks
Heat the oven to 200C/fan. Place the celeriac slices in one layer on a baking sheet. Bake till the celeriac is dark brown. It is OK if it seems almost burnt around the edges. This will bring flavour and colour.
In a saucepan, bring milk and the baked celeriac to the boil, then take it off the heat and allow to infuse for about an hour. Then blend till smooth.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whip sugar and egg yolks till light and fluffy and the sugar has dissolved, then mix with the celeriac milk.
Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold into the mixture.
Cover with cling film and place in freezer. For the first couple of hours, stir regularly until almost at ice cream texture.
For the parkin cake:
100 g flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder plus a pinch of salt
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large pinch grated nutmeg
200 g oats (I used coarse or “large” oats, but the finer, smaller variety is probably better)
200 g golden syrup (I had some rice syrup nearing its sell-by date and supplemented with maple syrup)
75 g black treacle (I used Rapunzel Zuckerrohr Melasse)
100 dark muscovado sugar (I used Rewe’s Brauner Roh-Rohrzucker)
110 g unsalted butter
1 egg
1 tblsp milk
Heat the oven to 160C/fan.
Sift the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl, add the oats, and mix.
Melt the golden syrup, treacle, sugar and butter in a saucepan, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
Pour the hot mixture into the dry ingredients and quickly mix thoroughly.
Add the egg and milk, then mix again briefly.
Pour the mixture into a buttered and lined loaf tin. The tin I used was about 25 x 9 cm, and fitted perfectly. The cake rises between 1 and 2 cm during baking. Bake for 50 minutes or until a knife comes out fairly clean. The cake should be dense and sticky.
Cool in the tin.
For the pears:
400 g sugar NOTE the recipe calls for golden caster sugar. I used Rewe’s Rohrohrsugar which is clearly not suited for this purpose, and the whole thing got rather messy and difficult to handle. My guess is that ordinary white sugar would do just fine.
4 pears, peeled, and each cut into eight wedges lengthways
1 star anise
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
1 cinnamon stick
100 g unsalted butter
On low heat, melt the sugar in a frying pan until you have a light caramel. Don’t stir, just tip the pan till it is all melted.
Add the pears and stir gently. Beware of splutter.
Add the spices and keep stirring. If the sugar stiffens, turn up the heat a little and keep cooking until it melts again. Continue to cook until a knife can go through the pear with ease, but be careful not to overcook.
Remove from heat, then add butter and give a final stir once melted.
Pour the pears into a sieve over a bowl, to stop the pears from over-cooking, and to preserve the caramel sauce which is to be poured over the pears and icecream when serving.
Parkin cake keeps well, and gets stickier with time.
Alledgedly, parkin cake can be frozen, wrapped in cling film and tin foil, but I can’t confirm that yet.
Conclusion: Celeriac ice cream is nice, but only as a novelty and together with these other two components. I would never make it to be eaten on its own or as part of any other dessert.
I would also look at other ways to caramelize pears – in this version it was quite difficult as the sugar kept lumping up.
But star anise in a caramel sauce – why have I never thought about that – from now on I will remember that whenever I caramelize anything – sweet or savory.
2 tablespoons potato starch or corn starch (for dusting)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (or other neutral oil)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 scallion, finely chopped (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
Drain the tofu from the package and place on a plate. Let sit for 15-20 to remove excess water. Alternatively, wrap the tofu in paper towel or tea towel to remove excess water. Repeat 3 to 4 times until the tofu is dryer.
Whisk garlic, sriracha, soy sauce, honey and rice vinegar in a bowl and set aside.
Dust tofu with cornstarch until all sides are coated.
Use a medium large pan and turn the heat to high. Add oil and when the oil is hot, almost smoking, add tofu cubes. Be careful of oil spits! Fry on each side for 2-3 minutes without touching or tossing too much, until golden brown.
Add sauce and gently coat tofu cubes. Cook for 3 minutes.
Turn the heat off and add sesame oil and sesame seeds.
Stir once more to evenly coat tofu cubes and serve topped with scallions.
Finely chopped red onion, and chopped fresh coriander to garnish
Instructions
Mix all the wet ingredients except the water well, then mix the dry ingredients separately, and finally mix the two together, before adding the water. Mix well and add more water if needed.
Let this mixture sit for 5 minutes before starting to make your waffles.
Cook in the oiled waffle iron until golden brown and crisp, to preference.
2 small or one very large head of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 large know of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 red chilies, diced
1 tblsp avocado oil
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
Freshly ground black pepper
1 medium butternut squash, diced
700 g cooked chickpeas
1 tin coconut milk
1 tin tomato
Water as needed
Sauté onion, ginger and garlic in the oil for a few minutes with a pinch of salt, then add the spices and fry for another minute before adding the squash and chickpeas.
Mix well, then add the coconut milk and tomato. Bring to a simmer and cook until the squash softens and the sauce thickens.
On my balcony, contemplating shapes and shadows and black and white vs. colour; a walk in Alt-Lübars; and some old photos that turned up while I was tidying up my harddrive.
On 26 May, I had actually planned to walk about 15 km from Alt-Lübars, along Tegeler Fließ, round Hermsdorfer See and back on Tegeler Fließ, to Alt-Tegel, but felt tired and got distracted by the prospect of lunch in a restaurant by a lake. Here is the route I ended up walking, but will go back and do more of Tegeler Fließ in the near future.
And some old photos – the first one from the good old days when the ABC art fair was still alive, although never really kicking:
1 vanilla pod, halved and seeds scraped out, or vanilla bean paste 1 tsp
150g white chocolate, finely chopped
STEWED RHUBARB
400g rhubarb, cut into 2cm pieces
50g caster sugar
1 lemon, juiced
Method
STEP 1Soak the gelatine in a bowl of ice-cold water for 10 minutes until very soft. Meanwhile, put the cream, milk, sugar, vanilla pod and seeds into a pan along with a pinch of salt, and bring to a gentle simmer.
STEP 2Once simmering, take off the heat (remove the vanilla pod, if using), add the chocolate, then stir to melt. Drain the gelatine in a fine sieve, then squeeze out as much water as possible. Add the gelatine to the cream mixture and mix really well. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug. Leave for 5-10 minutes until thickened slightly, then mix really well and divide evenly between six pudding basins or moulds. Cover and chill for at least 6 hours but preferably overnight.
STEP 3For the stewed rhubarb, put the rhubarb, sugar and lemon juice into a pan and simmer gently, stirring occasionally until the rhubarb has released some juice and is very tender but not collapsing. This can be made ahead and then chilled.
STEP 4To serve, carefully dip the bases of the moulds in hot water for 3-4 seconds to loosen the panna cottas, then invert onto plates. Reheat the rhubarb until just warm, then spoon around the panna cottas to serve.
150 g chana dal, rinsed and soaked for a couple of hours, then drained
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 medium red onions, finely chopped
Large knob of ginger, finely chopped
2 green chili, deseeded and finely chopped
10-12 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tin tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick (ceylon)
1 tsp red chili powder
1,5 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Fry cumin and mustard seeds in the oil or ghee till they crackle, then add the onions and sautee till they become translucent.
Add ginger, garlic and green chilies and sautee for about fifteen seconds.
Add tomatoes and the rest of the spices and sautee, stirring.
Add chana dal and mix well. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
Add bottle gourd, stir, simmer till the gourd softens, probably about 20 minutes. Taste for salt and sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves before serving.
