Photos to come but may have to wait till I have attended a food photography course early in the new year :-).

Once you have tried homemade, you will never go back to storebought.

Hot lemon pickle

• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1 half tsp asafoetida powder
• 3 lemons (organic and unwaxed, of course)
• 90 ml sesame oil
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 2 tsp red chili powder
• 3 chilies, deseeded and chopped
• A knob of fresh ginger, scraped and finely chopped
• 1 half tsp ground turmeric
• 4 tblsp salt

Dry-roast the fenugreek seeds and asafoetida for a couple of minutes and blend to a fine powder.

Boil the whole lemons completely covered in water for 15 minutes or until they soften. Reserve the cooking water. When the lemons are cool enough to handle, cut off the ends, divide in six or eight boats, then slice. Try to preserve as much of the juice that might come out of them as possible.

Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add chili powder, chopped chilies, ginger and turmeric and sautée for a couple of minutes.

Add the lemons and any juice from them, salt and fenugreek/asafoetida. Cook for a few minutes, blending well. Add a bit of cooking water if needed.

Store in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Onion chutney

• 2 tblsp oil
• 2 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 4 tsp black urid dal
• 5 chilies
• 1 half tsp asafoetida
• 3 large red onions, finely chopped
• 1 small bunch coriander leaves
• A small lump of tamarind pulp
• Salt to taste

Sauté seasoning in one tblsp oil, and the onions separately in the other tblsp oil until light golden.

Blitz both in a blender or food processor. Add coriander leaves, tamarind pulp and salt and blend to a paste.

….. no literally, or rather: amazon prime and coffee and cake, followed by dinner.

Early in 2020, I made a mental note to go and see Persischstunden with, among others, Lars Eidinger, as soon as it hit the cinemas, and then Corona put a stop to that. I have since talked about the film several times with friends, and finally discovered that I can stream it on amazon, so a couple of friends are coming over today to watch it together.

This is a good occasion to start with coffee and cake, so I decided to try my hand at this baileys and white chocolate cheese cake. I always find that a full-size cheese-cake looks quite gross and unappetizing and the cheesy layer a bit too thick, so I increased the ingredients for for the base a little, and distributed everything in two 20 cm spring forms instead of one 23 cm. I baked them for 40 minutes, and since there will only be the three of us, I am freezing one of them.

After the film, I am cooking this old faithful: lamb shanks with dates and pumpkin, served with baked mashed potato. Yummy autumn food.

On another note, here is a photo I took with my smartphone during a morning walk on Tempelhofer Feld earlier this week:

For my inner carnivore and to shake the anger and frustration outlined under 24 June in My Corona Diary III below.

From the freezer, I took a piece of pulled pork delivered from Don Carne.

I boiled a bag of kidney beans which had already been soaking in lots of water since early this morning. I always have some kind of boiled “legume” available to throw into casseroles, curries and salads.

Needing to throw a lot of spices around, I roasted a heaped tblsp of cumin seeds and a heaped tblsp of coriander seeds and ground them together with a tblsp black pepper.

I sauteed four large red onions, coarsely chopped, and ten large cloves of garlic and a large know of ginger, finely chopped. When starting to brown, I added the ground spices, two sticks cinnamon, about ten cloves, two tblsp chili flakes and three star anise, and sauteed a bit more.

I added quite a bit of yoghurt (goat is what I always have available) and almost a whole tube of tomato paste (to make up for the second tin of tomato which I discovered I had forgotten to buy). Sauteed, added a heaped tsp turmeric and two tsp salt, stirred well and then added one tin of tomato and a tin of coconut milk.

When simmering properly, I added the meat and simmered for about half an hour, turning it a couple of times.

I then switched everything off and took Max for a walk to Landwehrkanal where we sat for a while to calm down, which today I probably needed as much as he did. He seems to like quietly observing the world go by, cheeks smooth, ears up and out the way we like them to be, and sniffing the air and not the ground.

Back home, I took the meat out of the pot, slowly reheated the sauce, now with the kidney beans added, while shredding the meat which I then put back in the pot to gently reheat it all.

I tweaked this recipe from Olive Magazine.

I used gram (chickpea) flour instead of wheat flour, oatmilk instead of whole milk, thyme instead of nutmeg, and chili instead of Dijon mustard (this last part more because I had some fresh chili that needed to be used than in order to make this recipe completely gluten free – that is just an added bonus for those who are severely gluten intolerant).

Different combinations of vegetables can of course be used, in which case you might want to use other herbs or spices instead of nutmeg or thyme.

• 300 g new potatoes
• 400 g (after trimming) green asparagus, trimmed and cut into approx 2 cm pieces (I removed the heads first and kept them separate)
• 1 tblsp ghee
• 50 ml olive oil, plus extra for the tin
• 100 g gram (chickpea) flour
• 800 ml whole milk (I used oatmilk)
• 75 g frozen spinach
• Four to five sprigs of thyme
• 1 heaped tsp dijon mustard or chili to taste
• 100 g parmesan, grated (I blitzed it in the mini processor together with the thyme so as not to have to separate the thyme leaves from the stems)
• 75 g frozen peas
• 1 heaped tsp turmeric
• 6 eggs

A 22 cm springform cake tin, bottom lined with baking paper and sides brushed with oil.

Boil the asparagus (without the heads) in a large pan of lightly salted boiling water for a couple of minutes, scoop out with a slotted spoon and drain, then add the potatoes and boil for eight to ten minutes till tender to the point of a knife. Cut into 1 cm slices.

Cook the flour in the oil and ghee, stirring, for two to three minutes until smelling toasty. Add the milk, a little at a time, while whisking, adding more once fully incorporated. Simmer for five minutes until thickened, then stir in all the other ingredients except the eggs, and combine well. Season with a little bit of salt (if needed: the parmesan is also salty), and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Let cool while you whisk the eggs together lightly.

Stir in the slightly cooled mixture, combining thoroughly.

Bake at 180 C fan for 45-50 minutes.

Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold as leftovers.

This is great on its own or with a salad, and is also a good accompaniment to fish, especially smoked or “gravad” and even to a roast leg of lamb.

I saw this : https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/02/cauliflower-cake-recipe-yotam-ottolenghi but I find cauliflower the most flavourless and textureless of all vegetables, and wheat flour, especially of the self-raising variety, is also not my thing, so I decided to experiment and make it a bit more flavourful and healthy.

Instead of wheat flour I used gram flour, and insted of cauliflower I used leeks. I added garlic and chili (of course) and used thyme instead of basil.

Glutenfree and vegetarian (but not vegan).

• 3 large leeks, 600 g after trimming, sliced
• Fresh garlic, to taste, chopped
• Chili flakes or finely chopped chili, to taste
• 1 large sprig rosemary, finely chopped
• 5 sprigs thyme
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 150 g parmesan, coarsely grated
• 130 g gram (chickpea) flour
• 1 tblsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 8 eggs
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tblsp sesame seeds
• 3 tblsp nigella seeds

In a couple of tblsp olive oil, sauté the leeks with rosemary, thyme, chili and garlic till they start to collapse. Season with a little bit of salt and lots of black pepper.

Take off the heat, and while it cools off a bit, mix in the turmeric and the parmesan.

Whisk the eggs.

Mix flour and baking powder and baking soda well.

Add to the eggs and which to eliminate lumps. Season with a little bit of salt and lots of black pepper.

Line the bottom of a 22 cm round cake tin with a loose base with baking paper. Brush the sides of the tin with olive oil and coat with some of the sesame seed/nigella seed mix.

Pour in the leek mix, level, and sprinkle the rest of the seed mix on top.

Bake at 180 C until golden and set. Let cool a little before serving and eat the leftovers cold the next days (better the day after, actually).