A rainbow on 11 April
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Sichuan soy and chilli roasted aubergines
- 2 aubergines
- ½ tsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 4 cloves garlic
- 15g fresh ginger, roughly chopped
- 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped, alternatively chili powder or flakes or whatever you have available
- 2 tblsp tomato purée (I use the one that comes in a tube)
- 2 tblsp clear honey
- 1 tblsp avocado oil
- 2 tblsp light soy sauce
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- Toasted sesame seeds, shredded lemon peel, chopped coriander (all optional) for garnish
Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
Whizz the peppercorns, garlic, ginger and chilli in a small food processor until finely chopped.
Add the tomato purée, honey, soy sauce, avocado oil, salt and 2 tblsp cold water and whizz to a loose paste.
Halve the aubergines lengthways, then deeply score in a criss-cross pattern, taking care not to cut through the skin.
Spread the paste on them, making sure it gets into the crevices. I used a baking brush for this. I did not manage to get all the paste in/onto the aubergines the first time around, so I added the rest after removing the foil and baking the second time around.
Place in an oven-proof dish, cover with foil and roast for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the aubergines.
Remove the foil, spoon over any leftover paste, and roast uncovered for a further 20 to 30 minutes, until very tender and browned.
Drizzle with the sesame oil, let rest for 5 minutes, then garnish.
PS, on this occasion, dessert was blueberries in home-made cashew-nut yoghurt, drizzled with a bit of honey :-).
Photography: Personal Favourites 2022 November
Trying to visit as many EMOP exhibitions as possibe
((Despite being “internally displaced” most of that time :-))
European Month of Photography Berlin officially takes place from 2 to 31 March, but some open earlier, and some are open longer than those dates.
IN PROGRESS
Broccoli and sweet potato bake
Approx 250 g sweet potato, cubed
Approx 350 g small broccoli florets and finely sliced broccoli stems
50 g sunflower seeds
50 g Tomato paste
10 cloves garlic
Large knob fresh ginger
Juice and grated rind of a lemon
1 tblsp cumin seeds
1 tblsp mustard seeds
1 tblsp coriander seeds
Chili flakes to taste
Salt
Approx 300 ml water
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Simmer the potato cubes covered in water for five to eight minutes. Add the broccoli for the last couple of minutes. Drain very well and spread in a relatively flat oiled dish, in one layer but packed quite tightly. The dish in the photo is approx. 24×24 cm.
By the way, I also added a couple of tblsp cooked quinoa and ditto lentils – leftovers that needed to be used up.
Meanwhile, blend the other ingredients to a thick sauce (add water incrementally) which can easily be spread on top of the potato/broccoli.
Bake for 25 minutes.
From S-Bhf Wittenau to a little beyond Köppschensee, including “Naturschutzgebiet Niedermoorwiesen am Tegeler Fließ”
A day out devoted to a photography assignment
The first assignment in Strudelmedia’s class: Stretch your creative muscles (hahaha as if I actually have any creative muscles to stretch) is: take eight to ten photos of a public bench (the same bench – not eight to ten different benches. The bench, details of the bench, what goes on around the bench, and so on.
So on Max’s weekly day off from me, off I went to Urbanhafen in search of a photogenic bench. Or just a bench. Benches are not photogenic. I very rarely see a nice-looking bench.
Anyway, I was not in photography mode, the sun was out most of the time which I don’t particularly like, I could not see what was going on on the screen, it was one of those days where I hated Berlin, and people, and life. I took about a hundred awful photos, all blurry and grainy and either over- or underexposed.
I have tried to make the best of the following short-list, and will whittle it down to ten, nine or eight photos later:
Sweet potato ice cream with date-caramel sauce
Note: you need a strong food processor for this. Also, the sweet potatoes need to be frozen for at least five hours.
800 g sweet potatoes (unpeeled)
1 tsp coconut oil
80 g (after removal of stones) soft dates
300 g coconut milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch ground ginger
1 pinch seasalt
For the sauce:
1 tsp best quality cocoa powder
80 g date syrup
1 pinch seasalt
For garnish:
2-3 tsp cocoaniby
Cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise, smear with coconut oil and place them cut side down on baking paper and bake at 180 C for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Peel and place in a freezer bag and freeze for at least five hours, preferably overnight.
Soak the dates in water for abut two hours.
Mix the ingredients for the sauce.
Pre-cool the individual bowls in which you want to serve the ice cream.
Drain the dates and chop them. Blitz at full speed in the food processor with the potatoes (straight from the freezer), coconut milk, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Scrape the sides of the bow from time to time and add coconut milk if the texture needs adjustment.
Distribute the ice cream in the serving bowls and serve drizzled with the sauce and cocoa nibs.
New rule
Don’t eat out, don’t order in, and don’t even go grocery shopping as long as the freezer and pantry are stuffed full of food. Just get creative and use up what is at hand.
Stuffed squid
I needed to make room in my freezer, and the fridge was pretty full to, so I stuffed some squid with what was at hand – some cooked lentils and cooked quinoa (could have been some cooked rice), some defrosted kale but could have anything chopped. I would have liked to flavour with oyster sauce so discovered on that occasion that I had run out. Anyway, after stir-frying it all together I stuffed the squid with the mixture, sealed them and pan-fried them. I would have preferred to served them on the proverbial “bed of ruccola” but I had run out of that too, so used some pea shoots of which I already have an abundance growing on the balcony. It is not the last time I have made sure to always have squid in the freezer.
Thursday is still my “day off” (and Max’s day off from me): Müggelsee
Although my wonderful dogwalker is on holiday this week, my equally wonderful cleaning help – the only other person whom I trust to be able to handle Max in the “worst-case-scenario” (which fortunately becomes less and less frequent) agreed to put in an extra hour and take Max for a couple of “toilet rounds”, so that I was able to spend most of the day out with Mr Canon, this time walking along the southern shore of Müggelsee.
Not really a long walk at all, and – worse – far from enough exercise for Max today, but weather permitting, we will make up for that at Bieselheide tomorrow.
Note to self: Next time, take bus 169 to the end stop (from either S Bhf Köpenick or bus 165 stop Krankenhaus Besuchereingang and check out the forest around there, the sanddune, and not least the waterfront restaurants.
A lot of nature left to its own devices, birdlife, and one mountainbiker whom I did not hear coming so he ended up in my ICM photo of some trees :-).
