Roquefort and Pear Cake with Radicchio Salad and Walnut Dressing

Much less risky than the vegetable spreads experiment was this dish inspired by my dear friend and frequent Paris-traveler Lea. The cake hype there seems to originate from Sophie Dudemaine's book.

Pears, radicchio, walnuts - everything that goes well with blue cheese thrown together on a plate.

Ingredients for the cake batter:

200 gr flour

3 eggs

100 ml milk 

100 ml olive oil

1 tbsp baking powder

100 gr hard cheese

100 gr blue cheese

2 pears, cut

1 red onion, chopped and pre-roasted,

chopped herbs,

salt, pepper.

Baking time: 45 min at 180 °C.

Bread Mania and Vegetable Spreads

I have gone further with serious bread baking: it has turned back to freestyle baking and still the results are getting more and more predicable. Will post a summary of my personal tips soon...

So far so good. Next to facing a little dilemma*, I am stumped about how to eat the massive amounts of bread. My eating habits have changed such that consuming butter or cheese day by day wouldn't satisfy anymore. So I am in search of all-vegetable-spreads.

(*Normally I love eating food more than preparing it but here it is the opposite: bread baking is so much fun while I don't like to eat it as much. It seems that bread alone cannot be a real meal for an Asian :) )

My first adviser was no surprise, Sybille-Anna: after decades of following a food journal she now writes one of the loveliest blogs herself and is my go-to person for cooking tips.
Sybille suggested jams with either red peppers, beetroots or parsnip - each one sounded great but encouraged by her guidelines, I started to experiment on my own.

At first place it was a beetroot-and-orange-spread which was disappointing. I think orange is almost never compatible with other flavors and it was no exception here. Don't ask me why I tried that out...

The pictured spreads are the results of my second trial:

• parsnip, peas, lemon and cinnamon spread
• beetroot, shallots and apple spread
• toasted walnuts and pumpkin seed butter.

In theory (i.e. according to the flavor bible) the ingredients are all supposed to go well with each other but the result did not meet the criteria deep, savory and balanced.
Besides, the looks were so poor (the cinnamon screwed the faint green of the peas spread and turned it into the color of mungbean paste...), though in reality not as poor as in the pictures.

The parsnip paste is thus gladly dedicated to Heike, who never ever presents poor food pictures but incites such by others :).

I won't experiment with vegetable spreads on my own any time soon but will keep hunting for good recipes! :)
Meanwhile I can live on the combo beetroot-spread with a bought champagne-ginger-mustard and chives or ramsons on top.

32nd Berlin Half Marathon, 1st of April 2012

It was just hours ahead that I knew that I would run at the 32nd Berlin Half Marathon, Germany's biggest half marathon and my very first race!
The weather offered brilliant conditions: sunny and cloudy, not windy and not rainy, not to warm and not to cold.
And boy, was it exciting. In the morning I picked up a Danish friend and her colleagues at the Park Inn Hotel at Alexanderplatz. Turned out that the place was full of other runners from around the globe, speaking numerous languages and getting prepared - an amusing scene to watch.
After two hours or so waiting in the area between Alexanderplatz and Café Moskau next to around 30,000 participants, our slot was ready to go.

And once you were on the road, you got the impression that the whole city was running next to you or at least was watching from the roadside or from the countless balconies. Among the participants there was a couple running with a stroller and a world champion; besides, there were very old people, serious athletes, colleagues and friends. And among the viewers there were the average walkers, tourists, children, musicians and fans.
The all-flat course involves Alexanderplatz, Brandenburg Gate, Tiergarten, Charlottenburg, Kurfürstendamm, Leipziger Straße, Karl-Marx-Allee.

I finished in approximately 2:10 - having no athlete ambitions I took pictures, spotted new neighborhoods and partly walked along the road :).

Altogether it was a well organized and friendly event to start with races and a wonderful chance to see the city, its people and visitors at once!

Berlin Half Marathon: Takes place end of March or beginning or April. Capacity: 30,000 participants. To be booked a couple of months in advance with registration starting in May. Fees: 30-45 €.

Berlin Marathon: Takes place last weekend of September. Capacity: 40,000 participants. To be booked right after registration starts with registration starting in October. Fees: 60-100 €.

Corn Salad with Grapefruit, Avocado, Dates and much more

This salad is as sweet as a refined candy, its colors (and flavors) are as balanced as in a still life. The ingredients' list is long and although everything is available in a single season, it is said to be missed out easily. There seems to be some truth in it because it took me until spring to get every ingredient together. It was so worth to catch up but imagine, you could have had it throughout the winter, too! To faciliate learning the ingredients' list by heart I made a shot of it :)
What you need for a

Winter Salad with Dates (by Alfred Biolek & Witzigmann, Unser Kochbuch, 2001):

1. corn salad, thin slices of endive and fennel

2. filets of grapefruit and orange, cuts of avocado

3. toasted almond splits, cuts of dates

4. for the dressing: zest and juice of lemon, zest and juice of orange, chives, white wine vinegar, mustard, honey (I took agave), olive oil, salt, pepper.

Pimping up Mashed Potatoes

Meuth & Duttenhofer are pretty much the only personalities that I like on German television.
I always considered mashed potatoes as a boring side dish but thanks to them I found the solution: adding more flavor components, of course!

Mashed potatoes pimped with olive oil, red onions, grated garlic, lemon zests, chopped chives (I left out sour cream and chili) with a salad of plain lettuces, orange cuts and pumpkin seeds.

Roasted Potatoes and Fennel with Onion Jam and Pumpkin Leek Sauce

I don't detox, I don't fast (both rituals that I don't believe in) but since last summer I have my own ritual of finding balance: cutting off animal products every now and then. I can affirm all the positive effects that my favorite writer (and one of the craziest food experimenter in general) at serious eats noticed during his part-time-vegan experience.
Above all you get much more creative when imposing some strict restrictions to oneself, so I fully recommend to give it a go!

My belief is that all produce have their justification and their own nutritional value, so going completely vegan wouldn't be an option for me (although I respect those folks because at least they reflect on how our food is produced and conduct upon their beliefs...).

But whenever I can break the routine, namely the prevalence and all-time accessibility of ridiculously cheap animal products, I happily opt to do it now.



Roasted potato and fennel with onion jam and pumpkin leeksauce

Prep time 40 min.

1. Toss potato wedges and fennel cuts in olive oil together with spices (I took Raz el Hanout), orange zest, salt and pepper and roast them in the oven. Meanwhile

2. sauté leek slices (only the white part) together with a chopped onion. Deglaze with white wine and add chunks of a pumpkin (for the sake of convenience I use potatoes, pumpkins or chestnuts as binder). Let everything cook with the lid closed until the pumpkin chunks fall apart. Puree the sauce and add salt.

3. Serve together with pre-made onion jam and sprinkle chopped herbs on top.

Maangchi's Bibimguksu

I am a big fan of Maangchi. It is such a pleasure to see how this energetic lady brings people together from around the globe to exchange their cuisines and to learn about Korean food.

Because my mum never wrote down a recipe and because in former times, i wasn't interested into her cooking (it would be Korean food anyway at any time...), I now gladly take all the reliable recipes that i can find.

Bibimguksu is the go-for-dish when i don't want to cook but eat well (which is almost always the case).

Kimchi and toasted sesame seeds should be prepared ahead.

I took rice vermicelli (the ones that are only soaked in hot water) but thin wheat noodles (Somyun) would be authentic. I replaced lettuces for cucumber but would have preferred the latter if in season.
Carefully handle the amount of Gochujang - the hotness can differ a lot according to each brand (the one in the photo is rather mild).