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.
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.
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.
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.
In the last weeks during which i abstained from cooking it seemed that every person was doing something with either pomegranate, cranberries, beetroots (less surprising with regard to the season) or this totally surprising oven roasted apple sauce (basically consisting of apples only and originating from a french recipe).
As i am always smitten with recipes that include a minimum of ingredients and because everything tastes better, when slowly roasted in the oven, the apple sauce turned out to be the first kitchen task of this year.
Directions:
Mix a huge amount of peeled sour apples (like 2 kg) with a pinch of salt and 2-3 spices (for example vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, nutmeg, cumin...).
Bake it in a roasting tin with the lid closed for a couple of hours at 160 ° C (it took me 3 hours) until the apples are dark brown and caramelized.
It will yield to the most fragrant luscious apple sauce with a little texture left.
anke gröner reminded me that i haven't had tofu for several weeks. how is that possible?!
while making this dish i had to think of jean-george vongerichten's ginger fried rice introduced by mark bittman and smitten kitchen. an equally simple but genius treat.
find the original recipe here.
side note: as can be seen by this dish, "plenty" isn't only mediterranean. not at all.
lacking time is no excuse not to eat your veggies, okay? what is easier than eating raw food??
just as foggy winter weather is no excuse.
if you are lulled because of too much time spent in heated rooms and because of insufficient daylight, devouring hot stews or dampfnudeln is contra-productive. afterward you will long for the bed even more. i am speaking of own experiences ;)
instead a crunchy sour salad will wake you up like one round outdoor swimming. so why not start a day with it.
in the picture: some spinach, slices of celery stalks, spring onion, parsley, 1/2 blood orange, black pepper with 1/2 mashed avocado (no dressing because of laziness).
ramyun does not equal ramen. the first name derives from the latter but while the japanese usually associate a delicate noodle soup with it, koreans exclusively mean highly addictive junk food.
(if it wasn't addictive why would there be ramen blogs since 1997? an era when i didn't really know about the world wide web, let alone weblogs...)
the ramyun addiction could be the reason why koreans don't nourish healthier than other people. the traditional cuisine, that is, low-fat, dairy-free and vegetable dominated.
there is no possible situation where you would turn down a bowl of ramyun or cup ramyun.
breakfast, lunch, dinner, as main dish, as dessert, after holidays when you are almost fed up with festive foods, after a carousal...
always having in mind how harmful the stuff is (contains saturated fat plus flavor enhancers) we still enjoy it.
thus since longer time i tried to make ramyun myself according to the ingredients' list on the package.
with ansung tang myun, which is a fishy type, it worked out really well. it takes 10 min to make while the processed one (see comparison pic) would take 5 min. i can live with that :)
directions:
1) per each serving bring 1/2 liter water to a boil.
2) meanwhile add 1/3 tsp minced garlic, 1/3 tsp minced ginger (i rarely can be bothered to peel and mince them, so i keep both stored this way) 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp red pepper flakes (gochugaru), 1 tsp wakame, 2 tbsp soy sauce and optionally, 1 tsp vegetable oil.
3) with a scissor cut some spring onion into the pot. with a vegetable peeler add some carrot juliennes.
4) as soon as the broth cooks add asian wheat noodles. (haven't found tasty ramen noodles yet, so i take udon. my favorite brands are japanese and they are steadily disappearing from the markets here. which is very depressing and makes me feel sorry for the japanese and become even more depressed about the environmental problems but that is another chapter.)
5) after the noodles are getting softer (will take around 5 minutes) lower the heat and add 1 tbsp miso. stir well and cook for another 2 minutes.
6) pour everything into a bowl and garnish with fresh onion rings and sesame seeds (attention: this step is not authentic ;)).
note 1: eat it with kimchi (if not selfmade, i can totally recommend this brand which gets luckily more and more easy to find in the groceries).
note 2: koreans use steel chopsticks (wooden and plastic ones only when they are on the go...). and to clarify this as well, we never use these porcelain "asian spoons".
note 3: if the serving was not filling enough, one would dump cooked rice into the broth and eat the rest as cooked rice usually is on hand in a korean household. apart from that there is no reason to eat remaining ramyun broth.
note 4: korean snack bars usually offer ramyun as well as kimbap. if you have both one would (after having eaten the noodles) dump the kimbap into the remaining broth (it's great fun and not as freaky as it sounds but you don't have to...).
not a burger in the ordinary sense but i had much fun constructing this one for a blog event.
100% selfmade, colorful & animal free. full of textures and tastes (sweet, sour, bitter and salty).
i found out how easy it is to cook tomato sauce and that it beats the pants off ready-mades. so there will be one more thing that i won't buy anymore.
the components:
1. whole spelt burger bun with black sesames - i adjusted my standard hefezopf/tresse recipe. using water and olive oil instead of milk and butter made the buns light and fluffy.
2. slightly fried kale - adds elegant bitterness and the most vivid green.
3. amaranth patty with roasted sweet potato and red onions - amaranth contributes to a soft and sticky texture and has a wonderful nutty taste.
4. oven braised fennel slices.
5. cranberry ketchup - the cranberries contribute to an intense color and sour taste when tomatoes are out of season and don't have much flavor.
instructions for making 4 burgers on 2 consecutive nights, total prep time 2 1/2 hours:
I. day one
1) make an amaranth porridge that will bind the patty: bring 100 g amaranth with 300 ml vegetable broth to a boil. turn the heat to the minimum and allow the amaranth to simmer for another 20 minutes. turn the heat off and let it sit.
2) make the dough for the burger buns: in a bowl mix 180 g whole spelt flour, 70 g all purpose flour, 2 tsp dry yeast, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar well with a whisk. in a cup mix 150 ml cold water and 3 tbsp olive oil and pour it over the flour. knead the dough well for about 5 minutes. cover the dough in a bowl with a plate and let it ferment in the refrigerator until the next day.
3) for the ketchup bring 3 tomatoes, 2 small red onions, 1 handful cranberries, 1 garlic clove, 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 cloves, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar to a boil and let it simmer for 30 minutes until reduced. strain the sauce through a food mill.
II. day two
1) knead the prepared yeast dough again, form 4 buns, sprinkle them with water and black sesame seeds and let them rise at room temperature for 40 minutes.
2) dice 2 red potatoes and 2 red onions. fry in a pan, add salt and pepper and let cool down.
3) bake the buns at 200 °C for about 25 minutes. at the same time braise some fennel slices with little white wine, lemon juice, olive oil and salt in the oven.
4) mix the amaranth porridge, the potato and the red onions and form the patties. if the dough is too sticky add some semolina flour. fry the patties in olive oil.
5) carefully fry a kale leaf (big stems removed ahead) so that it maintains its color. add salt and pepper.
6) assemble: instead of mayo or butter i used avocado. garnish with fennel leaves.
