Potato-Carrot-Curry w/ Green Tomatoes

- red onions

- garlic

- carrots

- potatoes

- TVP flakes (or big chunks cut into strips)

- apricot-peach jam 

- green tomatoes

- corn starch

- cinnamon, paprika, curry powder, cumin, sugar, salt, pepper, vegetable broth

Like most of the time, I can't give you measurements. I used a big pot and I know that I used 2 litres of water, we had about 4 big portions (with rice).

Fry finely diced onions in 2 tablespoons oil until trunslucent. Add smashed garlic and spices and stir well for about 1 minute, make sure not to burn the spices.

Add a small cup of water and let boil this mixture for 2 minutes, stir occasionally.

Dice carrots and potatoes. Add 2 litres cold water to the onion mixture and immediately add carrots and potatoes, stir well and let cook.

When the water is boiling, add the TVP soy and green tomatoes ( I had quite small ones and just cut them into halfs, if yours are bigger ones cut them into quarters) and let cook for about 20 minutes. Add vegetable broth and maybe a bit more spices, as the TVP soaks a lot of flavour.

Add the apricot-peach jam and stir well. Mix 1 tablespoon corn starch with water and add to the boiling mixture while stirring well. A lot of stirring, hm? The mixture will thicken a bit and gets creamy, lower the heat and stir for another 5 minutes.

If you don't have green tomatoes, leave them. Red tomatoes are much sweeter and would add a totaly other flavour and might be to sweetish. On the picture you see my version without the green tomatoes, was also quite good, but I liked it much better with the green tomatoes. I had a tomato plant and the last fruits wouldn't turn red and as was end of October I thought that I maybe should use them and this curry was the result.

Serve with rice.

Braised Tomato Tofu w/ Lavender Potatoes.

400g tofu

1/2 chinese cabbage

1 small can tomatoes

2 carrots

red onion

garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

vegetable broth

a bit orange juice

200g potatoes

1 teaspoon dried lavender

salt, pepper, rosemary, mint, light soy sauce

yoghurt (optional)

Cut the carrot and onion into dices, the cabbage into slices, smash tha garlic (as many cloves as you like, I used three) and put in a casserole with some water and the olive oil.

Cut tofu into slices and drape onto the veggies, sprinkle everything with soy sauce, rosemary, mint (I used fresh herbs) and a bit fresh ground pepper. 

Than pour the can peeled tomatoes over it and spread til everything is covered. Mix some vegetable broth with hot water (I used the empty tomato can, half filled with liquid) and add.

Bake everything in the open casserole for about 20min in the oven, gas mark 4. After 20min add a dash of orange juice and bake for another 15-20 min.

While the tofu braises in the flavoured tomatoes cook the potatoes with some salt and dried lavender. I used red potatoes and left the peel because it's less work and I like unpeeled potatoes a lot. Serve together and add some yoghurt or Tofutti sour surpreme to the potatoes, if you like.

Another world.

Have been to a 50s residential area in suburbian Nuremberg of which I heard only one or two weeks ago. It's quite retro futuristic and has a special thing despite it's run-down character. I could peek into an open window and there was a very old-fashioned supersmall but doubtless high-functional 50s kitchen. I also saw a tiny bit of the living room with a lamp, similar to this. Stuck in the 50s! 
The area is called Planetenring (planetary ring) and every street has a planet related name, the street signs are beautiful big white poles with mosaic. Most of the bungalow like house dices seem weird, the so-called pond is disgusting, the shop area has been abandoned for years, some socialistic appearing statues stand somehow disconnected on a boring meadow, the more than simple high-rise buildings are sad and ugly, right-wing stickers everywhere and a Twilight-Zone-esque atmosphere. I made one cross processed slide film and one b/w film, most of the pictures are quite good, I didn't thought I could catch the mood so well. More pics here and here. It's rad, so visit it!

 

Rasp- And Blueberry-Unicorn-Cheesecake-Tarte For Eve's Birthday-Tea-Party.

This was a really rich and yummy cheesecake with lots of raspberries and blueberry syrup. As lovely Eve adores unicorns a plastic unicorn and some pretty accesories had to be on top. Crust was an easy-peasy short crust with ground almonds and lots of vanilla, filled with a creme of vegan cream cheese and some raspberries and blueberry syrup. Simple whipped cream on top. Rich, luscious, fruity, creamy, crispy, refreshing - all at once. Perfect.

The recipe for it goes something like this:

Short crust
200g flour
100g finely ground almonds
200g margarine
200g sugar
vanilla
ice cold water
Mix dry ingredients as quick as possible until you have a very crumbly dough. Add 2 table spoons very cold water and knead until it's a nicely short crust dough. If more water is required, add more, but spoon by spoon. Otherwise you will have a squishy thingy and no short crust. Put in the fridge for at least one hour. I mean it.
Then bake for about 30 minutes, gas mark 4.


Cream cheese cream
300g cream cheese (I used Heirler , Tofutti works as well)
100g margarine
powered sugar (I didn't weigh it, I think it was also about 100g)
frozen raspberries (a handful, I guess)
blueberry syrup
blue food colour (optional)
Mix very well with a hendheld mixer. As I wanted a deep purple I used a bit of blue food colour. When the crust is cold enough, fill with cream and decorate with whipped cream and anything else you can think of.

In a better world unicorns were real.

Mint-Walnut-Pesto w/ Linguine.

A lot of fresh mint leaves, walnuts, olive oil (this ridicilous good olive oil I brought from a France trip this summer), splash of orange juice, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and two cloves of mashed garlic make a hell of a pesto. Love mint! Next time I will toast the walnuts beforehand, I just forgot. Might make the pure deliciousness even more delicious, uh.