Keimlinge und Frühlingsrolle

Autumn, the season of joy?

'There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass' (Charles Kuralt)

I love autumn, in fact it is the season I love most though it means summer is over, the days are getting shorter, the weather gets colder everyday with more rainy or cloudy days. Not to mention the mushy, damp leaves on the streets sticking on my shoes, or even worse: the sudden increase in number of sick people who are having a coughing fit on the underground and the continuous warning from the media on the danger of 'Grippe', the German word for Influenza and its 'Infektionsgefahr' (risk of infection). I can also perceive that the atmosphere and people's moods are changing slowly: during Spring /Summer

What is Kerupuk Udang?

What is THIS?

MSG / Glutamat

An Radio Ö1

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, 

Ich höre gern Ihre Sendungen besonders Help! und Radio Kolleg und finde dass sie sehr gut, informativ und interessant sind.

Ich habe die Sendungen über Natriumglutamat mit grossem Interesse verfolgt da ich unter Unverträglichkeit gegen Natriumglutamat leide, auch wenn es noch keinen wissenschaftlichen Nachweis dafür gibt. 

In Indonesien, wo ich geboren und aufgewachsen bin, verwendeten meisten Leute (leider auch meine Mutter) Glutamat.
(Anmerkung: Nicht nur in Indonesien, sondern auch in asiatischen Laden in Wien werden Glutamat in kleinen und großen Packungen verkauft)

Jetzt höre ich aber, dass mehr und mehr Indonesier die Verwendung von Glutamat ablehnen und sagen,

Cooking like Jamie Oliver

Though I like trying and experimenting with new recipes, I rarely watch any cooking demonstrations on TV nor internet but prefer to look into cookbooks or eat at  certain restaurants and ask the name of the dishes. I will then look up in the internet for more information on the dishes and the recipes, just for some inspirations and creating similar dishes to my liking afterwards.

But it is easier and more practical to learn how to cook new dishes from the demo on TV, you will argue, one can see exactly how things are done and cannot go wrong from there.
Yes, you are right. But it can be depressing too to see how those cooks prepare everything so quickly and easily while in reality one needs much more time and efforts to do exactly as those guys do. But if you are as quick and skillful as those guys, then lucky you.

Me, I am not a professional cook, never attended any cooking classes in my life (except at school when cooking was obligatory, but lucky me, for some unknown reason I was always assigned to do petty and harmless tasks only like peeling garlic or washing the veggies), so I cannot expect to do what the cooks on TV do namely  set 4 different delicious dishes, in less than 30 minutes, as famous Jamie Oliver does.

Way too much time in the kitchen!

Exhibitionist on action, ruuuuuun!

Green Smoothies Diary II

In the Green Smoothies Diary I mentioned that skin rashes broke out on my body due to an unknown reason (why, oh why!?)

Green Smoothie Day, everybody!

On the day 5 I suddenly noticed that my hair had fallen out more than usual! (more hysterical note here)
I loose only a few strands of hair everyday, this time I certainly lost more than a few, but fortunately much less than the average amount of 100 strands/day. Still I was anxious. Instead of having plenty of hair as Clent Manich, the guy featured in the Green Smoothies book promised, could I end up loosing it and looking like a bald condor with red blotches all around?
Fortunately the hair loss incident happened only that day, so I blamed the new band I used to tie my hair and decided to go on with the green smoothie / (half!-)raw diet experiment,  though it is hard not to have cooked foods when you usually eat them at least once or twice a day.

Green Smoothies Diary

See the introduction for green smoothie diet on this link 

On the first GS day I got black kale, dandelion, sugar melon, apricot, barley grass powder (from an organics shop) for my first portion of green smoothie. I added some water and blended all the ingredients for more than a minute till they looked creamy.
I am aware that my blender is not as powerful as the device recommended in the book, but it is the most powerful blender I have at the moment. The author of the book recommended a blender with a super powerful motor (1000 W) which can process a mixture at a high speed and even 'cook' it. AND it costs

Green Smoothies

I am a health freak, I admit.
I live only once (in this world we know of, at least), and I want to look after myself.
Though unspoken, I know from some people's reactions that they think I harp a little too much on my diets when they learn I buy organic products, drink veggie juice in the morning, cook what people consider healthy meals regularly, seldom eat out, and if I do, only at 'good restaurants'. I even create my own facial cremes, make my own soap, shampoo, etc. The only thing I wouldn't probably produce would be toothpaste. I tried to make it once, but the taste of baking soda mixed with green Heilerde (healing clay?) was so disgusting that almost made me gag. The toothpaste ended up as cleaning paste for our indoor fountain.
Yes, yes, now you understand why I sometimes get this look of dismay from people over my healthy lifestyle. To stay healthy I am willing to go to the extremes.

Sun Light Eater (Breatharianism)

I had never heard the term 'Breatharianism' until last week when I met a woman who claimed  that she only lived on sunlight.
My first reaction was, "Sorry, say it again? Are you kidding me? You haven't eaten for 2 years? Give me a break! Nobody will survive without any food for more than 80 days!"
Laughing, she told me patiently that it was indeed what she had been doing, eating only light, nothing else, and drinking only 1-2 liter of water / day. A spirit had been guiding and telling her how to do it right.
"Maybe you are eating while you are sleepwalking?" I insisted.
No, she answered firmly.
"How about cooking? You have 4 children and a husband to feed. Don't you taste what you cook?"
No, she replied.
"I don't believe a single word of it. How many kilos have you lost within this 2 year period?"

Karotten-Ingwer-Yam Suppe

Auf einer Ausstellung habe ich eine Karottensuppe probiert, die mir zu fad schmeckte, ausserdem hatte sie eine bittere Note, vermutlich weil der Ingwer angebrannt war. Zufällig hatte ich frische Ananas als Proviant dabei, mit dieser Zutat schmeckte die Suppe viel interessanter und erfrischend.

So versuchte ich meine eigene Karotten-Ingwer Suppe zu kreieren. Bei meinem ersten Versuch habe ich Karotten, Ingwer und Kartoffeln verwendet. Zwar schmeckte mir diese Suppe besser, aber ich war noch nicht zufrieden damit. Ich hatte das Gefühl, das noch etwas fehlte.


Ich überlegte eine Weile und startete einen neuen Versuch mit den folgenden

für 3-4 Portionen

Zutaten:

1. Karotten
2. Yam (Süßkartoffel)
3. Ingwer
4. Bouillon (Suppenwürze)
5. Zwiebel
6. Knoblauch
7. Pfeffer, Muskatnuss

Zum Garnieren (Optional!)

Trinkbarer Garten

Die Idee von dem 'trinkbaren Garten' entstand, als ich in einem Biogeschäft einen Krug mit Wasser, Kräutern und Obst gesehen habe. Das sah zwar gut aus, aber schmeckte nur ganz schwach nach dem Zutaten.
Da ich mit dem schwachen Geschmack der Mischung im Bioladen nicht ganz zufrieden war, habe ich überlegt, wie ich den Geschmack intensiver und besser machen konnte.
So habe ich zuhause einen Krug gesucht und einen gefunden, der eigentlich für die Zubereitung von Kakao gedacht war.