Eating in

Ever since I found this little restaurant in the 6th District in Vienna, all I want to eat is Indian food. And I really mean always. Not too long after my chance discovery of this place, I popped in to this culinary haven again and bought a few vegetarian curries to take home. It's a crummy little place with not much light and gross plastic covered floral tablecloths on their two greasy tables, but it smells divine and homey and totally legit. After taking my prize home, I literally ate curry for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, for two days until I sadly scraped the bottom of the takeaway container. I never feel like eating anything else when that goodness is sitting in my fridge. I also recommend ordering it to be delivered to your apartment and eating on your wooden parquet floor in the dark. Who wants to leave the house in this weather? It was just the thing I needed this day.

Natraj
Marchettigasse 18 1060 Wien
Tel: 01- 5954502

Morning.

A swiss souvenir

Two weeks ago I had a weekend gig over in Zürich, Switzerland where I made sure to make a quick trip to the supermarket to hoard up on Swiss chocolate and cheese to stow in my hand luggage. Check out this big, fat chunk of 33% almond white chocolate. Yes.

Shepherd's Pie

It's not often that I really feel like meat or even potatoes, but now and again, I miss the comforting tastes of home. On this snowy weekday, I finished work and just really craved shepherd's pie. There's something really cosy and nostalgic about this fatty, sloppy, classic English dish, but as you know, my personal spin on any recipe always involves revamping it using the colours and freshness of nature. This is what went into this good looking and yummy shepherd's pie:

Potato top:
Potatoes, peeled and diced
Milk
Butter
Chopped fresh parsley

Mince filling:
Red onions
Grated carrots

Sliced celery

Frozen peas

Mushrooms

Organic beef mince
Crushed garlic
A couple of diced, red, ripe tomatoes
A little flour to thicken any juices
A little soy sauce
Chili flakes, dried herbs, salt, cracked pepper

Before living in Europe I always thought doing mashed potatoes was a real pain. What I learnt since is that it's the easiest way to do potatoes, ever! You peel the potatoes, cube them, THEN boil them. Then after boiling for only about 8 - 10 minutes, mash them up, melt in plenty of butter to taste, add milk until you get a smooth, peaky consistency, salt. I stirred in some chopped fresh parsley. Mmm.

Fry up all the other ingredients together in olive oil, adding them to the pan roughly in that order. Don't overcook (I know that's how you make English food, but just, no) - once I was finished sizzling the veg, I just fried the meat until brown. Distribute the mince and stuff in a suitable dish and spread the potatoes over. One hearty, fresh shepherd's pie, ready to serve.

 

Juicy, crunchy, leafy Mangold

Mangold, otherwise known as swiss chard or silverbeet, has been my latest food infatuation. This green, luscious vegetable is not only unanticipatedly juicy and delicious, but also widely considered to be one of the healthiest and most nutritious plants. Out of curiosity and want for discovering new recipes, when I saw organic mangold at the supermarket, I bought one, knowing of its highly regarded nutritional value. What I didn't know was that it was so tasty that I would be munching away at the raw leaves while cooking and felt almost sorry when they were wilting in the hot pan. Next time: raw mangold salad.

For this meal, I looked in my fridge and cut up some veggies I had. Next, I heated some olive oil in a pan, added some sticks of fresh thyme and a few smashed garlic cloves. When that had nicely sizzled and the oil was very nice and aromatic, I threw in some thinly sliced raw beetroot (I'd never fried beetroot before - they turned out a little raw, so give them plenty of time to cook, think carrots) tomatoes, mushrooms, all at high heat, and last of all, my precious chard. Give it a stir and a sprinkle of salt, and it's done! Who says cooking is tedious?


And because I can't help putting an egg on everything because I always want to eat egg, here was the finished product - plus a dollop of hummus (doesn't really go but who cares)(I also always want to eat hummus) and labane (some sort of mediterranean lemony yoghurt cheese dip), some rucola, and a generous drizzle of good olive oil over everything. My quick Sunday brunch.

Morning.

Polenta breakfast

Polenta is another great whole grain food which I can't believe I had never cooked until recently. It's made from ground maize, and becomes a porridgey consistency when cooked. It's creamy, nutty, smooth and substantial, and is extremely easy to make, much easier and faster than almost any other grain food. The thing about polenta is that it's so tasty that you don't need to flavour it much. No pasta sauce or gravy necessary here. My favourite way to make polenta so far has been to cook it in vegetable stock and serve a ladleful of it next to roasted or grilled veggies. Simple. I would imagine it would be delicious served with sausages or a steak too.

Today I thought I'd cook polenta in milk for breakfast, and this was the result. This is how I made it:

1) Heat a little milk in a pot. I probably used about half a glassful.

2) When the milk is hot, pour in some polenta. I probably used about half the amount of milk. Stir continuously. You'll see it start to thicken. Add more if you'd like it thicker.

3) Serve in a bowl with toppings of choice. I threw on some sultanas, cranberries, sliced almonds, walnuts and flax seeds.

This whole process seriously took about three minutes. I'm all about super easy yet delicious and nutritious food. Highly recommended.

I heart bulgur

Bulgur wheat is a whole grain cereal food with a chewy, substantial texture, which I discovered recently on my quest to diversify my carb consumption to more than just foods derived from flour or white rice. Here are some recent bulgur based dishes from moi. 

  Bulgur salad with pomegranate seeds, parsley, cucumbers, olive oil, lemon juice, salt

A throw-together dish - free range poached egg and bacon on a bed of bulgur with parsley and organic salad

Just face it, everyone loves looking at photographs of food.

Tulips, bicycles, canals...

I always look forward to meal time here at the Aspen Festival, but it's so different to the simple, primarily meatless, low-oil, vege abundant food I usually make myself in Vienna. I've also probably taken my 'when in Rome' attitude to the American school cafeteria a little too far, and have made an unfortunate habit of routinely overheaping my plate with too much fried crap and feeling less than average afterwards.

I slept in today and missed breakfast, which is probably why my tummy started dreaming and it made me think back to probably the best dish I've had out so far this year. I found this charming cafe-restaurant in Utrecht, Holland where I took a weekend trip to get a chin-rest custom made for my violin and me. After a lengthy deliberation and quite the question and answer exchange with the waiter, I chose a smoked duck salad, which contained tasty surprises scattered among the ribbons of cucumber and lettuce leaves: olives, capers, tomatoes, a marinated mild chili pepper, and sweet cranberry sauce which topped it off excellently. And of course the tender duck slices provided the perfect balance against the raw veg with a rich, decadent, fatty touch. YUM. So simple but so fresh and divine.

The rest of the time I ate huge €3.00 pouches of fries with mayo and delicious seasoning, to get amongst 'Dutch cuisine':

(I was unsure as to what the logo at the chip shop was about..... suggestions welcome)

Dutch people are tall

My sweet couchsurfer's apartment views in Amsterdam

The Netherlands is really a beautiful, unique place like no other I've ever seen. I knew all the stereotypes before going, of course, but I didn't expect to actually be able to smell the marijuana emanating from cafe houses at every street corner, or to have to be on constant alert for bike traffic whilst walking on any kind of pedestrian surface, or to be able to see the inside of sex shops from the street. I loved the positive atmosphere, the doors of houses and open curtains right on the street fronts, the wandering domestic cats, and the open and friendly attitude. It was a brief but very wonderful travel experience, which I highly recommend. Holland, you won me over.