Crocheting times

Made this bag and then unraveled it. The form was good, I also like the flap in the front and the strap/bottom/sides. I made the body in one piece and then the strap/side/bottom and sewed it in. The material didn't work that great for this kind of bag, though, it's too soft. I'll make this bag in a different material one of these days. In the meantime, working on a tote kind of bag. For which I've finally figured out how to crochet from the inside out. Which'll come in handy for hats.

Vegan testing in Berlin

When I was in Berlin last week I used the opportunity to do a testrun of several at least partially vegan establishments. The idea of food not made by me has a certain allure. And vegan Pizza was the lure that took me to Friedrichshain, to a vegan restaurant called Yoyo, it's on Gaertnerstr. 27. I had a very good vegan tuna pizza, surprisingly I even liked the fake cheese. One thing I didn't like was the wooden plate it came on. I mean, is that even sanitary? I must have eaten several chunks of wood along with my pizza. Not that that stopped me from wolfing the whole thing down. They use the vantastic foods veggie fishburger for the tuna, and cheezly mozzarella substitute, the dough itself was nice and thin and crusty. Also a nice plus is that they carry vegan snickers-bar-alikes for dessert. When I took a stroll to the Chapati store, I came along an icecream parlor that offers several flavors of vegan icecream. I had a serving of peanut icecream, which was very good, and a taste of hazelnut (even better) and mango (possibly better still). And here I had thought I'd have to miss out on the summery fun of public icecream cone licking.

The next day I had several destinations on my list, the first was Rebellion des Zimtsterns in Kreuzberg, Schlesische Str. 38. I have to say the street numbers in Berlin render me frequently confused. I walked by this place, and only saw the flag with the name on it when I turned back after a while of fruitless searching. It looked closed, even though it was at least half an hour after it's supposed opening time. No lights, no people, no sign. I don't know what made me try the door, which surprisingly opened. This place is mostly vegetarian, and since I didn't want cake for breakfast, it seemed my only choice were the plintzen. I was a bit taken aback when the waitress/owner brought me a plate with 2 tiny rolls of crepe-like pancakes. I mean, tiny. They were gooey inside, and I don't think they had a filling, but, I was hungry, so I ate them anyway. For 3.90 Euro this was not a lot of food. There was also a tiny side of apple slices with two half grapes, which tasted weird. Coffee wasn't really good, either. I wouldn't come here for breakfast again, unless their menu options were to change. They offer ricepudding and grits, but not in vegan versions.

Still hungry I spent at least an hour at the Kreuzberg Chapati store, and, with a large bag of awesome clothing, went to the Veganladen. When I finally found the store (seriously, Berlin, what's wrong with odd numbers on one side of the street and even on the other?), I was surprised how small it is. I'd been looking forward to the vegan shoe selection, which is housed in a tiny corner. But, it turned out I didn't have any energy left for shoe shopping, so I grabbed a few items like Panda raspberry licorice and left. It's a nice touch that they carry flour tortillas for making burritos at home.

My next adventure took me to a place called Yorck 52, on Yorckstr. 52 in Schoeneberg. I went around 5 pm, had a good, if small, coffee. Unfortunately, most things on the menu were not to be had. They were in a meeting all day, so food preparation was neglected. I didn't feel like a brownie, which was the only item sitting in the case, so I opted to go somewhere else for food. When I asked the waitress/owner to confirm their opening time, she told me they're supposed to open at 10, but most of them are always late, so it would be safe to come at 10:30. I was very glad I hadn't stuck with my original plan of going there at 10 for breakfast. It's probably not all that surprising the people running this place all still have dayjobs.

Sourdough Revival

Last year I was successful with starting my own sourdough culture and baking with it. After a while I got lazy and started using the one-step process to make San Francisco sourdough bread, and my culture lost it. Breads didn't turn out that well anymore, and I had some inedible flops, so I stopped making them. Luckily I dried a batch at the height of the culture's activity and stored it; in dried form the culture can survive for a long time.

I soaked the dried sourdough flakes in lukewarm water and let them sit for a couple of hours. I'm using the 3-step-process, which gives the sourdough a chance to be very active, and I've had great results with before. Basically you just feed the starter culture with flour and warm (not hot!) water, and give it a good stirring, then let it rest between 6 and 8 hours, repeat three times. When you see bubbles in the starter, it means it's doing its thing.

I started on this batch Friday midday, after the two-hour soak I fed it with 100 ml of warm water and 100 g of whole rye flour, and gave it a good stirring. It's okay if the flakes haven't completely dissolved yet. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and put somewhere aside. Around bedtime I gave it another feed and a stir, this time remembering to use smaller amounts, since the ratio of the starter to the bread should not be more than half, and I'm baking fairly small breads. Otherwise the bread becomes too sour and soggy. Saturday morning I gave it another feed, and then didn't get to it until fairly late, around 7 pm. Which was fine. Here comes a very crucial step, and part of the reason why it's a good idea to dry a batch of your culture. Before you add the remaining ingredients, remember to put aside at least 50 to 100 g of your starter for your next batch. I usually keep a glass jar for this purpose on the kitchen scale while working on the starter, as a visual reminder. That goes in the fridge, where it survives for a week or two. It's a good idea to bake bread every week or at least every 10 days, so the culture doesn't die.

Now come the remaining ingredients. 1 tablespoon of good quality sea salt. Warm water, good stirring. I used 340 g of whole rye and 160 of spelt meal, mainly because I ran out of rye. With rye you don't have to stir that much, wheat and spelt require a lot more stirring. I then filled the dough into a loaf pan lined with baking paper, and now comes the reason I was baking bread at midnight last night. I'd forgotten about the rising time. You set the loaf pan in the oven and turn it to 50 degrees Celsius, after 20 minutes you can turn that off but leave the oven light on. Give the loaf a good spraying with a water sprayer, and keep spraying it intermittently so the dough doesn't dry out. It usually takes between 2 and 3 hours, but can take longer as well. This time I didn't see much of a rising action, so after 2 and a half hours I did the finger-imprint-test. If the dough barely recovers from the imprint of your finger, it's high time to bake it. Take the pan from the oven, set oven to 200 degrees Celsius. When the temperature is reached, give the loaf another good spraying and put on the middle rack. Baking time depends on the size of the loaf, for this one between 50 and 60 minutes. After 15 minutes set the temperature to 190, a while later to 180. Keep spraying the loaf, I also spray into the lower part of the oven to create steam. The bread is done when it sounds hollow when you flick your nails against the pan bottom. Let cool for 10 minutes and put on wire rack. Cover with a clean towel and let sit for at least 4 hours, or, like me, till breakfast the next morning. Rye bread tastes better the next day, wheat and spelt are good right away.

Spelt-Chufa Cookies with Chocolate Coating

I was wanting to make a cookie that is healthy, and was also looking for a good use for the chufa flour I'd gotten at the healthfood store. Chufa or tigernut (Erdmandel = earth almond in German) is basically a kind of grass, which has a small, nut-like (and nutty tasting) bulb, which is high in protein and fiber as well as in minerals like iron and potassium, and rich in antioxidants. Supposedly chufa contains all nutrients the human body requires, and has beneficial effects on the digestive tract. It is also the original ingredient in Horchata, so much so that in Spain that drink is called Horchata de Chufa.

I came up with these cookies, which are very tasty and satisfying, and today I decided to give them an extra kick by adding chocolate glazing. Now, they're amazing.

Ingredients Cookies:
250 g spelt meal
100 g chufa meal (erdmandelmehl)

75 g alsan (non-hydrogenated organic margarine)

68 g agave nectar

1/2 ts baking soda

dash of salt

soymilk to add liquidity

some acai berries and raisins

Mix ingredients together, form little rolls, place on a baking sheet (on baking paper), and press flat into cookie-shape.

Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 - 12 minutes. 

Chocolate Coating:

I had about a third of the cookies left when I decided to add chocolate, so use more accordingly.

50 g dark baking chocolate

dash of vanilla

dash of cinnamon

Place a small pan in a larger pan filled with water, place ingredients in small pan and let them melt at moderate heat. Or maybe you have a double boiler. Spoon the melted chocolate onto the cookies. Let harden/cool. 

Banana Bread

The last batches of bananas I bought went from being green to being brown, without even stopping in the yellow zone. I'm not all that fond of bananas anyway, I like them in smoothies or fried. And when they're overripe, I don't like them at all. Then I remembered banana bread. Which is a very good use for them indeed.

150 g whole spelt flour
45 g agave nectar
45 g bio margarine (alsan)
dash of salt
1/2 ts of baking soda
1 TS of soyflour + 2 TS of water = substitute for 1 egg
2 somewhat mashed bananas (I like them fairly chunky)
20 g fresh walnuts
20 g raisins

Mix ingredients together, use some soymilk for liquidiness as needed, put mixture into a loafpan and bake at 175 degree Celsius (350 F) for about 45 minutes, until a fork inserted into the dough comes out clean. Amazingly delicious, best when still warm.

Kombucha!

After 8 days of waiting, my first batch of Kombucha is ready for consumption!

I'm really thrilled with the result. It's really good. It's pearly, tasty, strong, it basically tastes just like the GT stuff you get at the healthfood store in the States.

Here's how I did it:
I ordered a Kombucha culture online, as well as a large earthenware container. I chose a 10 liter one, I won't need that much volume right away, but I might later on.
First, you have to wash all containers and tools with boiling hot water, cleanliness is very important, since the culture is a living thing.
I boiled water in the largest cooking pot I have, which holds about 2,5 liters. I added 5 teabags of green tea (I used Sencha), and let them steep for about 5 minutes. You can use loose tea of course, but this was what I had in the house. Then I let the tea cool off to room temperature, you never want to add the Kombucha to hot or warm water. This takes several hours, at some point I poured the water into the earthenware container. When the water was at room temp, I stirred raw sugar into it, you can use between 100 - 125 grams per liter. The sugar is very important as the culture lives off it, it doesn't make the tea sweet - unless you add lots more. Then you add the Kombucha culture, with the lighter side up, along with the starter liquid. Fasten a kitchen towel or other clean cloth on top, make sure it's well fastened so no flies or such can get into the container. I used a piece of yarn, a large rubber band would be good too.
Then you let it sit for 8 to 14 days, supposedly the longer it sits, the sweeter it gets. In the summer, it can be ready in as much as 6 days. So temperature is a factor. The container should not be moved during this time.

Of course I had to check at the earliest date possible. I washed several glass jars and bottles (I always have a bunch of those on hand, since I'm a big believer in reusing things, and those often do come in handy) in water that I had boiled in the kettle, along with the cooking pot, funnel, soup ladle.
When I removed the cloth from the container, the contents looked very strange. Turns out, my culture had a baby, which was floating on top, spread thinly over the whole thing. I ladled some of the liquid into a bottle. Now was the moment of truth. The taste-test. And what can I say, it was perfect. Just the way I like it. I proceeded to fill the liquid into jars, then I put the culture onto a deep plate, with the baby culture on top, to put aside while starting on the next batch. I will discard the baby culture later, it looks like it had been doing most of the work and looks worn out.

This is the box in which the earthenware pot was delivered, a box in a box. Looks like they ran a LOT of recycling paper and cardboard through a shredder to make their own cushioning material.

Edit: Here's the (German) site I ordered the culture from, it has a lot of info on everything Kombucha: http://kombucha.de. And this is where I ordered the earthenware container: http://www.steinzeug-schmitt.de. The one I got is the 'Einmachtopf.'

The subway - always worth the trip

Sunday I took the subway to go to the Schanze,  and as I was sitting there, waiting for the train to leave Altona station, a woman came on with her dog. She was nicely dressed, red-lipsticked, the dog some kind of smaller breed. She sat down in the bench behind me, and apparently a friend of hers came on as well, as she started telling this friend all about her new cellphone. This cost her only 250 Euro, whereas regularly it costs 500, and she was discussing her mobile plan, and since I'm a cranky person, at this point I plugged in my earphones and rather listened to the Weakerthans. At Holstenstrasse three fare inspectors boarded, one of them had to touch my arm to get my attention. I then waved my ticket tiredly in his direction. As I got up to exit, some commotion broke through my music-induced reverie, and as I looked, all three inspectors were surrounding the nicely-clad woman, one was issuing her a ticket, explaining to her how to pay the penalty fee, while the dog was yapping wildly, trying to protect her charge from these beefy young men.