Dumi & Joan's International Apartment of Cuisine: January

New Year's Day Pancakes:



Being the middle-aged (in spirit) woman that I am, I made pancakes at 8 am on New Years' morning.  Dumi and I have a bunch of great flours and grains in the kitchen, and with finals, we won't have enough time to make good breakfasts this week - so I decided to make some pancakes to put in the freezer, to be toasted in the morning in these next two weeks when I don't have enough time to do something as time consuming as, well, making pancakes. (it's not that time consuming, 30 minutes all in all)

In a bowl, combine: 3 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 wheat germ, 1/2 cup oat bran, a few spoonfuls flax seeds, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbls sugar.  Then add and whisk: 2 egg whites, 1/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 1/2 - 2 cups water (as needed) and 1/2-3/4 cup skim milk (as needed).  Head a spoonful of oil in a pan, and make pancakes with about 2 spoonfuls of your mix.  Can we wrapped in aluminum foil and kept in freezer for probably 2 week.

Lentil Salad, Finals-Style

In an attempt to have good food around during finals, as well as rid the kitchen of stocked goods before the semester break, I have thrown together a quick, protein-for-brain-power lentil and tuna salad.

bring to a boil 3 cups lentils with 3 cups water, then simmer for about 15 minutes.  place in bowl with 1 can tunafish, black olives, 1-2 cups roasted red peppers, 2 cloves minced garlic and black pepper and salt.  I added labnah, as you can see, to counteract the saltiness with some creamy goodness!

now I just have to study...

Broccoli Mucver:

These are so tasty! and you can make them with most vegetables of your liking. 

In a bowl, mix together 1/2 cup flower, 3 eggs, chopped up white cheese (optional), salt and pepper. Then add in your vegetables, mucver is most commonly made with shredded zucchini, but you can make them with broccoli, mushrooms, carrots?  Mix this combination pretty thoroughly - adding in flour as needed until you have a thin pancake-like mix.

heat up a (large) skillet with a few tablespoons oil and place two spoonfuls of the mucver mix on skillet, put a few on there at once if you can!  After about 2-3 minutes, flip, and cook other side for about a minute.  Serve with plain yogurt. mmmmm :)

Dumi's Dolma with Bulgur, Carrots and Mushrooms:

http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2008/04/stuffed-grape-leaves-with-groundmeat.html

"replace meat with mushrooms and carrots. or any other veggies you might like. I also used bulgur instead of rice, but the traditional recipe is with white rice. it works either way." -Dumitrita

thank you for substituting the veggies for the meat, Dumi. The bulgur also worked out wonderfully.

Red and Green (Christmas??) Curry Thai Noodles:



In a sauce pan, heat 2 tbls oil and sautee minced garlic.  add bean sprouts, 1-2 stalks chopped up uncooked broccoli (snow peas, water chesnuts, green or red peppers, whatever else you want to throw in there!) and sautee/stir fry for about 15 minutes.  When the veggies have cooked for about 15 minutes, pour in a can of coconut milk and put in another can of water.  Then throw in 1-3 tbls red or green curry (depending on how spicy you like it.  Also, I mixed red and green curry and it turned out great).  Cook this on medium high for about 10 minutes. 

In a pot, bring water to a boil and cook rice noodles for 6-8 minutes.  Pour curry/veggie mixture on top of noodles, add soy sauce if you like and enjoy.

A Bonniful Christmas

I had the pleasure of going to Germany for Christmas this year.  My mom's best friend and her family are staying in Bonn with their Grandmother for the holiday season.  Their son, who lives in New York, traveled down to d.c. to spend the holiday with my family, so it was a fair and square Christmas switch.

Stefan was kind enough to go out of his way and pick me up at the airport so we could take the train from Frankfurt to Siegburg/Bonn together.  Thank you, Stefan!  (especially for the Haribo gummies)

I arrived on Christmas Eve, despite concerns that accumulated and ongoing snow might impede the plans to visit.  The first thing I noticed at the Frankfurt  train station was...the orderliness and cleanliness of it all.

The train itself could have been tea at the ritz, as far as I was concerned, after having become accustomed to Istanbul dolmus buses.  Granted, Stefan and I didn't pay the 2 Euro extra for seats, but we got to observe those passengers who did as they enjoyed their beer and newspapers.

Dieter and Akiko picked us up from the train station in Bonn and we drove on the Autobahn, on which I was surprised to find the cars not driving at 100 mph as I had always been told.  Germans, always exaggerating!

First we drove to Hanna's apartment, where I would be sleeping for the weekend.  Hanna was 3 days away from a big move to Geneva to start a new job in development.  It was so good to catch up with Hanna, whom I had not seen since about the age of nine.  It turns out we have a lot in common, living/having lived in developing countries, having similar political stances and being veggie gave us more than enough to discuss.  I can't wait to find an excuse to meet up with her again - Geneva? scuba diving in the Philippnes?  (Hanna is a great scuba diver, having lived in the Philippines for many years).  Ok now, back to Christmas!

We arrived at Grandma, or Omi's house mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve.  The house could not have been more Christmas-friendly.

We immediately broke into tin jars containing all sorts of small cookies and sweets.

I felt instant pangs of familiarity when I saw these tin jars filled with cookies.  My own grandmother is of German heritage and every Christmas makes batches of (always small) cookies to share with guests.  I thought it was so neat to make this connection from my grandma's tradition - talk about cultural heritage!

presents!

advent wreath and cookies

Stefan

Akiko served a great tea/coffee and sweets session

We bundled up and went on a long walk in the snow...

The area in which they live is home to many ex-government officials, as Bonn used to be the capital of West Germany until 1990.  The capital was then moved to Berlin, leaving Bonn as a sort of abandoned capital.  More on that later...back to the walk for now.

Hanna

Akiko, Dieter and Hanna

me and Akiko

yardsale?

We got back to the house, and Akiko led us in some caroling.  Akiko is actually a serious caroler, she goes with a group around town in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  We sang some great carols in English and German. 

German carols

family hug

family portrait

the creche

And then it was time for presents...

Stefan with his traditional Germany Christmas cookie.  Scarily, these cookies can last for years...

pile-o-presents

Akiko opening up a gift

Hanna and her new Istanbul scarf

Dieter opening up one of his gifts

success!

Akiko gave me Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul, which is great so far, now that I have a better feel for the city

Hanna gave me a beautiful necklace

Germany is famous for its Christmas markets.  Unfortunately, these markets all close down before Christmas Eve.  Thanks to Stefan, who puchased a few items for me, I know have a few authentic German Christmas crafts.

a real Nutcracker!

traditional handmade German tree ornaments



A wonderful Christmas Eve, so far.  Then it was dinner time.  We had a meal called raqlette (I am sure I have the spelling wrong here), but it is apparently French, Swiss and Italian, depending on whom you ask.  It basically consists of warm bread, cheese, various pickled items (peppers, radishes, etc) and grilled vegetables.

After dinner, Hanna and I returned to her apartment for a good night's sleep before the next days events, which I was told included eating a huge midday feast.  Sleep was indeed needed!

morning view from Hanna's window

Back to Grandma's for the Christmas Day feast, which included: Stuffing, duck, gravy and traditional Polish dumplings (thanks to Gertrude, the resident Pole who contributed this fantastic dish.

one of those German cookie that "lasts" forever

more Christmas decorations around the house

beer and duck

I almost forgot to mention the cabbage!  Akiko makes a cabbage dish that is almost identical to one I love making from Alice Water's recipes, however, Akiko puts chestnuts in hers, which are so so good.

better than a fridge

After our great feast, Dieter, Akiko and Hanna offered to take me into Bonn for a little tour.  Our first stop was on the Rhine river, where we saw Medieval castle ruins off in the distance, and just as importantly - ducks and geese.

puppy

the old residence for the President

We drove to the central district of Bonn, where the city was essentially a ghost town, as it was Christmas day.  We started off by seeing a building entirely covered in a gingerbread-style covering.

Christmas street decorations and lights - this is what I have missed in Istanbul this season!

this one's for my godfather, Richard

Bonn is the birthplace of Beethoven...

the house Beethoven was born in

Dieter informed me that different shops will have a symbol of their "craft" in their window (like the giant pipe) I wasn't sure what this one was, I just liked the house.

Apparently the Bonn Cathedral was patroned by Constantine I's mother.  Byzantium will just not leave me alone!

statue of Beethoven in town square

another angle of Beethoven's statue, in front of the post office

inside the Cathedral

awesomely large basset hound

Stefan promised to wait for my return from the city tour to make the traditional homemade waffles.  He also translated and emailed me the recipe...

After another feast of cookies, tea, coffee and this time including waffles, we relaxed, read our new Christmas books and then Dieter got us all to watch his favorite "spaghetti Western" which was not bad.  The best part by far was his translating the entire film to me, which had probably about 30 words, tops, thanks to the silent cowboy-types.  Dieter went above and beyond the call of duty, by conveying important messages such as "and here is the intense music, building up" or "now he is glaring at the other guy...".  In order to understand the plot, a little imdb-ing was necessary.

after a lovely final overindulgence in sweets, sherry and more sweets, I put down my glass and Dieter and Akiko took me back to the train station.  Back to Istanbul, back to work and back to the chaos of finals.  Thank you Dieter, Akiko, Hanna, Stefan and Omi for a wonderful, white Christmas.