BlauPause and Seahorse Cookies - Part 1

Next Sunday is BlauPause (which literally means "blueprint"). It is an event to celebrate the Ruhr University's 50th Anniversary. The plan is to block of the main road that passes by the university which by no mistake is called "Universität Straße". A similar stunt was done a few years ago when they blocked off one of the local highways, the A40. There will be tables along the road with a lot of them featuring the universities work. Kind of like a big PR, or an outreach, event.

Ref: http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/rub50/_content-docs/faq-anreise/RUB50_BlauPause_Streckenplan.pdf

Hubby dear has had to organize a table too. It is somewhere by the Uni Brücke which is at the subway station "Universität". You're getting the picture here, right?

We've spent a long time brain storming what should be done and how to reach out to regular people and educate them about memory and the brain. My husband specifically studies the hippocampus and "hippocampus", coming from the Greek word "seahorse", led us to the decision to make Seahorse cookies for the kids who pass by. And to make it really cute they get to play a specially made game of memory with our kids. Of course only those who play get a cookie. Needless to say we are hoping for clear, sunny skies and temperatures which are more representative of summer than those we had this weekend.

I haven't made the cookies yet but I wanted to do a bit of a PR stunt so that more people come out to visit us!!

What I do have for you is an amazing cookie recipe that I got this one from the Bochumer Kinderchor after my kids participated in their Christmas concert with the Bochum symphony. It is finally the sugar cookie recipe that I have always been looking for. It keeps it's shape, it tastes great and it keeps fresh and crisp literally for ever. My husband was still eating the ones we made over Christmas in February!!

Here are our Christmas cookies:

Never been quite happy with the icing though. This time I will try royal icing, the one I've been using kind of makes the cookies soggy (but they still taste good). 

But now it is time to go to bed so I think I'll post the cookie recipe some other time :)

Sri Lankan Dahl. Red Lentils. A Staple.

My husband has been finding this blog very useful. A quick call from me to tell him that I'm stuck in the worst back up ever and am not going to make it in time to make dinner, sets the ball rolling. He checks the app we share to see whats on the menu, opens up this blog and cooks us dinner. Sometimes adding his own ingredients in to the mix.

Because of this I really had to get my act together so that he can cook one of our main staples - red lentils, dahl, parippu. What ever you may call it we can't have Sri Lankan food without it. It's marvellously healthy and terribly popular with the kids. It seems to be one of those universal foods kind of like fries and chips. We've never had a kid who does not like it, neither in the USA nor in Germany!

Serves 4; Preparation time 30 min.

Ingredients

1 cup	Red lentils, Mysore dahl
2 cups	Water (approx.)
1/2	Large red onion
1 sprig	Curry leaves
1/2 tsp.	Dill seeds
1 inch	Rampe (pandan)
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric
1/2 tsp.	Salt
1/2 tsp.	Chili powder
2 tsp.	Sri Lankan curry powder (unroasted)
3 tbsp.	Coconut milk powder
1 tsp.	Sri Lankan roasted curry powder
1 tbsp.	Lemon or lime juice

Method:

First of all I wash the lentils twice or thrice just like one washes rice. From there on there are several different options: temper first, temper in the middle etc. But I've been using a much simpler way for many years, cutting out the tempering and thus the oil!

I add water to cover the lentils (around 2 cups) and then put in all the ingredients except the coconut milk, the roasted curry powder and the lime juice. Then I simply put the lid on, put the cooker on high and let it boil. Putting the lid on is very, very important. It also helps to use a heavy bottomed saucepan.

Once the curry boils, I whip of the lid, give it a stir and put the lid back on again. The heat now is turned down to an amazing very low (2 on my cooker) and I allow the lentils to cook. I also check every now and then to see if there is always enough water in the pot. If there is not enough water the lentils will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. Very yucky! Once most of the water is absorbed I add in the coconut milk, either from a can or powdered coconut milk powder. If I'm using the powdered sort (3 tablespoons) then I stir it in to the lentils and then add some water. This helps prevent any lumps forming. However, if this is the first time you are making this I suggest dissolving the coconut milk powder in 2 tablespoons of lukewarm water and then adding it. If using canned coconut milk the amount will depend totally on how thick the coconut milk is. The stuff I've been getting here in Germany is so thick that I add 2 heaped tablespoons in and some water (a few tablespoons). You can adjust the amount of water depending on how liquid you want your resulting curry to be. If you don't have coconut milk you can use regular full fat milk.

Then let the whole thing come to the boil and it should be done. If some of the lentils are not yet done, just give it a stir and let it cook for longer on very low (with the lid closed). You may need to add water to the curry to prevent it from burning.

Once everything is cooked remove from the heat add the roasted curry powder and the lime juice (you can use lemon juice instead) and cover until needed. Stir and then serve.

Garnished with coriander leaves and chilli flakes

This curry is totally forgiving. I've made it without onions, without curry leaves or rampe and it's still great. You can add tomatoes to it and/or garlic. If your a fish eater some Maldive fish tastes great too. Another favourite Sri Lankan variation is to add spinach to it (careful though, the spinach adds a lot of water to the curry). I've added coriander leaves to it and my cousin makes it with mustard seeds instead of dill. Everyone has their own variation. The one really important ingredient is the turmeric, without this it looks a bit weird. Having said that, my mother always makes it without turmeric and it tastes fine to me!

And finally, my little one loves it when I sprinkle fried onions on top. Try it out and add your own little twist to it. Tastes great with any kind of rice or with thick chunky bread. Kids love it in a sandwich too.

(Well not quite finally... you can also use any other lentil to make this curry, but from my experience it doesn't taste as good).

Fried Eggplant Quiche

Today is Ascension Day, which means it is a public holiday. And as always, this means that all the shops are closed in Germany. Of course I didn't have time to check the cupboards and go out and stock up! I always have the basics like flour, sugar, eggs and rice so I can always put something together.
Today I had an eggplant. A single, lonely eggplant sitting in my fridge. Not enough to make a curry from or enough to make any thing really special. After all today is fathers day in Germany so we needed something special. The tradition being to get a cart, fill it up with bottles of beer and to head out to the nearest wood to get drunk with all the other fathers. However, something a bit more subtle was necessary since not many people follow the tradition any more. Especially not the fathers! So I decided to put the eggplant in a quiche along with some garlic and fresh, organic peppermint from my planter. I used the caramelized leek quiche recipe to help me along.

Preparation time: 1.5 - 2 hours. Serves 4

Ingredients:

Pastry:
	6 oz	Four
	3 oz	Butter, cold
	1/4 tsp.	Salt
Filling:
	5 tbsp.	Oil
	325 g	Eggplant
	1 tbsp.	Fresh peppermint leaves
	2 cloves	Garlic
		Salt and pepper to taste
	2 tbsp.	Parmesan, grated
	3	Eggs
	125 ml	Whipping cream

Method:

First of all I made the pastry for the crust. You can find instructions here. I discovered that I had some whole wheat flour when I was going through the cupboards this morning so I decided to use this for the pastry. I used half white and half whole wheat flour. Once the pastry was done I stuck it in the fridge to rest for a bit. While it was resting I put the frying pan on the cooker on high and tipped in 3 table spoons of oil. While it was heating I chopped up the eggplant just like one would do for an eggplant curry. They looked like this:

Once the oil was hot I fried them until they were golden brown. Eggplant is the most funny vegetable ever (at least to me it is). Initially it absorbs all the oil in the pan and then when it is fried enough it lets a lot of the oil out again. This is why I always fry my eggplant nice and brown otherwise it is just too oily to eat. I actually had to divide my eggplant into 4 batches to fry it. After two batches I added in another 2 tablespoons of oil and that was enough for the rest.

After finishing 2 batches I put on the oven (180 C fan, 200 C/400 F conventional), took out the pastry and rolled it to fit my all time favourite, almost 9 inch, flan pan. Once the oven was hot I baked it blind for 15 minutes (if you missed this you can find it in this blog). While it was baking I finished frying the eggplant. On the side I cleaned the peppermint and chopped it and peeled the garlic and grated it. I also mixed together the eggs and cream in a large bowl and added the salt, pepper, garlic and peppermint.

After 15 minutes of baking blind I took out my beans and put the crust back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so. Then I took out the crust and arranged the eggplant in the bottom of the pie shell.

Next step was to pour over the egg and cream mixture and sprinkle the top with some finely grated Parmesan cheese. It was all very simple. It then went in the oven for .... sorry about that I forgot to look at the clock! So I'm going to have to say "until it was golden brown". Probably was about 20 minutes or so.

The result was consumed with a salad of lettuce and tomatoes and was "a keeper" according to my husband. And that is basically why I am sharing it with you all. My oldest was not too keen on it, she didn't like the peppermint :(

Sri Lankan Bean Curry

Oh I have been away for too long again! The last week of work at ISR was busy and thus I just cooked a lot of curry so that it would last for a few meals. Each day topping it up with a new curry or two.

Green beans are one of our all time favourites. Everyone in our home loves bean curry. I've been trying for years to replicate my aunts curries and have never been successful, but I think I've found the trick. Read on to find out the secret to an awesome curry!

Ingredients:

500 g	Green beans
2 tbsp.	Oil
2 medium	Onions
1/2 tsp.	Dill seeds
1 sprig	Curry leaves
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric
1/2 tsp.	Salt
1/2 tsp.	Chili powder
2 tsp.	Curry powder (unroasted)
3 heaped tbsp.	Coconut milk powder
1 tsp.	Roasted curry powder

Method:

One of the biggest secrets is how you actually cut the beans. I always thought the beans were cut on a diagonal, so I spent years trying to cut them thinner and more slanted but never achieving the right effect. It sounds kind of silly, why did I just not ask? Well usually when I go to any of my aunt's places I'm so busy stuffing my face with delicious food that I forget about asking how everything was made. But my mother finally discovered the trick, quite by accident, and conveyed it to me (quite by accident!)

Not so long ago my mum visited my aunt and they were preparing a bean curry for a lot of people. So they asked all the womenfolk around for their help to prepare the beans. My mother found an almost blunt knife (her story, not mine!) thrust into her hands with the instructions to split the beans down the middle. My mother was so horrified by the task (complete exaggeration!) that she told me all about it during our next skype call. And BINGO, I got the secret to the perfect curry, split the beans down the middle. Here is a picture of what I mean:

Needless to say, since receiving this wonderful news I've only made one perfect bean curry. The way mine eat beans I just don't have the time to split them. Here are few done especially for you:

Once you've split them you just cut them diagonally.

For the most part I cut mine diagonally. It's just the only way to go when you have 500 g of beans and at most an hour to cook a meal with at least 3 curries (this is the standard in our house, 3 or more).

But once you've got them cut the procedure is pretty simple. 

Take two smallish onions and thinly slice them. Then heat some oil in a saucepan and once it is hot add the onions, dill seeds and curry leaves. Fry these until the onions start to colour and then put in the cut beans.

Here is trick number two for the perfect bean curry. DO NOT close the lid of the saucepan. I learnt this trick from a friend of my parents who has since left us. She always told me "never close the lid on the beans, they will lose their lovely green colour.", and I have followed her instructions to this day.

Stir fry the beans and add the tumeric, curry powder, salt and chili powder. Continue to fry and stir. Don't let anything burn. I fry like this for as long as I can get away with. But it is not very long. The worst thing is a burnt bean curry. I have bad memories of burnt bean curry cooked by my sister when she was very young. Not her fault of course and I was probably exaggerating. Oh! so I fry this for about 1-2 minutes on high heat. 

Next step is to add in a cup of water. I don't add too much water because I really want the curry to be dry. I could cook off the water at the end but then I would end up with over cooked beans. Which we are not very fond of. Later you can add water as necessary. Let the beans simmer until they are just cooked and there is almost no water left. The time this takes depends on how tough your beans are. I know for sure they take forever to cook in Sri Lanka and here in Germany I can cook them within about 20 minutes. It also depends on how you cut them so you just have to keep adding water as necessary and checking them every now and then. 

Then add in the coconut milk. I add very thick coconut milk, so either the cream on the top of the can or some coconut milk powder directly into the pan (be careful though, if the water is too hot the powder will form lumps). Then cook off the moisture, sprinkle with roasted coconut powder and you are done. 

Enjoy with some other fabulous Sri Lankan curries and of course some steamed rice.