Eggplant with Tofu - Chinese

This year I planted eggplant in my small vegetable patch. It amazingly survived 3 super hot summer weeks without water and produced a decent number of fruit. Not enough for our normal consumption but enough to enjoy.
I also had a cabbage plant that did not do well at all. It grew tall and flowered. The blooms were really pretty so I just let it be. Turns out that the seeds from the cabbage dropped all over my vegetable patch and late in the summer I had literally hundreds of tiny cabbage plants. I had to thin them out because there was no way that any would survive at that density.
So there I was with a couple of eggplants and heaps of very young green cabbage and dinner to cook! I figured I'd try and put them together Chinese style because I also happened to have a pack of tofu in the fridge.

Served over udon noodles

The resulting experiment was very well received, which led to me having to jump up from the dinning table and grab a pen and paper before I forgot what I had put in to it. It took me a while to revisit the recipe, but that is exactly what I did last night. I didn't have any homegrown produce so I thought it might not taste as good. This didn't seem to be a problem. My teenager stuffed her face and could not keep saying how good the food was! This is not the normal reaction I get these days. Normally I get "oh, not that AGAIN!". So I figured I better post this recipe before I loose my notes!

Preparation time: 1.5 hours ; serves 8 (together with a couple other dishes) 

Ingredients:

800 g	Eggplant
1 bunch	Any type of greens (mustard, leafy green cabbage, etc.)
1 pack	Firm tofu
8 tbsp.	Oil
1 tbsp.	Minced garlic
1 tbsp.	Minced ginger
Sauce
1 1/2 tsp.	Bulion powder or 1 veggie cube
250 ml	Water
4 tsp.	Soya sauce
1 tbsp.	Hoisin sauce
1/2	Lemon, juice of
1 tbsp.	honey (substitute maple syrup if vegan)
1 tsp.	Sirachara sauce

Method:
First of all let me say that the amount of eggplant and greens that you use is not that precise. I used 2 eggplants and I am pretty sure they were much smaller the first time around. If you eat a large amount of tofu you could use 2 packs instead of one. And I really can't tell you what a "bunch" is!! Chopped up I had a cereal bowl full (how big is your cereal bowl?). Sorry that I forgot to weigh the greens :(

Start by cutting the tofu into this slices about 5 mm thick. Lay the slices out on a paper towel, cover with a second paper towel and leave them to allow the water to be absorbed. While your tofu is drying cut the eggplant into 1 cm dice (fancy way to say 1 cm cubes) and wash and roughly chop your greens. You can really use any greens that you like. First time around I used a bowl full of young cabbage plants, the second time around I just picked up some nice looking green stuff from the local Turkish store. I don't even know what they were, but they looked mighty like kale. It might be a good idea to try greens that won't loose too much water when you cook them.

Heat 2 tablespoons of your oil in a frying pan, over medium high heat and add a layer of tofu rectangles. You need to make sure there is no overlap. Fry each side until slightly brown and then flip them over and do the other side. Drain them on paper towels. I had to do three batches. The best type  of pan to use is of course a cast iron pan. I happened to use a heavy bottomed non-stick skillet this time around and it worked fine.
If you're pan runs dry of oil add another tablespoon. If there is not enough oil your tofu won't become golden brown and will dry out before giving you any colour.

Once the tofu is done add 4 tablespoons of the oil and fry the eggplant. Give it a good stir at the beginning so that all the pieces are coated with oil. Fry the eggplant until cooked through and possible browning. You'll need to stir it once every minute or so to make sure it browns evenly, and doesn't stick or burn. While you're doing this you can mix the sauce together. Just get a large enough bowl and mix all the "sauce" ingredients. You can also get your ginger and garlic ready. There should be plenty of time! Eggplant takes a while. Once the eggplant is cooked tip it out into a bowl and return the pan to the cooker.

If you are preparing other dishes and want this to go to the table piping hot you can stop right now. The rest will take you about 10 minutes to put together.

 Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and tip in the ginger and garlic. Saute for 5 seconds. Don't let them burn, although browning is okay. Add the sauce, mix well and bring to the boil. Then add the tofu to the pan and bring it back to the boil. Use a slotted spoon to remove the tofu and arrange on a serving dish.

Add the eggplant to the pan and toss in the sauce. Bring to the boil and then using a slotted spoon spoon out and place on top of the tofu.

Finally add the greens to what is left of the sauce. Saute until cooked (i.e. the greens are limp) and tip the greens together with the remaining sauce onto the eggplant.

Serve steaming hot with jasmine rice or with udon noodles.

Here is a printable version

Advent wreath - modern

Advent wreaths are a big thing here in Germany. Everyone has one. You can pick ones with fresh leaves up at every supermarket and florist. Wreaths without fresh leaves can be found at any store that sells knick knacks. Or you can be creative and make your own. I love making my own, especially with fresh evergreens, but never seem to get round to it these days. I have all the stuff you need to make one :(

From 2015! When I had more time :)

By the time I think of buying one I can't find a decent one. That's because I think to buy one a couple of days before the first advent. So today being Thursday and the first advent being on Sunday there is no hope of getting a good one.

Here is my solution. And I hope it is useful to all you busy mums out there.

What you need:

4 candles
A tray to hold all 4 candles
Shiny STUFF!

So the biggest problem here is getting the candles. But I have become wise with that and buy a whole stack after Christmas at IKEA. I think the ones I put out today were bought two years ago!

What is there to say. Arrange your candles and decorate! The shiny stuff I use is mainly decorations that were bought for the tree. And the tree ain't going up for another 2.5 weeks!!

Happy Advent!

Lavender sachets

Last year I made jars of our homegrown rosemary to give as Christmas gifts. They turned out rather cute. This year I didn't harvest any rosemary but we had heaps of lavender. It's kind of weird that I got such a large amount of lavender because I only have a small patch of plants. It smells really good and everyone is always amazed at how fragrant it is. If there is a slight breeze our whole garden fills up with the sent. When the lavender is in full bloom I add it to butter together with some bees honey to make a most delicious spread. But there is only so much lavender butter that we can eat!

I was going to make these little gifts using an old saree that I thought I had. But it seems like I must have gotten rid of it a long time ago!

However, while rummaging around in my crafts cupboard I found some silk that I had bought on our honeymoon in India. It was originally bought to make a photo album for our wedding photos. Unfortunately this was in the days of film cameras and due to an unfortunate mistake the settings on the camera got messed up leaving us with practically no wedding photos. Thus I lost interest in the silk and stuffed it into my bottomless cupboard. You can actually use any material to make a lavender sachet. The main thing is that the material is thin so that it allows the fragrance to come through. If you don't have any old silk sarees lying around you can use the next best thing, which is quite popular for lavender, and that is cotton.

Here is what you will need for one sachet:

• 13 cm by 15.5 cm piece of plain silk
• 13 cm by 4 cm piece of patterned silk
• 43 cm matching or contrasting ribbon
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine
• Needle
• Pins
• 80 g dried lavender

To make things easier on myself I made sure that one of the long sides of the plain silk and the short sides of the patterned silk was the selvedge edge (i.e. the one that does not unravel). If you can manage this it also looks better.

The first thing you MUST do is to blanket stitch (or zigzag) all around the material to make sure it does not fray. Usually thin materials fray much faster than thick ones and you don't want all your hard work to go to waste because you forgot this simple step and the stitches came away and the lavender spilled out.

Once you've got everything secured you can start putting the sachet together.
Pin the two pieces along the 13 cm side making sure to keep the selvedges on the same side. Make sure that the pieces line up exactly on the selvedge. The other side is not so important since it will be on the inside of the sachet. Note that the good sides should be facing each other on the inside.

 Sew this up using a sewing machine or back stitch. Then you need to sew up the other side to form a "tube". Again make sure that the selvedges are lined up so that you have a nice straight edge at the top. Sew this up.

 Now you have a little tube and you just need to sew up the bottom to form a bag. If all has gone according to plan the selvedges will all be nicely lined up. Now you want to have the pattern down the middle of the sachet. Pin it down in the correct position. You might have to do some fiddling or measuring to get it exactly in the middle. Flatten the seams with your fingers and make sure that everything is nice and flat and that there are no wrinkles. Then pin down the bottom and sew it up.

Now turn it around so that all the sewing is inside.

Fill the pouch with the lavender. Now you don't want the lavender falling out if someone takes off your pretty ribbon. Or if it just happens to come off by itself. So it's a good idea to sew up the top. I did this after putting the lavender in. About 1 cm above the top of the lavender I sewed around with a simple running stitch and then pulled it tight, securing it with a double knot. Finally add your ribbon. And voila, you have a cute little present to give for Christmas!

A day in Bochum

Bochum. A city sandwiched between Dortmund and Essen. Famous not for its excellent university but for the singer Herbert Grönemeyer and his song "Bochum", which is practically the city's hymn. Everyone around here knows the words and everyone joins in when it's being sung!

Cactus veil - cactus house

Our day started out with a walk through my most favourite place here. The university's botanical garden. I love this place. It is an extensive garden with different geographical areas including tropical, savannah, and desert in the green houses. Another amazing thing about this garden is that it is absolutely free. The only gripe that I have is that the signs are only in German. 

The green house

To get to the main gate take the U-35 to Lennershof, turn left coming out of the station and walk straight down the road. At the end of the road you will see the university buildings on your right, walk keeping them on your right hand side and as the road bends around at the southern end of campus you will find the main entrance.

This is were we started out on a sunny but cold autumn day.

Our first stop were the ponds, because we have not been there for a while. They are great for a photo shoot. In the summer they are inhabited by wildlife and if you are lucky you will see the resident water snake.

Water snakes and Sequoia trees

We headed along the path and turned up hill to get to the green houses passing the vegetable garden on the way. Because of the crazy weather things were still growing. We saw artichokes, tomatoes, leeks, napa cabbage and lots of different herbs.

Kale (?) and artichoke in the vegetable garden

I love the green houses and this time I had time to take some pictures of my favourite plant, the cactus. I particularly love this plant because it's something I can grow without killing. Almost all plants die in my house. Cacti have the highest life expectancy!

A selection of Cacti

The tropical house reminds me of Sri Lanka. There is all the vegetation that you would find in my parents back garden including coconut, banana, cocoa, bamboo, shoe flowers and many many more. There is a turtle in the pond, some type of birds walking around and a stream runs through the middle of the green house. Not a great place for photos because of the lack of contrasting colours (everything is green) and the humidity that fogs up your lens!

A typical Sri Lankan shoe flower

The Savannah is pretty boring. Once they had a butterfly exhibit in there. That was really cool. On the weekend you can buy tea and coffee at the entrance and there is a watering can by the door where you can make a donation. Which I highly recommend if you can. The green houses are also the only place in the gardens with restrooms!

Chinese tea garden - from outside

After the green houses we headed to the Chinese tea garden. It's perfect for a photo shoot, which is why we had to dodge around a bride and groom and a photographer with a huge tripod. The path is very narrow so it makes it a bit difficult! Don't forget not to feed the carp in the pond! The garden is authentic and when some kids vandalized it a couple of years ago they had to close it down until they could get replacements manufactured and sent from China.

We had had enough of the gardens, because it was really cold, but there is lots more to see if you have time.
Heading out of the tea garden and upwards we climbed up the long stair case to get to the middle of the university. After a couple more stair cases we were at the heart of the campus. The Audimax.

Audimax - Ruhr University Bochum

Opposite the Audimax is the university's art collection. Being free of charge, warm and having a WC this was our next stop. You are not allowed to take photographs in the museum so I can't show you what it looks like from the inside. There is a bit of art, some very old Greek style sculptures, some old coins, an impressive oil lamp display and an even more impressive pottery display. It's so impressive that we asked the person working there if they were replicas. She claimed they were original! It will take you a maximum of 45 minutes to get through this very small museum.

Kunst Sammlung der Uni Bochum

Our next stop was the graffiti tunnel. To get there we continued walking towards the subway station "Ruhr Universitaet". Crossed over Universitaetsstr. and then took the escalators down to the bus station. From there you just continue in the same direction and turn left and go down through the tunnel. Be very careful. Even thought the speed limit is 30 km/h through the tunnel people usually drive 50. The sidewalks are narrow and you may have to navigate around graffiti artists.

I'm not sure how it works, but the art work changes sporadically. If you are lucky you will see some amazing graffiti. But you could also come after someone has sprayed the whole tunnel with some crazy text. Amateurs stick to the periphery, so in the tunnel itself you'll almost never find something that is not worth looking at. Here are some shots of what was on show last week.

There are many options for food at the "Uni Center", which is at the top of the escalator. Currently you can choose from 3 bakeries, a vegan cafe, at least 2 pizza places, Chinese food, doner Kebab, a mini pub, two burger places and more. Note that the Chinese food is oily, bad fast food and in the restaurant on the upper level I was once served a salad with a live caterpillar in it. The food and the service sucks there. We had lunch at burger brothers, who have two vegetarian options which were both good.

If it is you have not visited the German national mining museum, you should definitely head there next. The U-35 subway will take you directly there. At the moment they are renovating and only the mine is open. Given that we've been down there a hundred times we didn't want to go again. I'm waiting for the renovation to be done (summer 2019?) and then I'll go see what they've done to it. This museum will take up most of your afternoon.

And if you've never been before you should definitely take in an evening at Bochum's one and only musical Starlight Express. It's in German so if you don't understand the language read the story before you go. It's not so much about the story but more about the roller skates and costumes. We didn't go see it this time. We've been there twice before and our kids 3 times. True Bochumers!!

Our day did not end at lunch. Afterwards we went to see our friends art exhibition and then went home to play the new board games we had bought the day before at the Spiele Messe in Essen.

If you are looking for great places to have dinner in Bochum try Yamas for excellent Greek Mezze (it's a wine bar and usually very loud, reservations are a must). If you have a car and need a sushi fix visit Takeshi's for expensive, delicious sushi (reservations recommended). Great East Asian food can be found at Hatoky (avoid the sushi), fries between Kortumstr. 1 and 3, and the best ice cream ever (seasonal) at 4eck. Of course there are plenty of places to eat and surprisingly Bochum has pretty good food with sushi and Indian food being the exceptions.

A day in Dortmund

We didn't have time to plan anything for this fall vacation and most of the time we had to work. Therefore we took 4 days off to play tourist at home.
On our first day we went to Dortmund, on the second ... well we were going to go to Essen and do some cultural stuff but because the "Spiele Messe" was on we went to that instead, on the third day we explored Bochum and on the fourth Duisburg. It was quite an interesting vacation. I hope that you find this useful if you are ever in the region.

Given that Dortmund has one of the top soccer clubs in Germany I planned a soccer themed day. Now we are not soccer fans and don't support any teams (go Liverpool!) but nonetheless our first stop was the highlight of our four days. I booked us a tour of the BVB soccer stadium. My girls were grumbling about it from the time I first mentioned it, but they came along because it was better than the alternative (stay at home alone all day). 

Now my advice to you, if you go to the stadium, is to get there well in advance. If you are taking public transport and there is an event things could get tight and it might take a while to catch a train. If you are driving it could take you forever to find a parking spot. Plus the place is extremely badly sign boarded. We know the area and it took us a good half an hour to find a place to park because there was an event and they had reserved all the parking lots. Only one was free but the people manning the lots didn't know which one it was! I was very stressed out because I thought we were going to miss our tour and I had planned an extra 45 minutes for parking and finding the entrance. 

Stadium entrance. The museum is to the left and the fan shop to the right.

We half ran to the entrance, which is at the fan shop, and then had missed the tour by about 5 minutes. We were so annoyed. You could not have started the tour in a worse frame of mind. Someone headed out with us so that we could catch up with our tour, which was really nice. We caught up with them inside the stadium and it looked extremely small although it holds 81,000 people. 

After that the tour took another 45 minutes and it was amazing.  The tour guide was fantastic and obviously a soccer fan. I'll not tell you about the tour because that would spoil it for you. 

The very tight walkway that the players have to walk down to get to the pitch

I imagine that if you were a soccer fan it would be even better. 

The team "bench"

After the tour we went to the fan store (and didn't buy anything) and the BVB museum (admission is included in the tour ticket). The museum is very small and I would not pay extra admission to see it. The trophies are very impressive and the display about the clubs history was informative.

Since it was rather cold we didn't have a picnic here. Although there were some really nice gardens which would be perfect for a picnic.

Our next stop was the German Soccer Museum, which is just opposite the main train station in Dortmund. I must say that we were rather disappointed. The entrance tickets were not cheap and the museum didn't deliver. 

Museum as seen from the Dortmund main train station

My favourite exhibits were the ones on how soccer developed in Germany and on women's soccer. It took about 10 minutes to see these! Given that internationally the women's team is more successful than the men's it is sad that they only had a very small exhibit. 

Fun graffiti of Angela Merkel at the top of the escalators

You could watch a lot of old games, see a lot of trophies and memorabilia, and a horrible "3D" movie about winning the world cup. 

If you don't know what this is then you probably should not visit!

If you like this kind of thing then this is the place for you. It just gave us a headache and we didn't learn anything about the game. At the top of the building there is a restaurant and at the bottom there is a cafeteria. The problem with the cafeteria is that you have to walk through the whole museum to get there. Basically the museum is  one way street. If you miss something you have to go to the end and re-enter!

A much better place to visit would be the ... museum, which is also close to the main train station. We didn't go there last week but we've been there before and really enjoyed the exhibits. In fact Dortmund has a wide range of museums of varying quality, but there is something to suit everyone's taste.

Our next stop was the "Dortmunder U". 

The Dortmunder U seen from behind

We see the building every time we go to Dortmund because it is close to our favourite Sri Lankan restaurant. And we've wondered what was in it for years. So we were really glad that we finally were going to see it. 

Foyer at the U

Massive blown up pig in the stair well

They were having a Pink Floyd exhibition there so we were really excited until we heard how much it cost at the door. Since none of us are/were Pink Floyd fans we decided to skip it. The rest of the exhibitions in this building were free. Mainly it is an art museum. There was lots of paintings and installations. 

Frankenstein's work room. Look very closely to see the body parts swimming in the box

You can visit the terrace at the top of the building to get some good views of Dortmund. They have a cafe up there too.

The "U" as seen from the roof top terrace

A birds eye view

Lighting in the roof top cafe

There was one floor that was inspired by the Pink Floyd exhibition and you could "play" with the exhibits. 

Came complete with a box of tape so you could add your own art

Our favourite room in the whole museum was an art room that we discovered. It had signs that said you could take anything and be creative. There were all kinds of art supplies and it was a good place to chill with the girls. We were not very creative so we just took printed cards and coloured them in. It was fun, but I'm sure you could do many other things with the stuff there. 

Skate park across from the "U"

Graffiti at the "U"

By the time we left it was dinner time so we headed over to our favourite joint "Sweet Chilli" for dinner. We stuffed ourselves silly with potato roti, string hoppers, dosai, masala tea, mango lassi's and cream soda. I highly recommend this place. They serve plenty of vegan options and although it's not the kind of food you will be served in Sri Lanka it is definitely delicious and not adjusted to the western taste. It's also not very expensive and the portions are huge. We generally order an appetizer or two and two main dishes with two extra plates and are all pleasantly stuffed at the end of the meal. Be careful, unlike many places in Germany when they say hot they mean HOT.

You can find all these places and more on a google map that I created. 

Here is a list of other sights in Dortmund that you might consider visiting (also on the above map).

• Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Dortmund (museum of art and culture history)
• The Zollern Colliery - Zeche Zollern - museum for state industry
• DASA Working World Exhibition 
• Binarium - German museum for digital culture
• The Dortmund zoo 
• Hohensyburg ruins