Hammer Breakfast

I was looking for something to eat this morning, and my eye fell on a packet of muesli bars that a friend had donated to me last week (she got a stack of them from work and was tired of eating them). They are almost like flapjacks, so I thought they would taste nice in yoghurt. As they are much harder and crunchier than flapjacks, I got out my claw hammer and bashed them into muesli-sized pieces! For this, I left them in their wrapper, of course. They were very tasty with yoghurt and brought about a very satisfying start to the day due to stress-relieving hammer-action… Bon appetit!

What to do with leftover fish

I have quite a few friends who love pickled fish. So occasionally I make some for them, although I feel like a complete psychopath cutting a fellow living being up – and frying it! I do this at work all the time, but it always comes as a ’shocker’. Anyway… I thought, if there are people out there with silly amounts of leftover grilled/barbecued/fried fish who are not into re-using them in fish-burgers the next day, they could make fish-pickle and eat the stuff a few weeks later – or give it away to needy hungover friends…

I made a heavily spiced version with lots of (antiseptic) tumeric and onions, after a recipe from the godfather of preserving, Oded Schwartz. Basically you make a broth from vinegar, salt, sugar, curry powder (with extra tumeric), grated ginger root and onions. You then stick the grilled fish cubes into sterilised jars (10 mins in the oven, Gas Mark 4), pour over the hot broth with the onions, stick some bay leaves and chillies in if you wish, and seal everything. I usually turn the jars upside down for cooling. That’s it! Of course, you can make up your own spicy or non-spicy broth – or pickle the fish raw! But that’s another story…

PS: Make sure your fish is firm enough to withstand pickling…

PPS: You can also make fish soup, fish curry or fish burgers with leftover fish! For fish soup, you can also used all the leftover parts of the fish to make a stock – but don’t forget to take them out before your guests get scared! Feel free to post some gory fish soup stock making pictures though

The Tastiest Veggie Burgers So Far

On Sunday evening, a friend spontaneously popped in waving a packet of burger buns in front of my nose. I knew it was barbecuing time! While she started the grill on the roof, I quickly whipped up some millet burgers. A left-over halloumi from work was also slaughtered and my reduced-to-clear avocados were turned into guacamole while my reduced-to-clear salad and dill were transformed into a tasty green yoghurt-dill-sauce wonder. Why had I made guacamole? Just because the avocados were there and needed eating. But I had nothing to go with it, and neither with the halloumi. Then we had a splendid idea: Let’s create a super-indulgent special burger! The order was:

Bun
Ketchup
Millet Burger
Halloumi
Guacamole
Bun

Amaaaazing! My friend also added some English Mustard, which also tasted nice.

Am curious what other ’special’ veggie burgers people have created from scratch! Feel free to post your creations!

Watermelon Rind Pickle

Yes, you can… is the answer. Sweet & Sour, Savoury & Spicy, Candied, In Syrup. No longer do you have to chuck it away – unless you have to worry about your energy bill… Look it up on the net!

I chose to try out the sweet & sour recipe, which reminded me of the pickled pumpkin that accompanies the Northern German version of haggis. I think it is a custom in the South of the United States to make this.

First, I got together with lots of people in various places to eat a whole watermelon, apparently curing many friends’ Friday hangovers. I then carried my loot home, cut the remaining ‘red stuff’ and ‘green stuff’ off, cut the ‘white stuff’ up and soaked it in salt water. (Americans soak it in something called ‘pickling lime’, but I couldn’t be bothered to look up what it is. Will do that in the future though, as I’m a curious sort of person…). It basically looks like this for 24 hrs:

I then drained the pieces, boiled them in fresh water for a bit, drained them again and added them to a boiling broth of equal amounts of water and cider vinegar as well as enough sugar to justify the ’sweet’ in the ’sweet & sour’ (i used 1 1/2 bottles of vinegar and about 1 kg of various kinds of sugars I found in my cupboard. One of them was Molasses, hence the dark colour). I also added a mix of spices (the usual allspice berries, cinnamon sticks, ginger, but also lime peel and dried chillies, just because they were lurking about in my vicinity), so that the whole kitchen stank of cheap mulled wine mixed with cleaning products for more than an hour. Once the watermelon rind pieces were clear, I transferred them with the liquid into sterilised glasses. They look like this and should be ready to eat in about 1 1/2 months:

 PS: I’ve seen on the net that some people pickle the rind (as a hangover cure) with both the red and the green stuff still on. I hope they are careful eating it, coz the green stuff is supposed to act as a laxative!! What a way to get rid of a hangover!

Corn & Blackbean Salad

Thanks to the kind donation of a friend, I had a packet of ‘beans for goths’ (quote) in my cupboard. Today, they fulfilled their tasty purpose by ending up in one of my salads! I made it for a barbecue, and it really worked well with the with the smokey protein from the grill!

The salad contains:

Cooked and chilled blackbeans
Sweetcorn (use either fresh, frozen or tinned)
Peppers (any colour)
Spring Onions
Cucumber

You could also add chillies or leave ingredients away – or try adding stuff like mangoes.

I made a dressing for it from oil, vinegar, salt and mustard. You could also make a dill-yoghurt dressing (sweet or savoury or both ;D) or any dressing you like. I just thought that particular dressing brought the colour out well and emphasised the taste of the sweet corn!

Btw I also kept the tasty bean stock. I’m sure I will find a dish to use it in!