Black Sea Monster

Random stuff and ramblings I'd like to share with the world that does not fit into a Facebook post. Well, it's got nothing to do with the Black Sea or monsters directly, I just like the sound of it, and it reminds of the huge Russian ekranoplan. Expect posts about things that I care about, so probably food and drink, travelling, music, technology. Or maybe not.

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secretsundaze rooftop rave

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Wild strawberries. Mmmmh...

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Made a local spring speciality at my parents' place: elderflower pancakes

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Recipe: Mixed Berry Tiramisu

Upon popular request, here's the recipe for the mixed berry tiramisu from last weekend. Serves 2

200g strawberries 1 tbsp caster sugar 1 tbsp good white rum

125g mascarpone 3 tbsp yoghurt 1 tbsp caster sugar Half a vanilla pod 100g blueberries 100g raspberries

3 digestive biscuits Cocoa powder for dusting

Clean the strawberries and cut into pieces. Marinate with the sugar and the rum. Set aside for at least 15 minutes.

Thoroughly mix the mascarpone and the yoghurt to a smooth consistency. Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla pod, add the sugar and mix well. Carefully stir in the blue- and raspberries.

Crumble 1.5 biscuits in each desert bowl. Divide the strawberries and their juices on top of the buiscits. Top with the mascarpone filling. Dust with cocoa powder. Cool for at least 30min before serving.

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Milchvampir - a black metal lullaby

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No baking this weekend - made a lovely mixed berry tiramisu instead.

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Recipe: Rhabarber-Topfen Golatschn

This is the recipe for the sweets I did on the weekend. While they are inspired by eastern European cuisine (to a degree that I didn’t find an English word for them and chose the Austrian name), they are not authentic - I made up the recipe, mainly based on what was available and needed to be used up.

For the dough: 300g plain flour 30g butter 30g sugar 1 sachet (7g) dried yeast 180ml warm water

For the rhubarb filling: 500g rhubarb, cleaned and cut into 1-2cm pieces 50g sugar 1 vanilla pod 1 tbsp corn flour

For the cheesecake filling: 30g sugar 70g butter 1 egg 250g quark/topfen/tvorog Pinch of salt

Start with the dough: Stir the yeast into the water and set aside. Sift the flour into a bowl, mix with the sugar and a pinch of salt and rub the butter in. Add the yeast and water and combine to a sticky dough. Knead on a floured surface until you have smooth and elastic dough. Return to bowl and set aside swomewhere warm to rise for at least one hour or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile prepare the rhubarb filling: add the rhubarb pieces to a pan and add the sugar. Cut the vanilla pod open lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the pan, then also add the pod. Cover and cook on a low heat for about 15 min, until the rhubarb disintegrates. Set aside to cool. When cooled, stir in the cornflour and pick out and discard the pod.

For the quark filling, beat the butter and the sugar until frothy, then beat in a pinch of salt, the quark and the egg.

Preheat the oven to 190 C. To form the golatschn, knead the dough again for a few minutes. Then take as piece of about 3cm. On a surface dusted with flour, roll out into a square off about 12cm edge length. Transfer to baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Fold up the edges and pinch the corners to form a shallow case. Spread 2 tbsp rhubarb filling on the base and put 1 tbsp of quark filling in the middle. Repeat until the dough is used up. Let raise for another 20 minutes, then bake for 15-20 minutes until the dough is light brown and brown spots appear on the quark filling.

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Rhabarber-Topfen-Golatschn: my work of this morning: rhubarb-vanilla and cheesecake filling baked in a sweet yeast dough.

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Home-made scones, clotted cream and blueberries for breakfast. Yum!

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Tasty lunch at my desk today: homemade soup, Marmite crisps and a can of Irn Bru...

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Perpetual Refurbishment

After a nasty cycling accident, I am at Transport for London's mercy again for my daily commute - and I nearly didn't trust my eyes tonight when changing at Bank station: the escalators up from the DLR are being refurbished. Again. That means that apart from a few days (ok, maybe a couple of weeks) where both were running, at least one of the escalators has been under construction continuously ever since I moved to London. That was early 2007. That makes 4 years to refurbish two escalators,and still counting. In other places, whole underground stations are built in that amount of time. I am really curious what TfL is actually doing here. And whether this station will ever be fully functional again for more than a month in a row.

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Braised butternut squash with coriander, cinnamon and feta

A recipe I came up with recently:

Ingredients: 1kg butternut squash, prepared and cut into 1/2" cubes 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped 1 tsp coriander seeds Small piece of cinnamon bark 1 tsp ground coriander 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp chili powder 200g good quality feta cheese (sheep's or goat's milk) A handful of celery greens (or flat leaf parsley) Olive oil, salt, pepper

Method: Smash the coriander seeds coarsely in a mortar. Heat a good glug of olive oil in a heavy based non-stick pan. Fry the coriander seeds and the cinnamon bark for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for another 30 seconds, then add the squash and fry for about 3 minutes, continuously stirring. Then add the ground spices and a bit of salt, stir well and fry for a moment. Reduce the heat, cover and braise for about 20 minutes, occasionally stirring so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. You might need to add a little water if it gets too dry. Meanwhile, cut the feta into small cubes and chop the celery greens roughly. When the squash is done, looks all sticky and starts to break down a little, stir in the feta and the celery, and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with couscous.

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Just some playing around with my then new M-Audio black box and my guitar, and some computer drums. The piece is called "Running Away", but I don't remember why.

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Highway code rant

There is one thing in the English Highway code that I just don't get (and it nearly got me killed today): Imagine a largeish street, with a smaller street branching off to the left (right angle turn). A pedestrian walking straight and crossing the small street has to watch out for cars coming from behind and turning left. What is the bloody point of this rule (except cars having priority, who cares about a killed pedestrian?).

The car coming from behind can see the pedestrian, the pedestrian can't without actually turning around. Most cars don't indicate before turning left, so if there's a car coming there is still no way knowing whether it will actually turn. If the bigger road is somewhat busy with a lot of cars coming from behind, there is no safe way of crossing the small road. 

I know for sure that in other countries, if you turn a corner, you have to watch out for any traffic, including pedestrians. Doesn't slow down traffic, but makes following a high road with a few crossing with minor roads a lot safer.

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Cold. Yes, that's snow on the mountains in the background.

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Our makeshift kitchen, set up in the guest bedroom. It has a kettle and a microwave, fridge is in the hallway, and water in the bathroom. And yes, it is possible to cook pasta in the microwave, even though the manufacturer states "Not suitable for preparation in the microwave". No explosions or other shennanigans, either, hence no spectacular pictures.

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Inclusive, yeah!

Just been in a Mamas and Papas store for the first time. They induce the same kind I'd tiredness in me that every clothing shop seems to do, but what I really liked is that they thought about the dads as well: when mum is trying on maternity clothes, they have fitting rooms that are spacious enough for a couple, and the attendant actually invites me to join my wife in there. I guess they don't have to be afraid of couples doing inappropriate things in there - most shoppers are beyond that stage.