Beets in hibiscus salt crust

November 22, 2005

Preheat oven to 220°c/475°F. Mix in just enough water with the salt to make sandcastle-style sand. Add dried hibiscus flowers to the mixture in a few swift turns of the fork. On a baking sheet covered wtih baker's parchment, pack the beats in the salt. Bake for 20 minutes. Crack open and serve the beets piping hot.

Posted by debra at 07:10 PM | Comments (2)

Just experimenting with raw cruciferous vegetables

November 16, 2005

It would be absolutely no problem for me to go on and on about the conceptual and nutritional inconsistencies of the raw food (culture) diet, but I have to admit that this raw food culinary experiment has seriously increased my intake of *cruciferous vegetables. And that's good a thing because all cooked cruciferous vegetables taste to me like fart. And that's a bad thing.

* cabbages, kale, broccoli, bruxelles sprouts, cauliflower, get it?

Posted by debra at 02:20 PM | Comments (4)

Audible gasps caused by morphogenetic fields

November 15, 2005

I was perusing my daily share of food writing, food photography and food porn, when what should I spy with my little eye? An aged eGullet entry about Grant Achatz' tasting menu at his much praised restaurant, Alinea. I know, I know, everyone's been eating honeycomb since time immemorial, but honey is apparently extra hot right now and Grant Achatz uses Ohio honeycomb at his restaurant, whereas I use Turkish and Dutch honeycomb... at home.

Images from l to r: honeycomb dessert image attributed to eGullet contributor 'yellow truffle' in his October 14, 2005 entry on Grant Achatz' buzzy restaurant, Alinea (hopefully used with permission), a prototype of my honeycomb cocoa nib bonbon photographed by the author herself

Posted by debra at 12:50 PM | Comments (6)

And now for something completely simple, honeycomb cocoa nib bonbon

November 14, 2005

Images r to l: bonbon prototyping, the box it came in

Recipe for Honeycomb Cocoa Nib bonbon

Cut a piece of honeycomb into desired shape.
Place the dripping honeycomb on some raw cocoa nibs.
Alternately, place some raw cocoa nibs on the dripping honeycomb.
Serve.

Posted by debra at 02:02 PM | Comments (10)

Honey, rockin' my world

October 27, 2005

A honey shop in the Kadiköy market in Istanbul is visited by wasps.

Posted by debra at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

Today's fig-related transactions

September 01, 2005

Went to bum a cigarette from my kitchen garden neighbour ElGouche,
and was invited to sit around eating figs and play with Abel's toes for awhile (Abel is 3 months old, so it's OK).

Received a fig tree as a present from Abel's parents, Amad & Lila,
and gave them some leafy greens.

Gave some tomatoes to neighbour Patrick across the stone wall,
and was given a huge jar of fig preserves that utterly rocked my world.

Inquired whether Patrick would like an assortment of leafy greens from my kitchen garden,
and received an apple on top of the wall, which I think was an 'exchange-a-thon' joke.
It's not really apple season yet.

Gave Patrick an assortment of leafy greens.
Gave Mme Afkir an assortment of leafy greens.
Have decided that tomorrow while watering the Family Afkir's kitchen garden, I will eat some of their figs when no one is watching.

images l to r: the gifted fig tree (black figs of yet unkonwn variety), corn stalks drying and all my leafy greens thriving, divyying up the leafy greens for those that want them:

Posted by debra at 12:23 AM | Comments (1)

Subsistance farming can be so romantic

August 30, 2005

... if you only have to do it for a week. The long and short of it is that whilst living in the yurt, Lad and I didn't end up doing a whole heq of a lot of cooking, preferring instead to eat what fell into our mouths, right out of the hands that fed us. In the Occitanian summer that means raspberries, and yes, lots of leafy greens.

After the buzz of the new and the raw wore off, we did eventually develop a hunquering for heated food. Turns out that like most lads, mine knows how to BBQ, and is thankfully not averse to grilling a radish (or an ear of corn). We BBQ'd inside the yurt because the mercury did actually drop below 22°c at one point and we feared we might get the wrong kind of shivers.

Our favourite dish was a sorrel omelette prepared with Brillat-Savarin creamy cheese. Now I, in all my decades have never actually heard of a guy liking sorrel, or at least one willing to take it full on and fake it for an entire week. So for the time being, this spells blessing-counting time.

And oh how we turned eating my garden's first tomato into a wondrous ritual. Amen.

images from l to r: Lad eating from the hand that feeds him, domestic work-related gender issues au plein air, leafy green grower talks to leafy green eater about soil tillability (although clearly, Monsieur C. is tucking into more than just leafy greens!)

Posted by debra at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

Seed

August 19, 2005

Pick the fruit you like, and its seed is for the taking. Everyone does it. 'Shake your moneymaker' is the name of one of the fruits. Or maybe it was just moneymaker.

Please read more... "Seed"

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Yurt and garden

August 13, 2005

My garden at three and a half weeks old, is thriving! My yurt, set up at the edge of a vineyard, with views into two river valleys and mountains on all sides, is now little more than a glorified bedroom, shouting distance from the 'real house' in town.

But in one week's time a very special guest will arrive and we will among other things, live, and cook (!!!) at the yurt without the support of a proper kitchen. And because I am not a practical woman by nature, I have my heart set upon the notion that the yurt-cooking menu should consist primarily of food originating from my pre-pubescent garden. So I'm digging my toe in the dirt and wondering what kind of grits can a gal dish up using corn, tomatoes, several kinds of lettuce, rocket, chard, red chicory, mint, basil, sorrel, coreander, and everything but the squeal of a radish and a beet using nothing but a BBQ-for-one and an Occitanian 2-ring burner.

Fortunately, he's a vegetarian.

images from l to r: author slash subsistence farmer surveys her harvest possibilities, yurt lighting, flashed-view from the foot of bed.

Posted by debra at 11:24 AM | Comments (7)

Blighted blackberries, all you can eat

August 05, 2005

In the valley, all of the climbing berry bushes are suffering from blight. Blackberries, raspberries, rusty and yellow leaved are making the locals depressed. My neighbour Jean-Louis tells me, 'Take them all, I just can't stand the sight of it'. 'You want me to take all of your blackberries?!' Even when I offer to bake him a blackberry pie he makes it clear that he just wants the blackberries out of his life forever. As if to spite the bush he tells me that he'll never grow blackberries again.

Maybe it's because they're not wild that they taste a bit bland, maybe it's the over-watering, maybe it's the blight. It'll take me a few summers to know the difference, but I climb in the tangle to duke it out with the wasps, who are for some reason unusually passive this summer. Maybe they also can't stand the thought of a crop of blighted blackberries. They're just buzzing around and don't seem to mind me shooing them off the dull and heavy berries. 'Just please take them away,' they're saying in wasp-talk.

Posted by debra at 09:00 AM | Comments (1)

That's French for BBQ practice

August 02, 2005

Last year I bought my first BBQ, a very cute bbq-for-one sort of thing. The level of my naïvete concerning all things BBQ became apparent when it turned out that there really is no such thing as BBQ'ing for one. After giving her a good shining, I announced to the hungry hoard that it was I who would be preparing that night's dinner on the barbie. There were a few grunts and not a little bit of silver-back posing, but in the end the gents were somewhat content to let me have a go at the girly BBQ as long as I didn't fiddle with their well-composed fires or ask too many questions.

Up until this moment, I thought BBQ'ing was little more than guys hanging around playing with fire, but to my disappointment it turned out that there was actual skill and engagement involved in producing and maintaining a fire suitable to transform a hunk of meat into something amazing. And while I was busy making a dog's breakfast of some dainty sardines on my Barbie-doll-barbie, I also realised that the average eleven year old boy has a great deal more BBQ'ing experience than I do due to his vast experience in playing with fire.

No worries, this year is a year for solving all of life's little problems and now that I am generating loads of burning material in the garden I have the perfect excuse to work on my own fire-making skills instead of facilitating others by making meat marinades. And since we're in Occitania, it seems that it's OK to go around lighting fires on hot August afternoons in your garden if you want to. Tonight we're having dainty little sardines, on the big barbie.

And check out my fire! The ash heap was still hot the next day and when I distributed the ashes thoughout the garden I accidentally cinged a little tomato plant in two. It's like youth serum, fire-making.

Posted by debra at 02:57 PM | Comments (1)

Freak of nature

July 04, 2005

In the rice-maker the grains of wild rice had aligned themselves practically in the same direction. If I can repeat this action I will most surely open up a rice circus.

Please read more... "Freak of nature"

Posted by debra at 08:18 AM | Comments (1)

I would have been satisfied with less

June 27, 2005

Café Dudok in Arnhem prepared a special menu in honour of the Arnhem Fashion Biennale. Dutch Art Institute student, MuXue and I were visiting Arnhem for other reasons entirely but we did manage to end the day with an hors d'oeuvre and dessert at said café. The starter, a smoked turkey avocado and edible flower 'wrap', was printed in a floral pattern with cherry red pigment. It was most unfortunate that the pigment had no additional flavour because it would've been great if the pattern was made out of salsa picante for example, with an overlay of patterned guacamole and maybe cutout smoked turkey in pretty tailored shapes. Bring on les ruches!

Also the California-Dutch in me always feels inclined to let folks know that 'wraps' (let's just call them white flour tortillas from now on) really should be served warmed up to arouse the subtle flavours of the nutritional void that is white flour.

The dessert of this fashion menu was presented rather simply and therefore I reacted to the lack of pretension with less venom. Visually it reminded me of Allsorts licorice candy. It was a dessert of blocks and a worthwhile array of textures, had some of the flavours not come from directly out of standard bottled essences. MuXue and I felt we were served far too much food, but that's something that seems to be inescapable these days. The service was great by the way, and this is a rarity in a café in the Netherlands.

Squares from top left and top to bottom: walnut fudge brownie, bitter almond pannacotta, raspberry bavarois, dark chocolate-raisin fudge, cake au mousse au chocolat, coconut snowball. The finger pokes in the mousse and in the raspberry bavarois are the author's own.

Posted by debra at 06:46 AM | Comments (4)

Hibiscus flowers

June 12, 2005

One million years ago, when I was a little girl, I had a piano teacher called Miss Pierce. She was an elegant and graceful woman, and ancient, as far as I was concerned. She was the secret girlfriend of Mr. Greenjeans, from the chilluns' TV show, Captain Kangaroo! We lived in a university town full of orange and date orchards on the edge of the desert, and Miss Pierce was probably one of the few people there that fulfilled for me, in her own wierd and spinster way, the notion of what it is to be 'fabulous'.

I used to arrive at her strangely decorated house for lessons with my neighbour Michelle, who was even more of a tomboy than I was. The two of us played so rambunctiously that Miss Pierce decided to give us 'lady-lessons' at no extra charge. We agreed to the lady-lessons because we just loved listening to Miss Pierce blather on and on about table manners and gentlemen as we sipped hibiscus tea and nibbled girlscout cookies, all the while kicking eachother surreptitiously under the table.

Miss Pierce liked her hibiscus tea incredibly sour but I never added sugar because sugar was 'white death', and I was trying to get my head around enjoying sour things. Hibiscus flowers in their wet form, alive and still on the tree, are forever connected in my mind with my father and his battle against vast herds of aphids. But hibiscus flower in its dry form and as a tea still reminds me of my piano teacher, Miss Pierce, patiently battling to turn me and Michelle into ladies.

Today I'm experimenting with using hibiscus flower as a souring agent in a batch of quick pickles and a vegetable broth intended for a summer borscht although 12°c doesn't really qualify as summer.

Please read more... "Hibiscus flowers"

Posted by debra at 02:25 PM | Comments (5)

Art is, art was fluid last Sunday

June 08, 2005

Due to the good company and delightfully engaged audience, artist initiative Artis in Den Bosch showed this Sunday (05.06.2005) that they really know how to throw a happening. Margriet Kemper opened the salon with a presentation of her book, Speak, Image! (unfortunately only in Dutch) in which she talks about how the image is actually a performer. Kemper cited Allan Kaprow, the Daddy of the Happening, explaining to us the choice of the title of the event, Art Fluid.

A.K.: 'I want the line between art and life to be as fluid as possible'.

A presentation of culiblog was next on the menu followed by a breathtaking poetry reading by Robert Gray (AU) and the Dutch translator of Gray's work, Maarten Elzinga. Wafts of rosey caramel in-the-make were the only distraction as both Gray and Elzinga read for the better part of 42 minutes to a rapt audience.

Now there's only so much reflection and interior thought that an audience can take, and just when we thought we would forever be living inside of our heads, the shy noise band, SPASM performed invisibly from the guts of the cavernous gallery. It was just the lightness that the moment needed and everyone started to beam with smiles so broad they barely fit on their faces. Everyone except the young children who ran around annoyed with fingers in their ears.

What could be a better follow-up to a poetry reading and a concert of noise than a cookery presentation! Together with my fabulous assistants, Stefano and Kaj, I rejoiced in showing other Dutch people how to make the traditional Dutch 'hang-op'. The hang-op had been dripping whey all the livelong day in linen bags hanging from pink string, defining the space of the kitchen. Stefano removed the linen bags from meathooks and helped Kaj scrape out the 'hung' yogurt from within. Kaj then proceeded to beat to a satiny smooth consistency, the yogurt with rose flavoured whipped cream. I know, it was very, very sexy.

While the audience enjoyed a film by Annika Ström and a presentation of Jan van Toorn's (re)releases from the oldies but goodies of avant-garde sound-art, Kaj and Stefano prepared the banquet table with rose petals, rosey caramel, organic local strawberries and little bowls of hang-op.

Aan tafel, I sort of whispered into the microphone.

Posted by debra at 09:57 AM | Comments (4)

Recipes without words

June 05, 2005

Right image: olive oil, green tea powder, ume boshi vinegar. Left image: olive oil, grass powder, ume boshi vinegar.

The images above are from a cookbook of mine in-the-making titled Recipes without words. Or rather, with very few words. More later. I’m about to do a presentation about culiblog in the ‘s Hertogenbosch artists’ initiative Artis. This Sunday’s programme is titled Art Fluid and culiblog is just one of several interesting programme pieces. We will be making Hang op with rose caramel and local strawberries.

Sugar, soy sauce, shrimp powder...

Posted by debra at 03:19 PM | Comments (2)

Recipes without words

Right image: olive oil, green tea powder, ume boshi vinegar. Left image: olive oil, grass powder, ume boshi vinegar.

Sugar, soy sauce, shrimp powder...

Posted by debra at 03:19 PM | Comments (2)

Pasta that is pasta

May 27, 2005

Posted by debra at 11:01 AM | Comments (7)

Pasta that is not pasta

Finalement, Pasta that is not pasta. In this recipe I use thinly sliced raw courgette/zucchini as spaghettini, and courgette/zucchini and beet slices as ravioli. The main ingredient of the sauce is Turkish pickled and roasted peppers, a product I love because of the bits of charred skin still sticking to the pepper flesh. There is nothing like fire to add flavour to food, as our ancestors, if only they could respond to this blog entry, would readily agree.

Pasta that is not pasta
- courgette spaghettini
- courgette ravioli
- beet ravioli
- roasted and pickled paprika coulis
- rocket emulsion

The beet ravioli recipe you can find here. For the courgette spaghettini, please click Please read more to read more.

Posted by debra at 09:01 AM | Comments (2)

Play with a mandolin

May 14, 2005

The original recipe for Pasta that is not pasta is coming. But first you need to own a mandolin.

Posted by debra at 01:30 PM | Comments (4)

Garlic and beetroot

May 13, 2005

Sliced garlic, marinated with beetroot, lime zest, lime juice, fleur de sel and extra virgin olive oil.

Posted by debra at 01:23 PM | Comments (5)

Which one is the fish skin wedding anniversary?

May 09, 2005

5th Wedding Anniversary Menu for John and Kristi

Pasta that is not pasta
- courgette spaghettini
- courgette ravioli
- roasted and pickled pepper coulis
- rocket emulsion
- even creamier cheese in a can

Pepesan sans pep
- grated coconut tamale with
- smoked mackerel marinated in tamarind and lime leaves
- sweet potato
- not very much sambal djeroek taking into account the delicate Northern palates
- coconut cream

Charlie Trotter's Banana and Chocolate Lava Cake
- w/ roasted mini bananae

Posted by debra at 10:19 AM | Comments (1)

Another short supply chain

April 26, 2005

This time it's dessert! Ladoos, to be exact. These gentlemen are working in the temple compound (Hanuman Mandir, CP, Delhi) 30 metres from the dung fuel sales and manufacturing woman. Their whole production setup takes place within 10 metres, their point of sale is 30 metres away.

A ladoo is a graham flour sweet, sometimes made with puffed rice. If someone would explain to me why one always finds ladoo near temples I would be most appreciative. I think it has to do with religiously sanctioning things that people like to do anyway, and I mean that in the most generous possible way.

Posted by debra at 09:07 AM | Comments (3)

Love those short supply chains

Here in Europe we can't stop talking about 'food miles', that is to say, how many kilometres our food travels before we actually get to touch it. There's that quite famous study of the strawberry yoghurt, It's the same for all products, including cow dung fuel. The images shown were all taken within 20 metres (!) of eachother in the Hanuman Mandir temple complex near CP, Delhi.

Cow - dung collection - patty cake patty cake dry dry dry - fuel saleswoman

Posted by debra at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

Avocado update

April 21, 2005

Safe and sound back in the Heimatt. Pity la geste Californienne. Compare the image above to the entry of hope before heading off to India and France. Looks like my sense of home in Amsterdam needs a bit of nurturing. My inner mother tells me to return the failed avocado sprouters to their original use as vessles of buffalo grass vodka.

Posted by debra at 08:01 AM | Comments (0)

Gullet Girl

January 24, 2005

This is the correct Dutch way to eat a herring.
By firelight.

Please read more... "Gullet Girl"

Posted by debra at 09:31 AM | Comments (5)

Keeping one's vows

January 19, 2005

Remember in October when I had just bought Roxanne Klein's R A W and I reported how it made me homesick for Laurel's Kitchen? And then upon rereading Laurel's Kitchen I made a vow to 'take cashew cheese seriously' from now on?

Well, I have been taking cashew cheese making very seriously indeed, and I believe I have improved upon the Good Ladies' recipes. Pictured above are some of the steps in this easy process (from l to r: placing the blended cashew butter in a cheese cloth, cheese cloth hanging in the window, cheese cloth dripping with cashew milk and dark winter sky).

Posted by debra at 05:09 PM | Comments (3)

Like raw beans in a hippy's beard

January 18, 2005

In less than 2 months I will be heading off to India again and as I prepare the Indian version of the Nomadic Banquet Workshop I find myself hunquering for Indian food. I'll be writing about the Nomadic Banquet in future culiblog entries.

Hippy Beard is the nickname I gave to the Southern Indian (Karnatakan) mung dal salad that I adored in Bangalore and adapted to my own liking once back in the Heimatt. If you thought that nothing good could ever come from eating raw beans, you really need to try this simple recipe. The salad is very light and the good kind of crunchy with no negative... uh, aspects.

The cukes I replaced with zukes and unfortunately I had to omit the 'curry leaf' because I can't find it anywhere in Europe. It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to figure out why I call this salad Hippy Beard and just like in a real hippy beard this salad keeps for a few days. I'll ask my buddy Zeenat Hassan (who is neither a hippy nor does she sport a beard) for the real name of this refreshing snack with the cheerful 'mouth-feel'. It was her menu choice for that fine afternoon in Bangalore... (recipe follows).

Posted by debra at 07:01 PM | Comments (2)

Juicing, but not frothing, and you?

January 06, 2005

So far this juice fast has yielded quite a number of discoveries, the usefullness of oat milk being one of them. In my opinion grain and nut milks qualify for a juice fast because they are simply the wrung out water in which grain or nut meal has been soaking. These 'milks' don't give the gut flora anything more to do than a glass of apple juice does but they are useful in making things taste 'creamy'.

Other discoveries concern how to make 'comfort food' for the fast yet maintain its nutritional value. Roxanne Klein (and all raw foodies) feel that valuable enzymes in vegetables and fruits are destroyed when heated above 50°c. For this fast I've kept to this parameter while still being able to serve up some warm soup on these cold Occitanian days.

Here are a list of some of the liquids that my ruthless jury has deemed delicious enough to sip even when not on a juice fast: (This is not a menu.)

Cucumber Kiwi Juice
Kiwi Zucchini Juice
Pineapple Juice (fresh squeezed is entirely different from the storebought stuff)
Carrot Grapefruit Juice
Celery Juice

Avocado Zucchini Soup
Celeriac Oat Milk Soup
Green Curry and Carrot Soup
Broccoli Stalk, Zucchini Soup with Guacamole Dumplings
Red Pepper Tomoato Miso Flower Broth

Date and Pear Sorbet (pictured above)
Banana Chai Ice Cream (pictured above)
Pear Sorbet

The juicer that I am borrowing from Fred and Kristine for the duration of the fast is a real Cadillac (Magimix Le Duo). Only crit about this machine is that it doesn't produce foamy froth - like my Braun back in the Heimatt. I think that some of the recipes could be improved with new texture additions. At home I use the foam from the juicer.

Posted by debra at 10:46 PM | Comments (2)

Milk tasting, and you?

January 05, 2005

As I said, not eating solid foods affords you a chance to try new things. Tonight we did a little experimental milk tasting. Because we're on a juice fast and generally behaving as self-righteously as we can we decided to bypass the locally produced cow, sheep and goat varieties and test the locally imported almond, rice and oat milks.

Oat milk was the clear winner in the category; Tastes Like Something I Might Drink Even When Debra Isn't Forcing Me.

Posted by debra at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

Enough with the raw food already

January 03, 2005

We just couldn't eat them all so they've been in the fridge in a wet tea towel since the 31st. I wouldn't have guessed that after so much time you could still eat them raw, although upon opening more than 2/3rds of them were perfectly delicious looking, smelling and tasting. Those deemed not perfect were only a bit dehydrated, not unlike ourselves after overdoing the champies.

I decided to warm them in some melted butter, chopped garlic, rosemary sprig and bay laurel from le chateau.Gawd damn do I love oysters! It was J's first time on New Year's and we told him that eating an oyster is like biting into fresh and solid seawater. Now he sees oyster eating as a superior option to actually going swimming.

Oh and here's what else was going on... JT, Kristi, Fred, Kristine, un grand tour de leur chateau, aussi la Palmiére, la cascade, et toutes pour lui.

Ici

Posted by debra at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)