the grungy underbelly of Berlin

We started the day with a trip to the Turkish Market in Kreuzberg. Got some Lakritz (licorice), a spinach-feta pastry, and enjoyed just wandering through.Then we headed to Mitte, where we visited the Kunsthaus Tacheles, a graffiti-covered artist house. Then we walked down Auguststr, which is filled with galleries. We had a little break at the garden of Clärchens Ballhaus (a cheese plate, a shared pizza, some German beer) and then walked through the shopping district of Mitte. Then took the train back down to Kreuzberg, walked down Oranienstr., had dinner at Katerschmaus (Kater Holzig) - an amazing former soap factory right on the Spree river. Ended the night at a bar on Oranienstr....a great day in Berlin!

a string exhibit at a gallery on Auguststr.

life on repeat

Wow, how is it the weekend again already? It's been a crazy week: library, half marathon training, theater, library, cooking, archive... I am planning several trips right now (I could make a living doing this, by the way, if grad school doesn't pan out...), and said to Michael, "I am so ready for a vacation." He laughed... and I didn't get it. "Our life is like a vacation," he said. Okay, kinda true. This year we have very few responsibilities, and we're cut off from the real world a bit.  But we are really busy! I feel quite exhausted just with my weekly schedule. And as much as I love Berlin, I am getting excited for our Rhine trip in two weeks, and summer trip to the Baltic and North sea coasts. Get out of the metropolis and breathe.

The amazing weather is making me itch to travel I guess. Today we have all the windows open letting in the spring air, and there is not a cloud in the sky. It's 19 C, which is warm. :) But I know it's great in the US right now, too. I just hope it holds for the Rhine trip in two weeks! I actually hope it rains soon, so it's out of the system!

I know that almost every weekend I post about our market...but I can't help it! We have one of the best weekly markets right around the corner. I can't get over it, and I look forward to it every week. :) I ran out and got croissants for breakfast, and then we had a leisurely morning reading and catching up on emails, and I was playing travel agent, and when I went back around noon for produce some of the stands were sold out of stuff (the good spinach...boo). Anyways, I got broccoli, leeks, some eggs and yogurt, a squash, chard, baby spinach. The sun was shining hot, there was live music, and happy little children. I am going to take off for a run at Tempelhof, and then invited to a jam-making party tonight. Michael's playing basketball outside, a repeat of last Saturday, which was also so sunny and warm. It's a good life!

these Saturday mornings are the best

 I woke up to blue skies, and went down to the market. It's the best part of living where we do: the weekly Saturday morning organic market is literally outside the door. I got some fresh eggs, bread from the baker, onions, and spinach. And I got some nice honey and homemade jam as a treat. :)

When I got home, I roasted butternut squash, sunchokes, onions and garlic, pureed them all (I love my immersion blender so so much), and now they are simmering on the stove for some afternoon soup. Yum. I am excited for spring...but making the most of the wintery veggies we have.

Unfortunately the market is in the shadow of the buildings to the east, so it's hard to show how beautiful this day is looking. Spring flowers are starting to come to the florists, and people are getting out more. I love living in Berlin!

Recipe: Sunchoke-Squash Soup

one large onion

one head of garlic (yes...)

smallish butternut squash

2 lbs sunchokes 

1/2 cup cream

1 cup stock/water

juice of half lemon

salt/pepper

1. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cut 1/2 inch off head of garlic. Cut squash in half lengthwise, scoop seeds out. Wash sunchokes and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. (many American recipes say to skip the peeling part but wash well. they are so weird and knobby-shaped it definitely makes things easier, but you end up with small, potato-like skins in your soup. pros/cons...I left the skins on). Toss everything with a little olive oil, and ROAST all this stuff in the oven 45 mins (squash skin-side up, garlic open-end exposed).

2. When soft, throw it into a pot, thin with a little water or stock, and puree. Stir in cream at end and season with salt/pepper. The roasted garlic is amazing, and the lemon juice really adds something, too. I didn't get quite the consistency I wanted. If I did it again, I would maybe saute the sunchokes with the onion until soft, but roast the squash and garlic, and then add everything together and puree. The sunchokes were still a bit hard (you can see the not-so-smooth texture in the picture), but still delicious.

scary, fun, beautiful produce

It's another gray, and probably the most freezing cold day in Berlin yet. Good for baking a nice warm meal. At the market this morning I got some more of the beautiful violet-orange carrots, to make for lunch with baked chicken with a paprika garlic marinade.

I also had the Schwarzwurzel to try. The farmer I bought it from warned me that they can be difficult to work with, that they get all sticky. So I looked it up online and almost everyone said to make sure to wear gloves when peeling--for some reason the exposed root turns glue-like with skin contact. Strange! And so freaky weird looking!  And it has to be put in an acid right away, or it discolors (I used a milk/lemon mixture). It's often compared to Spargel, or white asparagus, and is used the same way in recipes (the Germans most often pair asparagus with hollandaise sauce or butter). I just made a lemony sauce to go with it. Nothing amazing. Not like the Topinambur (sunchoke), which I will make again for sure. Maybe I didn't cook it well, but we wanted to taste the root, and know what it was like. Maybe I should give it one more try...

Every time I get chicken I think of my dad...who finds it crazy how many people buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts. He's has told me multiple times that it's cheaper to buy a whole chicken and cut the breasts off. :) And finally, after years of being afraid of breaking down chickens, I finally do it. And make stock with the carcass. It makes me feel good to use all the parts, too, and once you've done it a time or two it's not so scary to attack a whole chicken.

fun with roots

This week and last I got some really beautiful produce at the organic market on Chamissoplatz: Last week, a mixture of fresh herbs, purplish carrots, parsley root, zucchini and rutabaga (I love its violet/green color). The onions, too, were a mixture of deep red and golden. One of my permanent resolutions is to keep trying to cook with things I'm not very familiar with, and always try new recipes. Outcomes so far: kohlrabi has become a regular on our salads (grated raw) and I love roasting root vegetables.

This morning at the market I got Topinambur (sunchoke/jerusalem artichoke) and Schwarzwurzel (literally "black root"), along with some brussel sprouts, beets and eggs. I  have eaten both sunchoke and Schwarzwurzel, but never cooked them. We had Schwarzwurzel at Restaurant e.t.a. hoffmann  and it was delicious, and I got to try some sunchoke at Little Otik last week. They cooked it whole, and it kinda flaked open (don't remember whether it was peeled or not). Yum.

So for lunch today we sautéd up some sunchokes with herbs, bay leaves and garlic, and they were delicious. I wish I had got a lot more. I don't know how to describe the flavor, but definitely sweeter than the potato.

inspired by Jamie Oliver recipe for sautéd jerusalem artichoke.

Gemüsekiste: farm share boxes in Germany

So I ordered a trial farm share box for this week, a Gemüsekiste from a farm west of Berlin. In Germany they seem to do these boxes much differently than in the US.

In case you're not familiar with the "CSA" system in the US (which I only know through friends who have done it), the typical farm share is a mix of vegetables in season from local farms. You don't choose what you get; you have to get creative with what's in season. You can choose between a "whole share" or a "half share" and it's usually available once a week, you pick up at the farm or at the farmer's market.

In Germany, this works differently. You can pick individual items, and you seem to have more flexibility with how much you get and how frequently. In looking into this for Berlin, I found about 4-5 different farms to choose between, all with websites where you could order online. Online shopping for veggies! One kilo of potatoes, some mache greens, into the "shopping cart." Or you can choose a mixed box, with the options of fruit/veg mix, just veggies, regional veggies, etc. Then you decide whether you want 10 EUR, 15 EUR, or 20 EUR worth of veggies (for example). So it seemed more flexible in terms of price and size. You could also choose between weekly delivery and every-other-week delivery. Some sites offered regional produce, or produce from their own farm, others put together boxes from different farms, and even include "exotic" organic produce from outside of Germany. So you can opt for a box that includes organic bananas and avocados, or one that is from the farm's own harvest. Often you can also add non-produce products as well. You can have them add in a "cheese of the week" or "bread of the week" or milk with the delivery, among many other items.

I found one site that looked like a good one to try. Their website wasn't as good as some of the others, but they have quite a few things from their own farm, and they offered a "trial box". Rather than order individual items, I just told them to put together a selection for 16 EUR, as much stuff from their own farm as possible. This is what we got: Rote Bete, Möhren, Mangold grün, Kartoffeln festkochend, Pastinaken, Knollensellerie, Weißkohl, Posteleinsalat, Äpfel Cox Orange, Spaghettikürbis. Okay, although you might not understand all the German, I am sure there are also some things in this picture you don't recognize. We had to look up: Pastinake = parsnip, Knollensellerie = celery root. So if you have ideas about what to do with these things, I will welcome any advice. The spaghetti squash is exciting. :) And I love the tasty little apples. They never taste that good from the supermarket!

I don't know if I'll sign up for regular delivery. It's a bit expensive (16 EUR for the above pictured), and there is a weekly organic market right around the corner. But I wanted to just try it out and see what it's like.

Markthalle: a quick and delicious lunch

The Marheineke Markthalle is very close to where we live, and we are trying to make a point to try the various lunch options there as well. When you walk through the market hall, the inside aisle sells things like deli meat, cheese, olives, vegetables, bread...and along the outside of the market you have little stands that sell food. So lots of these "stands" have two sides. The French stand, for example, sells dried sausages, delicious French cheeses and patés along the outside, and they have a crêperie along the outside wall, where you can sit at their counter, or take a seat on a bar stool looking out onto the street. The same for Greek food, Italian, etc. And there's a little Bio (organic) stand as well.

Michael tried the burger from BioBuffet, and I got a galette complète, with ham, gruyère and egg.

süßer Naschmarkt

On this nice fall Sunday I biked down to the old Markthalle in Kreuzberg, which has just been renovated and re-opened for weekly markets. this week they were featuring a süßer Naschmarkt, a "sweets market", which you know is just my cup of tea. :)

We went around 2:00 pm, and lots of the vendors had already sold out--like the pretty little French macarons! But still lots of pretty things to look at.

I got Michael a little mini raspberry-chocolate Gugelhüpfchen (below right).
And at a nearby café, away from the chaos, I enjoyed a piece of Apfel-Marscapone Kuchen with almond slivers and Preiselbeeren (lingonberries). sehr lecker!

Halloween may be expensive this year...

at the market: pumpkins for 10 EUR!

This sign says you can order one for Halloween, these kinds of pumpkins are not common here...Halloween is being "imported" as a holiday but it's not native to Germany. Michael thought the price probably has to do with the fact that they eat pumpkins here, and don't carve [aka waste] them. He said, "this size pumpkin is probably like a turkey to them!" So much pumpkin flesh! :)

Bio-Markt Chamissoplatz

 On Saturdays there is an organic market right around the corner from my apartment. Today I got to check it out for the first time. There was some really beautiful produce, cheese, and bread.