Catfish Gumbo

It's okra season, and gumbo is a good way to use up this abundant vegetable. One of our neighbors keeps bringing us bags of okra from his garden, which is such a treat! What I learned, growing up in the South (first Texas and later Kentucky) is that any gumbo has to have okra in it; without okra, it's just not gumbo.

This recipe comes from The Little Gumbo Book by Gwen McKee (Quail Ridge Press, 1986), which has 27 different gumbo recipes. I've made this one twice, and it is a very reliable recipe -- meaning the end results are reliably good. The book raves about all its recipes with the same level of glowing endorsement -- i.e., "This is incredibly delicious – try it! Easy to make, incredibly delicious!" In this case, I agree.

2 lb. catfish fillets or nuggets
6 c. water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
3 Tbsp. flour
1 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped bell pepper
2 c. chopped celery
1 lb. chopped okra
1 (28-oz.) can tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp. K’s Cajun Seasoning (or salt, pepper, and red pepper)
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 Tbsp. chopped parsley

Cook cleaned fish in boiling, salted water till it breaks apart with a fork (only takes a few minutes). Remove fish, debone, cut in chunks, and reserve stock.

Melt butter in skillet; add flour and stir till lightly browned. Toss chopped vegetables into roux and heat sill softened, stirring often.

Mix everything together – except fish – in a pot with stock and simmer about an hour.

Add fish and simmer 30-45 minutes. Serve over rice with a sprinkle of chopped parsley. Serve gumbo filé on the side. (Filé is a powder made from ground sassafras leaves, and has a delicate flavor; it also thickens the gumbo.)

Serves 8.

Addictive Roasted Veggie Pasta

N. made this for dinner last night, and we both realized that whenever we have this dish, we can't stop eating it -- that's why I'm calling it Addictive Roasted Veggie Pasta. It comes from one of the Sundays at Moosewood cookbooks, I can't remember which one, and since I don't have the book here in Berlin, the recipe as given below doesn't have all the precise information you'll find in the book. It doesn't have the sort of crunchy-granola-hippy aesthetic that you might associate with the original Moosewood cookbook of 1977; instead its sophisticated ingredients (roasted fennel and asparagus) and flavorful dressing seem more like an updated classic.

One of the key ingredients is asparagus, but that's not available in Germany in June so we used green beans last night and the dish was almost as good. The dressing is the "secret weapon," so to speak, which - combined with the feta and the olives - makes the whole thing irresistable.

1 large fennel bulb
1 lb. asparagus
1 large red onion
olive oil (about 1/4 cup?)
8 oz. dry pasta
pitted calamata olives
tomatoes
feta cheese
flat leaf parsley

Dressing:
1/4 c. olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
garlic, freshly pressed
1 tsp. mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Thinly slice the fennel and onion; cut asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Toss with olive oil and roast at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, tossing again twice during cooking.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta and chop the tomatoes, feta, and parsley. Cut olives in half. (Recipe calls for 1 dozen olives, but we use more.)

Mix the dressing; toss it with the roasted veggies and pasta. Toss in the olives, tomatoes, feta and parsley (or, alternatively, don’t toss in the feta but serve the dish with the feta on top).

Tadshikischen Teestube (Tajiki Tea Room), Berlin

When our friends were visiting us recently they took us to this fantastic, rather hidden tea room located very close to the Museumsinsel. It's a small place so reservations are highly recommended, but since we got there early we were able to be served without one. According to the menu, the first tea room in the world was in Tajikistan. I don't know if I believe it, but I do accept that this represents a longstanding traditional form of social interaction. Women were not allowed (in Tajikistan, that is -- they are allowed in Berlin).

They have a wide selection of teas from every cultural tradition, from English to Chinese; and a fairly big menu, but we were only there for "kaffee und kuchen."
















They do not seem to have their own website, but here are some links that can help you find this place:

Restaurant review from berlin.de .

From qype.com.

From Berliner Morgenpost.

Bacon Cups from "not martha"

I just had the pleasure of discovering a fantastic blog thanks to a friend on Facebook. The instructions for making Bacon Cups, complete with photos of each step, is pretty interesting. You must check out this blog at www.notmartha.org, and this recipe in particular. She stuffed them with lettuce and sliced cherry tomatoes (a BLT theme) but one of the comments suggested poached eggs in the bacon cups, which also sounds great.

German Food of the Week: Ground Cherries

Okay, so they're not exactly German -- ground cherries (Physalis peruviana, or Kapstachelbeere in German) are a tropical fruit, but they are quite popular here. They are a small sweet, slightly tart fruit, and a member of the nightshade family, like tomatoes. They grow inside a papery hull, like tomatillos (Physalis philadelphica). They often appear as garnishes on restaurant plates or buffets. I finally bought some at the grocery store yesterday, and we are enjoying them at home.

German Egg Pancakes (Eierkuchen)

Last night Noah made these for the kid dinner -- Eli's cousin Edie is visiting, so we have two 4-year-olds. Noah is very fond of these from spending time in Germany while he was growing up. They're not like American pancakes, which are fluffy and bready. These "egg cakes" are quite thin, like crepes, but are more eggy than crepes, even slippery. They're very light.

This recipe comes from an East German cookbook circa 1967 (Das Grosse Kochbuch), that we found in our landlord's library.

1/2 liter milk (about 2 cups)
2 eggs
200 grams flour (a bit less than half a pound, 0.87 cup)
10 grams powdered sugar
salt
100 grams butter for frying (1/4 lb. or a little less)

Put milk in a bowl, mix in eggs, sugar, and salt. Add flour gradually and keep mixing so you know when you’ve reached the desired consistency. Frying pan should be preheated well.

Use a very thin layer of batter in the pan, and tilt the pan so the batter spreads out.

Cook until golden on both sides.

Wildblumenkäse

This is Wildblumenkäse, it's delicious. It's a slightly stinky cheese, and the exterior is covered with dried wildflowers, most noticeably lavender. It is AMAZING. Noah used some in a souffle recently and once in a while you'd get a mouthful of lavender. Yum!