Hearty chickpea stew with mushrooms and spinach

Inspired by Movida in Melbourne

Garlic

Onion

Olive oil

Mushrooms

Can of chickpeas 

2-3 dl of vegetable stock

Chopped tomatoes or passata- optional

Fresh spinach

Fennel seeds (Cumin would also work)

Smoked paprika-optional

Couple of slices of white bread, cubed -optional

Start by sauteeing the mushrooms in the olive oil, add some salt to remove moisture from the mushrooms. 

Add garlic and onion, and after a couple of minutes the chickpeas as well. 

Add half of the stock and let simmer on a low heat. 

Don't add too much liquid unless if you want to make a soup (which wouldn't be bad either I'm sure).

Add the optional chooped tomatoes and passata and spices, as well as the bread.

The bread just gives the stew a more glutenous consistency so it's entirely optional for those more carb-conscious of us.

Taste and when the stew starts to seem ready add the spinach and mix until spinach has just wilted.

Ready!

We had a similar dish when we ate at Movida in Melbourne, Australia. It's a suprisingly tasty dish, the appearance is modest to say the least but it's seriously goooooood. I didn't really use a recipe or measure things - which is how I tend to cook to be honest. I am sorry for anyone who likes accurate recipes, I'm afraid you're not going to get them from me!  It also gets better in the fridge so you can keep it for a few meals. I used the last bit of my batch for an omelette type dish with cheese and it was awesome. Could also work as a side dish. I think this is going to be a new favourite in our kitchen, hope you like it too!

Shroomy risotto

A couple of days ago I was going to visit my friend's new place and was given the permission to take over her kitchen. This often happens when I visit people, no one seems to mind, but it makes me wonder if everyone thinks I am a kitchen-nazi or something. I also love cooking but often I just make food for myself and those times you can't really call it cooking, if I just make salads most days. So it's always nice to make a small effort for something more interesting. I could say that risottos have become my favourite thing to cook for friends and family as I always get compliments for them. This time I took some black chanterelles (suppilovahvero in Finnish) with me and we shopped for the rest together before my friend introduced her kitchen to me. 

My awesome shroomy risotto 

Serves 4 (or 2 if you are seriously hungry!)

Butter

Mushrooms (Chanterelles, ceps, button mushrooms, whatever you have!)

2 tbsp Oil

3 dl Risotto rice

Garlic, depends on how much you love it

1 Onion

5 dl Good vegetable stock

2 dl  White wine (could use red as well)

100g Parmesan

Fresh sage

Salt & pepper

Panfry the chopped mushrooms in butter, add salt and pepper. Set aside for later.

Place the oil and risotto rice in a non stick pan, add garlic and onion when the pan gets hot and the rice is nicely glaced. Add 1 dl of veg stock and let simmer. Keep adding the stock and white wine gradually until the rice is cooked for your liking (taste!), usually takes around 15 minutes. With the last bit of stock add the mushrooms, parmesan and sage, mix well, take off heat and enjoy in a couple of minutes! 

We tried two wines with the risotto, both worked but we preferred the white. (Although the red one had that cute picture of a dog on it, so extra points for that).

White wine recommendation: Wolfberger (W)3, Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris, Alsace, France

Red wine recommendation: Trifula, Nebbiolo, Barbera d'Asti, Dolcetto and Pinot noir, Piemonte, Italy

I also have to recommend the band we saw after our dinner, French Films were playing at Tavastia and they were great! I hope they become the next big thing in Finland, beautiful music. Here's a clip for those who would like to check it out:

Butternut squash soup

 Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with a Moroccan Twist

1 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1large onion, chopped roughly

3 garlic cloves, chopped roughly

knob of butter

dash of olive oil

ras el hanout, to taste

star anise, to taste

salt & pepper to taste

 1 litre good vegetable stock

 Mix all ingredients in a roasting dish,

cook in the oven in 200 C for 45 minutes or until the squash is soft and cooked through.

Go for a walk and enjoy the autumn while you wait. 

When you come back enjoy the scent of the star anise and spices.

 Place the vegetables in a pan (remove star anise), add vegetable stock and mix with a stick blender.

Add more stock until you have the desired consistency.

Heat up and enjoy!

Berlin!!

And only six months later I am back! The whole summer passed without a laptop and hence no opportunity to process my photos hence no inspiration to blog. I feel an inspiration to write more now that the laptop situation is fixed and the weather is getting colder, making it cosier to stay at home wearing woollen socks and drinking tea. Perfect time to start looking back at the lovely summer we had...

We had our summer holiday at the end of August, destination Berlin. It seems like everybody loves Berlin and I was convinced we would too by all the recommendations from credible sources. (Check Pumpkin Jam's post in Finnish of her trip for example) We stayed at Excelsior hotel near Zoologischer garten, which I had found just by browsing online. It was a bargain for a four star hotel, but we found it lacking personality and while the location was nice as such being very close to the U-bahn, S-bahn and busses, we were enjoying the eastern Berlin a lot more and found it a little annoying to have to travel quite a long distance to our favourite brunch cafe in Prenzlauer berg.

We spent a week in Berlin, mostly hanging around, eating LOTS, seeing the sights, shopping, getting a bit lost and just enjoying. Here is my Best of Berlin list:

1. Mauerpark

Berliners know how to spend their Sundays! At Mauerpark there is a huge fleamarket with lots of quality stuff, food stalls and good atmosphere. Behind the fleamarket there is a park where you can find all sorts of bands busking, people having picnics and chilling out. There is also an amphitheatre where a huge crowd gathers every Sunday for the Bearpit karaoke. I have never ever enjoyed watching karaoke as much as I did there.

2. Dinner in the dark

What an experience, recommend to everybody! We booked a table at Nocti vactus in advance and chose to have the surprise three course menu for around 30 €. We were a little apprehensive before the dinner wether it would be worth going or not, but as soon as our waiter Thomas led us in to the darkness of the dining room we were amazed. You really cant see a thing and you have to rely on all your other senses. You don't know what the food looks like, or in fact what it is so you really TASTE the food. After each course Thomas would ask us what we thought we had eaten and then correct us, if necessary. I was quite proud of my taste buds, I believe that practising with wine tasting has made me quite accurate. At one point we got company as unexpectedly an another couple was seated at our table. It was truly amazing to to start talking to strangers in the darkness and get to know them without seeing them. The night was unforgettable and so much fun. Thank you for the great company if you are reading this!

3. Brunch

Nearly every morning we had a great breakfast, the best ones were at Anna Blume in Prenzlauer berg and Schwarzes cafe quite close to our hotel. The three-tiered brunch is a must at Anna Blume, and well worth the wait. The cake selection looked amazing but we never had any room in our bellies for them...Next time. Schwarzes cafe had a lovely garden in the inner court and a good selection on different breakfasts. I made my own ordering smoked salmon and avocado, the best combo ever.

4. Getting lost

In Berlin you never know what is behind the corner. There are bars and cafes in courtyards, behind the East side gallery there is a beach bar, in Kreuzberg a Kiosk bus and a cafe in a vegetable garden.

Next some pictures starring the culinary delights of our visit... enjoy!

 Pad thai and a green curry at Mai Thai in Prenzlauer berg. Quite expensive but pretty tasty.

Prater, our favourite beergarten. Hundreds of people, pretty lights, Berliner Weisse and pretzels.

 Anna Blume three-tiered brunch. Divine.

 Beach bar behind East side gallery. I tried Moet Ice for the first time, quite refreshing but basically a waste of  Champagne.

 Amazing sushi at Sasaya in Prenzlauer berg.

 4€ Caipirinhas at Wohnzimmer.

 Outside Spanish restaurant Tres tapas where we enjoyed some really good red wine and tapas section, plus good tips from our waitress on what to see and do in Berlin. 

 Kjosk in Kreuzberg.

 Mexican lunch at Santa Maria in Kreuzberg. Loved it!! So happy that there is something like this also in Helsinki, might do a post about it later...

 Cafe in a vegetable garden in Kreuzberg. 

 Saturday market in Prenzlauer berg.

 Andy had a taste of the famous Berlin snack, Currywurst. Verdict: not the best you can have in Berlin.

 This is a crap picture from our African dinner at Massai. Interesting,would love to try again.

 Had to try one of these! Ice tea with bubbles. 

 Tasty focaccia type snach at Mauerpark fleamarket.

 Brunch at Swarzes cafe.

 Caffe & Gelato ice cream... Amazingness!

Proper German food on our final day. This was at restaurant Bavarium in Europe center. Schnitzel, spätzle and strudel. We like! Washed down with a glass of Riesling and a beer of course.

I loved the graffiti, observing was fun as you never knew where the next piece of art would be.

 Berlin, we will be back!!!