Yummy Fixins

Marheineke Markthalle was cool and we had a good meal there (and there was a cool bookstore called Otherland across the street at Bergmannstraße 25), though our favorite still remains Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg, where my pork-sandwich-obsessed child goes to get his fix (see below).

Daluma, near Rosenthaler Platz is an essential stop for us when we are in Berlin, and these two dessert-like treats were amazing!

Banoffee was like a healthier and more filling version of raw vegan tiramisu that I used to get from New York’s One Lucky Duck back in the day. Where OLD’s tiramisu was silky decadence for dessert, Banoffee is more of a breakfasty and more substantial meal as opposed to an indulgence.

Couple Goals could be also known as “break up bars” if you’re not careful in sharing. They’re good enough to rip your relationship apart if someone gets greedy.

Not pictured here, but I also really enjoyed their broccoli and quinoa salad with spiral sliced zucchini. That was a great addition to Abend Brot if I didn’t want a heavy meal at night.

Pro-tip: Daluma has a counter in the food hall of KaDeWe (6th floor), but the items are far more expensive there than they are in the store at Weinbergsweg 3, near Rosenthaler Platz.

I am a big fan of gluten-free, dense, German, seed bread called Saftkorn from Aera Bakery in Berlin is the best I’ve had. Even my husband (who eats gluten) really loves it.

I use Bon Ami to scrub my All Clad stainless steel pots and pans when they need it (a soapy dish brush is usually fine to get off most leftover food). When I’m left with spots like these (see pics) after I’ve washed them well, I use a few tablespoons of white vinegar and rub that in vigorously and well, in every direction with a small piece of paper towel. Pour that vinegar in the next pan to…

I saw a recipe for Sauce Vert in The Best of America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook on page 110, and it immediately caught my eye, because it would be great on steak, AND it has capers in it.  I love capers, and have no idea what to do with them.  

However, there were a lot of ingredients that either I couldn’t source for one reason or another (shallots - HOW are there no shallots anywhere right now?), or didn’t want to bother getting (anchovies).  So, I re-wrote the recipe, and it came out so good, that I wanted to capture it here, immediately after making it, because I definitely want to make this again!

1 cup fresh parsley -- I used stems and everything, totally badass

1 cup fresh basil -- I did de-stem the basil - the stems were too woody

1/2 cup fresh mint -- it was doublemint, NOT peppermint; I de-stemmed

2 small spring onions, chopped fine, salted, left out for an hour, uncovered

1/2 a lemon worth of juice and zest

2 TBS capers, rinsed

2 cloves garlic, put through a garlic press

3 TBS white miso

1/4 - 1/2 cup good quality olive oil (I used half cup for easier processing)

Chop the onions very fine (they were each the size of golf balls) and place them in a glass bowl that would hold about 12-16 fluid ounces .  Salt the diced onions with about 1/2 tsp of salt, mix, and let them sit out.  (I did this to make the onions more mild, because the original recipe called for shallots.)

After about an hour (I was doing other stuff - maybe it was 2 hours?) I juiced the half of a lemon and added the lemon juice and the zest to the salted onions, as well as the minced/pressed garlic.

In a food processor, I layered the following, in this order, from bottom to top:

parsley

basil

mint

onion mixture

capers

white miso

olive oil

I blended until it looked like the photo that I took, and then banged the container on the counter a few times to settle it all down and (hopefully) get out air bubbles, and I added a shallow layer of olive oil over the top to keep the sauce fresh.  

Q Farms Chicken breast and scallion goat cheese atop a pupusa, with hakurei turnip side salad.

Honey Mama’s Cocoa Truffle bars are wonderfully rich and decadent. I’ve only tried these two flavors and THEY ARE AMAZING.

Grain-free “sushi.”

I call this one The Brain Bowl. I hope it doesn’t knock me out of the keto that I just started yesterday (and has been very difficult to get beyond “trace” status, even with some time restricted eating.

1 whole avocado, 2 small red radishes, 1 HB egg, around a half cup freeze dried broccoli, 1 Tbs wild salmon roe, 3 Tbs soaked raw sunflower seeds, Tbs of dulse flakes, 3 Tbs ghee, pinch of kosher salt.

Ramble Creek Farm will be at the Union Square Greenmarket tomorrow (Friday) and they still have turkey breast! (I am writing this in January 2020.)

The photo is one of my latest - baked over cauliflower, sweet potatoes and red onion. If you like efficient prep, you can’t top turkey breast, imho. A 3.5 lb bone-in, skin-on breast like this one will yield around 6 portions.