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nade in the kitchen

~ cook, bake, love.

nade in the kitchen

Tag Archives: traveling

Vegan Cashew Cream Cheese

17 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by nadine in Savoury, Spreads

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

basics, food, health, homemade, italy, life, recipes, traveling, vegan

It’s been almost three months here in Italy and I’m starting to realise that your environment can really influence you. Like, A LOT.

The most remarkable thing Italy has succeeded in has been to make someone who took pride in not being addicted to caffeine a person who barely spends a day without drinking a cappuccino. With soy/almond/rice milk, please.

Closely related to becoming a coffee-addict is my cornetto/brioche consumption (I still don’t get the difference, if there is any) which has gotten to the point where I need to pull myself together not to get a cornetto on my way to (or from) uni. Bad, bad habit, I know, but I tested if my addiction was severe by spending four days back home. I didn’t have one croissant and I didn’t miss it, I had a croissant the first day because I went to have breakfast with my parents, and the croissant was part of the deal (damn it!), but I managed not to have one for the remaining three days and I didn’t miss it, so I decided I can happily continue eating croissants while being here. On a side note, vegan croissants are pretty luscious, too.

One funny thing I have witnessed for the second time now, is that “good” becomes very relative when you go abroad. After I lived in London, people whose English I had considered perfect before suddenly had heavy accents. The pizza in that restaurant I always considered fairly good, suddenly is extremely dry and fairly terrible. Oh Italy, what hast Thou done unto me? 

Thankfully my taste for wholesome and vegan food has not changed, though I admittedly am not being very vegan here (because pizza, homemade pasta and cornettos).

This cashew cream is a friend’s invention and one of the best things that has happened to me (and to you). Very very thankful for this invention and for my mum who had asked her for the recipe and regularly makes it ever since. So yes, this post is more like a guest post, because apart from taking the pictures, I didn’t do much. (Thanks Andrea for the recipe and mum for having it ready when I got home!)

But I asked them for approval and so here it is: the spread that might possibly change your life and which will make eliminating cream cheese from your diet plan pretty easy!

vegan spread

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My New Root’s Cashew Dreamcake

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by nadine in Breakfast, Fruit, Nuts, Sweet

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

cooking, food, health, italy, life, photography, recipes, traveling, vegan

When my cousin was not married, and I was still at school, I visited him about once a month in Vienna in his shared flat, and during every almost every stay, I would have a project, mostly having something to do with the kitchen: clearing out the fridge, neatening some random kitchen cupboard or, when I was in an exceptionally good mood, cleaning the whole kitchen.

Now my cousin is married, has a beautiful apartment (and wife), and the first evening I was there, we cooked a better Khoreshte Bademjan than in my last post (there might be a new post, soon…). I am not sure about the exact reasons behind this, but sometimes, I am overcome with the urge of having to clean kitchens like a madwoman.

Apart from spending my time cleaning the kitchen an rearranging the living room (which was not my idea, FYI), I witnessed a romantic adventure trip of two people in their mid-fifties on the bus to Vienna. Not only was I tired and couldn’t sleep, but also did I have to watch these two people, who had met on the bus 50 minutes before, kissing for entire 80 minutes. The one-sided-conversation they had after cuddling and telling the world (or the two people sitting behind them, one of them being me) was very amusing indeed: “We will stay in touch on facebook”, she said. “Can I be friends with only one person? I want to be friends only with you.” OK, woman.

When I came back from Vienna, I felt like I should pack for Padova, which is was happening the day after, but instead, I tidied up my room. By this, I don’t mean tidy up like every normal person would, but tidying up to a degree where I would re-organize my folders, look through every single sheet, through out half of them and feel relieved afterwards. The content of my furniture has never in my life been so orderly.

This excessive spring-cleaning is the reason why I didn’t start packing until two days before my departure.

But now I’m almost done, leaving in an hour (!!) and so so ready to move to the country of delicious pizza and heavenly ice cream, of loud voices and feisty people, of caffé e cornetto. Italy, here I come.

Raw Cheese Cake

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Morocco Impressions and a Mini Travel Guide

21 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by nadine in Other Stuff

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

africa, marakesh, marrakech, morocco, photography, travel, travel guide, traveling

Some of you might now that travelling is one of my favourite things to do, and as my parents seem to tick as I do, some months ago my dad announced he wanted to take my mum and I on a great holiday. I did not complain. Instead, I suggested taking one of my best friends with us, which obviously added to the fun of the trip.

We travelled through Morocco. Our first stop was Marrakech, which is a beautiful city with beautiful people, breathtaking nature and gardens, impressive palaces and – food.

There is no adjective before the word food, because contrary to my expectation there weren’t innumerable vegetarian dishes to choose from on the menus, but basically two dishes, which, if you were lucky enough, were cooked with meat.

Tagine and Couscous.

I love Couscous and I love vegetables, but trust me, if you eat couscous eight days in a row, you kind of wish that wheat was never discovered.

Also, I probably drank more orange juice in one day than the amount of water I drink in one week.

8 days aren’t long, but here are some of my highlights/tips. 

– Walk through the souk (market) of Marrakech, buy way too many plates and bowls because they are simply beautiful (I wouldn’t call bargaining a highlight though). Buy Ras el Hanout and Mint Tea.

Souk of Marrakesh Marrakech Details Window Photograph Herbs and Spices Beautiful Kitchenware

– Eat Msemmen (which I believed to be vegan until I looked up how to spell it) stuffed with a red paste containing olives and peppers. They sell it on the streets for 5 to 8 dh. Also, get some olives from the market.

– Buy a beggar some food. We bought an old man who was begging on the street a falafel sandwich with fries, watched him unpack the bag, taking out the fries, offering us some before even eating one and happily and humbly eating it while looking at us with the most thankful smile I’ve ever seen in my life.

– Eat couscous with vegetables at Naima. The place doesn’t look what you would call inviting, but seriously, go inside and be served the best couscous you’ve ever had. The menu costs 100 dh and you will be served fresh bread, olives, a small starter, the best couscous, some fruit and two moroccan bisquits. Totally worth it. It’s a family-run business and the owners totally make you feel at home. If you are not comfortable with your food being touched a lot with hands before being served, don’t go.

– Take a taxi and drive through the berber villages (we were lucky enough to visit a berber family at their home – the daughter who was in her twenties was at home alone – and we were served tea and found out the daughter who seemed rather shy at the beginning had a bachelor in something to do with human rights, had friends in different countries which she found through facebook and owned an iPhone (!). This might not sound very impressive, but given their living circumstances were rather primitive, this came as a very big surprise to us all)

Berber KitchenBerber Stove in the Kitchenmoroccan mint teaHaving tea with a berber girl who wants to stay anonymous

– Drive to Ourika Valley to hike up the waterfalls. If that doesn’t sound inviting enough, slipping and falling into the river is a fun option. I’m talking from experience.

The first Cascata

– Drink mint tea with a ton of sugar. Everywhere and lots of it.

Moroccan Hospitality

– People who have been to Marrakech will probably be all excited about Jardin Majorelle. I personally was not very impressed, but I guess it’s a matter of taste. If you decide to go there, definitely have some moroccan salad  for 30 dh and moroccan tea with yummy moroccan pastries at the Café Bousafsaf in the garden.

Jardin Majorelle

– Visit Bahia Palace.

Ornaments

– If you drive, rent a car and drive up to Essaouira on the coast road. The way is breathtakingly beautiful and Essaouira is a beautiful and small city to stay for a day or two. If you don’t like seagulls, don’t go.

Seagulls in Essaouira

Some other useful stuff to know when visiting Morocco

– If you look lost and someone comes up to you and offers you two show you the way, don’t go with them unless you are willing to pay them for their service. Same obviously applies to asking the way.

– Don’t be fooled by high prices at the souks. The culture there is to bargain. Don’t be shy and never pay the price someone tells you. Usually you can go down about 30 – 70 % of the initial price.

– Don’t even try to fasten your seatbelt in a taxi. The driver will laugh at you and soon after you will find out there isn’t even something to put the belt in. Nobody uses seatbelts in this country. In fact, we once were stopped by police, and after talking to my dad for about 10 minutes in French/Arabic English, the guy looked at our seatbelts and asked “why?”. My dad replied “security” in the Persian accent he uses in countries where they don’t speak English well, because he wants to conform to the people’s accent. The police man laughed.

– If you are vegetarian, always ask if the dish you are about to order (even if it is labeled vegetarian on the menu) is cooked without meat. I was served a “vegetarian” dish with meat pieces/flavour/smell three times.

– Don’t sleep in a hotel, sleep in a Riad.

Riad

– Do not always trust TripAdvisor reviews. Just go out and trust your gut instinct or ask locals.

Do you have any tips to add?

Essaouira Seaside Cat and Seagull Coffee at Marrakech Souk Donkey Garlic en masse shoe cleaner IMG_6113_Fotor Blue Bike

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Easy-Peasy Mousse au Chocolat

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by nadine in Chocolate, Sweet

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

eating, food, homemade, life, photography, recipes, traveling, vegan

Born in Graz, growing up in the city centre and moving to the outskirts at the age of eight, I went through quite a lot of changes when we moved, as my friends will be able to recount in detail (which thankfully they will not be doing here). One of them is that I adapted to the language used on the country side. Not without reason the rest of the people residing in Austria say that Styrians “bark”, because, as a matter of fact, they do. If you do not understand how humans can transform to dogs, you might find this amusing if you speak a little german, even if you won’t understand a word (cause not even I do). Or this. I actually really like that song, so you’d better not say anything insulting about it. Really. Look at those lyrics. (which might not win an oscar for the best translation, but never mind.)

Living in a considerably smaller town than the one you grew up in makes you change. I’ve been living in a small city near Innsbruck, basically at the other end of Austria, for two months now, and moving here after living in London for six months, is kind of a shock. No trains running under the ground, no gaps to mind, no art exhibitions and museums, no big English supermarkets (my all-time favourite), no clothing shops you would shop in unless you find yourself in a state of utter non-possession, and obviously, no most beautiful version of the most-spoken language in the world. Instead of all those things, you have one thing in abundance: nature. Trees, flowers, animals. Everywhere.

But as every coin has two sides, I do not want to dwell on the things I miss about England (though the last point is obviously in no way negative), but also tell you about those little things I enjoy. One of those things is the fact that no matter if you know a person or not, if you cross someone’s path on the street, you greet them. No matter how young or old, you greet them. It took me some time to get used to that. And once I did, it would feel like a slap in the face when someone wouldn’t greet me back or deliberately stare at imaginary attractions on the other side of the road.

I wonder what the world would feel like if we all greeted each other. If we treated every random person we met as a good friend. Yeah. I guess I do not need to go deeper on that.

Mousse au chocolat withou gelatine

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Khoreshteh Bademjan – Persian Tomato Aubergine Stew

16 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by nadine in Dinner, Rice, Savoury, Vegetables

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

aubergines, cooking, eating, food, life, persia, photography, tomato, traveling, vegan, vegetarian

London’s been treating me quite well so far. I find it so exciting to be living here for three weeks. Just the fact that London’s population is as big as whole Austria’s may be a bit off-putting. Think about that. Tiny Austria compared to London. Hilarious.

There are quite some things I have noticed and realised they seem to be pretty British. (Correct me if I’m wrong, please.)

Numero 1: The English weather. Ok, this is topic of a long discussion, but seriously, the weather is making me crazy. I always was aware of the fact that English weather is a bit eccentric, and probably 356 out of 357 people will associate England with “tremendous weather” when you ask them about one typical English thing.

But it’s not what you think it is when you hear “bad weather”. It’s not rain all day long. It’s not grey sky all day long. It’s not cold. Imagine it like this: You look out of the window and think about what you should wear. Bright sunshine, hot weather, blue sky. Looks like perfect conditions for wearing a dress with some sandals, doesn’t it? Ok. Alright. In 89 % of the cases the rain will start as soon as you leave the house, in 11 % it will start about 10 minutes after you left the house so that you can’t even go back and change your clothes. Or like that: The sun is shining, you take off your cardigan and think, “ohh, it’s so hot here, what a nice weather, I thought it’s always foul weather in England!” and you don’t have to wait long – here comes the raaaain – too-toooo!

Number 2: Unless you don’t pronounce your words very clear and with a British accent, you’re very likely to be misunderstood.

So this one day I was buying some food at the supermarket and asked for lemon grass. Doesn’t sound like a difficult thing, does it? “Excuse me, do you have lemon grass?” “Hmm, let me check. I’ll be right back.” The guy walks away, I follow him, listen to a short conversation between him and another staff member and realise he understood that I was looking for lemon cress. “Do you mean lemon cress or lemon graaaaaaaahhhs?” I couldn’t help it but reply, with the best British accent I could, “Oh, lemon graaaaaahs of course!” (they didn’t have any.)

Numéro 3: Why has there to be a glass wall in the post office between the customer and the person behind the counter?

I don’t bite, seriously. What’s that? A glass wall when you want to send a big package? Very impractical. This post office story was one of those embarrassing things you find funny afterwards.

I had something to send to Austria. Nothing special. A package of tea and some other small things. I went to the post office and the first thing I had a problem with was to find the right packaging. That took me about 15 minutes (and I’m not exaggerating!) The first package I wanted to go for was a cardboard box.

After managing to find out how to “construct” the box, I realised that it was way too big. I could have put three times as much in there. So let’s put the box back and go for an envelope with bubble wrap then. Oh, too small. Ok, so the card board box is the only option. I put the things in there, close the box and realise that I’m a bit stupid. Newspaper. I would have needed to put some newspaper in it. Everything would fly around otherways. Too late. I finally am ready to go to the counter to send it. I tell the guy behind the counter that I was a bit concerned about the content flying around. “You should have chosen the small envelope!”, he said. “Well, I thought it’s too small.” “Haven’t you put some newspaper inside? “No, I forgot…”, I admitted, ashamed. He suggested opening the package and putting some inside. Puhh. The package ended up looking like some kids played around with it, but at least the content was safe.

Then this glass wall was really beginning to bother me. The guy kept on giving me some stickers to stick on the package and I always held the package to the wall, thinking that he would stick them on it through the slot. When the procedure was finished, he looked at me, and said, with a big grin on his face: “Have you never been to a post office before?”

Being creative and drawing postcards! I’m not a drawing talent at all, but I have to say that I fell in love with my postcards. Can I please keep them?

Nummer 4: Online Shopping is as popular as wearing skinny jeans.

I was sitting with my aunt and having a chat, late in the evening, when we somehow came to the topic of going to the supermarket. I told her that I absolutely wanted to go and do some proper grocery shopping while I’m here. (I love English supermarkets, don’t ask me why.) She then told me that lately she buys her groceries on the internet most of the time. Pardon? You’re buying your groceries on the internet? You’re not an old lady that can’t go out of the house and needs someone to deliver the shopping right into the house, are you? Her answer was that it’s so practical. Alright, alright.

When I then was visiting a friend of mine in Cambridge last day, he told me with enthusiasm about this online grocery shopping thing. I broke out in thunderous laughter. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Did a young person in their mid-twenties just tell me that they bought food online? Apparently they did. With the explanation that when you haven’t got a car, it’s much easier to let someone bring you the food right into your flat. Sounds reasonable. But still, I find it utterly amusing. It reminds me of an old lady. I can’t help it.

After our delivery we finally have some food in our fridge again.

And so tonight I decided I’m going to cook for my family. As this recipe has been on my blog waiting list (in my brain) for quite a while, I thought that now was the time to share it with you. I didn’t take my camera with me (which was a very big mistake), so I had to use my phone.

This is one of the disadvantages of online food shopping. We ordered small aubergines and they were really really really small. Baby aubergines, in fact.

Serves 4

for the rice
  • 300 g basmati rice (*Reyhani)
  • salt
  • 1 pinch of saffron

for the khoresh

  • 2 onions
  • 2 – 3 aubergines
  • olive oil
  • 1 tbsp turmeric
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 handful cherry tomatoes
  • 800 g canned, chopped tomatoes (26 oz)
  • juice of half a lemon
  • salt

Rinse the rice in a sieve until the water is clear. Soak it in a bowl with cold water.

Chop the onions. Depending on their size, halve or quarter the aubergines and cut the green part away. In a large pan, heat some oil and fry the aubergines until the start to colour and get soft. Take out of the pan and set aside.

In the same pan, fry the onions and add some oil if necessary. Add turmeric and cinnamon and fry for about 5 minutes, until the onions start to colour. Now add the cherry tomatoes and fry for another 5 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes, lemon juice, some more cinnamon and some salt. Turn to medium-low heat and cook for about an hour.

Meanwhile prepare the rice. Place a pot with water on the fire and bring to a boil. Put the rice and 2 tbsp. of salt in it and cook for 6 minutes on medium-high heat. In a mortar, grind the saffron and add some warm water to dissolve it. Drain the rice and put some olive oil in the pan, so that the bottom of the pan is covered with oil. Add the rice, pour the saffron water over it, cover and cook on low heat for about 30 minutes.

Serve with Mast o chiar or Borani (recipe to be published soon!)

Enjoy.

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Mini Pancakes

10 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by nadine in Breakfast, Sweet

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

baking, cooking, eating, food, life, photography, recipes, traveling, USA, vegan

I spent the weekend in Vienna once again (it has become my second home) and it once again were unforgettable days. I love the city, love the people, love the food. Ok, the first time we went for lunch out was a bit of a joke because it took us some fourty minutes to find  a restaurant that wasn’t closed due to holiday (although it wasn’t even a holiday that day!). But the salad I ate in the restaurant we ended up in was very good. In the evening we cooked this risotto and made some “Apfelstrudel”, an Austrian speciality. (Terrible combination of countries, but who cares?).

The next day we went to a nice, cozy, restaurant and stayed there for half the day. I’m thinking of starting to also blog about good restaurants I went to. There are so many good places nobody knows about. Why not spread the word? I can start right away: Restaurant Daniel, Vienna. I ate the pita falafel and it was delicious. Just in case you’re interested.

So now to my actual post: Unlike normal people in this world, I tend to make pancakes as dessert or even for dinner. Don’t ask me why. It has become a habit over the years, and I don’t have any intentions to change it. Pancakes are just so good as dessert. You can eat them with whatever you find in your kitchen and they are not a lot of work. My favourite is maple syrup! You can also put bananas (they will taste like the bananas you get in Chinese restaurants, just slightly healthier) or blueberries in the batter. There are so many options. Be creative!

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