In my kitchen this month

Over the last month I have been busy with flat hunting (which requires a four hour round trip to Berlin each time I go to look at rentals) and recipe testing for my new Ebook. We're subletting a big flat in Leipzig right now but as previously mentioned, it has a DIY kitchen in that the renter needs to bring not only their own fridge but also benches, cupboards, sink and stove. Hence we have a sink and stove and a little fridge, but no oven. But it's ok, it forces me to be imaginative when cooking which is great. In general fresh food here lasts a lot less time than in Australia so the trend here to shop for groceries little and often is apt.

                             

I've been busy making a bunch of recipes that either use up leftovers, bits from my pantry or are recipe tests for my next ebook of vegan soups, salads and sides. The book demonstrates that tasty cooking is possible from the smallest kitchen and all recipes are done on the stove you see above without any fancy equipment besides a 20€ stick blender. I've got a few more recipes to go but I'll be putting it out soon! Again a portion of each purchase will go to a charity, I haven't quite decided which one yet for this one.

I made these chocolate quinoa rum balls using leftovers:

     

Next, an experimental potato bake made in a fry pan. Next time I'll cut the potatoes thinner so they 'stick together' better! 

Loving my new hand painted mug from Leipzig's Oxfam shop. It's the only charity shop in town (to my knowledge) that has household goods and is quite overpriced in general, so I was happy to find this for 1€. Also in the pic are my custard and chocolate wontons, ready to be cooked! 

I made a lovely creamy mushroom pasta with bio cheese and soy milk and mushrooms. The pasta is actually lasagne sheets broken in half, since I've no oven I thought I may as well use them up!

Here's some food I made for our housewarming/farewell party a couple of weekends ago. The last party I had (for Australia Day), I made a load of baked dishes from my last recipe ebook like sausageless rolls and passionfruit vanilla slice. A couple of gluten free people turned up late only to find most of the gf food had already been eaten which was annoying! It was a great party. 

This one by comparison was smaller, just a few friends so I made tofu rice paper rolls, guacamole, fried polenta bites with homemade pesto and of course chips! German people love chips, paprika flavoured ones are the most common here. It's also customary for people to serve lots of sweet things at parties in Deutschland which we tend to forget, solved when one of our friends turned up with a big bag of sweets! 

Here's some photos to show the less than glamourous side of food photography. It includes dried mushrooms (not cheap), tofu which I used to fill dumplings, homemade cheese and other bits and pieces. You can see from the second picture that photography can be less than glamourous! The lack of light here doesn't help, being winter/spring it's still very dark most days. 

Who could resist party gurken! 

And lastly proof Gurken are serious business here, check out the billboard below (not the best pic, it was 10:30 pm at night). 

That's most of the activity in my kitchen this month.  Make sure you pop over to Celia’s at Fig Jam & Lime Cordial to see what is happening in other kitchen’s around the world.