Varia

[yakalskovich]

From the food department: Finnish rye crisp bread (hapankorppu) with peanut butter is a wonderful breakfast. They go very well with each other.

From the art department: Very nice art on a rather oddly built web site is found here - a sculptor from the Netherlands working in bronze. Her subjects are only ever somewhat non-realistic animals. essayel found the first picture of that artist's work, I then found the site, which only works in MS IE and has some very odd Java script that won't display the pictures in Firefox - I already sent them a mail about that, of course. So plese, no need to comment here and say 'I can't see any pictures'.

I've been sending ecards from there to people, because the little bronzes that woman makes are exceptionally remarkable - I just wonder how cute and emotional and funny art is allowed to be before it turns into kitsch, not because of the techniques or styles used, simply because of the almost soppy emotions it transports. I'll have to discuss that with the lady Angela next door; she is an artist and likes discussions. Provisionally, I'd claim that these are indeed art...

Comments

[cracicotus.livejournal.com]

Mmmm... it's funny you should mention food. Wendy and I were just walking around and I commented on how much I loved that pumpkin soup that you made, and how we MUST have the recipe ! Do you mind sharing your secrets? Yes, metric is fine :)

[yakalskovich]

Well, nazgulwears and I are going to do a recipe page with our staples anyway; she's already working on the layout. But I can give you a little preview. *grins*

Russian Pumpkin Soup With Shrimps

Ingredients:
1 small pumpkin (Hokkaido), or about 1 to 1.5 kg off a big one (depends on breed, seeds, whether it needs peeling etc.)
2 - 3 large potatoes
1 litre of milk
200 ml cream (standard size, here)
500 gr frozen shrimps
some butter, salt, pepper, vegetable stock (from glass or cubes); more milk to adjust texture of soup

Preparation
Put milk into large pot and bring to boil, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking to the bottom of the pot; in the meanwhile, peel potatoes and dice, chop pumpkin, throw away the seeds, dice. If it's a Hokkaido, don't peel, because the skin isn't hard and makes everything nicely orange; other kinds of pumpkinneed to be peeled because the skin is hard.

When the milk is boiling, add salt, pepper and vegetable stock, then add the pumpkin and potatoes. Turn down the hob to middle, and leave to simmer gently for twenty minutes. Puree with hand mixer; add more salt, pepper or milk to taste, and to adjust the texture of the soup if necessary; one doesn't want it to be too much like mashed potatoes. When the soup is pureed and the consistency is just right, add the cream and stir in with the hand mixer.

Heat the butter in a frying pan, and fry the shrimps, perhaps adding a little salt if needed. When finished, pour shrimps and liquid into the soup, stir well, and serve.

I prefer ciabatta bread and simple dry white wine with this soup.

[cracicotus.livejournal.com]

Divine!

Thanks. I can't wait for the "book."

Finally!

[cracicotus.livejournal.com]

Well, I finally found one of those fancy Japanese pumpkins tonight. I had to go out to the hinterlands for a meeting and stopped at a market on the way back. Much to my surprise, they were piled high outside the buildings.

Yay!

I'll make it this weekend and provide a full report on how it turns out!

Re: Finally!

[yakalskovich]

Well, I'll see how you will do...

Do you think there's any chance the two of you will be back in Munich for Christmas shopping this year? I know you do like to do that in Germany.

Re: Finally!

[cracicotus.livejournal.com]

Well, I cooked it and it actually turned out well! Wendy, Daniel and I enjoyed a dinner of said soup, roasted vegetables, and couscous last night - it was heavenly.

I must say that the soup was rather time consuming - especially pealing and chopping the pumpkin (which seemed to have a tough skin). Then, Wendy didn't have a large blender, so I had to puree the soup 400 ml at a time, and each time it would shoot out from the sides of the machine and cover me and the kitchen in yellow/orange mush. Ick.

But, in the end, all the time and drama was worth it. Thanks.

We have no plans to visit Germany this Christmas season. I want to, but I haven't convinced Wendy. Fares are lower, and I would love to get away, but she's a bit tougher. We'll decide soon and let you know the outcome.