Turkey Burgers - or Dumpling Filling

It's true, I'm a sucker for ground turkey. I'm not really sure why, perhaps because it's relatively rare compared to ubiquitous German pork. It's slightly healthier, it tastes simmilar to pork, but really, I think I just like turkey. And ground turkey is easier to prepare than roasting a whole bird.

Normally, I favour turkey burgers with grilled figs but the local green grocer didn't have figs. I scoured online & found an idea (it's far too forgiving to be an actual recipe) for turkey potstickers. I didn't feel like making the dumpling skins myself, and it was a cold day outside so I wasn't about to buy them. I made burgers.

Asian Turkey Burgers
(adapted from The Fortune Cookie Chronicles)

1/2 head napa cabbage, chopped
300g ground turkey
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 chopped scallions
1tsp minced garlic
1tsp minced ginger
Kimchi
1 shredded carrot
1 1/2 tsp light miso
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 rolls with sesame seeds on top

Sautee cabbage to get rid of moisture.
Mix cabbage, turkey, soy, sesame oil, vinegar, scallions, garlic & ginger in a bowl. Form into 2 patties. Grill. Meanwhile, mix mayonnaise and miso. Slice open rolls, spread a bit of miso mayo on each half. Remove burgers from grill, place on roll. Top with Kimchi & carrot.

I was not only enamored with the burgers, I was also enamored by the blog from Ms. Lee.

After clicking through a few pages, I realized I needed to order the book. While I don't normally plug anything except local farmers, I can only recommend this book. I, like many people, love Chinese food. Ms. Lee does not talk about Chinese food, she talks about the Americanization of Chinese food - a concept which can be applied to other countries as well, to varying degrees. The life of an immigrant is hard, one often is confronted with a lack of acceptance. Degrees and qualifications are not recognized; locals think that you are a threat to the local economy and will take away jobs from citizens (this is something that I have not only been subject to, it is something that I see going on around me). Ms. Lee explains how the Chinese have become more American that apple pie (When was the last time you ate apple pie? she asks. When was the last time you ate Chinese food?) and shows the evolution of restaurant workers; from illegal immigrants, to restaurant owners, to parents of children who are not to own restaurants.

At least I got to think about something while eating my turkey burgers. And by the way, even though it is a popular substitute for pork in Chinese recipes, turkey isn't Asian.

Kohlrabi Greens - People Food

Kohlrabi gets its name from the German language. Roughly translated as "cabbage turnip", a descriptor which sums up the taste and shape of the vegetable. If a turnip were to sprout cabbage greens, kohlrabi would be the result.

The vegetable is very popular in Germany. One of my friends claimed it was the only vegetable he would eat as a child. In the cold days of winter, kohlrabi is one of the easiest fresh vegetables to find - my supermarket can always be counted on for crates of the alien-looking vegetable. But in the crates, there is always a pile of leaves. People pull the leaves off, and take the mini-sputniks with them.


For a while, I didn't think this was edible, but I thought of baby beet greens, which are a part of a good mesclun salad. The bigger greens can be cooked. I put a bit of research into kohlrabi greens and discovered that you can eat them. They are not just rabbit food.

The first step was going to the supermarket and filling a bag of greens. These are normally given away for free, a fact which made me feel, well, a little illicit, knowing that I would be eating these myself. Oh well, it's the supermarkets loss.

Having gotten the greens home, I washed them, pulled out any huge chunks of stem, roughly chopped them and steamed them. In the meantime, I sauteed some garlic. When the greens were cooked, I drained any extra liquid, cooked them quickly with the garlic, added sesame oil & Chinese black vinegar, and topped it with sesame seeds. The result: like spinach but with a slight cabbage taste. The vinegar was maybe a bit strong. Nest time, I want to use olive oil & lemon juice. Assuming, of course that I can swallow my pride & eat rabbit food again.

Mornings - Bagels

Mornings are not my friend. Only through routine do I manage to make it to work. Sometimes routine fails but normally, it works out fine. Part of my auto-pilot program is the breakfast bagel that I never manage to eat at home. I wrap it in foil, run for the train & let my bagel sit in the office for a few hours until I remember that it's there. The last few days, I've been sleeping in and running late. Today, I finally found the time to make my breakfast bagel.

There is a wonderful tradition in this country of 2nd breakfast. This is the sandwich or other snack eaten at 10am, after one has already eaten breakfast at 7 or earlier. The second breakfast is normally more than a piece of fruit. It's a sandwich, sometimes with just a slice of cheese or a few coldcuts, but when I was in university, most students packed a mid-morning snack. School children also often have their mid-morning snack. This is enough to tide people over until lunch, when they have the main meal of their day.
Germany is apparently the land of over 600 different kinds of bread, none of which is Wonderbread. Most of these are incredibly healthy whole-grain loaves that really make you count your blessings with your daily bread.

There are a few things I haven't grown used to yet. I haven't yet converted 100% to dark breads, but I enjoy 4-grain bagels. I haven't grown used to having my main meal at lunch, so I often eat again with the workaholic in the evening. But I'm all about this mid-morning snack thing.

The breakfast bagel is fairly simple (it must be easy enough for a zombie to prepare)

1 4-grain bagel
1 small tomato, sliced
1 Tbsp goat cream cheese (thicker and tastier than regular cream cheese)
1/2 Tbsp green pesto
1/2 tsp capers
1/2 tsp green peppercorns

Split bagel. Smear pesto on 1 half. Smear cream cheese on the other. Place tomatoes, peppercorns & capers on the side with cream cheese. Place pesto-smeared side on top. Slice into halves, wrap in foil & run out the door because you're late for work again.

This morning, I finally managed to take a photo of the breakfast bagel. And with the list of ingredients, maybe my coworkers will stop begging me to bring more in to feed them.

I am a Jelly-Filled Donut!

In 1963, John F Kennedy stood in front of the Berlin wall & supposedly proclaimed that he is a jelly-filled donut. The problem with this theory is that the citizens of Berlin do not call jelly-filled donuts Berliners. They call them "Pfannkuchen", which translates as pancake everywhere else in the country.

I don't understand why these delicate baked goods are called "Pfannkuchen" in Berlin, because they are fried in lots of fat or oil. Yes, fat. Lumps of yeast-risen dough swimming in boiling rendered pig or chicken fat - that would be a Berliner. Originally, they would be cooked in whatever oil you could get and up until maybe 100 years ago, animal fat was much more prevalent that vegetable oil. These sweet doughy balls of goodness were originally only consumed during Karnival, the prelude to Lent, or the period of fasting.

There are certainly trials and tribulations involved with living in a foreign country. Sometimes, I sigh & say that something is just so German. Yet, there are things that I love. I am fascinated by the differences in language in such a small area (just a few minutes ago, a friend from Berlin corrected my Facebook status to tell me I'm not in love with Berliners but with "Pfannkuchen"). I love the fact that there are bakeries everywhere. I love not having to drive. I love the Berliners. They are breadier than doughnuts, not as sweet, and the filling is real jam. What's not to love?

I know I should be fasting after the period of Christmas and New Years. I'm trying to be good. I realize that I am no longer the girl who could eat 5 Berliners on her own and not have her clothes shrink. Still, a girl's got to eat. It's not my fault if the bakery didn't have any good-looking sandwiches. It's not my fault if the Berliners look adorable, is it? But beyond looks, it's somehow a part of cultural heritage. At least I can tell myself that as I eye up the rest of them.

Daring Cooks - January - Satay Chicken

"The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day."

Words that should inspire me. Instead, they filled me with one of the most regretful sentiments, nostalgia.


Last year, the Workaholic and I found ourselves in the night market of Kuala Lumpur. It was an adventure that was slightly outside of our comfort zone, if only because we both had fears of eating undercooked anything and spending a day not able to leave the hotel. After scouring the street hawkers, we decided to nibble on small things, and the first thing we had were satay skewers. I've never been a huge fan of satay anything in the past, but they were there, they were small, they were non-committal. We ordered our skewers, the man told us how much it was while holding the meat-covered wooden sticks in the fire and just as we completed the financial part of the transaction, we got our meat. Were we afraid that this was undercooked & going to force us to make use of our international health insurance? Yes. We tenatatively bit in, dipping the meat in the little plastic bag of sauce that came with it. We were delighted. They were fantastic, succulent flavourful pieces of meat that, most importantly, dissolved all fear of hawker food. I fell in love with the food, the scenery and would so love to go back. I think the Workaholic would like to as well.

The satay skewers I made were 1) doomed to never be the satay skewers of my memories, 2) not grilled because my grill is covered in snow, and 3) not on skewers. I don't really think that the skewers made much of a difference, as the idea is to tenderize the meat through the marinade, and the meat was juicy and tender. They just weren't the same spices. This should come as no surprise, the recipe was a British interpretation of Thai, not potentially frightening Malaysian flavour that I had in mind.


The Workaholic bit into his dinner and asked, "Shouldn't they be spicier?" I had to agree. I followed Cuppy's recipe but it just didn't work out for us. The peanut sauce, on the other hand, was fantastic. The Workaholic found it to be too sweet (we don't eat any sugar any more) but I have been eating spoonfuls of leftover sauce out of the fridge (don't pretend as if you never do that!).

We may try other recipes for satay skewers that actually involve me going out to the grill and getting the burn marks I should. I might add fish sauce and chilis. Whatever I do, I'm waiting until the snow melts.

Okra in Coconut Sauce

I only needed green onions, nothing else. But I saw the okra in my local green grocer & I couldn't leave it behind. Just a handful, I thought to myself. When I got home, I realized that my hands had suffered from some mutating growth dysfunction in the store because they had apparently grown. Thankfully, they've since returned to normal.

One of my first posts was about okra, and then I said that my next okra would be different. Well, let's be honest, there's not too much you can do with okra but this is pretty good. Double frying might not be the best thing for you, but it makes it very crispy, and it's a vegetable. How bad can it be?

250 g okra
oil to fry
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 c shredded coconut
1/2 cup milk

Slice okra in 1/4" slices. Fry in hot oil until brown. Remove from oil, drain, and fry again.

In a skillet, warm mustard seeds until they pop. Add curry powder, chili powder and garlic, stirring not to burn. When smell of curry powder hits you, add the coconut.

Duck Into the Year

I wanted to ring in 2010 quietly. My original plans fell through & then I thought, my ideal would be to stay at home with take-out Chinese food. This is what I would have done if I was at home in Canada, where there is good Chinese take-out that is open on New Year's Eve. In Germany, however, there's little Chinese take-out, and I think the only thing open on NYE is the local Donair shop. While I like a good donair, it's not the "pick out the container food that is going to last me until 11pm" food. I decided I was going to make my own. And if you're going to do anything, you might as well do it right. Hence my decision to make a Peking Duck. For 2 people. With homemade Mandarin Pancakes.

Peking Duck
Here I managed to find a 1kg wild duck, which was perfect for 2 people. I thawed it, and plucked it, because my duck still had lots of feathers attached. It reminded me that I should make an appointment with my aesthetician.


Then I dipped the duck into boiling water. I think this is to make the skin taught. I then let the duck dry. After it was dry, I brushed a mixture of:
5 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp soy sauce
4 Tbsp 5 spice powder
2 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tbsp rice wine
The duck got coated in this & it was poured into the cavity.
Next, the duck is supposed to dry, and I read about putting it in front of a fan. When I brought out the fan, the workaholic grew concerned. He suggested I use the "fan only" feature of the oven. A good idea. My only concern was, how did he know there's a fan only feature and I didn't?

After 6 hours, the duck was dry, so I filled the pan with water, left it on a grate & roasted it at 200°, starting with the breast side down, then up, then down again. I think it was in there for about 1 hour. Let the bird rest & then slice.


Homemade Mandarin pancakes (I'm not going to give a recipe because I'm not good at them), stuffed with Hoisin sauce, green onions, cucumber & carrots, as well as slices of duck. A good way to bid 2009 farewell. Things I'd do different next time: get a bigger duck. It was really good.


As it turns out, we didn't ring in the new year quietly. I got a text message & at 11:40pm, ended up in a bus on the way to a bar where a few friends were getting sparkling wine ready. Oh well, I tried. At least the duck worked.