German Potato Salad

I first made this recipe back at home in beautiful Portland, Oregon. My brother and his girlfriend at the time, who was authentically German, were coming over for dinner and I wanted forge my best attempt at German cuisine. My boyfriend and I went to Edelweiss Deli (coincidentally the same name as the resort I work for now in Germany) and picked up some of the essentials: weisswurst, sauerkraut, german seeded bread, stone ground mustard and curry ketchup. Since most of the items were imported from Germany, the bill came to almost $40.00! Expensive.

Luckily the recipe I had decided on as a side dish was low-cost and yielded a lot, so we had leftovers for the next few days. After some googling earlier in the day I found what I was looking for on allrecipes.com. The dish calls for bacon, and since I had chosen to exile myself from meat island I decided on using Morningstar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips instead. At dinner, we enjoyed a meal of weisswurst (I had a soy sausage), sauerkraut, bread and the potato salad. I asked my brother's German counterpart if she enjoyed the meal and we got a thumbs up and an enthusiastic "ja wohl!" She said that the potato salad reminded her of home and she couldn't even tell the difference with the fake bacon (facon).

Since that meal I've made it on a few other occasions and I've gotten rave reviews every time. So without further ado, here is the recipe for a vegetarian (gasp!) hot German potato salad: (gasp!) hot German potato salad:

Potato salad + Claire's "caprese" salad = delicious meal

Hot German Potato Salad

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

• 9 potatoes, peeled
• 6 slices veggie bacon
• 3/4 cup chopped onions
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup distilled white vinegar

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 30 minutes. Drain, cool and slice thin.
• Place veggie bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium heat until evenly "browned", about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat, crumble and set aside.
• Saute onions in skillet with a little olive oil until golden-brown and translucent.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, celery seed and pepper. Add to sauteed onions and cook until bubbly, then remove from heat.
• Stir in water and vinegar, then return skillet to stove and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for one minute.
• Carefully stir in veggie bacon crumbles and sliced potatoes into the skillet mixture, continuing to fold and stir until potatoes are heated through.

Sources

http://allrecipes.com

Amsterdam Part 3

When you travel the most important thing you want to bring is a good travel companion (or companions). Nothing can make a trip go better than someone to share the experience with. Or, if your trip has gone terribly wrong a good travel buddy will be able to ease your stress and worries. In the case of Amsterdam, I was lucky to be able to travel with three good friends that made my trip memorable.

My Amsterdam travel buddies from left to right: Rachel, Colin, Lara and myself.

We opted out of flying to Amsterdam in hopes that driving would save some money. It did. However, a road trip that should have taken 8 hours to reach our destination ended up taking about 12. We started the trip by going south down to Austria instead of east towards the Netherlands, and then proceeded to freak out on the autobahn as we continued to get lost. Luckily we booked a hostel in Frankfurt for a night to rest, although we ended up circling the city for two hours trying to find a way in. In the morning we ate a cheap breakfast at our hostel, and after loading our pockets with travel-sized Nutella packets (duh) we were ready to get out of Germany.

When we finally arrived in Amsterdam, we parked Opal (the name given to our rental car) in the Olympic Stadium. I highly recommend this to anyone driving to Amsterdam - it’s a little way out of the city center, but only costs 6 euro a day to park and you get train passes into the city. Just make sure you keep the passes because they are required to get out of the parking garage.

We were in The Netherlands: let the adventures begin! Although the Heineken Brewery tour and other unnamed aspects of our trip were ridiculously fun and amazing, nothing stands out more in my memories of Amsterdam thangoing to the Anne Frank house. Growing up I've heard the story of Anne Frank time andtime again, but the reality of what happened during The Holocaust had never set in. Seeing the small space that the Frank family hid in for two years really opened my eyes for the first time. Throughout the tour you were able to read different passages from Anne's diary, as well as see the actual diary she wrote in. Knowing that this girl had so many ambitions for her future only to end up dying in a concentration camp was very emotional. I encourage everyone to make it a point to visit the house at some time in their life. Cost of the tour: 8,50 euro (12 USD). Make sure you get there early because there is almost always a line around the block, especially on the weekends.

After a very sobering and memorable experience we decided to lighten up with some breakfast. We had heard from a lot of people in our dorm complex that Sara's Pancake House was a hotspot. Since it was near the Anne Frank house we decided to give it a try.

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The place is run by Sara herself, and it really is a one-woman show. There are about ten tables and one waiter to take orders and make espresso drinks. Meanwhile Sara is behind a counter in plain view of everyone cooking up orders. The food is delicious. Dutch pancakes are much thinner than the American version that we all are used to, but are a bit thicker than crepes. I decided to order a plain pancake (I was on a budget). Lara ordered a waffle, Colin ordered the American breakfast (men), and Rachel ordered a pancake with cheese, bacon and bananas. Sounds gross right? She swore by it. Some flavor combinations just go well together I guess! On the table there were two types of syrup to top our pancakes with: plain maple syrup and CARAMEL syrup. Yes, I was in heaven. Here are some pictures to make you drool:

My plain dutch pancake dressed up with powdered sugar and caramel syrup...yum.

Rachel's pig in a blanket, dutch-style.

Lara's waffle: simple and delicious.

Delicious syrup. Must order some now.

There's still more to come! Keep a lookout for Amsterdam Part 3.

Amsterdam Part 2

Amsterdam is all about waffles and fries. Street vendorsall over the city sell waffles adorned in chocolate, nuts, icing and any other confectionary deliciousness you could think of. Fry vendors are just as popular, and the condiments included are almost as extensive. While we indulged inthese Netherlands diet staples, we also ate Italian and Mexican food just to see if the Dutch could pull it off.

La Vita

Lindengracht 31

1015 KB Amsterdam

Tel 020-6248987

After hours of searching for a Mexican restaurant that we heard was good (we ended up going there the next night), we settled on La Vita for some pizza. Bottom line: the pizza is okay, the calzones are HUGE and Heineken is cheap.

One of La Vita's huge calzones

Los Pilones

Kerkstraat 63

1017 GC Amsterdam

Tel 020-3204651

We finally found our mystery restaurant on the second night. Bottom line: everything is overpriced, the portion sizes aren't very big, but you get a bowl of free chips before your meal (take note: A free bowl, singular).

Delicious but overpriced margarita

Spring mushroom quesadilla

Vegan Tofu-Leek Tart

Cooking in a dorm has the potential to be difficult. Cooking vegan in a dorm has the potential to be even more difficult. Luckily, a recipe that I tested from Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld was easy-peasy lemon squeezy! This tart is really, really good. The only change I would make is to fold the mushrooms into the filling before baking to improve the texture of the tart. Other than that, it has amazing flavor and is a great dish to woo vegans and non-vegans alike.

It may look like there is a lot of effort involved in this recipe with all the different components, but it all is quite easy and comes together quicker than you would think. Because I do live a limited-ingredient lifestyle I had to substitute some of the ingredients, which I've mentioned below.

Vegan Tofu-Leek Tart with Pine Nut Crust

(adapted from Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld)

Crust

½ cup pine nuts (replaced with walnuts)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (replaced with all-purpose flour)

¼ teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup plain soy milk

Salt

Mushroom Topping

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

6 cups thinly sliced mixed mushrooms (about 1 pound)

2 tablespoons shoyu (replaced with soy sauce)

Tofu-Leek Filling

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups chopped leeks, white part only

1 pound firm tofu, pressed

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 medium garlic cloves, peeled

2 teaspoons mellow barley miso (replaced with soy sauce)

1 tablespoon arrowroot powder (replaced with corn starch)

2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Make the Crust:

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, grind the nuts with a few tablespoons of the flour until finely ground. The flour will keep the nuts from turning into paste. Transfer to a medium bowl, add the remaining flour and the baking powder, and whisk to combine thoroughly.

In a small bowl, whisk the oil, soy milk, and a pinch of salt. Add to the flour mixture, stirring until the dry ingredients are completely moistened.

Press the crust into an oiled 9-inch tart pan (placing a piece of plastic wrap between your fingers and the dough will facilitate pressing). Press the last few times with your thumb around the sides where the bottom of the pan meets the side to make sure there is no excess crust there. Use a knife to cut off any excess along the top of the tart pan, then poke holes all over the crust with the tines of a fork. Bake the shell for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and set aside. Do not turn off the oven.

Make the Mushroom Topping:

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the mushrooms and sauté for several minutes, then add the shoyu (soy sauce) and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the mushrooms have released their juices and shrunk considerably. The pan should be almost dry. Set aside.

Make the Tofu-Leek Filling:

Warm 1 tablespoon of the oil in a medium skillet. Add the leeks and sauté over medium-low heat for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the leeks have softened. They should be only lightly browned. Set aside in a medium mixing bowl.

In a food processor, combine the tofu, the 3 remaining tablespoons of oil, the rice vinegar, garlic, miso (soy sauce), salt, and pepper to taste and process until completely smooth. It takes a good few minutes of running the food processor to change the texture from gritty to creamy. Stop the processor frequently to scrape down the sides. When the tofu is very smooth, add the arrowroot (corn starch) and rosemary and process for another 30 seconds to combine.

Add the tofu mixture to the bowl with the sautéed leeks and gently combine. Spread the filling evenly over the pre-baked crust. Evenly distribute the mushrooms across the top of the tart and press them gently into the tofu. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until the filling is firm and the crust has lightly browned.

Remove the tart from the oven and let it sit for a couple of minutes before removing the rim of the pan. Serve warm.

*Note: In the book, Kornfeld recommends serving the tart with a french lentil sauce. After trying the tart with the sauce, I think it would be best served by itself with a simple salad on the side.