Casa Robino

Making of Pasta Madre, with a bit of Nordic flavour

I finally got sick enough of the miserable bread situation of this country to start making my own. You can ask any Finn how bread should be like - most definitely not the white fluffy toasterslices, the only thing the poor Dutchies have available. So, off to natuurwinkel for some rye flour and to Casa to learn about Pasta Madre it was.

Recipe is a new content type on the site, to facilitate sharing food - more on that (plus making it all look pretty) a bit later... read further to find out how to make Pasta Madre!

I created the most wonderful vegan cake for the wedding at ot-301 on monday, and since I believe everyone should eat cake as often as possible I have written down my recipe. But for all of thoses who know me, I never actually measure/follow recipes so this is mostly a guess....

Chocolate-Espresso Cake

3 cups of all-purpose flour
6-8 tbsp of cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 cups raw sugar (or any vegan sugar)
12 tbsp of oil (sunflower, olive oil....)
2 tbsp of vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cold espresso

We don't just cook Thursday night dinners and Christmas Eve dinners and late afternoon brunches and Pancake Sundays, apparently, we also cater for wedding parties when the opportunity arises.

And so, yesterday, Heather, Robin, & I spent some quality time in the spacious De Peper kitchen at OT-301 catering for the wedding party of Cris & Juana: a vegan feast of kısır, yoğurt çorbası, dolma, savory baked pumpkin, and chocolate-mocha cake to die for. The party also coincided with OT-301's 10 year anniversary, as well as local "no borders no nations" initiatives by supporting groups.

Davide and I collaborated on a most delicious winter morning drink:
Chai Bomb; chai masala tea with a shot of espresso.

First, prepare an old-fashioned handmade espresso with the old steel machine.

Meanwhile, make your chai.
Boil water on the stovetop with a mixture of:
ginger, cinnamon, black tea leaves, nutmeg, cloves, 1 small dried peperoncino, sweet red pepper, and cardamom pods until dark.

Add (soya or rice, for vegans) milk to taste. Continue boiling.

Strain the chai mixture into a teapot.

We should start sharing recipes for leftover foods, For example, the other day Martina made a wonderful lunch out of our previous nights dinner of cous cous and baked vegtables by adding eggs, and frying it. Or how about baking left over pasta with cheese, olive oil, and some herbs on top?

Any more ideas?

Through some e-mail conversations I learned that there is yet no pasta madre in the house. This is a sad thing, especially since it is not so hard to keep it alive. But I also understand myself better than before how to do this.

We used to keep it relatively liquid, and we tried to refresh it every other day. This is not necessary. Having traveled with pastamadre from the house for 7 weeks now, I discovered many new things.

I would like to add this recipe since its story fits with la casa :)Which i like the story and the taste as well since my childhood.
After the flood they had so little of everything in the ark that wouldn't be enough to make seperate meals. So they put everything together to be able to feed everyone. Mom makes it once a year traditionally and gives one bowl to each neighbours.
Since it's a mom's recipe i have to say that amounts aren't accurate, typically :)

Ingredients:
250 gr wheat berries
2 glasses of chickpeas
2 glasses of white beans
1/2 glass of rice
1/2 lt milk

A few weeks before ever coming to Istanbul, I got a random e-mail from Mert there, who told me he had seen me dancing in Lily's dumpster-dive documentary, Skipping Waste.

One of the great things about Dumpster Diving is that you never know beforehand what you will be cooking. So when I went to the market today, just before closing time, I was in fact very happy to find some aubergines (eggplant), tomatoes and red peppers (paprika). As usual the vendors at Ten Kate markt were very nice and allowed me to dive into their dumpsters at the same time as they were filling them. But I didn't expect the results of my cooking, it was so nice that even Rene was highly impressed :D

What I made:

Yesterday, Kasper and I picked up a bag of bio Mung Beans, which we are prepared to sprout. Mung beans are tridoshic, meaning that they can help to balance all 3 doshas (vata, pitta, kapha) in Ayurveda. They offer 14 gms of protein per cooked cup. Mung beans are also a good source of dietary fiber. They also contain thiamin, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and copper, and are a good source of folate.