Red cabbage salad

Happy New Year to you, I am starting with a winter recipe, but at the same time looking forward to spring. The traditional red cabbage recipe is the heated one with several good ingredients, slowly simmering in the pot which I learned when I was an apprentice in a hotel in Freiburg, a long time ago.
We put pig lard, apple sauce, cloves, red wine for good taste.
The worst, I ever tasted, was in a restaurant in France, Alsatia. I never thought that you could eat so bad in France. It was simply cooked in water with some salt added - let's say the way English hoseholds cooked vegetables 20 or 30 years ago - and already the cabbage smell would nearly keep you from trying it. Worse even, we decided to eat Cordon Bleu - being in France and presuming that it would be good. Worst decision ever! I don't remember the little town and the name of the place.. They took some kind of cooked meat, I think it was not even calf, filled it with cheese and ham, put some grated bread on it and then fried it. That is exactly how it tasted. Usually, I should have just given it back, but I took it home and the dogs were quite satisfied..
Never mind anyway, this is really good and also for all vegetarians and vegans, no meat involved:
Cut red cabbage in really thin stripes, add pomegranate seeds and pear or apple sauce (homemade of course), raspberry vinegar and olive oil. Marinate for at least two hours. Add roasted nuts before serving.

Ice Cream - fast, vegan, without sugar

Incredible, isn't it? Do you think - well, the title might me true, but that sounds too healthy to taste also good. And I tell you - it is fantastic.
Only downside is, this has to be produced and eaten - no freezing afterwards, no waiting too long because it melts. So get going:

Get the real ripe bananas - you know, the ones you don't want to eat anymore - they may also be already quite brown outside. This adds taste and a lot of sweetness.
Cut them in small slices (some also write to peel them first, but I hope the people who are reading this, don't have to be told that) and put them in the freezer overnight.
The next day you take the bananas, put them in the blender, frozen as they are.
You might add a little plant milk or water or juice, just don't exaggerate, otherwise it will be too liquid and also other fruit of your choice or a spoonful of cocoa (this makes a fantastic chocolate ice cream) or vanilla.

What? That's it? YES - go ahead. I am looking forward to your comments.

Granola

Been to DM - our local drugstore which also offers a lot of organic and vegan options at a very reasonable price. I saw that they had granola, a kind of roasted oats flakes and nuts combination. However the price with over 4 Euro seemed a bit too much. Oat flakes are really cheap and making granola yourself you know what's in it and choose your kind of nut combination. Apart from that, many cereal mixes contain lots of sugar and this is why I generally make my own muesli at home. The roasted version, however, seemed interesting and I remembered that I had eaten something like this in Costa Rica and liked it very much. They took ages to make it, I must say, but it was very good and abundant.
Here is the pic:

My first try, I put: oat flakes, cashews, brazil nuts and almonds - and also flax seed. Let's say, that the flax seed got a bit too roasted, due to their small size in proportion to the other stuff. It was still good, though, just a reminder to put them at the very end of the roasting process, or any other very small stuff.
You can make the granola with any kind of nuts or seeds and then add your choice of milk or plant beverage, lemon peel, coconut pieces, any other fruit.
I read, that it is really popular in America and that there are even salty versions with vegetables. Doesn't sound bad to me, you can always use it also as a salad topping. Will report about that, when the time has come. In the meantime, here is my sketchipe:

Strawberry Parfait

I admit, this isn't the season anymore, but I forgot to post this one. However, take fruit of the season, right now we still have apricots, peaches, melons, blackberries and pears. I will be trying something with the pear glut we have at the moment, this is to come and will be an experiment on the salty side because actually we don't eat all this sweet stuff..
The sketch recipe is in German again because it also served for another purpose, but this is the good thing about sketchipes, they are mostly understandable without translation, easier to remember and fun to make.
I am still experimenting with different styles and pencils. The colors are made with Derwent Intense pencils. They can be used just like normal pencils or diluted with water like watercolors (only once however, once you did this, they remain like this but you can layer with other colors).
So: blend 500 g of strawberries (or any fruit you like), add 2 spoons of lemon juice, 100 g of sugar and the yolk of two eggs, one package of vanilla sugar until creamy. Then add the 250 ml of whipped cream carefully and fill it in parfait forms (coffee or tea cups will do also).
Freeze for at least three hours. Nice dessert for friends which doesn't take too long to make and can be made in many different ways.

Swordfish with capers

Mostly plants, but sometimes fish is also a healthy option. Still going on with sketchnote studies, so you will have to accompany me on my trip in this new experience and hopefully see me improve. If somebody reads this, let me know your opinion. So this is also an occasion to learn German.

Let me write down the ingredients:

500 g swordfish (Schwertfisch), 

50 g capers (Kapern), olive oil (Olivenöl), 1 onion (Zwiebel), 3-4 garlic cloves (Knoblauchzehen), 2-3 fresh tomatoes (Tomaten), 1 chili, salt (Salz)

cut into small pieces, and soften in the pan, add the pieces of swordfish and some white wine and water until ready.

Battered apple cakes

Let me present you a Swabian recipe this time. In fact, a friend asked me for it and I nearly forgot about them. This was one of my childhood's favorite dishes, perfect accompanied by vanilla sauce (recipe to come yet) but also good just alone or with vanilla ice cream.

Flour 90 g, sugar 25 g, 1 egg, 75 ml milk, 1 bit of salt - this makes the dough, Then slice the apples and take away the middle piece, dip them into the dough and fry them in the hot oil. In the end turn them around in the sugar and cinnamon mix and enjoy!

Vegan Raspberry-Chocolate-Muffins

Here we go, some yummy vegan muffins with one of the best combination of ingredients: dark chocolate and raspberries. Why not make a vegan cake once in a while, it really tastes just as good as a cake made in the classic way but you don't need eggs, milk, cream, butter etc.. You don't even need plant drinks like almond or soy milk and can replace it with water instead.

Sketchnote recipe is in German again, but should be understandable:

Ingredients:

225 g sugar, 300 g flour, 150 ml oil,  1 pinch of salt, 250 g of plant milk or water, 3 tea spoons baking powder, 4 spoons cocoa, if you wish you can add a bit of dark chocolate as well, I did because it adds this great surprise in the middle of the muffin. 

Mix everything apart from raspberries and chocolate. Fill the muffin tray with one third of the mix, then add raspberries and chocolate pieces, fill up with the rest of the good stuff. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes, temperature 180 Celsius.

Enjoy!

I brought these to one of our dog sports encounters where they asked all the members if they could contribute some kind of cake.

When I brought it, I said "these are vegan, but you don't have to write it"- "Oh no, we have to write it, there are people who don't want vegan" ??

I couldn't believe it but actually I was a witness to this situation.

"I take from these muffins."

"They are vegan!!"

"Oh alright, then I won't take them."

I wonder what freaks people out about this, it is not like "there are nuts" and you might be allergic, there aren't any soy products in it. Somebody told me, that they are afraid that the taste won't be good, but trust me, they are great in flavor!