Roll it baby: DIY California Maki

Konichiwa!

I ADORE Japanese food! But in Austria good Japanese restaurants are quite expensive. So I decided to make my own makis ;-) I have also made some sushi allready, but really fresh fish is hard to get where I live and/or it costs a lot. That is why I make my maki with smoked salmon or bloaters.

Many people think that it is very complicated to make Japanese food and that it is difficult to get all the ingredients you need for it. I don't share this opinion. Nowadays you get special sushi-rice, nori-leafs and wasabi in nearly every supermarket. The cool thing about "my" maki version is that you can put anything in the roll, like e.g. aspargus or string beans *yummy*.

Here's what you need for 2 people:

• 1 cup sushi rice (follow packing cooking instructions - i use a rice cooker which makes it really easy!)
• 4-6 nori leafs
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1-2 carrots
• 1 avocado
• smoked salmon or bloater
• wasabi 
• soy sauce
• optional: pickled ginger

Cook the rice (it has to be really sticky!), put it in a bowl and add a splash of white vinegar to it. Stir well and let chill. Meanwhile cut the cucumber, carrots, avocado and smoked fish into long slices. And now: let the rolling begin!

Put some rice on the nori leaf - the smooth and glossy side of the leaf has to be outside (so you put the rice on the more rough side). Press it down and spread it well (but only on one half of the leaf). If you like it hot, add some wasabi to one side of the leaf:

Next, add your ingredients - you can either mix them or put only avocados or only cucumbers in it - just be careful to not "overload" your nori leaf.

Then start rolling with both of your hands. You will have to tighten the roll. The idea is simple, if you ever had a scroll and wanted to make it smaller in diameter, what did you do? You pressed and rolled it inside. If you don’t tighten the roll enough all ingredients will fall out when you cut the roll.

Last step: wet the last part of the roll with water - this will hold it together better :-)

 Et voilá!

 Now you can cut your roll into slices.

And - this is very important in Japanese cuisine - arrange them beautifully and enjoy with some soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger.

All images by Katja Borlein

Winterly Black Spanish Radish Soup

Hi folks,

as winter is still here I thought you wouldn't mind another winter recipe. Radish Soup is very easy to make, tastes really good and warms the belly... ;)

What you'll need

• 150g black Spanish radish
• 300g potatoes
• 1 garlic glove
• olive oil
• 400ml of vegetable stock
• 1/2 glass of white wine
• 100ml cream
• salt 
• pepper

How it works

Peel the potatoes and the the garlic and cut both into little pieces.

Heat up some oil and brown the potatoes and garlic for a few minutes. Deglaze it with the white wine and let it boil until most of the wine is gone. Add the vegetable stock and cook the potatoes until soft. In the meantime cut the radish into thin slices. Add them to the soft potatoes and boil for another few minutes.

Add the cream and purée the soup with an immersion blender. Serve hot and enjoy! :)

Soundtrack while cooking: China Moses - Crazy Blues album

All images by Stefanie Reichl

Anchor girl

Hey out there,

yesterday we found this impressive anchor right next to where we work. So we decided to take some photos.
Enjoy & have a fabulous Saturday!

 

 

 

Coat/shirt/jeans: pimkie | cardigan: ebay | headband: vintage | shoes: vintage | shades: H&M

"Von der Schale bis zum Kern"

Hey folks,

today I have a cookbook recommendation for you!
I just returned home after the book presentation Katja and I visited today. It took place at Babette's a lovely cookbook bookshop in Vienna's first district, where you can also eat lunch and buy spices and herbs. 

"Von der Schale bis zum Kern" (unfortunately it's only available in German) is the new recipe book by Bernadette Wörndl. The basic (but brilliant) idea behind the book that only features vegetarian recipes, is to use whole fruits or vegetables, not only parts of it. This simple (and very sustainable) thought lead to interesting new recipe ideas where also stones of apricots get cooked or a curry is made of a whole cauliflower (including stalk and leaves).
The numerous creative recipes (in alphabetical order according to the names of the vegetables and fruit) are beautifully illustrated by photographs by Austrian photographer Gunda Dittrich.

By the way, we also got a little foretaste of the recipes. They served crostini with goat cheese, tomato, blood orange jam, pepper and mint and these where actually the best crostinis I've ever tried. So it may be worth to take a deeper look into the book... ;)

Have a great evening!

Yours,
Tulip      

Sunny Saturday Walk

Hey folks,

today was a wonderful, sunny day in Vienna. Therefore my boyfriend and I decided to take a little walk at Augarten, a beautiful baroque park in Vienna's second district.
As outfit I chose the dress I bought in London last November and combined it with black polka dot tights and my warm ankle boots by KMB.  

dress: Traffic People (Spitalfields market London) | blazer: Mango (similar) | coat: velibor |
scarf: H&M | tights:H&M (similar) | ankle boots: KMB | bag: Hallhuber |
headband: DIY (instructions to be found here)

 

 All images by David Auer