S-Bf Grünau – Tuschkastensiedlung – Preußensiedlung – Altglienicke – Trudelturm – Landschaftspark und ehemal. Flugfeld Johannisthal – Fernsehstudios – S-Bf Adlershof

Led by Eckehard Heiber.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the walk early.

For the first time this winter, the problems I had last winter tolerating the cold returned. My face and bones hurt, and I felt like my bone marrow was freezing over and that I was falling asleep every time we stood still.

And it was not even that cold – only around zero C, but Yasmin, who had to leave the walk for the same reason, drew my attention to the weather stats (which I have never particularly noticed before), and they said “RealFeel” -7C and, perhaps more importantly, humidity 97%. According to Yasmin, that is very high and most likely what got the better of us.

You live and learn. I thought I was turning into an obligate hibernator, but back home, at my preferred indoor temperature of around +19C, I have no urge to go to sleep at all. It is all very strange.

I had been looking forward to seeing the former airfield at Johannisthal again, but that will have to wait.

I guess I should check the humidity tomorrow before venturing out on the bird-watching walk with “Berlin’s wildlife god”, Derk Ehlert, pre pandemic an annual event normally not to be missed. How annoying to have to take things like that into consideration.

I have to mention once again the usual club of incessant yackers who can’t even keep their mouths shut while the guide speaks. I find that both rude and annoying and it always reminds me that perhaps I would be better off doing my own research and just walking by myself.

Anyway, since not only standing still, but also taking my gloves off for any purpose or reason seemed counter-intuitive, I did not take many photos.

IN PROGRESS

• 2 large red onions, halved and very finely sliced
• 100 g chickpea flour, aka gram flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Pinch salt, to taste
• 1 tsp garlic powder (which I never have available, so I will use either black fermented garlic or one fresh, crushed garlic clove)
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 90 ml water
• Oil for frying, enough to fry tablespoon-size bhajis

• Mix all the dry ingredients well
• Add water and mix to a thick batter
• Add the onion mixture and mix well till all the onion slices are coated by the batter
• Heat the oil on medium heat in a pan big enough to fry three or four bhajis at a time, turning them till they are crispy and browned. This should take a couple of minutes.

Serve with your favourite chutney and/or raita

IN PROGRESS

Two things Berlin seems incapable of getting right:

One is the traffic. The other one is garbage disposal.

The traffic first. In Berlin, the car is king. Cyclists are second-class citizens, and pedestrians third-class citizens.

Nobody is taught basic traffic rules, and very few observe them, and in any case, nobody is expected to observe them. There is no traffic police, and the staff in the few police cars one sees tootling around do not seem to be there for the traffic.

Bike paths are not respected by neither pedestrians nor cars, and pavements are not respected by anybody. Cars park on bike paths and pavements (even police cars when they stop for coffee); cyclists cycle on pavements, that are now also plagued by e-rollers hurtling along at breakneck speed, terrorising everybody including children and dogs. Still, the police observe and do nothing.

It gets worse: Instead of simply teaching and expecting its precious drivers to keep their much-worshipped cars away from cyclists and bike paths, like in normal countries, Berlin prefers to put up barriers in order to force drivers to stay on the road where they belong. These barriers are getting larger and larger and more and more ugly and are in many places completely dominating, and ruining, the look of the streets of Berlin. As if Berlin needs to look more unattractive than it already does.

Photos illustrating the “beatification” of Berlin thanks to braindead drivers to come.

In Revaler Straße, the barriers between street and bike paths are a little more discreet – a kind of oblong boulders that are slippery as ice – as I learned the hard way, and I am sure I am not the only one, and I would be surprised if they don’t cause accidents among cyclists as well.

But that is of course OK as long as the kings-of-the-road drivers and their beloved, stinky, noisy scrap-heaps are unharmed.

I fell and damaged my face and right hand. Four days later, one side of my face, already badly scratched from the meeting with the asphalt, is turning green and yellow, and my hand likewise. Ligaments in my thumb are so badly damaged that whether or not I have surgery, that hand will never be the same again.

More, including photos, to come.

The other thing is garbage disposal. This country has the most stupid systems in the so-called western world, with doors to garbage rooms and lids to containers very difficult to open. Where I live, people shorter and less strong than me, for example, have real difficulties using them, and half the time, I also have to give up opening the door to our garbage room, and simply leave the garbage bag outside. As if Berlin is not in many ways ugly enough already.

And the containers are never emptied often enough and therefore often overflowing, making Berlin look like a city in a third-world country.

• 20 g dried white “jumbo” beans, soaked and cooked as per usual
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil or ghee or ghee
• 4 red onions, sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 teaspoons roasted, ground cumin
• 1-2 jalapeno peppers, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 100 g corn kernels (frozen or fresh)
• 2 medium potatoes (finely diced)
• 2 teaspoons adobo seasoning (optional)
• 2,5 dl water or vegetable broth
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 40 g cashew nuts or pumpkin seeds (optional)
• 5 g cilantro (finely minced)

• Blend the cashews or pumpkin seeds with 50 ml water until very smooth. Set aside.
• Add oil to a large saucepan or over medium heat. Add the garlic, saute for a few seconds, then add the onions. Add salt and ground black pepper and mix.
• Add the rosemary, oregano, cumin and jalapeno peppers. Saute for a couple of minutes.
• Add the corn kernels, mix them in, then add the potatoes. Mix thoroughly.
• Add the beans and adobo seasoning, if using.
• Add water and give it all a good stir. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer ten minutes or until potatoes are tender.
• Use the back of the ladle to mash some of the potatoes and beans. This will help thicken the chili.
• Stir in the cashew cream id using. It makes the chili creamier, but can be omitted.
• Garnish with fresh, chopped cilantro and serve hot. You can also squeeze on some lemon juice or lime juice for a bright flavor.

Following an urge to see the sea – such as it is – the Baltic Sea is an inner water, if you ask me, but the North Sea is a little bit too far away for a daytrip.

Warnemünde is very easy to reach, via Rostock and several direct trains daily, and a nice, cozy town to visit and walk around in, and the beach is kind of OK too :-). But the North Sea it ain’t.

There was occasional drizzly rain on this day, which also became increasingly foggy.

IN PROGRESS

• 100 g chickpea flour
• 80 g oat flour
• 80 g almond flour
• 50 g coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice mix
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 small bananas You’ll need 2 small ripe bananas (approx. 160 g). It’s important to mash bananas well before adding it to the batter. You can use a fork to mash it.
• 150 g coconut cream Always use full-fat canned coconut milk. Chill it in the refrigerator overnight so that you can easily separate cream from the liquid. The cream should be firm enough so that you can scoop it out with a spoon.
• 1 medium Granny Smith apple cut into mini cubes

INSTRUCTIONS 

• Preheat oven to 180° C. Grease muffin tins with coconut oil.
• In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: chickpea flour, oat flour, almond flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, and spices.
• Add mashed bananas and coconut cream, and mix everything together with a hand mixer until well combined. Adjust sweetness if needed.
• Gently fold the diced apples into the batter, making sure the apples are evenly distributed.
• Spread the batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for approx. 23-25 minutes.
• Make sure you let your muffins cool for at least 20 minutes and then gently loosen the edges of the muffins before removing them from the tins.

Format should be one by three, or something like that. I can’t deal with numbers (a brain defect – a bit like being dyslexic but with numbers, I think is the best way to describe it) – numbers mean nothing to me and I hate to even look at them.

I have gotten through a fourty-year working life doing office jobs without it being too much of a handicap, except there were jobs I could not apply for. Now I am retired, and I prefer to ignore this disability, and most things to do with numbers, not let any of all that frustrate me any more, and refuse to let it ruin my day :-).

By the way, when I went to school in the 1950s and -60s, being completely useless at subjects such as arithmetic and maths (including a complete inability to memorise one’s own house number, let alone phone number) was quickly dismissed as stupidity – by teachers as well as parents. I was quite good at languages, grammar and spelling, but that did not count. It is only in very recent years that I have begun thinking that perhaps I am not quite as stupid as everybody thought back then that I was.

But I was not alone. Back then, they had not quite discovered dyslexia as a thing, so those with that learning disability were also considered dimwitted, perhaps much more so than I was.

Where was I – yes, so I just crop more intuitively and pretend that I am looking for formats suitable as Facebook cover photos :-).

However, this time I shall have no trouble weeding photos out. On the contrary, I doubt I will be able to submit more than six or seven.

I am not able to achieve the “panoramic” look, but I doubt that has anything to do with my inability to understand numbers.

IN PROGRESS

• 15 ml avocado oil (or any other vegetable oil)
• ▢2 g cumin seeds
• ▢4 cloves garlic (minced)
• ▢1 jalapeno pepper (or any moderately spiced green chili pepper, finely chopped)
• ▢1 large red onion (finely chopped)
• ▢5 g amchar masala
• ▢1 g turmeric (optional)
• ▢454 g green beans (Use fresh or frozen beans. Cut into 1-inch pieces)
• ▢Juice of ½ lemon
• ▢120 ml vegetable stock (or water)
• ▢4 g curry powder
• ▢Salt to taste

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Instructions

• Heat oil over medium heat. Add cumin seeds, garlic and green chili peppers and saute for 30 seconds. Stir in the onions and add a hefty pinch of salt. Saute the onions until they start to brown.
• Add the amchar masala and the turmeric, if using. Mix well for a few seconds until the spices coat the onions.
• Stir in the green beans and lemon juice, then pour in ½ cup of vegetable broth or water. Mix well, cover and cook 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the green beans have absorbed most of the water and are tender.
• Stir in the curry powder and mix well. Add salt as needed. Serve the green beans hot, warm or at room temperature.

Recipe notes

Storage instructions

• Refrigerate: Store the Trinidadian green beans in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days.
• Freeze: Freeze the beans for up to three months in a freezer-safe container.
• Reheat: Thaw and reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave.

• 20 g coriander seeds
• ▢8 g cumin seeds
• ▢9 g black peppercorns
• ▢2 g fennel seeds
• ▢3 g brown mustard seeds
• ▢4 g fenugreek seeds

Instructions

• Place all the spices in a skillet. Turn heat to medium low and toast the spices, stirring frequently, for five minutes or until the spices are very aromatic. The coriander seeds should have turned a couple of shades darker.
• Remove the spices to a bowl or plate and let them cool to room temperature. Place the spices in a spice grinder or blender and blend into a fine powder.

Recipe notes

• Recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian

Storage instructions

• Store the amchar masala in an airtight jar in a cool, dark cupboard. You can also store the spice blend in the fridge or the freezer. Use within a year. This recipe makes about half a cup or 8 tablespoons.

How to make curry powder:

• ½ cup coriander seeds
• ▢2 tablespoon cumin seeds
• ▢2 tablespoon mustard seeds
• ▢2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• ▢24 curry leaves (about two sprigs)
• ▢4 dry red chili peppers (use less or more. I like to control the heat in my recipes so I used less than other recipes might)
• ▢2 tablespoon black peppercorns
• ▢¼ cup chana dal (Bengal gram dal)
• ▢1 teaspoon asafetida (hing)
• ▢2 tablespoon turmeric
• ▢2 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)

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Instructions

• Heat a wide skillet over medium-high heat. Lower heat to medium-low and add all of the ingredients, except the asafetida and turmeric (and ginger, if using).
• Dry-roast the ingredients until the coriander seeds and lentils take on a reddish hue and are really fragrant, about five minutes. The curry leaves should be crispy and dry with no moisture, and should crumble easily when you touch them. If using dry curry leaves, do not add them with the other spices. Instead stir them in when you add the turmeric in the next step.
• Turn off the heat and stir the asafetida and the turmeric (and ginger, if using) into the other spices in the skillet. Mix well and remove all of the spices to a plate or bowl. Set them aside to cool.
• Once the spices have cooled down, place them in a blender or spice grinder. Blend into a powder that’s coarse but does not have any whole or large pieces of spices.
• Store in an air-tight jar in a cool, dark place.

With Rob Couch and VHS Pankow. Including a couple of whacky photos for a photography course assignment (monochrome ICM).

More ICM photos here for those interested.