It's from the land! I had painted my wall in this amazing blue and placed all these wonderful mushroom creatures in front of it. And I can't wait to cook them tonight.  The white one is a Hericium erinaceus, or Pom-Pom Mushroom, then Pleurotus citrinopileatus, the golden and red oyster mushrooms and  a black porcini mushroom, and the regular oyster mushrooms.

Kohlroulade (Cabbage rolls) on mashed potato/celeriac root with parsley and a lamb's lettuce salad with juicy pear.

Here with seasonal porcini mushrooms and celeriac-potato mash. Super delicious.

going to the market had the effect of reducing my foggy jetlag brain, bringing me right back into the here and now!

Laszlo went home to Hungary and brought back home made sweet paprika.  Couldn't resist that.  Neither these wonderful large cipolini onions from Italy, which he said make the most delicious onion jam. I'm going for it.

Could not pass the bright red glowing lingonberries, nor those cranberries, both from poland. So busy tonight preserving them.

And last the wild herb salad.  Something I missed in California.

What we consider to be a nasty weed, that grows in every corner of urban or wild spaces and stings us on top it, is the stinging nettle. The leaves and stems are covered with hollow stinging hairs called trichomes. They act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals producing a stinging sensation when we touch them. 

They have a flavor a bit to spinach and are rich in vitamin A and C, Iron, potassium, magnesium and calcium.  So voilà! Everything we need in a weed! 

Now they are in bloom and full of seeds! The seeds have protein too and taste nutty.  You can throw them into a salad or simply caramelize them quickly in a fraying pan with a bit of sugar or honey.  Simply wonderful!

(ha!, I have been eating lots of them in the last couple of weeks and recently had my blood checked.  The doctor asked my why my blood is so iron rich, if I'm eating a lot of meat these days?)

Summer salad with wild herb salad, cornflower leaves, black currants, caramalised nettle seeds and cucumber.

We started out with a clear vegetable summer soup, simple boiling the stock vegetables and straining them. The color come from a heirloom carot and some fresh parsley roots gave a wonderful taste.  A batavia salad with caramelized nettles was a highlight. I picked the nettles the day before. There are everywhere now full with seeds. They grow higher then myself (so there is no way that dog or man can do their business on them). The main course were nettle barley burgers on a fresh herb pesto and cod. And since it's berry season, how can we not make a berry tart, with berries piled high and cassis infused whipped cream.

Very proud of my students! this time from New Mexico, Mexico City, Norway and Düsseldorf.

Clear and so yummy potatoe soup. Traditional German but made completely different. Here with herb pesto and borage flower and leaves.

Yes ! We took on the sausage making.  It's a bit tricky, but so delicious, especially on this fresh fava bean, fresh bortolli bean and fresh pea pot-pourrie.

And last, but not least, the strawberry-quark-cream ice cream on fruit in season compote, sprinkled with white chocolate. Yum!

I ordered locally made goat cheeses, asia salat, but what I'm most excited about is a jar of black walnuts.  As I'm awaiting mid/end June for the fruit to appear on the trees and pick them all green and un-ripe to make black walnuts myself.  It'd be good to try them again to learn about the perfect consistency and taste.  Last year I picked them too late and a thin layer of shell was already built.  And that just doesn't work, because it feels like you eat an egg with eggshell in it. 

Tragopogon porrifolius

is cultivated for its ornamental flower, and here in Germany, mostly for its edible root, and herbal properties. It also grows wild and is  known as
purple or common salsify
oyster plant
vegetable oyster
Jerusalem star
goatsbeard or simply
salsify.
It tastes wonderfully buttery with a combined sweet and tartness. Here with red beets and black caraway seeds, seared in a bit of olive oil.

Class with four wonderful Israeli women, who were so curious about the produce and the misconception about 'German' food. I got to introduce them to 'Bärlauch', = wild garlic leaves, which we turned into a delicious wild pesto, using the momentum for the last week it's around. White asparagus greeted us here and there, but I held study telling them the season has not really yet begun. But then I'm thinking: a season begins when a produce is harvested from the fields, no? And I think this first asparagus is from the fields.  So, next time, it will be official for sure.

I had the opportunity to purchase a piece of a free range, organic farm raised pig the night before the class. It was a pleasing experience to cook pork, which I rarely eat, knowing that it came from this amazing farm near Berlin.

We did create a purple colored carrot soup - all from scratch and based on a vegetable stock.  We had red carrots and they turned our soup into this outrageous color.

...like Bärlauch, which are wild garlic leaves, which are among the first greens to pop through the ground. You can see here, most of the regional food are still beets, parsnips and onions. The Tomatoes and the pear are from Italy and France (delicious !). So we have to hang on a bit longer the first harvests of spring and summer produce.

What a fun day!  Our friend took us to the Reading Terminal Market and  I have to say, I haven't been in such a vibrant and authentic food place to a long time. No trendy food business, but a truely Philadelphia tradition that's been around since 1893.  And the German immigrants left their mark on culinary traditions. As I'm researching for a concept dinner, this was a great insight.

Names of businesses in original writing, and of course pickles (eingelegte Gurken) and Sauerkraut everywhere.

The interesting thing is that the idea of Sausage really took a whole other level in the US. to the left you see all kinds of 'Bratwurst' with lots of different ingredients and flavors. To the right, it's more like the traditional German sausage making.

The doughnut bakery attracted many visitors. Delicious. The German style is filled only with marmalade and sprinkled with sugar, called a 'Berliner', except in Berlin, there it's called a 'Pfannkuchen' (which means pancake)

And after visiting the fabulous Reading Market, we went into the first public library ever built in the US, followed by a visit at the Barnes Foundation.  The day finished with 2 great whiskies aht the Village Whiskey pub. Go Philly!

1. Winter salad: winter purslane,  wonderul yellow and red beets, delicious sweet sour apples, sour cream and caramelized walnuts.

2. Kohlrouladen (Savoy cabbage rolls) in puff pastry

3. The most delicious chocolate pudding with whipped cream!

A bavarian strudel is baked in a pot (cast iron) or a souflé dish with milk poured into the bottom of the dish, which then gets soaked up while baking. With all the wonderful firm and sweet sour apples around from Brandenburg, this is a treat.