The Indian taste

Recently a very dear friend of mine visited me and she cooked marvelous Indian food. I had a desire  today for something similar.
I tried to use double extent from spices as I would put in, just remembering her operance in my kitchen, but still it was half so spicy :) However even the curry bottle committed suicide and jumped into the pan (hallelujah for Paris and my laziness: I should have not prepare the spice, but could finally open the one I bought 2 years ago).
After I unfroze the big whitish something, it turned out not to be chicken thighs, but chicken skin. Why on Earth did I freeze something, I would never eat? Remains a riddle forever. So liver was the choice.

And the recipe:
I braised an onion on lot of oil (maybe 4 tbs), dropped half piece of hot paprika and 4 small cocktail (pronounced as "cock tail") tomato, poured some water on it. At this phase the curry bottle dove :D (Curry Madras), and I added more red paprika, pepper, chili and salt. Oh and a garlic (German one, it is much bigger than the Hungarian ... I can say this only about garlic, have no other data :))
At the end came the liver and at the very end the peas.

Pure, not stirred

After

About Indian food - similar to Hungarian - always the book "Shogun" came into my mind, where the Japanese explained to Anjin-san why it is important to have a separate house for the kitchen :D

Woman, when you move about in your household service your limbs sing like a hill stream among its pebbles. 
-- Rabindranath Tagore

My childhood drawings, paintings

I was speaking with a dear Indian friend of mine about paintings and winter sceneries, and it popped out that when I was a child (Als das Kind Kind war...) I painted a lot of snowy village scenes, because my mom loved it so much. And I grabbed my portfolio. If you could know what kind of childhood treasures are hidden inside and how much memories! Now you will know them :)

The oldest pictures I found was exactly the snowy ones from my 9-11-year-old period. No, I wasn't a genius, but I liked doing it.

Nah and from now on please don't ask me where does my love towards Japan come from... because it is so old, I even can't remember :) These pictures are copies from ukiyo-e in my book "Snow, moon, cherry blossom". Ooops, now I have opened it and a draft felt out, together with a graphics bought in Paris :D The pictures are from my 14-16 yo age and done with colorpencils.
Well, yes, even such an early age I had no patience to finish things.

And now comes the adult content from 16-20 yo period maybe :)
That awkward skull made with brushpen stuck to really dark memories :(
The guys are created with pencil - the first one was coming from a Chippendale calendar that I received as a birthday present from a friend of mine. Handsome blondie with green eyes (L)
The abstracts again made with brushpen.

And finally a painting from my grandfather. Unfortunately we did not share the same blood, so i could not inherit his talent :(

Birthday lunch a la Japonais

My mom had a birthday in the middle of October, I promised her to invite her for a lunch in a good place. The good place turned out to be finally my flat :D Her only request was not to include any raw fish or meat (somebody knows me very well :)) Of course she could not run away from the Japanese style.

In details: it was a 4 course menu with appetizer, soup, main course and dessert. And of course with Japanese beer.

With more details:
Salmon misosoup, I used a modified version of kasu-jiro from runnyrunny999: instead of the fried tofu I used original one and had not got the salmon cream. Open-eyed readers have already observed on the previous picture, that the 2 soups look differently: my mum received leek, and I got wakame - dried algae.

Daigakuimo
Even though I put it on the table as an appetizer, might be that this is a dessert :) Sweet potato caramelized on sugar.

Yakisoba
Classical :) Chicken breast roasted with carrots, mushrooms and leek, mixed with pasta and poured with yakitori sauce. The sauce is a heaven, however its ingredients cannot really found in an average kitchen. Cheating again: I used mirin instead of honey.

Melonpan
Its name refers to its "exterior", has nothing to do with melon taste. It is not easy to make it: you need two kinds of dough: a short pastry and a batter. The batter has to be knead and flapped, really good exercise to get rid of stress, I could hardly stop myself :)
I mixed the base batter with macha powder (green tea), that's why the lower layer is a bit greenish. Two pieces of them is sprinkled with poppyseed. The melonpan is sometimes filled with different delicious creams. Unfortunately this was the first and last occasion that I baked it: we are not compatible with the little pat :(

Itadakimasu!

Mushipan

I'll go to Japan in spring! And I had to celebrate it. Recently found a new video by cookingwithdog and a new idea for the next celebration too (do I need a reason for it? No, I don't!)

Mushipan
You can translate it to steamed bun, and can be flavored according to your taste. The base dough consists of flour, sugar, water and baking powder. It is sprinkled with sweet potato and raisin.
Because I had cinnamon-sugar for long, I used that one.

The green elf - D9

And the last day... was hard to bring myself back to Hungary. :) Mostly that I had to work next day (just turned out later that I miscalculated my holidays and still have 4 days left :o ... brain damage).
Just to be sure first I headed to the airport, to be over the stressful part. After that I lugged all of my luggage (18+10 kg) into the city center and had an idea to visit the Guinness Storehouse. I became a big fan, although I hate beer, but this one is heavenly! It is not so bitter and the whip on the top tastes like a cappuccino :)

Guinness Storehouse
OK, let's make a beer! What do we need? Exactly 5 things are the basics for a good Guinness:

1. Barley - they use Irish barley
2. Hops - did you know that it can grow very high - even to 5 meters? It produces natural fragrances and oils, which adds flavours to the beer.
3. Water - comes form the close Wicklow Mountains (D3-D5 hiking trips!), every day 8 million litres! This is the reason why they established the brewery here, more than 350 years ago.
4. Yeast - it is grown in Dublin, and from the early 19th century the yeast from each brew is transferred on to the next, there is always a small amount locked int the director's safe :) 
5. Talent :) - Arthur Guinness established this brewery in 1759 and signed a leasing contract for 9000 years, including the access for the city's watersource. Clever guy ;)

  

  

  

  

OK, we have our 5 ingredients, let's make beer! Not really difficult: the barley is malted, roasted (at 230 degree for about 2.5 hours, only in the last 5-10 minutes changes its color), cooled down, milled, mixed with hot water and mashed.
It is filtered off and boiled with the hops (at 100 degree for 70 minutes).
Then the yeast is added and the fermentation begins (2 days).
At the end it is clarified, matured and ready for packing into barrels. :)

  

For perverts, like me, an interesting screenshot.

  

After that comes the enjoy of the beer (needed sense-organ is the eye), then the testing (eye, nose, tongue). Interesting - at least for me: you have to leave the draught beer alone for 2 minutes for self-clarification. When it is poured into the glass, it is an ugly whitish brew, like it would be only foam. And it starts to clarify and became the well-known black beauty.

  

The expensive ticket included either to teach me how to draw off beer or a pint of Guinness on the 7th floor Gravity Bar (or a cola... hahaha...). The queue was too long at the draught and I was a bit unsure about my own abilities, therefore I chose the bar. Was a really weird feeling, like a daylight disco with panorama onto the whole city!

  

And at the end my usual shopping mound - for myself :D

Summary: I can only recommend Ireland, mostly for those who like friendly people, the nature and fat food :)

The green elf - D8

My last whole day, I am heading back towards Dublin. And what the hell was I looking for? A  Japanese garden :D It turned out, that one of the most beautiful gardens is exactly in Ireland, plus on the area of the national stud. So it became a 2 in 1 visit :)

But first let's see the horses: most of the stallions are famous, but not racing anymore. However the owner can have looots of money from pairing. As our guide told us in a lucky day the stallion can have 3-4 shags. The mares are not forced the pairing, if they have headache or so, no mood for sex, then they leave the girls alone.
The stallions have their own territory, separated form each other just for the sake of peace :) Because it is already quite cold, they were covered with an ugly blanket.

Invincible Spirit

Art Connoisseur

Jeremy

Big Bad Boy

Lord Shanakill

Only Jeremy's story touched me: his father was a marshing horse, and he was taught the same way... until a parade, when he kicked towards the Queen. It was only 50 cm, that this conflict would not become a British-Irish war :D

Actually Jeremy stands in one place on the whole day, no matter that he's got a big field.

Another horse has claustrophoby, he sleeps on the fields :D See, even animals are difficult "personalities"... or rather horsabilities.

More horses, big and small ones and the stud:

 

  

  

The stud has two big gardens: the above mentioned Japanese Garden and the St. Fiachra.

St. Fiachra

I was very excited what the priest does hold in his hand, so I bounced over the stones to check it... an acorn!

  

  

  

Japanese Garden

The garden was established between 1906 and 1910 and designed by the Japanese gardener, Tassa Eida. It symbolizes the phases of life from birth till death in 20 steps:

1. The Gate of Oblivion - the entrance of the garden. The soul forgets his previous life and finds a new body.
2. The Rock Cave indicates the birth.
3. The Tunnel of Ignorence is a dark and narrow place, I have hit my head, yepp that stupid I am :) - it symbolizes the child's uncertanity and ignorance.
4. The Hill of Learning is the childhood learning phase
5. At the top of the hill a high pine tree is standing, it tempts him to look too high, but a pitfall warns him, so he walks down from the hill.
6. He resists of the temptation and does not chose the easy way, but follows the rugged path.
   Here he has 3 choices: bachelor life, materiality and self-indulgence or married life. Let's hope he choses the latter one ;)
7. The Island of Joy and Wonder - he meets his love of life here (nobody was in the garden besides me :( )
8. The Engagement Bridge
9. The Marriage Bridge
10. The Honeymoon Path is a wider road, where 2 people can walk side by side
11. The difference of opinions - they apart for a short while, but reunite again
12. Disappointment - they can see the Well Of Wisdom from afar and they try to reach it on a steep road (i climbed in on all fours), but the path will divide them and they can't get to each other.
13. So they climb back and try another road. After some certain failures and disappointment finally they unite at the Hill of Ambition.
14. Pray to Gods - their life is becoming relaxed, have time for spirituality
15. The path goes through a Teahouse
16. They go through and finally reach the Well of Wisdom
17. Here they have a rest and enjoy the enlightment, before they cross the Bridge of Life, which leads into the Garden of Peace and Contentment
18. This garden is very relaxing, the path is easily walkable for elder people, there is no steep way, steps, rocks. They sit down in the Chair of Old Age.
19. The next phase is the Hill of Mourning, which is under the shadow of a wheeping tree.
20. And the soul leaves the earth through the Gate of Eternity 

  

  

  

  

  

At the end of the visit I sat out on the terrace of the restaurant (yes, only me was so blindfold), was listening to the ducks and watching the garden, eating my carrot-sweet potato soup and backed potato. By the way my friend from Glendalough made a quick visit, this time he jumped onto the table and stole the crumbs :)