When I was living in Norway I met many amazing people. One of these people is Emma. I met her in Tromsø where she was very active, for example for the local animal welfare organisation Dyrebeskyttelsen as well as for NOAH, Norways biggest animal rights organisation. And when I asked her, if she’d like to help with a vegan bake sale and later with a presentation about veganism in Tromsø, she agreed on the spot.
It’s a while since I posted a recipe (or wrote in general) on my blog. However, while writing my bachelorthesis which goes along with spending a lot of hours in front of the computer I decided to take a break and do something practical: Cooking. And after travelling I’m in parents’ kitchen where I know what to find where, so let’s spend some time in the kitchen and relax a bit. Yes, you read right, for me cooking is mostly relaxing, if I’m not stressed :)
I decided to go for ratatouille. To make a bit more interesting, but still not too complicated or too time consuming, I decided to make a ratatouille-tarte. Ratatouille comes from Nice, a city in Southern France. That’s why the ordinary ratatouille we know today was formerly called ratatouille niçoise.
It’s a perfect summer dish due to the lots and lots of colorful and delicious vegetables. I know, it’s not summer yet, but if you just returned from Norway like me it feels a bit like that :)
You might think that I can present you a few traditional recipes from Latvia after living several months there. Well, better don’t look for that on my blog. But I wanted to do a bit better with traditional Norwegian dishes, so I was looking for a recipe to veganize. Not that easy. You have to imagine: The cooking books often have the categories fish, meat and desserts. Vegetable dishes? Nope ;) And vegan alternatives like vegan margarine, tofu and stuff like that are not that easy to find in Norway, but I found something: I ended up with a recipe for cardamom buns (Cardamom boller). You can find cardamom in many dishes here anyway… which is not that bad as I like cardamom :)
It’s a while since I heard about Lívance for the first time – to be exact it was when I was in Trondheim and visiting the Trondheim Vegan Fair. When I was in that nice city a girl from the Czech Republic who did her erasmus semester there hosted me. She is a really good cook dreaming every now and then about working in a vegan café. Her cooking skills would definitely allow that.
One dish she made was Lívance. Lívance are Czech pancakes. I usually don’t really like pancakes. And I actually don’t understand why everyone loves pancakes. But Lívance are different, I really liked them! (Actually a pity that I found pancakes I like, not that good for my body shape ;))
But what makes Lívance different from normal pancakes?
Yes, I admit, I’m not really active when it comes to my blog at the moment. But I still sit in Tromsø and enjoy life :) Planning (a lot of vegan) events, discovering the beautiful Norwegian nature, still meet lovely people while I have to say goodbye to some other wonderful people, … Life is going on.
But as I seem unable to capture my life or anything which could be interesting for you in words at the moment: Pictures say more than thousand words!
While I was exchange student in Latvia, I got the possibility to meet a lot of people from different countries. There was also someone fro Poland. And when she got to know about my blog and that I’m always looking for traditional recipes, she suggested instantly to cook somthing from her country.
What recipe did she suggest me? Kluski śląskie! Well, okay, I also can’t pronounce it properly ;) But it basically means potato dumplings. And while I actually have to admit that I don’t cook so much typical German stuff with my family, she told me that her mother and she do the potato dumplings every month together.
A friend of mine said once: “Veganism is spreading. It’s spreading like a virus.” I really like how she said this. And in May I also tried to spread “the virus” a bit more in Tromsø.
Yes, we’re going to my home country, to Germany! Or well, there are some rumours that Schupfnudeln – the dish I want to present you today – are from Austria. However, I always got to know them as typical dish from southern Germany, so I’ll just pretend they are German :)
This recipe is already known in a similar way since the thirty years’ war when soldiers made longish pasta (and the German word “Nudeln” means pasta) out of flour and water. Later on they added potatoes which are nowadays the main ingredient of Schupfnudeln.
Blue sky, almost no clouds, a lot of sunshine, a perfect view and just such a calm environment.
While writing that I’m sitting in the middle of the forest next to Trondheim. And it’s awesome! Actually my initial plans were to go to Östersund, Sundsvall and from there to Höga Kusten (Sweden) to hike along the gorgeous-sounding coast.
Well, but I’m a bit chaotic.
Blueberries, blueberries and blueberries again! I love them and at the moment I really eat them a lot. And as I love to bake, I brought you a recipe for blueberry muffins today. I enhanced it with coconut milk and coconut shreds as well as with a pinch of cardamom. Because since I got to know Korvapuusti, I started to love cardamom :)