Summer is almost here, and summer will (almost certainly) bring us a large empty shipping container, "permanently" landlocked in the Kalasatama harbour.  This is part of an initiative between the city and Part which will be an ongoing 25-year project to revitalise Kalasatama.  We're looking forward to using the container as a classroom for most Public School events this summer, and I'm also curious to see what sort of community we end up with down there, as other organisations (Dodo and Kuvataideakatemia, for starters) will also have their own containers.

Last weekend Ptarmigan hosted back-to-back Public School classes.  Friday brought the second meeting of Drawing, aka Dinosaur Drawing or Drawing Marathon, faciliated by Cathérine Kuebel and Sarah Alden.  This time the class was extended to be 6 PM til 9 PM, though most people petered out before 5 AM.
 
 

Now that I have this blog, I can post about my perverse food experiments here instead of dumping things to the blindness tumblelog.

I've only had Surinamese food once or twice, on visits to the Netherlands, but it has the potential to be my favorite cuisine. I fear that more frequent access may knock it down a few rungs in my ethnic pantheon; e.g: I used to be obsessed with Ethiopian food, but this was due to its scarceness where I lived. After repeated exposure, I still love Ethiopian food, but it's no longer my favorite food. (Though a few years in Glasgow has put it on the endangered species list, as the only Ethiopian restauraunts in the UK are in London).

Anyway, the last time I was in Den Haag I found an Asian grocery and stocked up on jars of Surinamese pastes (and some Indonesian stuff too). Most of these are extremely spicy - so much that I think you might be supposed to use them as a concentrate, diluted ... I don't know. My favorite (that I've tried so far) is Moksi Patoe Tempeh Sambal, which has little chunks of tempeh in an insanely hot (yet sweet) gravy.

I often make pizzas with this as the sauce, which can be quite scorching. Tonight I decided to alter an earlier experiment where I added a small amount of this paste to Indian samosas.

First I made some dough - I actually did this on Sunday - and following the doughmaster's advice, I let it age a few days. Actually, I was just too lazy to use it on Sunday after it had risen, and yesterday my partner made dinner ... so it sat in the bowl, slightly fermenting and developing a nice odor.

I rolled out the dough and stuck a dollop of tempeh sambal in the middle, as seen on the right. Then I folded them over and made little pierogie-samosa-empanada structures, moistening the dough a bit at the seam. The little black spots you see aren't mouse droppings but rather roasted barley seeds, as the dough mixture was about 65% white, 25% barleyflour, and a bit of wholemeal (to use up a bag). I put a small amount of shredded red Leicester cheese in each one, but not enough to make them too cheesy.

I expected these to be pretty disgusting. My initial plan was to bake 'em, maybe brushed with a coating of soymilk, but then I thought "Fuck it, this is Scotland" and threw them in the deep fryer (well, a saucepan with some oil in it).

I hate deep frying at home; I swear that everything in my flat is coated with an invisible layer of grease now; I need to take a shower.

But ... these are awesome.

I will feel disgusting for the next two days, and I have probably taken some years off my life. But these taste fantastic, like Hot Pockets of Surinamese gruel.

Atjar Tjampoer Indonesian salad (jar)
Baked beans – organic (can)
Baked beans – organic (can)
Baked Beans (can)
Blueberry and cranberry mix (50g)
Bulgar wheat (1 kg)
Chestnut puree (can)
Cooking chocolate (1/4 bag)
Couscous (500g bag)
Curry rice crackers (bag)
Dried apricots (75g)
Dried fried onions (1/4 container)
Dried Japanese seaweed for rehydration (packet)
Dried seaweed (packet)
Flour - Cornmeal (100g)
Flour – barleycorn organic (1kg)
Flour – cornflour (200g)
Flour – self-raising (200g)
Flour – strong white (2kg)
Flour – wholemeal (400g)
Ghee (half container)
Ginger cubes (box)
Gravy – onion granules (container)
Gravy mix (half box)
Hot lime pickle (1/3 of jar)
Hot sauce – Sriracha (bottle)
Hot sauce – Toad Sweat chocolate orange dessert hot sauce (small bottle)
Hot sauce – Toad Sweat cranberry dessert hot sauce (small bottle)
Hot sauce – Toad Sweat lemon vanilla dessert hot sauce (small bottle)
Inari (can)
Jam – raspberry (jar)
Legumes - Black beans (can)
Legumes - Broad beans (can)
Legumes - Butterbeans (can)
Legumes - Butterbeans (can)
Legumes - Butterbeans (can)
Legumes - Chick peas (can)
Legumes - Black beans  (300g)
Legumes - Candlenuts (1/2 packet)
Legumes - Chana Dal – dried (500g bag)
Legumes - Mung beans – dried (500g bag)
Legumes - Mung dal (250g bag)
Legumes - Urad dal – shelled – (400g bag)
Legumes - Urad dal – whole (400g bag)
Mirin (1/4 bottle)
Miso soup mix (packet)
Miso soup mix (packet)
Mustard – Coleman’s seeded mustard (jar)
Mustard – Coleman’s wholegrain mustard with chillies (jar)
Mustard – powder, Coleman’s English (tin)
Nigella seeds (jar)
Noodles - Couscous (100g)
Noodles - Macaroni (little bit)
Noodles - soba (package)
Noodles - Spaghetti  (package)
Noodles - spaghetti (package)
Noodles – Lasagne verde (box)
Nori – teriyaki snacks (container)
Nori (packet)
Nutritional yeast (20g)
Palm sugar/ jaggery (block)
Pappadum – black peppercorn and garlic (box of 10)
Peanut butter (jar)
Pickled garlic – WITH DASHI (bag)
Porridge oats (500g)
Quinoa (200g container)
Raisins (100g)
Ramen – Korean shim yun (cup)
Ramen – Korean shim-yun (cup)
Rice - brown (200g)
Rice – Basmati  (450g)
Rice – sushi (1.5 kg)
Rice flake – sweet (package)
Rice noodles – straight-to-wok (packet)
Rice paper for spring rolls (package)
Rice seasoning – Japanese (packet)
Sauce -  Rietja Rietja (cardboard packet)
Sauce -  Sambal Kacang – Indonesian peanut chilli paste (jar)
Sauce -  Surinamese Faja-lobi (jar)
Sauce -  Taipa curry paste (box)
Sauce -  Thai Green curry paste (small tin)
Sauce - Black bean sauce (jar)
Sauce - Crushed yellow bean sauce (can)
Sauce - Hot curry for chips (1/4 package)
Sauce - Singapore curry with tumeric stir-fry sauce (jar)
Sauce - Surinamese mango sambal (jar)
Sauce - Surinamese tempeh sambal (jar)
Sauce - Surinamese tempeh sambal (jar)
Sauce - Szechuwan seasoning sauce (packet)
Sauce - Thai Holy basil seasoning paste for stir-fry (packet)
Sauce - Tom Ka paste (packet)
Sauce - Vegetarian sambal (jar)
Seasoned gourd strips with mushroom for sushi (can)
Semolina (250g bag)
Sesame oil (bottle)
Snack - seaweed – crispy (package)
Snack – seaweed, hot and spicy (packet)
Snack – seaweed, hot and spicy (packet)
Soy sauce  (bottle)
Soya mince (Packet)
Soya TVP chunks (bag)
Stir-fry vegetables (can)
Stock cubes – organic country farm vegetable (box)
Sweetened dried pineapple (75g)
Tahini (jar)
Taro leaves in coconut cream (155g can)
Turkish coffee (container)
Vegetarian ramen (packet)
Vinegar – Chinese vinegar (bottle)
Vinegar – Durfais White wine vinegar (bottle)
Vinegar – white (bottle)
Yeast (sachet)
Yeast (sachet)
Yeast (sachet)
Yeast (sachet)
Yeast (sachet)