WE’RE GOING GREEN
Photos: Jan-Peter Westermann
Text: Nikolai Buroh
Recipes: Marc Weiberneit
Many celebrate it! Good Friday and Easter, Christianity’s biggest festival. Most of us will just buy some colourful eggs.
We are both, at home and in the studio, not a very religious bunch. So I guess that’s all to be expected.
This Thursday is not your average Thursday - it’s Maundy Thursday, or, as it’s called in Germany, “Green Thursday”!
Being the last evening before the holidays, it is always the jolliest for us. For over 20 years my family has eaten “green” on this evening. My wife grew up with this tradition and we have continued to uphold it in our family. In this way we’ve been starting festivities a little earlier.
That’s how we’re going to do it in the studio this year! Even before Christian times people hoped to pick up the strength of spring for the whole year from green vegetables like kale, salad, herbs and cress.
I’ll be damned if that’s not a good idea!
Let’s have a “Green Thursday” rather than a Maundy one this year! And for that we want to provide you with ideas of what to eat other than green jello.
Marc thought up a number of things, you can find three of his recipes here, ready to try out. On Thursday we’ll enjoy green food together here in the studio - of course we’ll put everything on Instagram!
Get stuck in, cook green and don’t forget to show us! We’re excited to see what you have come up with!
Chilled Cucumber Soup with Sour Cream, Croutons and Trout Caviar (4 servings)
1000g cucumber
250g yogurt
2 shallots/ onions
2 garlic cloves
2 stalks dill
1 stalk thyme
1 stalk rosemary
2 limes
sea salt
cayenne
pepper
Croutons
5 slices of toast
150ml olive oil
150g butter
Directions:
For the chilled cucumber soup, peel, dice and place the cucumber into a large bowl. Roughly dice shallots and garlic and add together with dill, sea salt and cayenne to the cucumber. Cover with plastic wrap and let it infuse for 3 hours. Finely purée everything and add 150g of yogurt. Add salt, lime and cayenne to taste.
Freeze toast, remove the crust and dice into small cubes. Heat a pan with olive oil and butter. Wait until the oil and butter are hot, then add toast cubes with rosemary and thyme. Constantly toss until they become golden brown.
Place onto a tray lined with paper towel and salt the croutons.
Pour the soup into a bowl and garnish with sour cream, croutons, caviar and some dill.
3 rack of lamb, approx. 1500g
300g arugula
150g walnuts
100g butter
olive oil
sea salt
pepper
200g sugar
500ml port wine
500g shallots
3 stalks thyme
2 stalks rosemary
2 stalks marjoram
3 juniper berries
Lamb Chops in a Herby Crust with Rocket Tapenade and Shallots in Port (4 servings)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 140°C with upper and lower heat on. Trim the rack of lamb and sear in a hot pan. Season with salt and pepper.
Add juniper berries, thyme, and a little butter. Then pour the melted butter over the lamb, basting the meat in juice. Place onto a grill tray and roast in oven for around 40 minutes. Peel shallots, slice into quarters and add to a pot with sugar, sea salt, thyme and port. Cook for around 30 minutes at medium to high heat. Wash and dry arugula, then roughly chop and add to a bowl. Roughly chop walnuts and add to the arugula. Add olive oil, sea salt and pepper to taste. Roughly cut up the herbs, take the lamb out of the oven and coat with the herbs. Slice the meat open and serve with tapenade and shallots in port.
Foxy Green (1 serving)
5cl Sierra Antiguo Plata
6 slices of cucumber
2cl agave nectar
2cl lime juice
4 dashes orange flower water
absinthe
soda water (needs to be really bubbly)
ice cubes
cucumber slices to decorate
Directions:
Wash and slice cucumber. Put the slices into a cocktail shaker. Add lime juice and agave nectar and mix. Pour the tequila, orange flower water and 2-3 splashes of absinthe in the shaker, fill up with ice cubes and shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Place ice cubes in a glass and sprinkle with absinthe. Double strain the mixture into the glass and fill it up with soda water and mix. Garnish with cucumber and enjoy ice cold.
