During the last month I finally managed to finish a huge project. Some of you, who might have seen me on Hungarian or German television might already know, that for the last 5 years I was working as a research assistant at the local university here in Erlangen. Next to teaching students about the beauty of computer science, I also worked on my PhD thesis. The final oral exam took place two weeks ago, where I did pretty well and so I finally extended my name with a Dr.! Of course the exam was followed by celebrations lasting more than 3 days, which seemed to be a little bit too much: I spent the next few days in bed with a flu.

The first PhD celebration is traditionally held just after the final oral exam with my family and my fellows. Since my colleagues know that I love cooking, I had to come up with some original ideas for my menu. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any time to cook on the day before my final exam, so I searched for a local catering service willing – and able – to cook the ideas I had in mind. The catering I picked did a tremendous job. Everybody loved the appetizers, main courses and desserts – which were mostly not only vegetarian, but vegan. It’s funny, that unless a dish is not explicitly emphasized as vegan, people don’t really seem to miss the meat from their plates. One of the appetizers was this simple, yet very tasty terrine made of bell peppers and eggplant.

In contrast to the version of my catering service, my original terrine included not only more thoroughly baked bell peppers, but some garlic paste, coriander and cumin seeds as well. After layering the terrine, I chilled it in the refrigerator overnight. Since the bell peppers were lightly salted, they sweated some liquid during the night – but since bell peppers contain some pectin, too, these few drops of juice jelled and held the terrine together. I served the terrine slices with a mustard vinaigrette and a few young tarragon leaves. All the ingredients in the terrine are right now at their seasonal peak. The terrine works great as a refreshing appetizer, as a side dish or even as a main course.

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