BonVivant

SV duck breast and rhubarb. Dark blob is port gelée.

Cuttlefish, Spanish-esque: Valencia: with onions (and saffron powder) Costa Blanca: with Picada (Catalan almond sauce). I ate this in Denia, just south of Valencia. Also works with squid. ---- My cheat versions of Chinese "white cut" chicken and soya sauce poached chicken. Got the poaching whole chicken idea from here. Tiny French poussins, 400g each. The cavity was stuffed with garlic, ginger and onions to keep its shape. No cucumber, no green onions or coriander in the house. Only asparagus, tomatoes, rhubarb and various herbs from my garden so that's what I used. There were Shaoxing wine and other things in the soya sauce. Reduced to 1/3 for dipping.

That's why I always get the claws. These days I only get whole crabs in season when they are full of roe, then it's worth the work. Eat a kilo of these every week, simply steamed. Also delicious in fried rice, wonton parcels and other things.

SV goose breast. I recently made cherry compote which released a lot of water so I reduced it and turned it into a savoury marinade for the goose breast. Made the meat taste very nice. Not much info on SV'ing goose breasts but loads of results for duck and chicken breasts. I tried 56C/2hrs. Turned out medium and moist. I've never had rare or between rare and medium rare goose breasts before. Duck breasts always, yes. Maybe I could try a different temp and time next time. SV rhubarb is great. It keeps its shape, texture and colour. Breast had an intense shade of deep dark cherry red, almost black, even before searing. Thick insulation layer!

Panna cotta with pulverised pistachio. With rosemary salt and Turkish pistachio. Contains no sugar. Reusing the soya sauce with chicken from the other day. Just added chard, mung bean noodles and more Laoganma (Sichuan chillies in oil). Turkish eggs and yogurt. The lovely colour comes from paprika powder, butter and olive oil. Figs and sabayon (and Grand Marnier). Green figs keep their shape better but I prefer the other kind. (Broke the lid of the tea cup last week...) How it's done: Camera is more than 10 years old. Check out my high-end set-up: silver paper covered cardboard and clamps to hold it straight. The other side is an old binder. Or anything that can stand straight up, really. My flash diffuser is a plastic cup... I positioned the camera like this so you could see everything (the reflectors and the food being shot). So there.

A bit of Spain on this hot day, both the food and the summer heat. SV Octopus tentacles. Eaten at room temp. PS: Many thanks, @mm84321 and @JoNorvelleWalker!

Temperatures dropped today, finally, that means I can eat "normal" food again. Have an aversion to green onions but chives are OK. SV chicken (leg and breast done separately) with Shaoxing wine and ginger. In the sauce: dark "superior" soya sauce, ginger, garlic, Sichuan "facing heaven" chillies etc. Cold food recently: Pasta with cream, SV rhubarb and chervil. Goat's cheese panna cotta. From the other day: SV rhubarb and raw, shaved asparagus. Dill and prawn panna cotta. Cucumber and roe. Pureed asparagus and cucumber. So, leftover prawns and Gravadlax became new dinner. And lastly, thank you, @Kim Shook! I love that salmon, too.

This is all. SV half chicken. One last Innis &Gunn, ever.

@scubadoo97, thank you very much! I'm always learning. There's so much learning happens when we cook and through food. And even learn new things about myself. Slicing, photographing, drinking a beer and doing intense thinking (about other things) all at the same time! @kayb, make the cure as you always do, just add as much scotch to it as you like (I pour a whole Rémy Martin glass). To drink my scotch I actually use a tiny sake cup! Something like this:

Last few meals: SV flank steaks. In my house the cows and creatures in the sea co-exist in peace. Asparagus gratin. The white spears were overwhelmed by the cream. Too close? It still spring, officially. SV lamb. I have a rosemary plant in the garden. The biggest turbot I have bought thus far. This one was 1.5kg. Lasted 2 meals. Only got it because my brill was not available that day and that it had roe intact. Big roe. Managed to cut it in half cleanly with a heavy cleaver. Roasted the roe attached half in the oven, this half was cooked on the Weber the next day. It started to rain right about here (but didn't last long). Fits the width of the Weber grill grate. There's quite a bit of scotch in it. Hard to pick which I like more: the Riesling, the salmon or the potatoes? They are simply faultless and complement each other perfectly. Didn't have time to photograph the wine, but this is it, brought back by yours truly from the same cellar shop in the article.

It's not so often you see rice in my photos. SV chicken thighs then seared. Nasi goreng (Indonesian/Malaysian fried rice). No time to think of a nice way to plate it.

Squid and "caviar" lentils. I prefer the tentacles. The partner doesn't mind the squid bodies. The beer. (This craft beer drinker also does beer photography. Well of course.)

Last day of Pentecost long weekend here. Asparagus with Speck and eggs. Mince is removed from casing of lamb merguez. Puréed chickpeas with some crème fraîche. Millet salad with merguez. Leftover chickpea purée now has beetroot added to it. Cream (stabilised with gelatin) and SV rhubarb. Garnished with softened asparagus tips. The rest of the asparagus was warmed together with the cream. This thing contains no sugar, btw. I don't have a sweet tooth... But an ultra rich and creamy one.

Just this. I don't know how to make it look nice today being miserable from my sun allergy* and it's a long weekend so no doctor or pharmacy is open till next tuesday. (*There are 3 kinds of sun allergies and I have 1 of them.) SV rhubarb and tuna steak.

Northern European spring, Australian temperatures. For days on end. It's back to nice and cool again now. Some recent dinners. Clams in black bean sauce (loose fermented black beans with which I made a sauce, not Lee Kum Kee). Sichuan chillies in oil, tamari, garlic, lots of garlic. Simple SV salmon. A quick sear after. The wine, from deep south of Netherlands. To make sparkling Riesling the traditional method they had to send it to Germany. Costs me 50% more than in Germany for this bottle. It's a rather nice and acceptable sparkling Riesling. A fish has to swim 3 times. In water, in wine, and in butter. SV skate wing. Ate the rest of the oysters over the kitchen sink just before making this photo. More food for Australian temperatures.

I don't often eat pork (unless it's the belly or other fatty cuts)... wanted to give the filet a go (sous vide). Turned out OK. It looked a lot nicer before slicing. Partner said "it looks expensive!". Seared the meat and then some butter, olive oil and more thyme were added to the pan. Strained and poured over the meat. Piping hot gratin. Quinoa and Riesling alongside. Nearly always Riesling, only sometimes quinoa.

I could do away with the cheese, or use my own cheese. I'm particular about my cheese. This was in Budapest. Here is the airy inside of the deep-fried bread, for those who haven't eaten it. Had a simpler version in Albania and I liked it more. It's tiny, made in the fireplace by the *Raki-chugging housewife in whose house I stayed briefly. Because of the size you will eat many, but it's so good! (*Raki is Albanian booze. They drink it in large quantities, from morning till night. Yes, even with coffee at dawn.) Also no cooking for me today. Just cold seafood.

It's a 4-day long weekend here. Soft-cooked egg novice. I need more practice. Black Forest ham and grainy sourdough. Sesame-crusted. Sesame oil and rice wine in the miso sauce. Black stuff is ground toasted black sesame seeds, in case I wanted to mix it in the miso sauce. Supposed to be tortillas but I used a little more eggs than I should have. One has fried Speck in it. I always slip it under the grill to finish the top but thought maybe I'd turn it over just this once. I broke it. Still tasted good all the same. More (beetroot) asparagus, with leftover pistachio picada (a Catalan almond sauce). Was part of dinner yesterday. Made asparagus kimchi today. We shall see what happens in 2 weeks time.

I love beetroots and am always finding new ways to give something their stunning colour. Asparagus is my newest experiment. Just boil some beetroots to obtain the liquid and soak the asparagus in it. People here eat asparagus 2 ways and 2 ways only: cook it to death and drown it in some sauce, or make a soup. When I tell them all the things they could do with asparagus they are most surprised. And thank you very much! Some examples... Seared Skrei Spätzle Austrian dumplings with scrambled eggs Beetroot marinated raw salmon Beetroot chicken. Oh wait, not yet. It's not if, it's when.

I replaced the green beans with green asparagus, which is a German lunch dish. My seasonal "Strammer Max". Basically it's toasted bread topped with ham and runny egg. Very typical in Germany. This is the ham I used. "Black Forest ham". Grated cured egg More asparagus. Very nice selection this weekend. This one was about to run. Already quite soft to the touch before cutting it open.

Squid and mince, neither Thai or Vietnamese. I just used Vietnamese fish sauce, garlic, ginger, onions, palm sugar, Shaoxing wine to give it taste. Very small squid from the North Sea. Easy to clean if they are cut open on 1 side so that they curl up on contact with heat. Squid and mince go exceptionally well together, especially if there's also copious amounts of garlic and chilies. (I make my own habanero chili sauce though, this plate was for someone else who can't eat too spicy.) Where's the mince? It's there, kind of hard to see.

The most popular dish in Galicia, Spain: boiled octopus. The beauty of this food lies in its simplicity. Tender octopus, good oil, and paprika powder. (I used both sweet and hot paprika here) It's not often that I eat green asparagus. Here with grated dried tuna roe, from Alicante, Spain. My criteria for eating green asparagus: domestic, young and slender. In southern Spain, dried tuna roe and salted tuna loin ("mojama", an exquisite delicacy, let sit in olive oil for an hour first) are served in slices with some almonds and lots of beer. I have grated dried tuna roe over a lots of things. Took some time to remove the meat from a kilo of crab claws.

Look up "melanzane ripiene", Sicilian stuffed aubergine. This way it will keep its shape. Love aubergine! I like mine with lamb mince.

Razor clams. Too hot to cook or eat outside otherwise I would have grilled them on the Weber. 25 degrees Celsius today but felt like Australia. Sun is better for plants, not me.

Asparagus e.ve.ry day. Mantou, steamed bread. Pieces of roasted pork are pressed into the deep incisions. Cheesy Swabian noodles. Chives blossoms were to be torn and sprinkled on the noodles.