Vlcatko

Thanksgiving: - Brie panna cotta - Turkey consomme with "Flädle" shapes - SV turkey breast and turkey leg confit - cornbread, Hasselback potatoes, green beans with bacon - pear loaf cake with pear whipped cream Christmas: - lentil soup (my family has always done the brown lentils but since I am in charge of the soup this year I will try to lure them to the darker side of this legume 😁) - pork and chicken escalope - potato salad

Felt more like summer than spring yesterday (27°C) so I tried something fresh/healthier to keep the vibe going a little longer (the forecast said rain and temperature drop for today and so far it held true)... Vegetable soup (spinach, peas, edamame, broad beans, pea shoots) + baguette

Amazing meals, everyone! I will have to go back to the previous thread and see what other wonders I missed while I was away Clean-out-the-fridge salad with wheat-rye bread with hazelnuts SV duck breast, potato-chestnut mash, salad Breakfast for dinner - soft boiled egg, fried potatoes, bread (from above) with mustard and spring onions, radishes Escolar, pak choi and asparagus tips Scotch eggs (from 63°C duck eggs) and salad with Dijon-yogurt dressing SV + roasted pork belly with apple sauce, crackling crumb and white bread (all M&S, the leftovers made a killer sandwich!) Penne alla carbonara with mangetout and pea shoots Baked salmon on mizuna salad Couscous with vegetables and turkey curry

Waldorf salad with seeds, pan-roasted potatoes and turkey confit. Milk rice with amarena cherries as dessert (I tried taking a separate photo of it but that thing is very hard to capture nicely, at least for my non-existent photography skills But hey, maybe some Klingons will get nostalgic ) White bean soup with sprouted lentils

Hm, while I agree that serving food in a sink or on a gardening utensil is plain awful, I don't see what's the harm in a slate cheeseboard or using small cutting boards in lieu of plates (e.g. from what I have seen during my visits in Austria, it's common for breakfasts). I also love eating from wooden bowls and my organization loving self sometimes gravitates towards using multiple small vessels for different parts of the meal, even if they are traditionally served together on one plate. Alinea, Noma, El Bulli et alii have no problems with just/no plates for some of their courses why shouldn't other restaurants try to bring something extra/fun for the guest aside from the food itself? Of course if proper hygiene is not observed, I see the problem immediately.

As dcarch said, this thread is very inspiring! Thanks everyone for sharing and making me more adventurous! Saturday - I didn't have many of the "proper" ingredients for authentic one but I have to use up the cabbage somehow and I was lusting after it for some time now - so improvised okonomiyaki Yesterday - romaine lettuce with Caesar style dressing, bacon bits and roasted seeds, croutons and the absolutely overcooked and absolutely lovely turkey confit

Sauteed turkey (meat cut and seasoned the previous day - turmeric, ginger, coriander, salt, olive oil) with almond flakes, couscous and salad (cabage, cucumber, young broccoli, spring onion, celery) with soy-ginger vinaigrette. Castelvetrano olives for later.

Bought a deboned turkey "thigh" (the package said thigh but from the size and shape, it must have been a drumstick) - played with it a little bit and separated all the muscles - the nice intact and plump ones went into the fridge with some salt and will be confited later, the too thin ones were cut into thin strips and marinated for tomorrow and the rest went into a "stock baggie" and these baked nuggets. Served with tzatziky and romaine with creme fraiche dressing seasoned with paprika. The wine was local, a new one for us and we were pleasantly surprised - all in all it was a great evening

Came home very late and very hungry so I had to have something quick - reheated the leftover duck stock from Saturday that I was keeping more as an ingredient than an actual dish, while it was getting warm I boiled the last of my homemade noodles and I added a poached yolk for some extra richness... I might have eaten three more slices of that crusty Italian loaf while I was waiting...

It was quite salty but much less so than Spam (my previous can-experiment). I bought the "chunky" variety at M&S and there was a good amount of chunks - so much so that it was a tad tricky to slice and fry, I liked that. Taste wise - can't be sure if I prefer it cold (please don't judge me ) - with good bread and mustard, or crisped up - I liked it both ways I agree it is a good backup if you can't get out for some time - I always have a few cans of pork pieces and duck confit as a backup... Now I wonder how the non-can version tastes, but no idea where to get to it here...

Heheh, the story of how eGullet spreads cooking methods "normal people" have never heard of Yeah, I will be making them again too! The taters I used in that first try were way past their best and I was in a bit of a rush too so I think they will be even better next time... It was a bit tricky (I am a big klutz and I was afraid of an accident) to skewer/slice but worked well - I would love to try it with those baby cabbages I sometimes see - so the skewer could go through all the layers, even the middle ones. This way (I skewered the side of a regular head in three places then sliced parallel to the skewers and finally sliced that into three - the piece in the picture is from the middle) I lost few of the inner layers (which I promptly ate, rather than try to reskewer the pieces)...

Corned beef (bought the can quite some time ago because I was curious what it was all about and which I found in the pantry when looking for things to use up), roasted cabbage, potatoes and young broccoli.

Duck confit with "cold oil" french fries (inspired by one of the previous posts here - thanks!) and garlicky young broccoli and choi sum

Hmm, so it's not a common practice then - to lard dryer meats? Quite a few of Czech dishes (that are now quite commonly called traditional) use larding so I thought it was a regular thing... Then again, I'd never heard of larding with butter before, so there's that

Warm legume salad with soft boiled egg and crispy bacon

I cooked for nine (including 2 vegans) on Friday and Saturday - no time to take pictures but it was tasty - cabbage salad with mango and coriander (Fri) and bucatini with a quick meat sauce (olive oil, onion, carrot, celery + sugo + ground beef/TVP flakes). Yesterday, I managed to use up the very last leftovers from Thanksgiving - turkey meat and pan-juices went into a shallot-bacon creamy sauce along with penne and some choi sum in place of spinach. Also roasted some chickpeas as a before-and-after snack and for a dessert I opened a box of green tea mochi I brought from our Christmas trip to Vienna.

Mango and coriander (and green onions, sugar snap peas, radishes, brussel sprouts, broccoli and apple - next time, I think, I will leave out the apple) salad with soy-ginger dressing (grated ginger, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, rice oil, salt)

Parsley root (with a few more vegetables sneaked in) soup with a touch of cream, finished with hemp oil. When I was serving it later to DH, I remembered I had some hemp seeds in the pantry and they were very nice with it as well... His and hers corn couscous bowls with veal meat, corn, peas, baby broad beans, edamame, young stem broccoli and "refried" ham (I had a small container of various hams and one or two other deli cuts I got after our company's Christmas party. I cut the slices into small squares before freezing them, after defrosting, I fried them in the same pan I used for the veal meat, after the bits started browning in spots, I added smoked paprika, turmeric, mild chili and a splash of water and fried a bit longer. Turned out better than I expected )

No idea what to call this, probably marzipan semolina cake? I tried to figure out how to replicate one of my favorite bought desserts (very cheap, very full of not so nice ingredients, covered in a very nasty "chocolate" I always cut off but sooo good...) and based on the texture and flavor profile, I combined several recipes for marzipan (flavor) and semolina (texture) cakes... Served with warm berries and extra thick double cream: I found out three things: 1) I need a better pan - this one is too big/wide 2) I really need to read the manual to my new oven - I thought I was baking the cake at 175°C for 40 minutes while I was just "resting" it in the slowly cooling oven (by setting the timer I somehow turned off the heating and didn't notice until 35 minutes in). The cake was still edible but I think the rise/texture suffered. 3) The semolina I used was maybe a bit too coarse, next time i will try to use half of this grind and half of a finer one. (I liked it very much with the coarse one but if I want to come as close to the original as possible I need a bit finer structure, I think.)

Thanks! And they were tasty too The Mornay was cooked with a clove, allspice and bay leaf, seasoned with salt (no pepper this time) and nutmeg. Cheese used was mainly Gruyere and Parmesan with a few bits of Cornish Cruncher. By itself it was fine, when eaten with something else, I found it not cheesy enough. When preparing the sauce for the gratin, I took some of the water from cooking the penne, slowly whisked in finely shredded cheese (almost full Bonne Maman jar of mainly cheddar of several kinds), combined it with the Mornay and found myself with extra cheesy goodness. No additional salt or seasonings were necessary for me, I just added two spoons of extra thick double cream (finished the tub I had in the fridge) because I was worried the sauce was a little too thin and would separate. It was probably fine without the cream but at least I used it up and the sauce was delicious I have to admit I am very partial to cheese (Gruyere and cheddars in particular) and creamy sauces so the sauce was perfect for me but I can see how someone could find it too bland in bigger dose... In that case, your suggested tweaks sound good - in fact I was debating with myself whether to bake the vegetables with the pasta or cook it separately. But I didn't want to risk it, in case the gratin turned out not well...

So, it turned out I HAD more cheese... Found another jar of collected cheese bits in the freezer, these were mainly from different kinds of cheddar, plus I "rescued" a sad piece of Parmesan from Mum. Reading about bechamel and Mornay sauce lead to tiny penne gratin with super-cheesy sauce (part Mornay, part pasta water, part more cheese, part cream) and warm vegetables (broccolini, corn, edamame, peas, baby broad beans). I was pleasantly surprised by the baked pasta - I had always had the impression I was not really fond of these type of dishes (maybe with the exception of some lasagne), plus the penne were really not of that great quality, but with all that cheese... Yumm...

Veal eye round (at least I think it's the name of the cut), baked potato, broccolini, sauce Mornay (I wish I had more cheese, the sauce could have been even better with a bit more) - there was enough for tomorrow's lunch as well which makes me really happy. What makes me even more happy is the after dinner snack - crispy bacon rashers - and I tucked some of them into the lunch box as well... Is it tomorrow yet?

Freshly baked rye sourdough with hazelnuts, still slightly warm because we just couldn't wait, butter Summer rolls with SV duck breast (hoisin+okonomiyaki sauce, garlic, ginger, 2.5 hours at 55°C, skin crisped in a pan afterward), carrot, cucumber, romaine lettuce, cilantro

Baked purple potato rounds with spiced creme fraiche and baked onions - very simple but a comfort food I crave once in a while...

I wish it was Sunday again: Breakfast roll No. 1 - lokše (Czech lefse), crispy bacon, brussel sprouts, potato rosti Breakfast roll No. 2 - lokše (Czech lefse), crispy bacon, cucumber, scrambled eggs