zend

haha... peel. eat. 🙂 no vampire near you - no wife or any other human being, either 🙂 it's a very basic fisherman's dish, traditionally served by the lake/river where you caught the fish. (I must admit I cooked mine at home)

As far as I recall, vindaloo sauce includes vinegar. Perhaps pre-boiling the potatoes would have helped? Vinegar tends to keep fixed the pectine that holds the potatoes' flesh together... My 2 cents.

Pan-seared carp (wild catch). Some people call carp "pig of the fishes". I believe they are right. Fatty and delicious. Served with raw garlic, Romanian way.

Had some cauliflower left around, so I wok-ed it with smoked bacon, red peppers, green onions, soy sauce, ZheJiang vinegar and fermented black beans. The taste reminded me of HuNan food, but I would not dare call it HuNanese. Bacon was cooked first to release the fat, cauliflower went in second with the black beans, and the rest afterwards.

with any innards / trotters, we boil them (rolling boil) for 5-7 minutes in vinegar+salt+water first. It removes most of the stench. About 2 Tbsp of vinegar (5% acidity) to a liter of water. I am sorry I cannot define this in the US system. Then drain, rinse, use as new.

Tom Yum Goong - made from scratch. Lemon grass, galangal, makrut leaves (from frozen), Greek shrimp with heads on, fresh chili oil (pul biber, avocado oil, soy sauce), cilantro, fish sauce, lime juice, coffee milk (the non-sweet kind). I took the pic after half the pot was gone.

Had about half a skirt steak left (300gram-ish), SV-ed 3hrs at 53C, that I had to repurpose. So it went in with garlic, oyster mushrooms, oyster sauce, soy sauce, bit of chili and allulose (plus a bit of cornstarch slurry). Adding the beef at the very end kept it moist and medium-rare (tender). Accompaniaments were a cilantro-mint yoghurt sauce and red cabbage salad.

I learned that in Turkey. Any offal gets a generous amount of cumin powder, whether you grill it or fry it in butter. Try it and let me know what you think 🙂

It's about the pickling process. You take whole heads of cabbage, cross-split the cores slightly (3cm deep, not the whole way through) and dunk them into 3-4% saline water, together with dried dill stems and horseradish. Some people add sour cherry tree leaves. This usually happens in large wooden barrells (think 50-100L each) and you let them cabbages rest submerged and the barrels air-tight covered for several weeks. They can last for a year or more. Every 2-3 of days until fermentation is over, you need to unscrew the lid and use a hose to blow air into the mixture from the bottom, to prevent mold from happenning. (I know this might sound like a prank, but feel free to fact-check :)))) ). In brief: Varza murata has a deeper, purer cabbage flavour and it is slightly saltier than sauerkraut. Sauerkraut, on the other end, is more sour and - as far as I know - is put to pickle already sliced. German Kraut also has caraway seeds and some other stuff which makes it aniseed-ish tasting. They are both great for health. Not saying one is better than the other, but they are very different in taste.

Beef liver in a cast-iron pan (plenty of cumin powder on it), Romanian "varza murata" salad (it's a sort of sauerkraut but I find it to be very different in taste from the German one) and some spicy Bengal relish (no real need for it, but why not, it's yummy 🙂 )

Well, I started using the pressure cooker for lamb curries, since those can take forever if you don't use expensive cuts (and I don't). Then I've applied it to all other curries. Why? I find that the curry base / gravy cooked under pressure has a thicker consistency and all flavors blend together really well. There will be no chunks left. I know I could use a blender, but that would be one more thing to wash at the end. Also, a pressure cooker is set and forget. 25 minutes on the stove and you will have predictably good results, without having to watch the pan. Cheers! 🙂

I am probably the crappiest photographer on this forum, but I have cooked and I am sharing. Pressure-cooked curry base (onions-garlic-tomato purree, ground: corriander seed+jeera seed+chilies+couple of fenugreek seeds, kasoori methi leaves+soy sauce, 25 minutes under pressure), chicken breast and frozen green beans added covered (not pressurized) for 15 minutes, squeeze of lemon, ginger matchsticks at the end. Works perfect when you feel like you want Indian food, but Indian is not in your town.

Seafood mix on cast iron, with carrots, onions, couple of tomato slices, garlic, EVOO and butter. Plus oregano and a dash of soy sauce, lemon juice. This type of cooking is called "na sach" in Bulgaria (it means "on the sizzle"). Ready from scratch in ~15 min, with seafood added from frozen. A quick way to serve great seafood, other than fried or grilled. Sorry for the plating - not my strong suit - I just wanted to contribute.

Keto moussaka. Minced lamb, beef, onions, cinnamon, cumin, sliced eggplant, purreed tomatoes. Used mozzarella and "cașcaval" (Balkan yellow cheese) instead of the Bechamel.

Taco de lengua (keto-friendly, due to dietary restrictions). Pressure-cooked beef tongue (75 min on high), cream, guac, pico de gallo and shredded yellow cheese. Shell was made with almond flour and whey protein powder, plus perfected xanthan gum, fried in avocado oil.