Duvel

GreenVC2017-Abdullah (iop.org) tl;dr: Potato starch has a lower gelatization temperature than corn starch, meaning it thickens faster, and - depending on cooking time - more complete (i.e. leaves less to no starchy residue that may impact the mouthfell). It also has a higher bulk density, so all in all you need less potato starch than corn starch for the same effect (think 2/3).

I like Nami, and most if her recipes are decent. So is this one, but it neither gives the right texture (compared to the original, which is smoother), nor the taste I am looking for … as I said: it’s ambitious (and I have played around a lot 🤗).

Oh dear … that’s an ambitious target. Shokupan of course, crustless. The egg salad is tricky: there is an excess of yolk, plenty of kewpie and - from sources I trust - a drop of fish sauce (I know no one believes me, but the closest I’ve ever gotten was with fish sauce). Anyway, as much as I’d like to I am still those last 5% away from the iconic original (of which I had a looooooot) …

Such a perfect surface pattern browning 🤗

Now that you mention it - Reel Big Fish goes well with stir fries ...

Metallica for chopping onions and root vegetables …

Exactly … And once a significant number of people have succumbed after eating pork intestines or oysters in a surprisingly warm environment, codifying a law against eating them will protect their ancestors at least from that danger. I think there is a point to be had. Bleeding out animals to make the meat spoil slower is a smart practice as well. Eating fish on Fridays maybe less so, but then religion isn’t a strict science …

Not necessarily set apart, but maybe help them to thrive in a certain environment, e.g. the matzo as a long lasting & spoil resistant bread alternative ? A colleague in university came from Haifa and whenever I had a Mettbrötchen (raw minced pork on a rye roll) for breakfast, he said that that would be a death sentence at home. I always assumed for religious reasons, given that pork is a no go for both Jews and Muslims alike, but one day he explained that pigs carry so many diseases/parasites in warmer climates plus the ambient temperatures in conjunction with the raw mince would make my favorite snack probably as healthy as slurping raw sewage. So, to forbid certain foods can have significant benefits for a population. I never got him to try it, not even on a Matzo cracker ...

Maybe we see this topic from a wrong angle: not that they were forced to prepare the unleavened bread hastily (as the legend says) , but maybe the did so by design, i.e. to create an (barely) edible derivative of flour they could transport and live of for longer time than from bread. I mean crackers will keep significantly longer than bread, due to the low water activity. Plus bread with its sponge-lke texture will likely trap moisture in a desert environment due to the drastic day/night temperature change more easily and thus limit its shelf life.

Sure, that part is uncontested. My point was that if there was a need to prepare matzo within said very short timeframe, the ambient yeasts in ancient Egypt must have been the pretty powerful ones. If I mix flour with water it’ll take a loooot longer than 20 min before anything ferments …

As I was searching in the mancave for my Oxfords Dictionary of Ancient Cultures & Languages to prove you wrong, I noticed that I must have lend this to someone else with more need of important facts. But fear not, I used Google and it seems there were yeasts present in ancient Egypt - behold: And, given my 20 min account here, they must have been the fast acting type 🤭 Probably something like this, but Ramses II brand …

I know - that was my point 😉 Given that it needs to be prepared within a ~20 min time window to guarantee no fermentation takes place, I can only assume that those 20 min refer to the time it would have taken in ancient Egypt (at the time of the exodus) to start fermenting. Hence, pretty active yeasts 😋

Administrator's note: this topic was split from the "Why some people eat matzo year-round" topic here. 18-22 min, according to this article … They must have had some pretty potent wild yeasts in ancient egypt 🤗

I could see it as a tasty snack, if fried in lard, sprinkled with MSG and salt and dipped in molten cheese …

So shite ra … ano … arigatou, ne 🙏

I think a huge part of eGullet is that fact that we deal with things that are rarely made at home (or at least by very few people 🤭) …

If you like to have a recipe for this interation, send me a PM 😉

Hmm … I already posted Easter linner here, but maybe you’d be interested in breakfast, too ? I picked up fresh croissants from the only decent bakery open on Easter Sunday some 10 km away from our home. They came fresh out of the oven … The full monty: And at least my favorite: the cold cuts … An oddity: Easter Brötchen with carrot inside … The mona or Easter bread. A brioche dough with an hard boiled egg. Perfect with Nutella ! And just in case you were wondering about the rabbits: the big one is callled Mr. Brownie and turned 20 years this Easter. My mom sent it to my then girlfriend (now wife) on our first Easter living in Japan 2004. The little one is called Hasi and belongs to our little one. We bought it 2 years before he was born, and gave it to him upon his birth (his second picture ever is with Hasi). They celebrated Mr. Brownies birthday together …

I buy them in a bag of 5kg and refill my potato storage container in the kitchen with it, so I can’t say for sure which floury potato was this batch. Normally in this region, it’s either Gala or Bintje …

A lovely sunny Easter Sunday with some flower garden strolling and the first (woodruff flavored) ice cream of the season … … led to Easter linner: Featuring a 10h oven roasted leg of lamb … It was perfectly tender and juicy. Served with the already reduced braising jus and herb butter. Classic green string beans … Caramelized leeks … Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic, Parmigiano and aragula … Beans braised in lamb stock with tomatoes and olives … And some commercial potato croquettes (hooray for air fryers) … Plus a nice red to appease the in-laws Yum 🤗 No complaints. None at all. Frohe Ostern, everybody 🐣

Today’s linner … You may know that asparagus is huge in Germany. The season starts now and is very much anticipated. I know it’s kind of unpatriotic but my first Spargel of the season didn’t come from our town, but a small village in the Palatinate. We had a chat at work the other day and my secretary told me that a farmer in her town grows the best asparagus in the region. I ordered to kilograms (at 16€/kg, which is pretty decent for the early season). So … 2 kg of very fresh asparagus, just peeled and the trimmings cooked into a braising stock with salt, sugar, lemon and butter. I eat one or two raw as a cooks treat. They burst with liquid and flavor. Also as a cooks treat: a Duvel 🤗 Schnitzel for DW and the in-laws (the love for Spargel seems to had difficulties crossing the alps) … The works … New baby potatoes (Drillinge) with caraway … Veal Schnitzel … The star of the show, accompanied by cured pork loin (Lachsschinken), Bastīrma (kind of Pastrami), Tirolean Speck and cured pork neck (Coppa) … Homecured salmon … Everyone else had a Scheurebe Auslese, I had a Duvel … Oh … and sauce Hollandaise ad libitum ☺️ And later - for the gentlemen of drinking age: Auchentoshan 18 … No dessert. None needed. No complaints 🤗

Had another “German food, but light” request from the in-laws. Inquiring minds need to know, so I asked: it seems that the Catalan gastrointestinal system is sometimes overwhelmed with pork products (not entirely sure, how this manifests itself - surely inquiring minds don’t want to know). So, an easy pork-free weekday dinner: Pumpkin-cheese bread rolls with three dips: Obatzda (ripe Camembert with butter, fresh cheese and spices), Heringssalat (pickled herring, red beets, apple, onion, sour cream) and Fleischsalat (smoked vegetarian bologna, cornichons, onion, mayo). Fresh Brezel … Some of which where prepared with herb butter, parsley and chives … Weisswurst (all veal version: some popped during the tempering, but they were great. Mildly spiced with mace, lemon peel and parsley, these actually felt light) … All in all a great success. The lightness of the meal was underlined by me serving only Riesling, (and one Duvel for me) and the lightest of Japanese whiskey in my portfolio as a digestif 😎

Warm enough to fire up the BBQ outside, but not warm enough to dine al fresco (at least not for everyone 🤭) … Meats: sausage, Grillfackel (spiced pork belly wrapped around wooden skewers), pork collar steaks and chicken filets. Homemade herb butter bread … Tomato mozzarella pesto … Roasted courgettes with dried tomatoes and feta cheese … Potato “pockets” with cream cheese filling (hooray for air fryers) … Kartoffelsalat with bacon and cucumbers … There was also an off-dry Riesling and copious amounts of a new lime mint soda - no complaints 🤗

Pizza & movie night, “in-laws edition”. It’s not that easy to find a movie they haven’t seen and - for some odd reason - is not animated. So, the “real life” version of The Lion King, preceded & accompanied by: Salami & mushroom … Rohesser & artichokes … Capers, olives & anchovies … We had to choose the Spanish version, with subtitles for me (and little one, even though we are not allowed to tell that to the in-laws) … No complaints (on the pizzas, mind you 🤗)!

They do look nice. If you want to go all the eay, you could potentially improve them with a 10 min quick cure with 2:1 salt:sugar to draw out more surface moisture and a sear with a high-heat stable fat, e.g. ghee …