Duvel

Not your authentic Bouillabaisse, but inspired by it: stock made from shrimp shells, mackerel trimmings, salmon skin, onions, tomato, shaved fennel, Pastis, orange peel, white wine and saffron. Squid, salmon & mackerel as protein. Roasted baguette, rubbed with garlic. Rouille. Little one wanted the baguette inside the soup, which turned out great … No complaints 🥳

Catalan comfort food (for the Catalan part of the family): pilotas amb pesols - or meatballs with peas in a tomato sauce. No fuzz, but happy faces guaranteed 🥳

Something quick & rustic for Monday dinner: Bauernfrühstück … Tasty.

Not sure where Whole Foods sources their berries, but at least in Europe the sloe bug or hairy shieldbug (dolycoris baccarum) is known to impart a bitter, astringent flavor to the berries it infests. Unsually you can sort the spoiled berries out, but one “surviving” berry per batch is enough to render the product inedible. My mom makes raspberry marmalade very often and every once in a blue moon a batch of her marmalade tastes off …

Not a pretty picture, but a pretty good dinner: Bouillabaisse - squid, shrimp, sea bass and anchovy in a stock with onion, garlic, tomato, saffron, Pastis, fennel fronds (and obviously potatoes 😉).

1.29 € (on offer … ~1.5 USD). And with ALL the shapes 🥳

That‘s excellent, @Dr. Teeth. These one pan dishes with barely cooked eggs (insert: shashuka, menemen, huevos rancheros, …) are very underrated. Happy to see such a nice and visually pleasing rendition 🙏

Ribeye with garlic & rosemary and a salad made from roasted carrot, onion, mozzarella & fresh herbs …

Got some nice Italian salsiccia, that I wanted to feature on our Sunday night pizza. Unfortunately, I realized yesterday night that I was out of yeast for the preferment 🙄 So, instead orecchiette con broccoli e salsiccia … not a bad alternative.

With little one on a sleep-over DW requested some “Italian nibbles” for a light dinner … To start: Negroni for the cook … It was a bit late to start the dough for a rosemary focaccia, so I decided for a scarpaccia instead. Thinly sliced zucchini & onions are salted, the resulting liquid is blended together with a bit of milk, olive oil, flour and fine polenta into a dough and spread onto a generously oiled baking try, topped with rosemary and baked for about 30 min … The works: scarpaccia di zucchine (Tuscan zucchini cake), marinated champignons and olives, roasted peppers with anchovy, cod roe with capers & garlic, heirloom tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella, baked provolone, fried squid and shrimp with allioli and a nice Primitivo. And some not soooo Italian churros (commercial product with excellent results in the airfryer) with chocolate sauce to finish … All enjoyed while watching “The Northman”. And no complaints (except for that lame movie 🙄) …

😉

As a non-native speaker of English this label confuses me … Either this means something entirely different or you chose a rather unexciting product. No “succulent anchovies” or “delectable anchovies” available ?!

First night at home after a week of business travels with restaurant food. Needed to cook something “homey” - and family requested pasta. Soooo … bronze cut spaghetti from Rummo. Sauce made from enough garlic to depopulate the night-active part of Transylvania, white wine, passata, anchovy, squid, clams and shrimp. Parsley. Served with a Valpolicella Ripasso … No complaints 🤗

Still Spargel season, still doing a lot of business trips to Eastern Germany … Soljanka, a soup of Russian decend with a nice refreshing sour note … Spargel, with classic Hollandaise, and the local add-on: tender cured & boiled veal tongue … Herrengedeck (“Gentlemens treat”), an espresso & a Schnapps … No complaints 🤗

Yeah … the English description might be too „specific“. German Sülze refers to anything jellied, and our headcheeses are more often than not made from Schwarte (skin) rather than head, simply because pigs have far more skin that heads 😉 A popular (zero effort) treat in Germany is cubed pork belly, skin on plus some spices and pink salt, stuffed in a glass with a minimum of liquid and then pressure-cooked for 2h. The result are tender cubes of belly in very flavorful jelly. Scoop out on same rye - heaven !

Business trip to the far east of Germany. A bit rural, yet with some lakes and interesting hotels. And while the colleagues went to the (slightly fancy) hotel restaurant, I decided to head out to the local butcher shop, had a fun discussion with his wife (who runs the front) and returned with … From the top left: A local cheese (Müritzer), blood sausage with toasted wheat kernels, cured & smoked turkey filet (who would have known - a popular Eastern German treat) and Tellersülze (headcheese with pickled Spreewald cucumbers and sweet & sour overtones). Plus a bread roll with mixed seeds & a nice whisky from room service 🤗 No complaints (and I got all my mails done, too …).

Roastbeef with a sweet soy glaze and a (unfortunately broken and dispersed by the time of picture taking) raw egg yolk …

The dutch pronunciation of „oe“ is what you would pronounce „oo“ (like in the word school) or „u“ in Bahasa (or German 🙃)…

Many questions raised here, maybe I can weigh in: Both „freezer packaging“ and your SV bag will likely be made out of the same material, polyethylene. Both are food contact grade, so no need to worry about plasticizers or other issues. I would still recommend changing the packaging for two reasons: Primarily, a SV bag is far more sturdy and will give you more security to keep its integrity during the long cook - if you want to add an extra bag to compensate you‘ll be basically willing to add the outside of the original packaging to your cook as well (in case of rupture of the inner bag - not so advisable). Secondly, you will have a chance to flavor the content (dried garlic, rosemary, butter, salt, …) before the cook, benefitting the protein itself and your sauce made from the liquid gold left in the bag after the long cook … For a tender yet still juicy texture I use 155 oF for anything between 30-36h. @weinoos temps work as well and give you are more traditional confit texture, a bit more fall apart, slightly more stringy - but especially with a heavily cured leg pretty much the expected taste & texture for confit. These days I mostly skip the curing step and be happy with this … I think that if you are happy with a tender leg with a tasty sauce from the bag juices, served with sides, you are good as it is. For some applications (cassoulet, or when you really want that traditional French vibe) confit it fantastic. But with „everyday“ duck leg SV I feel the non-traditional texture sits better with me.

Preponed pizza & movie night … „Spargel“: shaved asparagus, Hollandaise base, shrimps and some chopped salmon sprinkled over post bake … “Meatlovers“ (though most is hiding under the cheese blanket): every last leftover the fridge offered: salami, Bratwurst, ham and Spanish chorizo. Pickled onions for good measure … And a nice Riesling from the Palatinate, all enjoyed with „The boy and the heron“. No complaints, though the movie was a little bit to weird for me …

Rapeseed (Raps), a common source of neutral oil in Germany.

After a relaxing flight over the German spring landscape, got somewhat stuck in a theme … 😉 BBQ (because of the nice weather) & Spargel (just because ☺️). This time: Spargel vom Grill ! Freshly peeled asparagus, doused with Pinot Gris, salt, sugar and butter, tightly wrapped and steamed on the BBQ for about 15 min … Dressed with egg & parsley … Served with “the usual” BBQ items: belly skewers, pork collar, some sausages & cheese. Potatoes, salad & potato salad, too … Hollandaise ad libitum … No complaints. And because of the presence of my in-laws served with a nice red instead the usual chilled white. Not bad at all 🥳

Yeap … see here for my definition.

Thanks … looks somewhat “German” 🤗 If now you add some Mett you are pretty much all set for immortality …

Can you elaborate on the “health” part ? Is it some kind of multigrain ?