Duvel

Japanese for a change - Tonkatsu with cabbage/gomadare and quick miso-pickled cucumber ... Juicy ! Crunchy ! Umami ! Enjoyed with a Duvel, because I felt I deserved it. And his two brothers 🥳

Last (planned) installment of our Catalan weekend: Botifarra amb mongetes (or sausage with fried beans, heavy on the garlic/lard side of the spectrum) ... Not much to look at, yet very, very tasty 😉

This whole plate looks so beautiful !

As a soup ?!?!

Use Xylitol - it will caramelize.

Allright ... now I was already feeling a bit embarrassed posting the burger here. But then I thought: no worries, if you are lucky it’s will be on the same page as some pointless discussions on MSG or some pictureless posts (that did not happen anyway, as @Anna Nknows all too well), but nooooo ... Now the lousy burger is in line after @shain, @scamhi, @Paul Bacino and - gasp - @David Ross 😱 Need to get some whiskey. Stat.

Yesterday night’s dinner as part of the extended Catalan weekend was supposed to feature a spit-roasted rabbit (now in the “Lunch 2021” thread), but ... the little one convinced my wife that the hamburguesa Arnau would be more fun. Luckily I made a test run the day before 😜 The Arnau hamburger consists of a buttered & toasted brioche, smeared with Kewpie and shielded by a single lettuce leaf, then a 150-200 g chuck patty, significant amounts of Raclette cheese, a heaped pile of roasted onions and Hunts BBQ sauce. Typically the inventor requests a pickled cucumber, but as my wife doesn’t like them and it is her weekend, we simply let the burger sit next to a jar and let the quantum entanglement between the burger & the pickles do the rest. (Commercial) sweet potato fries as a side and full bellies & happy faces a a side effect ...

I do enjoy the rotisserie, but I bought only recently and am just discovering its versatility. This was the first time I tried rabbit, and it was by far the best rabbit I ever made. The sheet pans are used to moisten the meat (they are filled with white wine/water and sprigs of rosemary) and to catch drippings. They are placed under the whole rabbit. Just in the last 5 min I moved them towards the front of the rabbit to allow the thicker parts at the back get more direct heat and allow for a bit more browning.

Part IV of a Catalan „weekend“ (which might go on until King‘s day 😉) ... Today for lunch we had the spit-roasted rabbit. I bought a larger specimen (close to 2 kg), cleaned and marinated it in garlic, lemon and rosemary and send it to sleep for 2 days ... Skewered and tied to a spit ... First use of the BBQ this year. Roasted until core temperature of 58 oC in the thickest part of the rear legs ... Served with simple tomato salad with burrata and leftover maccarons (another Catalan comfort dish). It was incredibly moist !

In continuation of my „Catalan weekend“ efforts ... ... today‘s lunch was trout with almonds and bacon. Very simple - trout stuffed with lemon and baked in the oven; bacon & onions fried in butter, simmered with cream & bay leaf and tooped with roasted almond slivers. Fried fideua pasta from yesterday to accompany ... Happy faces around the table 🤗

I am certainly not qualified to judge the effects of MSG on every individual. When it comes to taste it does make a difference, at least to me. If you want to try, I suggest the following experiment: Make a mixture of 60% salt, 20% sugar and 20% MSG and use this to flavor simple egg dishes instead of using 100% salt. Scrambled eggs, omelette, tortilla de patatas ... The outcome will be surprising(ly good) and I would be surprised if you feel any ill effect from the MSG.

Sure ... Mayo under that patty (providing lubrication & MSG) and BBQ on top (emulsifying the fried onions & adding some tang). It‘s „Arnau style“ ...

Since there is no “2nd dinner” thread (why not ?!), here a continuation of ... I opted for the burger “Arnau style” with a toasted brioche, kewpie, minced chuck, Hunts BBQ sauce, roasted onions & raclette cheese. Very, very good (especially from an IKEA plastic plate) ... Instead of MSG I used EtOH as a flavor enhancer (in the form of Kilbeggan Single Grain) ...

Thanks ! Interesting ... reminds me of vegan Döner. I think where spices dominate the flavor profile, as long as you can get the mouthfeel right I’d be happy with a meat substitute. Now where do I get this in Germany ... 😜

For me it is more of a sequence: first some G&Ts, then comes the rotation ...

Ok ... now: what is that ?!

Very true. And I have no hesitation to use MSG where it makes sense. But then again, I also use ethanol and other dangerous chemicals on a regular basis ...

For me the use of animal fats certainly “elevates” certain dishes. Potatoes & duck/chicken fat, latkes & lard, ... But especially for Chinese food I consider a pinch of MSG required. Many years ago I studied in Dublin and had a Chinese girl in my shared apartment, who made fried rice every other day. It contained always just morsels of other things but was really good - she never wanted to share why. Until I discovered her bag of MSG in an old teabox ...

Thank you for your kind words 🙏 No Dortmunder today, but I’ll make sure to have some for the upcoming weeks ...

Note: This post and the next ten have been split from the Lunch 2021 discussion, to maintain topic focus. My Special Guess ... (plus some fatty pork instead of the chicken and - at least for me - some extra sprinkling of roasted hua jiao on the final dish...)

Due to the Covid situation we haven’t been able to visit my parents-in-law the whole year 2020, and of course not for this year’s Kings day either. So - naturally - my wife feels a bit down. The little one and me decided for a Catalan weekend to cheer her up an devised the following menu options: 1) Spit-roasted rabbit 2) Trout with almonds (and bacon) 3) Fideua “home-style” 4) Pork sausage with garlicky white beans 5) Hamburger “Arnau style” and 0) Mixed starters My wife opted for 3) tonight with the obligatory starters, of course. Starters (berberechos, Iberico, Manchego, Fuet sausage, croissant with foie gras, potato crisps, cashews) Fideuà (with squid, shrimps, mussels). And off-dry Scheurebe from a local vineyard to go with it ... Tomorrow the rabbit & the trout have been requested ...

Leftover (unsliced) beef neck from yesterday’s hotpot, pounded flat with my bare knuckles (more workouts this year !), salt & pepper, cornstarch dusting & flash fried. Served on a rewarmed roll with BBQ sauce, copious barely softened onions and some Chipotle Tabasco. Served on IKEA childrens plastic plate. A good breakfast/brunch/lunch to start into 2021 - kind of expectation management 😉 Happy New Year everyone - may it be a happy & healthy one !

NYE dinner ... hotpot with the usual fixings. Served with a lovely sake from a dear Japanese friend. A tiny bit of egg porn ... Plus plenty of leftovers for the new year 🤗

The best way I can describe it is that it doesn’t hold the water properly. During steaming, significant amounts of liquid was expelled from the fishcakes, which in return turned brittle. It is similar to a meatloaf. I should have upped the cornstarch amount and stirred the mixture for longer time to compensate and create more binding/ water retention. But ...