Duvel

Oh boy, do I have fond memories of that stuff. Every Saturday after progress report we headed out with the PhD and master student of the group to the Izakaya close to Katsura campus. The first whiskey highball came with the otoshi (or “free” snack), that was always changing. But the second highball came (only for us, being regulars) always with yamitsuki kyabetsu. Thanks for reminding me 🙏

If only a true linguist could solve this conundrum 🤔

While my method for ragù bolognese follows Marzella Hazan pretty closely, I take liberties with the ground meat very often. Germany is pork country and good quality pork is easier to come by than good quality beef. That being said I have never experienced any “hard bits” due to the nature of the protein.

Sea urchin-flavored rice crackers … excellent 🤗

AFAIK, gado gado dressing is often made with fish sauce (and occasionally with shrimp paste) …

Simple is best - and your Straciatella looks pretty much perfect to me 🤗

Pizza & movie night: Half salami & mushroom, half capers/olives/anchovies … Hawaii: fresh pineapple & Kassler pork collar … Cornicione shot … Enjoyed while watching the first half of Avatar.

While I can vivdly imagine a Parmigiano chicharrón I am also intrigued by the celeriac tartare … could you elaborate 🙏 ?

Rana is a pretty solid choice for fresh ravioli, and most supermarkets have them (here). Their radicchio variety is terrific 👍

Nope - the other 2/3 of the family are a bit squeamish about spicy stuff. Half is a (Chinese) chicken/ham/mushroom based stock, the other is a (Japanese) dashi/kombu/yuzu peel stock … The hot oil is in one of the three sauce options 😎

It’s not that unusual, that these two events coincide, so yesterday we had “Chinese New Year meets (German) Carnival) … Hot pot (with a bit of Oden touch) … Followed by Fastnachtsküchle - ultrathin and super crisp wafers made from a sweet dough and deepfried (in lard 🥳), before being dusted with caster sugar. No complaints 🤗

Most likely they are just chicken powder formulated that way to withstand higher humidity environments. Chicken powder containing a fair amount of salts will be mildly hygroscopic, so formulating them in granules will reduce the surface area and retard (undesired) clumping ...

Labskaus - not as nicely plated as recently in Hamburg - but very good, nonetheless. Served in the traditional way with pickled herring, pickled cucumbers and red beets and a fried egg … No complaints 🥳

I‘d say so … although it doesn’t really fit to the dish. Or salsify, which doesn’t fit neither. Mystery of TV decorations 🙃

I know you all we be delighted that Chicken Maryland has even made it into the German National TV (ZDF). Of course they have the only authentic version, combining pretty much all features individually discussed here: breaded pan-fried chicken, mustard cream sauce, bacon, bananas (the former wrapped around the latter), … https://www.zdf.de/gesellschaft/volle-kanne/chicken-maryland-100.html Rejoice and replicate ✊

It really has been a while since we had a pizza & movie night … Tonight at least we had the pizza. I drove up north today to pick up my father, who will be staying with us for a week. He was looking forward to the pizza, but as today was the finals & the match for 3rd place of the European handball championships we had (much to the dismay of little one) „European handball finals & pizza night“. I was so busy juggling witty comments on the game, appeasing a disappointed kid and dishing out a dough-based dinner I forgot to take pictures. Luckily with my father around I could get away with making three large pizzas and thus take a picture of the (plenty) leftovers 🤗 Ham, salami & mushroom - spinach & gorgonzola - spicy beef, bacon & mushroom. No complaints 🥳

Chicken with a mala sesame sauce, agedashi eggplant*, tofu with fermented crab, mapo eggplant* and edamame with smoked salt. And I was able to Improve my score with the relevant demographic: while yesterday’s dishes found an approval of 3 out of 4, today we had 5 out of 5. Thus, no complaints 🤗 —- * these were a test run how well eggplants can be air fried in different shapes. Both did well …

Poached chicken with chili oil, cold potato slivers with Sichuan pepper, tomato & eggs and smacked cucumber …

It‘s a common (yet not traditional) side to cured meats, e.g. Kassler or Schäufele. You fry some onions, add bayleaves, juniper berries and maybe cloves, top up with 100-150 mL white wine. Add your Sauerkraut (800g, drained), salt (depending on your Sauerkrauts salinity) and simmer for about 10 min. Add sugar to get a sweet & sour balance, then add one pineapple, cubed and simmer for 20 min more. Adjust the sweetness and acidity to your liking. For these burgers I chopped the Sauerkraut a bit up, and made rather small pineapple cubes, so I could apply the mixture as a kind of relish. For big chunks of cured meat you want to have a more rustic texture … You can add bacon cubes or cured sausage links while frying the onions, then it becomes a meal in itself, if ypu serve it with some fried potatoes. Finally, the whole thing works with mango, too …

Yeap …

Add yeast, let it ferment for some days and voilà: cider ! Boil for a few minutes and the alcohol is gone. Or - for your recipe - use apple juice and substitute 5% of your liquid with apple cider vinegar. That‘ll give some tartness the juice is missing.

After a long walk through the frozen town … I stopped at the butcher and got my (preordered) Saumagen. 1.6 kg were a bit too much, so I froze part of it … While the rest became tonight’s Saumagen burger with pineapple Sauerkraut and baconnaise on a brioche bun. Served with fries (yay for airfryers) and more baconnaise … No complaints 🤗

Reminds me a bit of Apu …

Peas ? That’s a new to me …

Wow … you can get Kassler in the US ? It looks uncured, though ?