Duvel

Today was a public holiday in Germany, and this might be the only place where I can report that I spend a good part of the day making what you can get 5 min away from here for a few Euros 🤔 Anyway, I decided to make Döner. I used ground beef, kneaded it with spices, onion, ice water and a bit of cornstarch into a meat dough. Baked it to an internal temperature of 70 oC. Cooled down and sliced thinly, before flash fryind in a screaming hot pan ... Made two flatbreads to go with it ... A classic “Dönerteller” with all fixings and some fresh bread (and a beer). Super tasty - a day well spend 😉

They do a pretty good job. The basic one is good - but the Solist series, in which they store it in pretty much any used cask they‘ll find, is very good value for money. This bottle I bought two years ago, when visiting the distillery. At 57% for me it requires an ice cube, but then its divine...

You know pretty much the start of the evening, as I have practiced it last week. Had some friends over, and again Thai-ish it was ... Starter was a Cherry Old Fashioned (only ingredients presented by yours truly ...) Rice & shrimp crackers with coriander-pork dip ... Followed by squid salad ... The infamous pineapple fried rice in the pineapple (still don‘t know what to do else with it) ... Chicken satay (not skewered, but with peanut sauce) Lemongrass beef ... Shrimps with garlic & coriander root ... Primary dessert: Mango icecream on coconut milk rice ... And then the real desserts came in ... „Glen Els“ - a discontinued whiskey from Lower Saxony, Germany (not to far from my home village) Hakushu 12 years - a discontinued whiskey from Japan (very far from my hometown, yet my absolute favorite) Kavalan, Solist series, Vinho barrique, cask strength ... Chicken skin, fried in its own fat, served with Shichimi Togarashi from the oldest producer in Tokyo (with double orange peel as per my request). A couple other whiskeys not pictured - I am a very happy Camper tonight 🤗

I watched „Somebody feed Phil“ yesterday, the Chicago episode. Craved a fried polish hot dog topped with sweet onions the whole day. Netflix be damned ...

@TdeV, my usual pizza is 250 g (63% hydration), aged 2 days in the fridge. Hand tossed to about 28-30 cm diameter. I use a 1 cm thick pizza steel, 36 x 36 cm. Preheated with convection at maximum (250 oC) for 45 min, last 15 min with top broiler on. The broiler is 12 cm away from the steel. The broiler needs to be on, when loading (glowing red), otherwise the top doesn’t cook properly. IR thermometer reads of the pizza steel typically yield 310-320 oC. Before I aquired the described setup, I used full fat dry mozzarella with some Parmigiano for flavor, as regular mozz left too much liquid. Now I can use brine-stored buffalo mozzarella without any issues. Pizza with above specifications and in my current setup will cook in about 3.5 to 4 min ...

Pork neck, braised with fennel, rosemary, onions & garlic. Served with mashed potatoes laced with caramelized garlic & Parmigiano ...

It boils down (no pun intended) to your setup and the time it needs to cook your pizza. In my pre-baking steel times a pizza took around 7 min. Fresh mushrooms - even thinly sliced - gave up far too much water during that cooking period to be used efficiently. Now, with baking steel & broiler I am in the 3.5 min range and heaps of mushrooms can be easily piled onto the pie and cook down nicely without any sogginess ...

Simple dinner: Lo Bak Go (蘿蔔糕) or fried turnip cakes ... enjoyed with a cold beer on the terrace. Good times 🤗

Leftovers turned into Laksa ... Tom Kha Gai ramped up with curry paste and fish stock, topped with Saturday‘s grilled chicken, blanched bean sprouts, 6.5 min eggs and fried onions. Coriander. Belly full, fridge clean - happy Duvel 🤗

Sunday pizza night (plus “The little prince”): Salami & Bolognese Artichokes, anchovies & fresh tomato Fresh pineapple & smoked lardons (aka “Hawaii”)

Pleeeeaaaase elaborate !!!

@shain - Just lovely 🤗

That was my primary target group as well (my son, not yours). But alas - he decided that the squid salad was his favourite ...

To be honest: I’ve never had it without that hollowed out pineapple, when in Thailand. Since you need only the flesh to make it ...

Had an old friend over - felt good after the last months to restart our social life. I made some Thai-ish BBQ ... Cucumber & squid salad ... Lamb larb ... Pineapple fried rice ... Lemongrass pork belly, chicken satay & shrimps (and garlic honey veal, that was gone too soon) Tom Kha Gai (doesn’t look like much, but was veeeeery good) Dessert for all: coconut milk rice with mango icecream ... Dessert for me: Hakushu 12

Leftovers turned into something “Chinese” ... Squid, green asparagus & black beans Cabbage, garlic, chili, Sichuan pepper Jiaozi Served with soy, sesame, vinegar and chili oil Miso soup (yeah, I don’t know either ...)

Nice - even got the right pasta ! I’ve eaten my fair share of fideos, and thanks to my Catalan wife I make decent ones as well (not that she teaches me, its more of an evolutionary approach from my side to get approval 😉). Yours looks great ! A crispy top is a must, and a strong stock (either seafood, snails, other added protein) is required as well. Typically, however, fideua is not a side dish to a pretein, but really the star of the party. If you can, try to put more protein in there (rabbit, chicken, snails for a farmers version or clams, shrimp, monk fish for a seafood version - or a mix for that “mar i muntanya” approach) and serve with a good allioli ... Edit: found this picture from our Christmas fideua ...

Breaded cod with quick potato salad ...

Chickpea & chorizo soup, smoothened to appeal to the little one, with whole wheat crispbread (curtesy of the first IKEA visit in months) ...

Ossobuco in bianco, served with sweet potato mash & gremolata. Please disregard the splatters around the plate, the little one had to “steal” my marrow bone ...

With the Corona-related restrictions slowly relaxing in Germany, we have my sister and her husband over this weekend. The little one is super excited. And to make it a “family style” weekend, we preponed pizza & movie night to Saturday ... Mushroom & salami (little ones favourite) ”Inverse” Margherita (idea borrowed from Pepe in Grani: mozzarella di bufala, tomato coulis, basil puree) Hawaii (little ones second favourite) Seasonal pie - green asparagus & serrano ham Crumb shot Followed by icecream ...

I read it that this refers to adding the starchy water to the dish, not the soda part ...

I abstain from most social media, so I was a bit overwhelmed when recently my friends in Hong Kong and Japan were simultaneously getting enthusiastic about Dalgona coffee, which seems to be huge on Instagram. Seems it is a rather usual beverage is Macau (where nonetheless I never encountered it) and was popularized in South Korea by an famous actor, who had the drink there. Basically you whip (heavily) a mixture of sugar, instant coffee powder and hot water until thick and creamy and top a glass of cold milk with it. I tried it today (to at least be able to join the conversation again with my friends); even whipped the coffee mixture by hand as it is supposedly a soothing experience (maybe to millennials, who usually don’t cook). The resulting “cream” was too sweet for me on its own, but sipping the cold milk with little bits of the coffee mixture is quite pleasant. It has a kind of caramel candy taste to it, but refreshing due to the large proportion of milk accompanying it.

Yup ... pork neck/collar is a thing of beauty. And very forgiving - usually turns out juicy, regardless of ones BBQ or frying skills. And if you have the time and do the full SV treatment in advance plus a hard sear you get something very special ...

Yes, it is a thick slice of pork neck/collar, very popular in Germany (Nackensteak) Marinated with salt, pepper, garlic, bit of yoghurt, and whatever herbs you have. Usually grilled on a BBQ, but this specific one was pan-fired, as it was raining ...