Duvel

Rokurinsha, Haneda airport branch, Tokyo: Tsukemen with extra egg, large portion. Hits the spot every time ...

Sunday. Groundhog dog, but with pizzas (and matching beers for 33% of us) ... (Fennel) salami & mushroom (x2, due to popularity) Shaved asparagus on white Sweet ham & olives Need to get better at stretching ...

For the salmon I’d recommend marinating in miso/mirin/sake. You can check for Nobu’s black cod recipes, which is a good English Ressource for that treatment. After that, simply grill or broil.

Quick lunch with leftovers: Fregula with cream, garlic, smoked salmon & Parmesan, topped with shaved green asparagus.

Soy/sugar/sake/sesame oil or soy/gochujang/sesame oil followed by a short time on the bbq works pretty well ...

Dinner at Ping’An village, near Guilin, China: Bamboo chicken & rice (cooked in bamboo sticks directly in the flames), local charcuterie, egg & tomatoes, fried river fish. Enjoyed with a light beer, followed by Sweet Osmanthus wine ...

When I asked my son what he would like to have for dinner his answer was “Spaghetti with tomato sauce, like we had at Jimin’s place”. Hmm ... not that I like to cook Italian, but simple spaghetti with tomato sauce as experienced in a Korean friends home 🤔 I trusted my instincts, went for a simple tomato sauce from Marcella Hazan and got a nice piece of Gran Padano our of the freezer. Sometimes the simple things are the best, and we enjoyed the pasta a lot. “Best spaghetti ever, papa” ...

Crumb shot, please ...

No knead-style mixed grain bread (50% whole grain spelt, 50% wheat), 80% hydration, 5 days cold fermentation, baked in preheated cast iron ...

Not with ramps (allium tricoccum), but with its very close cousin “Bärlauch” (allium ursinum). Having tasted both I’d say that they taste pretty similar, and I used to use Bärlauch for ramps while living in Germany ...

Sunday night ... Pizza with mushrooms and salami White pizza with shaved green asparagus and Camembert

Thanks, @food mom. I understand the logic dismissing the no-knead approach from a timing perspective. The hydration however is fine from my view, and takes into account that you want to have a properly risen loaf and not the famously dense whole wheat / ancient grain type loaves of the olden days. The durch oven that @trfl employs certainly helps with the load structure and makes best use of the high hydration ... And yet you are looking at a pizza, something with a large surface area compared to volume, so higher hydration is even more your friend and will lead to a more expanded base (especially on the rim), instead of a cracker-type, dry crust. If you are looking at neoneapolitan (e.g. New York style) pizza, you want chewy, foldable base with a defined, expanded rim. One thing that you could try is to balance the moisture content by adding yoghurt, which will add structure and give some chewiness. I do add yoghurt to make whole wheat / rye flour crusts (e.g. for Kassler Speckkuchen), and it works pretty well. So would a poolish, that you could bring to the workshop. If you have more time to research (e.g. for your next workshop, not today’s) please have a look at the technique described for the complete wheat Neapolitan pizza dough (90% hydration, btw) ...

From my viewpoint the @trfl recipe would do make a nice pizza dough. At very high temperatures (and shorter fermenting times, if it’s a workshop), you might want to up the hydration a little bit. Please share what kind of pizza / baking set / temperatures up you are aiming for: the term “American pizza” seems a bit generic, especially if you are fine with thin or thick crust.

Working lunch at Kuerle, Xinjiang province. Kaobaozi (baked meat pies filled with braised fatty lamb with coriander & pepper) & Liang Pi (cold noodles in spicy & vinegary soup with cucumber & wheat gluten).

Soylent Green ... tastes a bit like beans, though.

Landed very late on Sunday night at Kuerle, Xinjiang province, in the very northwest of China. After spending the whole day in three consecutive flights I was just thirsty ... Found a small nondescript place with lamb skewers, braised egg plant and smacked cucumber. Peanuts and local wheat beer as well. The crisped up lamb fat with chili & cumin was fantastic ...

You monster 😱

Do you feel the same after one alcohol-free beer ..?

Yeah !

Dinner at a lucky find in Hangzhou, China: Crayfish ! Appetizers: Century quail eggs ... Edamame in Zhejiang vinegar Smacked cucumber Sichuan-style West Lake carp Garlic cray fish with tons of garlic ... Breath refreshener 😉

Pottery. Bought in a 100Yen store in Chiba some years ago, because I wanted to drink a bottle of convenience store sake in style in front of the train station ...

Got a bit more details to the courses you’ve intended ? Or just the meat, grilled/broiled ? I think pretty any cuisine has your kind of accompaniments to riff off, but if you have a bit more info it would be helpful.

Today’s dinner (bit of a Mother’s Day edition): Prep done for Yakitori ... Overview Okonomiyaki-dressed Tamagoyaki Sashimi Edamame Agedashi nasu (fried Aubergine in sashimi) with Yuzukosho (fermented peppers with Yuzu) Agedashidofu (fried tofu in a different dashi) Yakitori (including chicken skin-wrapped asparagus)... Sake (today only one variety). My wife had a Kirin 😉

I would have your dinner any time. But why does that baked potato look like a test subject from new Romulan disruptor prototype field trial ?

A bit delayed ... Thursday’s dinner at a Izakaya at Makuhari, Chiba prefecture: Mixed Sashimi Edamame Mixed Tsukemono Tamagoyaki with Mentaiko (spicy cod roe) Fried Kamaboko (fishcake) French fries (we had an Indian colleague with us, who required vegetarian options) Buta no kakuni (braised pork belly) Some local fish with white miso Chicken sashimi - the liver was fantastic Chicken “nanban” Chicken karaage Oshizushi with vinegared mackerel (Mock ?) Shark fin cartilage with miso Sardine sashimi Sake. A lot. Everyone on the table picked their favourite.