Duvel

First things that come to mind would be: Fish tacos: prepare fresh wheat tortillas from scratch and fry them in a hot pan. Pico de gallo with seasonal cucumber, tomato. Fish could be any regular white fish, fried or for a more seasonal & local touch either katsuo no tataki or unagi. Nepalese pumpkin momos: Roast kabocha, mix with lightly butter-fried spices and fold in some peas or maybe chopped edamame. Fill into store-bought Gyoza wrappers and fry up. Make a raita with seasonal cucumber and cold youghurt. Dessert: make caramel popcorn from scratch and serve over store-bought vanilla ice cream. Quick and easy ...

Looks great, HC! Do you notice an effect from the buttermilk soak on the squid? I am always struggling whether pretreatment of squid is actually effective or not ...

There is no poaching liquid - I suggested merely how to get silky tender chicken breasts via SV. For a more "Hainanese" touch you may add ginger, dried ginger, scallions, etc. (in moderation) amd just experiment ...

I remember the first time I had green Sichuan peppercorns in a sauce for steamed river fish in a Yunnan restaurant in Beijing. I can still vividly recall what it did yo my tastebuds - truly envy you for being able to have that experience at your fingertips !

Tomorrow is the first Dragon Boat race of this season. To sustain ourselves during the day there is a ongoing potluck, and so today I prepared two loaves (?) of Leberkäse - one traditional and one "Pizza" with olives, red peppers and cheese cubes baked in. And for quality check I had a "LKW" (Leberkäseweck) with the tradional one, fresh from the oven with extra-hot Löwensenf. Heaven !

Today lazy Sunday ! "Porchetta tonnata" - pork collar, SV 24h @ 135F, brushed with a mixture of ghee and reduced pork stock, then seared on a hot grill. Sliced thinly and served with a regular Tonnato sauce, with black olives subbing for the capers ... Followed by a Chuck eye roll, SV 24h @ 135F, then brushed with liquid smoke and seared on a hot grill (Groundhog day moment ). Served with creamed kale and oven fries. And a Duvel (looming in the background) ...

Maybe offset with some Piementos de Padron ?

Found this one yesterday night in a convenience store in Chengdu. Will try maybe today (after an encouragement beer or two ...).

I recently had - as part of a full banquet - a dish of soft tofu cubes, maybe 1.5" side length, hollowed out a bit and stuffed with minced meat and dried mushrooms. They were dusted with starch, broiled on one side before being inverted onto a bed of sliced onions. Broiled again until well browned and the onions were done. Some soy sauce was drizzled over and I guess there was a bit of sugar added, though the onions might have been sweet enough. It was truly excellent (and I asked my host to inquire the preparation, which you read above).

Yup ... I am a very happy camper to go there every couple of weeks. They have now nine locations over town While living in Taiwan I went to their original shop several times. They always had some guys (apprentices) there learning how to pleat the XLB ... with no less than 18 pleats, as they advertise. Wouldn't mind to take a class there, either...

Ha ! At least the German ones have been designed to be eaten in the absence of additional water and/or any heat source, if required. So straight out of the pack they are "ready to eat" (though they gastronomic value might suffer a tiny bit )...

In my childhood my father would take me once a year to the "open days" of the German army garrison in the next larger town. It was always fun for a kid, because you could see live helicopters, tanks and all kinds of weird equipment (like a automated bridge building tank). For my father, who had to spend two years of then compulsory army service, it was all about memories - the good and the bad. He was always excited about the food you could have there - actually every year the same pea soup with sausage. And of course we always took one or two EPa's (the German MRE) home, for nostalgic purposes. I can't say it was a memorable meal tastewise. Basically canned food, together with a array of butter, charcuteries and jams for the dried bread in the pack. My highlight was the little dry-fuel burner that was included and I liked to have the meal prepared outside on the terrace, which resulted usually in a more cold-and-burned pasta in tomato sauce. But it was a bit of an adventure and I liked it. When I checked the Wikipedia entry on the German MRE's today (thanks) memories came back and funny enough, not much seems to have changed in the last 30 years, when it comes to the nutrition of the German armed forces (German "Einmannpackung" at Wikipedia). I thus agree to your conclusion "not bad at all", but partially out of sentimental reasons ...

Thanks ! I use this brand, a little less than a teaspoon for a 600 gr piece of meat (weight before curing).

It works pretty well with pork neck steaks as well. Bit higher temp for the SV and you end up with a moist & tender sweet ham-style product.

A little treat for myself (after watching Peter Rabbit with the little one for Easter): Dry-cured a Chuck eye steak for 2 days with pink salt, brown sugar and jerk seasoning (mostly allspice, thyme and chili). After that removed spices, rubbed with liquid smoke and SV for 24h at 135 oF. Excellent corned beef ... Soft "ciabatta" roll (HK style), dijonnaise made with hot Löwensenf extra, thinly cut corned beef, grated Swiss cheese. Brushed liberally with butter and made into a panini with two hot pans. Pickled cuke because I need to eat more veggies ... Very, very few things are sooo satisfying !

With the shelf and the drawers in the background I probably got confused (no, no Aquavit consumption here ...). Some of my friends don't have kitchen tables either

Looking good ... do you typically eat your meal on the floor, though ?

I am seriously considering quitting my job and moving to the US. I had no idea ...

My god ... that's a fantastic idea !!!

"Himmel un Ääd" (Heaven and earth) - very tasty !

Ichiran Ramen with Onsen Tamago, ginger beef and red Yuzu Kosho ...

Happy St. Patrick's day ...

For "dough"-like applications, I'll steam for about 5-6 on full (900 W) and squeeze out the excess moisture. Anything longer seems to produce this sulfure-like off-smell ... Strangely, baking it afterwards (and thus cooking it more) seems not to affect the smell any longer ...

Yesterday's lunch - or better snack - at the fishing village of Tai O, Lantau Island: Red braised cuttlefish with a bit of the sweet & herbal braising liquid.

Lunch on Friday was a quick bite at the airport of Zhengzhou, China: Liang Pi (cold flat rice noodles, doused with vinegar and sesame paste and a couple of herbs and spices), accompanied by Rou Jia Mo (griddled flat bread with braised meat filling, in this case donkey). Satisfying ...