Duvel

Lovely 🤗 Would you like to share your marinade and cooking technique ?

I will make a personal comment first (without trying to convince anyone, just to give you my angle), and then move to the actual question. I do not believe in the mantra that saturated fat is necessarily bad for you, nor do I believe that controlling your blood lipid levels (which I believe to be dominated by ones genes) is 1:1 linked to cardiovascular events and lastly I do not subscribe to taking e.g. statins to modulate the outcome of my bloodwork. As for the actual food question: I started with the intro that „This is what Germans eat everyday“, and it has been like this for ages. I don’t think that traditional food necessarily means „most healthy“, it’s merely a reflection of availability and custom. What makes it suitable for everyday consumption is undoubtedly the ability to balance it with your lifestyle, and that is for me a question of calories in versus calories out. One possible misconception I thought of is that what you see on the table is actually all eaten in one dinner - it is not. The term Abendbrot describes it pretty well: we‘ll eat bread - two slices if rye bread, or maybe a rye roll with some flaxseed, or whole wheat plus cold cuts or cheeses on top of it. All the rest of the spread goes neatly back into the fridge for tomorrow’s breakfast or dinner (whch are basically the same, except the former has maybe a marmalade or two). The Mett on the table is a 200 g portion, for four people (and there were leftovers). Yes, Mett is pork meat, but it is also a raw, seasoned salty sausage. You can’t really eat a lot of that - it is a topping for bread, not a main dish. Same holds true for the salami, the cured ham, the cheese. And that combined with „heavy“ breads is enough for two out of three daily meals. So, there is not a lot of meat per se. Veggies are served at every meal depending on seasonal availability. In spring this means for example ramps and the first herbs of the year (that my parents and little one had pureed in a sour cream based sauce over potatoes and hard boiled eggs for lunch, while I was on the highway and enjoyed a bottle of sparkling water). At yesterdays dinner we had french radishes (not on the picture), pickled cucumbers (in the glass) and onions. A salad or some tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, paprika etc. could be served as well, but usually not more, and no warm vegetables. That usually covers your vitamins requirements, together with the bread toppings, while the bread takes care of your fiber needs. If you haven’t had German bread, your gastrointestinal system is in for a treat 🤗

Germans eat a lot of pork. When we say „Fleisch“ (meat) it is usually understood that it means pork. That being said, every slaughtered animal will undergo the Fleischbeschau by a veterinarian, where selected organs and cuts will be examined for potential diseases. For pork this examination includes a test for trichinosis. The last reported case of trichinosis in Germany as a food-borne illness was in 1970.

Mett !!!

Yeap … so fresh that you can still hear the pig squeaking 🤗

Picking up the little one after a week at my parents … this is what Germans have pretty much everyday for dinner: Abendbrot. Usually with a rye bread instead of the rye rolls, and maybe with one or two cold cuts less. But that’s essentially what I grew up with …

Eaten in the car - I appro🤗ve

It might help to up the doneness. Once you get to the „contraction“ phase (temperature-wise) of the meat fibers, juices start to appear …

I don't think it's necessarily only the fat. I usually go for medium rare, and with that doneness there should be plenty of meat juices leaking, even with leaner species. Sometimes I buy "lean beef" (aka 10% fat percentage), and that's messy, too ☺️

Ha @rotuts ! You sure know burgers 😜 Some of it landed on my shirt - luckily, I had a "free evening", and the shirt made its way into the dirty clothes hamper before the rest of the family came home ...

Bacon cheeseburger …

I have a few (read: tons of) leftovers from the long Easter weekend, which my frugal wife insists I use up these days. I started today by using half of the potatoes as Bratkartoffeln. Had to buy some meat to make Schnitzel, because - well - Bratkartoffeln. Also got some Kochkäse and lingonberry jam, because of the Schnitzel … My dear wife was initially not amused by me straying away from the „only leftovers“ path, but quickly decided that it’s better to enjoy this type of „leftover dinner“ than to complain. Especially with the bottle of Spätburgunder I bought today as well 🤗 So - almost no complaints !

Last of the Easter dinners, and this time not according to the plan … Family decided that they got stuffed for three days in a row and wanted something „light“, not a full Spargel dinner with all-you-can-drink Hollandaise - well … It does look „light“, no ? Meager, even … Made new hummus, new zaziki and reheated the cous cous from yesterday … Olives, feta cheese and toasted flatbread … And I turned part of the lamb & beef plus a bit of the roasted veggies into Giouvetsi with the help of a packet of Kritharaki, served with crumbled feta … Despite the fact that all were sooo full to begin with, they did a pretty good job finishing it all 🤭 As usual, no complaints 🤗

And the last of the Easter breakfasts (pretty much the same as the ones before), featuring my go to: croissant with ham, cheese and egg …

I think @Shelby shared my appreciation for this brand of chocolates … and I am always a sucker for seasonal/special editions: the Easter 2023 version is „lemon meringue & whole milk“ and it is soooo tasty …

Easter linner as per the plan … This was meant to be our dinner, but the Easter bunny (in its human reincarnation as my sister) brought little one tickets for the new Super Mario movie, starting on Easter Sunday at 17.45h. Complete with oversized softdrinks and popcorn, so a full dinner was out of question. Instead I moved everything to 15.00h, which posed a minor logistic challenge as the conventional lamb roast needed 8h in the oven. But hey - sleeping long on Sundays is overrated anyway … The setup … The meats - it is complicated: my wife, little one and me like our lamb medium rare, my mother and my sister can’t eat pink meat and prefer conventional roast texture. My father has a trauma from his childhood (after the war), when in his family pretty much any sausage was „enhanced“ with the cheaper mutton meat. You know, the old ones. So he doesn’t eat lamb … I bought a whole leg of lamb at our Turkish butcher, deboned it and made two roasts, seasoned with garlic, thyme, rosemary, dried yuzu and chili. One went into the SV setup for 24h@56oC, the other (larger one) was roasted low and slow for 8h@120oC over a huge bed of veggies, that were replenished now and then. My father got a 5h@120oC beef rib. All meats were tender and tasty. My father was delighted with the rib bone. The roasted veggies - kind of samfaîna/caponata style … Some appetizers were had, cheeses, dips, olives. Chickpeas with roasted garlic, onions, tomatoes and beef drippings. Couscous with dried apricots, pistachios and lemon. I made some hummus plus flatbreads for mopping up the juices … There were also potatoes with garlic & thyme. They‘ll probably make good Bratkartoffeln tomorrow … My first plate - that’s the SV lamb … All enjoyed with a nice red … No complaints 🤗 Everyone retreated to their rooms for a nap, while I cleaned up, did the kitchen and then went into the mancave for a well deserved Yamazaki 12. Happy Easter !

Yeees … just look at the tiny dish in the upper left part of the picture. Snack !

You are completely right concerning the texture. Instead of a more fragile egg white shell you‘ll have a thin yet stable white. On Eggs Benedict, with the toasted muffin, the fried ham derivative and the thick Hollandaise I feel I can compromise … but - again - it is a short cut 🤗

Happy Easter 🐣

Second day of the plan … Weather did not support and we ate indoors. This was an interlude between Good Friday fish and Easter lamb, so … Some sausages to snack … Leberkäse … With a mustard-lingonberry dip - very good ! Bratkartoffeln … Kartoffelsalat … Burrata, tomatoes and garlic croutons … And Matjes „Hausfrauen Art“ And those who wanted got a fried egg on top of their Leberkäse. Actually just my father and me, the only two Cholesterol-deficient people in the family 🤭 Happy faces 🤗

Yes, exactly - have a look here. Boil for 5 min (from fridge), shock in cold water (for easier peeling) and peel away. For 4-5 people you can just directly assemble, for larger crowds you can do it a day before, and just heat up in a waterbath. I use my SV bath, st 60 oC. Takes somewhere between 10-15 min, but at that temperature you are „yolk-safe“ for longer than 30 min … The only „drawback“ is that the eggs are quite round. But once you cut into them, all happy faces …

I still have that 🤗 Just wishing for a college students metabolism …

Family breakfast … And my mom made these cute seasonal napkin holders …

I switched to 5 min eggs … prepeeled and heated up in a 60 oC waterbath for service.

The Matjes and the grey shrimp were excellent - with so few items you need to be sure they are: I splurged a bit and bought from an upscale vendor at the wholesale market in the next city. Pricey, but sooo good …