Duvel

My butcher had this lovely piece of entrecôte yesterday. Got a 700g slice, salted overnight and cooked tonight for 3h@53oC. Seared in screaming hot beef tallow & sliced … Served with a simple tomato salad … And garlic & rosemary fingerling potatoes. Plus a mushroom compound butter. Simple & satisfying 🤗 Served with a rather popular cuvée from the Palatinate. No complaints 🥳

It really got me thinking … Probably the only food I have not eaten (yet) is what I don’t know yet. If I encounter something new, I feel compelled to try it. Of course I haven’t had every sandwich in every fast food chain, but in terms of available proteins (to me) or fruits or vegetables, I got my fill. I could argue I haven’t had for example Ethiopean food in Ethiopea, but that’s more for lack of travel than for an aversion to try. So all in all … got it covered 🤗

Took part of my team out for business lunch after a workshop to our company restaurant. Friday = fish day … Beetroot-cured salmon on a sweet beetroot compote with a potato gratin cube (covered in leek ash) … Pikeperch (a very popular fish here), served with cauliflower and parsley root on a fregula-choriço bed … Carrot coconut cake … All quite good 🤗

I think the effect on acidic foods (e.g. tomatoes) is less pronounced, maybe because the MSG will be more in glutamic acid form, which is a weaker flavor enhancer. For the egg you should notice, but maybe you were really hungry. Hunger, in my humble experience, is the best flavor enhancer there is 🤗

I feel the same way, which for a person with rather elevated blood pressure is positive thing.

You‘d think so, but no. I also keep wondering why I don’t premix, but the reality is that I always throw the mix together in situ. By „volume“ and measured by eye, which tells me that the rough ratios are fairly forgiving …

Specifically for egg dishes I do this: I substitute the amount of salt I would usually want to use (volumetric, by „feel“) with a equal mixture of salt, MSG and sugar. The effect on the egg product is dramatic: it just gets so much tastier. Not more salty (it’s actually a lot less), but more pure „eggy“, more balanced, more … tasty. Very difficult to explain, but the egg dishes are just better. Give it a try, please 🙏

That is a very simplistic view of a rather complex subject … Especially if you consider that guaiacol has an olfactory threshold of 3 ppb. The (potential or calculated) distribution between ethanol vs. predominately watery interface plays very little role …

Kind of pajeon meets bánh xèo. All veggies surrendering in yesterdays crisper raid and one pack of frozen mixed seafood held together in a egg batter with turmeric & coconut milk. No complaints !

It depends a bit whether you are a believer in the sevenfold breaking and stirring in of the crust. If so, do it right away. If not, cook until almost tender, then remove and make a (dark) crust in the last 30 min or so. The second option will of course need significant less liquid, so be careful not to end up too "soupy" ...

Classic pizza & movie night 🤗 Pizza Glasnevin* Anchovies, capers & olives pizza Enjoyed while watching the live action version of „Lady & the tramp“ … —- * A pizza featuring pineapple & corned beef. In my mind the only place where these two ingredients would naturally occur together would be Glasnevin, a residential area of Dublin, featuring the National Botanic Gardens (which have pineapple trees) & where corned beef prevalence is a given. It is also the place I lived while studying veeeery** hard at the UCD. ** VERY !

Action item #1: make that business trip to the US. Action item #2: convince assistant that stop over at NYC is not an hardship that needs to be avoided. Action item #3: align all those variables with a visit to Le Bernadin. (Action item #4: meet up with @weinoo afterwards for a drink and smack him with the bill of AI #3, that damn enabler … 😝)

Uninspired, yet tasty …

One of the great things about St. Patrick’s corned beef must be the copious amounts of leftovers … Baked a rye loaf flavored with caraway seeds … Sandwiches with the bread fresh out of the oven, stuffed with corned beef, a bit of jellied stock and a relish made from mustard, lemon & black pepper mayonnaise, garlic, chopped up cornichons and chopped up braised cabbage. And while I enjoy a Guiness with corned beef just as the next man, today I opted for my all-time favorite …

Octopus ?!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 Aperitif … Homemade corned beef, cooked SV for 10h@82oC. Potatoes, carrots and cabbage cooked in the SV juices; tender cabbage seared afterwards. While the beef looks a bit weird, it was tender & juicy, and sliced well. Rest of the family opted for burgers 🙄 … Dessert …

Croissant with Comté, bacon and a fried egg. Sorry, no money shot of the egg yolk oozing out - by the split second the yolk molecules needed to overcome their inner viscosity after the releasing cut the whole croissant had already been consumed 🤭

I have the predecessor of this model, and it is fine. Sturdy, not too heavy to work with, easy maintenance. It comes in a couple of flavors and price points … ZWILLING Pro 6-Inch Meat Cleaver Razor-Sharp German Knife (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Only cooking for myself tonight, so simple comfort food: Kare udon, topped with tonkatsu & 5 min egg … Plus some sake, just because 🤗

🤪 Not necessarily yours …

That’s Gray’s Papaya … it successfully sued which is now out of business 😝

Bit busy recently, so pretty much only “fire & forget” type of dishes. Critically acclaimed in the last days were … Stuffed aubergines … Braised neck of lamb (a cut that was wholeheartedly endorsed by my Turkish butcher and it didn’t disappoint - super moist after 6h braise) … Served with braised chickpeas and tzaziki …

Same same 🤗

I think investing into something easy to clean, and with sufficient power, would be the way to go. I own a Tefal Optigrill+ and it fulfills both requirements …

Strangely enough, I find the idea of pie day (March 14th) utterly funny …