Duvel

Ha ! Let’s come over and let me prepare a potato tasting menu for you first - then you decide 🤗 And emigration won’t solve your problem: there are no russets to be found here. But what I was jokingly trying to point out is that rather than focusing on color or species name maybe you find a substitute with the same cooking properties: from waxy to starchy, and anywhere in between this continuum ..

Me, me, me … My supermarket usually only carries Annabelle, Linda, Cilena, Sieglinde, Agria, Granola, Quarta, Saskia, Freya, Bintje, Melina, Ackersegen, Adretta, Bamberger Hörnchen and Reichskanzler.

It is more like a loaf of bologna … there is no liver and no “livery” taste profile. Needless to say, it is still very good. In fact, there is a supermarket chain here that attracts customers by selling a 1€ Leberkäse rolls. Loooooong queues. I am unable to go there and not buy one … such as … ehhhm … today 🙄

I think regardless of the primary reason (environmental, health, Karma, …) to choose a non-traditional meat substitute, there are two additional factors playing in: taste/taste expectation & cost. Not everyone that signs up for the primary reason does feel that the other two factors can be satisfied. If you will, right now these three factors form a triangle in which you necessarily will have to compromise. There is a small part of the population that is able to compromise on price, and thus will get a product that is as close as currently possible to meat (and black bean quinoa patties do not fulfill anyones taste expectation as a meat substitute). They are also compromising on their primary reason, as you have rightfully pointed out, be it environmental or health-related, although not consciously but due to lacking proper analyses of the matter. This is and - by market consensus - will be the target group for meat replacements, unless the third factor, price, will significantly drop - the McDonalds factor (you eat because of availability & affordability). Once and only if that would happen, companies like Beyond Meat would truly step out of a limited, yet currently moderately lucrative niche segment of the food industry. The market does not foresee this to be happening anytime soon, so the honeymoon phase on the stock market for these producers of plant-based products is unfortunately over …

There are also pictorials here and here, to illustrate the process and augment @Tropicalsenior's recipe link.

That looks fantastic, @Tropicalsenior !!!

It doesn’t look right, but it certainly tastes right … Tamago Sando (or Japanese egg salad sandwich). Plus some pork dumplings with spicy oil 2h afterwards, because while the sandwich didn’t look like much, it really wasn’t much 😝 …

The lower left …

It is not easy … it’s a skill, and you need to learn it. In every line of work, people that do an outstanding job get promoted - but their people skills to make them efficient leaders are usually not developed at the same time. Chang is an innovator, a good cook with a great sense for business. That does not qualify him to be a great boss. If he doesn’t have opportunity/time/commitment to learn to be a good leader, it usually doesn’t happen on its own. Not an excuse, merely an observation …

There is plenty of SV red cabbage recipes in the German-speaking internet, but very few with the cabbage being left intact or in wedges. This one cooks the cabbage, simply seasoned with salt & sugar, for 2h at 70 oC. After that it should be yielding, but not disintegrating and you could butter it and gratinate …

I love this !

Hey … there is a fruit yoghurt.

Anytime, @TdeV 🤗

Sure. It is pretty straightforward: You sweat 2-3 onions in (a little more) oil until caramelized, reduce the heat, then add some mild curry powder, followed by smashed garlic & ginger and some tomato paste. Stir, stir, stir. Then add crushed tomatoes (maybe one cup), more curry powder and some sweetener (I like apple sauce, or honey, or brown sugar) and a tiiiny splash of vinegar. You want to have a sweet & sour interplay. Simmer for 10 min, puree with a hand mixer and start adjusting the spices. Maybe more curry powder, definitely more salt, and a little chili. Mix with a grilled & slices sausage and dust with more curry powder.

It starts only after the hospital …

My mom is home now, and that’s what counts. It is not her first herniated disc, but with age recovery times go up while options to permanently fix things go down. But she’ll pull though 🤗 I am sure that “Danish carrot casserole” (Dänische Möhrenpfanne) is a similar authentic German construct as the famous “Toast Hawaii”. It is easy to make: you use half-half sliced carrots and sliced potatoes. Cook them in a large pan with a little vegetable stock until they are almost tender, then stir in creme fraiche (or sour cream, or fresh cheese - some fatty, non- curdling dairy) mix well and let soften a bit more. Add your blue cheese (be generous) in crumbles on top, cover for maybe 10 min and let melt in the residual heat. Add chives and enjoy.

I think they use a mixture of belly (Mett should be fatty) and shoulder. Spices are salt, pepper, punched of clove, nutmeg or mace and garlic. Make sure your meat is free of Trichinella, though.

Last day. Breakfast was “the same”, as it basically always is and noone ever complains … For lunch I made Szegediner Gulasch with freshly made Spätzle. I made a lot. Froze some in individual portions, just as I did with the Tafelspitz. Additionally, I made a huge batch of Pickelsteiner Eintopf, his favorite stew, frozen as well in individual portions. He likes these kinds of long simmered dishes a lot and I know he will be able to warm them up, even without my mom 😝 Luckily, the day after I left my mom was released from the hospital - with crutches & a family pack of painkillers, but at home ! My sister is now at their place to take care over the weekend and me and my little family will drive up again the next weekend. All good 👍

Lunch was a repetition of the pasta & carrot dish, respectively. As my father could get a visit permit to see my mom in the hospital, we had to get a freh Corona teat certificate. In the area of the test center was a great place for Currywurst, that my father wanted to go to. Unfortunately, it was closed. So while he was entertaining my mom in the hospital (only one visitor allowed 😶), I went shopping and he got a Currywurst at home. My mom asked where the extra iron was hidden in this dish, but smart as I am we got it from the fruit juice with EXTRA IRON.

Breakfast: a roll with my two favourite sausage: “Weisswurst” (not the Bavarian type, this is the spreadable Northern German type: basically fat, onions and finely ground intestines) and “Schwartenwurst” (essentially the same, but higher meat/intestine content and pieces of boiled skin). Talk about energy ✊

And because it was Sunday, there was pizza. My parents oven setup is a bit … tricky, so I made a family style salami, ham & mushroom one. Happy faces 😜

More of the same breakfast, and some more beef broth for lunch. By now the appetite seemed to cone back and my father asked for some cake, which I simply bought: the seasonal favourite plum cake with whipped cream …

Dinner was pasta with creamy spinach (iron !) sauce …

Next day breakfast looked exactly like the first day. For lunch I had presalted a Tafelspitz, so I simmered that in the beef broth I had made. It got even better. Served with braised carrots and potato Knödel …

For dinner he requested „Danish carrot casserole“, which is a bake made from carrots, onions, sour cream and blue cheese. I used Gorgonzola picante, so it might be better called „Italian carrot casserole“ …