Duvel

“When you’ve got a hammer, everything looks like a nail” Or more precisely: when you’ve got a new toy, you want to play. I recently aquired an air fryer, and today was the day to apply it to one of my favourite food challenges: Gyros. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with what I can do, but there is always this feeling it could be easier, it could be better. So: pork collar, thinly sliced into 1/4 inch slices and marinated in the Duvel Gyros marinade … and then reassembled, vacuumed for 24h and cooked SV for 4h@58oC. It yielded a brick looking like this … Put into the Ninja air fryer at highest (“air crisp” setting) for a few minutes, roasted sides sliced off, back into the Ninja for a few minutes, sides sliced off and once more back into the Ninja - you get the idea. It yielded quite decent Gyros. Full of roasted flavor, yet tender and juicy meat ... It served as a base for a Greek dinner … With freshly made pita … Greek salad … And some lamb filets for 1/3 of the family which is not genetically primed to enjoy pork products … Croquettes for the same part of the family, but ultimately enjoyed by all. My Ninja has two cooking zones 🤭 Yum ! Was it good ? Oh yes … It it less work than making a skewer and running it through the rotisserie ? Yes, but by a margin … So - no complaints 🤗

Customized …

Not true at all … I send many emails to Ingvar Kamprad (until 2018 at least), yet they continued to offer only two sizes. I had to customize myself …

Don’t mean to belittle the main course, but that is pretty much my perfect dinner 🤗

Little one is sick at home with a bacterial throat thing … so after two days of his beloved chicken soup (made a huuuge batch two days ago) with ABC noodles he requested “something else” today (means he is getting better). After some inquiry he opted for Ramen, which is … soup with noodles 🙄 So: some homemade chicken soup with added dashi and dark soy sauce, spaghetti and some off-the-shelf toppings made him a very happy camper … I had a greek salad and my first air fryer chicken wings (finally got one - thank you, eG enablers) … No complaints (whatsoever) 🤗

You need to work on your pouring skills ... that beer is only foam 😱

I reported you to the moderators for that ...

Sudachi ?

Well … First they dress you up with a makeshift bib and explain you lengthy the history of the drinking style and the liquor. Then they make you warm your hands by rubbing them against each other. You have to press your flat palm onto the funnel, so the liquid can’t run out due to the created vacuum. You need to lift the funnel with the other hand quickly, yet carefully towards your back-tilted head - the waiter helps you by pressing your hand firmly onto the funnel while helping you to guide it to your mouth. At this point you realize there is no hole at the bottom of the funnel, all tables around you laugh and you knock back the liquor in a normal way. I know why I had my plant manager go first …

I‘d say for the acupuncture needles it doesn’t matter, and for the cork - if used as a household remedy for explosive diarrhea - better before …

Second (and last) night in Dresden … On my way to the Restaurant I passed the Striezelmarkt, yet another Christmas market … We had dinner at the Sophienkeller in the Taschenbergpalais. Lovely cellar with - ehm - interesting faux-medieval furniture. Beer of choice was Radeberger, the local favorite … I had Saxonian Sauerbraten, with raisin sauce (excellent), red cabbage and a giant Knödel with a prune inside … Our plant manager had a funky - yet obviously famous Eastern German - dish: a Schnitzel gratinated with a kind of blanc de veau and cheese, which then was on the table heavily doused with the Dresden variety of Worcestershire sauce (yeap, that exists). For „dessert“ we had a Trichter (an zink funnel) filled with some obscure local herbal Schnaps. Interesting. Christmas markets were all closed after we‘d finished dinner, so we had one „on the go“ from a bar and called it a day …

Not sure if that’s only available in Germany … The McRöstis arrival coincided with the Glühwein season, so after a few of the latter I took one for the team and purchased the former … What can I say 😜

So you haven’t tried salsify yet …

Heidi was certainly one of the most prolific members here. She was able to join any discussion, either to contribute or just to push the discussion further with interested questions 😊. I think we bonded first over her Donauschwaben heritage (or Banat swabian, as she liked to specify) and she took always great interest in food from the old European heartland, a liking we shared. I enjoyed our exchanges in threads and in PMs, the last one over „Eat Pray Love“ just some months ago. Definitely a character, with a lot of challenges, which she shared in the off-topic forum, but also with an uncompromising positive outlook on life, on (most of) her family and … on us. I will miss you, @heidih. Ruhe in Frieden 🙏

Business trip to Dresden … busy, busy, but with two nice rewards at the end of the day: First dinner - quarter roasted duck, goose breast, red cabbage, brussel sprouts and local potato dumpling (with a prune inside) … And then a lovely scenery on the way back to the hotel …

Nice … I am going to steal this idea 🙏

I love Zimtsterne … the perfect Christmas cookie. This year, a hip German smoothie brand even brought out a Christmas smoothie with Zimtstern flavor …

Yeap - blood sausage. Chunky bits are pork fat and onions …

I do not care in general for German winters - cold, dark & wet. Had to do a plant inspection today and felt more than ready for the few good parts of the German winter: Grünkohl with copious amounts of pork products. Sooo … pork belly, blood sausage and Leberknödel, all accompanied by onion-bacon dumplings and Grünkohl that had been boiled into submission over 2.5h … The blood sausage was from my local butcher and literally melted in your mouth. Outstanding 🤗 All enjoyed with an Austrian “autumn” brew - bit sweet, but worked well with Grünkohl … Family is not fond of that type of German cuisine, so they got chicken baked with cream and mushrooms and steamed string beans … Definitely no complaints. Eyeing a digestif right now …

This one‘s for @rotuts: Shepherd’s pie, cleaning-out-the-veggie-crisper edition … Comforting & tasty, as always 🤗

It‘ll be a leisurely 20 min drive once you‘ve moved in 🥳

Epilogue: Slightly toasted tummies require: 1. Salt 2. Carbs 3. Umami 4. Something acidic The respective owner of said toasted tummy required something easy to make. Soooo - Linguine Puttanesca … Worked like a charm 🤗

Damn … I‘ll be going next March. We need to better align, @weinoo 😉

Since there is no „linner“ thread … First Sunday of Advent marks the time the Duvel family ventures into the accompanying Christmas market season. Today we met with some friends at Heidelberg. We started with some quick Glühweins mit Schuss (mulled wine with a shot of Amaretto). This picture shows the process how to distribute 4 Glühwein between three persons (one of which values his privacy) … Plan was to get the little one (and his similar aged friend) tired out early, so we had then ice skating. First time 😉. He managed with a bit of help … Fueled by a lot more mulled wine (that makes you impervious to the cold) and some potato pancakes (dito), that were inhaled before any decent picture could be taken, we moved to the area around the market place … Kids got crêpes with Nutella & cherries, as they were in dire need of calories after 1.5h of ice skating. Older ones had anothr Glühwein. Or two. Moving on to the university square, where all the artistic booths are … Woodwork … Fur … Old timey stuff … The Christmas star shop (that has seen a lot of business from my side in the last decades) … And finally: the wild boat sausage from the hunter cooperative. Looks unspectacular, but is very, very good. Enjoyed with Düsseldorf style sharp mustard. I had two. For the dinner thread, of course ! Finally a round on the carousel and everyone agreed that the day was a success and that -4 oC were reason enough to head home … No complaints. Except a bit hungry …

I now feel somewhat inferior for just pressing a button …