Duvel

So shite ra … ano … arigatou, ne 🙏

I think a huge part of eGullet is that fact that we deal with things that are rarely made at home (or at least by very few people 🤭) …

If you like to have a recipe for this interation, send me a PM 😉

Hmm … I already posted Easter linner here, but maybe you’d be interested in breakfast, too ? I picked up fresh croissants from the only decent bakery open on Easter Sunday some 10 km away from our home. They came fresh out of the oven … The full monty: And at least my favorite: the cold cuts … An oddity: Easter Brötchen with carrot inside … The mona or Easter bread. A brioche dough with an hard boiled egg. Perfect with Nutella ! And just in case you were wondering about the rabbits: the big one is callled Mr. Brownie and turned 20 years this Easter. My mom sent it to my then girlfriend (now wife) on our first Easter living in Japan 2004. The little one is called Hasi and belongs to our little one. We bought it 2 years before he was born, and gave it to him upon his birth (his second picture ever is with Hasi). They celebrated Mr. Brownies birthday together …

I buy them in a bag of 5kg and refill my potato storage container in the kitchen with it, so I can’t say for sure which floury potato was this batch. Normally in this region, it’s either Gala or Bintje …

A lovely sunny Easter Sunday with some flower garden strolling and the first (woodruff flavored) ice cream of the season … … led to Easter linner: Featuring a 10h oven roasted leg of lamb … It was perfectly tender and juicy. Served with the already reduced braising jus and herb butter. Classic green string beans … Caramelized leeks … Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic, Parmigiano and aragula … Beans braised in lamb stock with tomatoes and olives … And some commercial potato croquettes (hooray for air fryers) … Plus a nice red to appease the in-laws Yum 🤗 No complaints. None at all. Frohe Ostern, everybody 🐣

Today’s linner … You may know that asparagus is huge in Germany. The season starts now and is very much anticipated. I know it’s kind of unpatriotic but my first Spargel of the season didn’t come from our town, but a small village in the Palatinate. We had a chat at work the other day and my secretary told me that a farmer in her town grows the best asparagus in the region. I ordered to kilograms (at 16€/kg, which is pretty decent for the early season). So … 2 kg of very fresh asparagus, just peeled and the trimmings cooked into a braising stock with salt, sugar, lemon and butter. I eat one or two raw as a cooks treat. They burst with liquid and flavor. Also as a cooks treat: a Duvel 🤗 Schnitzel for DW and the in-laws (the love for Spargel seems to had difficulties crossing the alps) … The works … New baby potatoes (Drillinge) with caraway … Veal Schnitzel … The star of the show, accompanied by cured pork loin (Lachsschinken), Bastīrma (kind of Pastrami), Tirolean Speck and cured pork neck (Coppa) … Homecured salmon … Everyone else had a Scheurebe Auslese, I had a Duvel … Oh … and sauce Hollandaise ad libitum ☺️ And later - for the gentlemen of drinking age: Auchentoshan 18 … No dessert. None needed. No complaints 🤗

Had another “German food, but light” request from the in-laws. Inquiring minds need to know, so I asked: it seems that the Catalan gastrointestinal system is sometimes overwhelmed with pork products (not entirely sure, how this manifests itself - surely inquiring minds don’t want to know). So, an easy pork-free weekday dinner: Pumpkin-cheese bread rolls with three dips: Obatzda (ripe Camembert with butter, fresh cheese and spices), Heringssalat (pickled herring, red beets, apple, onion, sour cream) and Fleischsalat (smoked vegetarian bologna, cornichons, onion, mayo). Fresh Brezel … Some of which where prepared with herb butter, parsley and chives … Weisswurst (all veal version: some popped during the tempering, but they were great. Mildly spiced with mace, lemon peel and parsley, these actually felt light) … All in all a great success. The lightness of the meal was underlined by me serving only Riesling, (and one Duvel for me) and the lightest of Japanese whiskey in my portfolio as a digestif 😎

Warm enough to fire up the BBQ outside, but not warm enough to dine al fresco (at least not for everyone 🤭) … Meats: sausage, Grillfackel (spiced pork belly wrapped around wooden skewers), pork collar steaks and chicken filets. Homemade herb butter bread … Tomato mozzarella pesto … Roasted courgettes with dried tomatoes and feta cheese … Potato “pockets” with cream cheese filling (hooray for air fryers) … Kartoffelsalat with bacon and cucumbers … There was also an off-dry Riesling and copious amounts of a new lime mint soda - no complaints 🤗

Pizza & movie night, “in-laws edition”. It’s not that easy to find a movie they haven’t seen and - for some odd reason - is not animated. So, the “real life” version of The Lion King, preceded & accompanied by: Salami & mushroom … Rohesser & artichokes … Capers, olives & anchovies … We had to choose the Spanish version, with subtitles for me (and little one, even though we are not allowed to tell that to the in-laws) … No complaints (on the pizzas, mind you 🤗)!

They do look nice. If you want to go all the eay, you could potentially improve them with a 10 min quick cure with 2:1 salt:sugar to draw out more surface moisture and a sear with a high-heat stable fat, e.g. ghee …

My in-laws have arrived for a two week stay over Easter (yeaaaah 🙄). After the 13h drive the wanted something German, but “light”. Well, I had already mixed up a batch of Leberkäse, so … Light German dinner … Featuring: Leberkäse with 20% beef content (leaner than pork alone, at least that’s how I sold it …) A bottle of wine they purchased on the transit through France, because „my FIL always needs a glass of wine for lunch“. He also needs a nap after that, and I wonder how he took it as my MIL doesn’t drive … And for the cook: Cherry Coke Zero (extra „light“ because diluted with a good splash of bourbon. Hey, my in-laws arrived recently !) No complaints. It will come in the next two weeks, though 🤗

Maybe use a tangzhong to achieve the fluffyness without the egg taste ..?

I hadn‘t heard of peposo before, but looking it up I am certain that beef cheeks will do great and you‘ll be please with the result. Mirroring @&roid’s advice I’d make certain they’ve rendered out most of their connective tissue as gelatin into the stew, then the richness of the entire dish (not the meat itself) will be balanced, as @AAQuesada mentioned. Please give it a go and report back. I’ll be checking on offers for beef cheeks as well to try peposo. Thanks for pointing in that direction 🙏

Happy to oblige 🤗 So, 14d home-cured corned beef (with curing salt, sugar, quatre epice, garlic and pepper), braised in wheat beer for 6h at 120 oC in the oven … Plus the fixings - carrots with honey & thyme, potatoes with caraway and caramelized cabbage … Guinness … Some whiskey I got from my BIL (I had my doubts, but it was quite ok) … Followed by a not-quite Irish dessert 🥳 No complaints 🤗

My parents and my sister and BIL came for the weekend. As Sunday is St. Patrick’s day, we preponed pizza & movie night to Friday. Out of fear pizza alone wouldn’t cut it, I prepared some antipasti … After that, everyone was full, yet they managed to finish half of the pies … I upped the hydration this time to 66% … cornicione was airy. And as for every good time, there has to be a good beer 🤗 No complaints 👍

I eat a lot of cabbage and have never encountered a cabbage weighting only a pound. 1.5 kg would be a small specimen ? 500 g sounds more like an oversized Brussel’s sprout 😎

Oh boy, do I have fond memories of that stuff. Every Saturday after progress report we headed out with the PhD and master student of the group to the Izakaya close to Katsura campus. The first whiskey highball came with the otoshi (or “free” snack), that was always changing. But the second highball came (only for us, being regulars) always with yamitsuki kyabetsu. Thanks for reminding me 🙏

If only a true linguist could solve this conundrum 🤔

While my method for ragù bolognese follows Marzella Hazan pretty closely, I take liberties with the ground meat very often. Germany is pork country and good quality pork is easier to come by than good quality beef. That being said I have never experienced any “hard bits” due to the nature of the protein.

Sea urchin-flavored rice crackers … excellent 🤗

AFAIK, gado gado dressing is often made with fish sauce (and occasionally with shrimp paste) …

Simple is best - and your Straciatella looks pretty much perfect to me 🤗

Pizza & movie night: Half salami & mushroom, half capers/olives/anchovies … Hawaii: fresh pineapple & Kassler pork collar … Cornicione shot … Enjoyed while watching the first half of Avatar.

While I can vivdly imagine a Parmigiano chicharrón I am also intrigued by the celeriac tartare … could you elaborate 🙏 ?