Duvel

Classic German SchniPoSa* night - this time with a bit of help in the preparation … The Schnitzel … The (commercial oven) fries … Salad and mushroom cream sauce (the latter for the Schnitzel 😉) … A good way to start the weekend ! —- Schnitzel, Pommes Frites & Salad

Little one brought a friend home after school, so I made spaghetti with meatballs. The friend obviously liked them a lot and when he told my son that, little one answered “Because my father uses butter” … I would have pointed out the De Cecco spaghettini, the Mutti crushed tomatoes, the Spanish anchovies in the sauce, the fresh basil or the copious amounts on Parmigiano and fresh herbs in the meatballs, but obviously it was just the butter I fried the garlic in … 😜

Definitely bread …

A German dinner: minimal heating required 🤗 Weisswurst, Bratwurstschnecke, Brezel and Brötchen. Straightforward, yet delicious …

Catalan braised rabbit legs & meatballs, with wild mushrooms and (completely untraditional, yet requested by my wife) farfalle … Tastes much better than it looks 🤗

Nope, sorry … that for the breakfast thread then. You don’t expect us to wait for 6h, do you ?!

I really don’t care at all for anything sweet* … —- * And it was Peaky Blinders, not Gilmore Girls 😎

Made a lovely & sensible salad - fresh greens, avocado, goat cheese, pine nuts, balsamic cream … Two hours and one Sake Martini later I boiled up some commercial pork Pelmeni, dressed them in the usual kewpie/chili crisp/Sichuan peppercorn oil combo and had then while watching Peaky Blinders … 🤗

I have my doubts …

You certainly know that the Hamburger is named after the city of Hamburg, where it originated in the mid 17th century. Of course the closer you get to the source, the better the product, so I recommend searching for the best burger only in German Youtube channels, such as Klaus grillt …

I buy frozen cooked large octopus arms from a fish wholesaler. They are excellent, just need thawing in slightly salted water …

Little one requested pica pica, which is the Catalan equivalent of tapas. That is mostly his way of saying he wants to eat octopus … Shrimps with salt & garlic (ran out of parsley) Patatas bravas (plus the sauce, of course) Albondigas (meatballs) and a curious truffled salami covered with Parmigiano, that I found recently at the supermarket … One octopus arm. My wife got one slice. I wasn’t fast enough 🙄. Omelette in the background … Plus olives, fuet, cheeses, mussels in escabeche, bread, oil, tomatoes. Sangria for my wife and a beer for me. Happy family 🤗

I know this well for Kombu, but Nori flakes in a soup would not be so attractive (at least not to me) …

This is a thing of beauty, @shain !

If you look at the copycat recipe posted above, you'll see that they are emulgating the sauce with an egg yolk. With that you will tone down the acidity significantly as well, while upping the viscosity, and it will coat the the wings better (same holds true for the cornstarch). Maybe give that a try as well. Please also note the copious additions to the basic "vinegar & butter" flavor profile ...

It will change the flavor. It will evaporate part of the vinegar, it will mellow the spiciness and eventually concentrate flavours and increase the viscosity. Whether you like those effects depends on your preferences …

Great minds think alike (including the phrasing 😝) …

Sorry, but these questions were not directed towards your wings, but the ones you are comparing them to … And FWIW, you can always google the „copycat“ recipes (e.g. this one for example) and see according to the feedback how close the individual recipe gets to the real deal. Still need to follow the recipe and cook the wings, though …

My suggestion is to start with a few simple questions: Why do you think they use only these two ingredients ? In which percentage ? Which butter ? Is the sauce coating the wings processed (cooked/homogenized/ …) ? How is the wing itself pretreated/marinated/cooked/seasoned before being drenched in the sauce ? Serving temperature ? Source of chicken ? … There are so many variables. You might start by analyzing what flavor component you are missing* and tweaking your wings bit by bit** … Or have a look at our recent Wings Cook-Off and get inspired 🤗 —- * my personal guess is always MSG … ** of course this means cooking wings again and again (cf. the cupcake conundrum)

Feeling a bit sentimental recently, and food memories are a way to compensate. So, while Okonomiyaki means „cook as you like it“ and there are countless versions, this is my favorite one, modelled after a small and not particularly fancy or famous place in Kyoto, Teppan Izakaya Gionwa. It’s just the place I went to so often during my years there, and that is exactly what I wanted tonight: Getting there … No Asahi, but still good … Served with the works and shredded nori instead of aonori … No complaints 🤗

Vietnamese keyboard on an iPhone …

Phở bò viên …

You can certainly compare the recipes on paper (or screen), even triangulate the common steps and create your own, but ultimately you will need to apply the recipe and bake a cupcake. If 1-2-3-4 is the common denominator, why not start from there, and tweak crumb, moisture content, taste and whatever from there. These things will depend on much more that the recipe, e.g. your flour, milk, oven setup. I am also quite sure that most of the cookbooks referenced will describe how to tweak your recipes or which factor will influence which part of your product. You‘ll need to read more than the recipes for that, though … What I am trying to say is: bake a cupcake and bake a better one after that, until you are happy.

Needed some comfort food with minimum effort. Linguine Puttanesca - just so rewarding. And since my very first holiday in Italy on a camping ground at Lago di Garda at the age of 16 it will be always served with a crumbly goat cheese in my home. By now I know that’s not traditional, yet it will be forever just right for me like this …

Now, this might be just me (and I am very supportive), but … what is your goal ? You are collecting cookbooks, or trying to optimize your cupcake recipe or … Curious minds start to wonder 🤔