Duvel

In my world it would be a coffee-flavored sponge cake, but I assume that doesn’t fit your request …

Felt like fish today. Despite being it a Monday, the local fish monger had freshly delivered cod. Fish & chips (and sauce remoulade plus some minty mashed peas) …

Lovely ! What kind of wrapper do you use ? The color is very light for a lye-based dough ...

I have successfully cooked rice with (diluted) coconut milk in my trusted Zojirushi. And I make chicken soup in it. Regularly.

Not quite IKEA‘s, but the version the little one (and me) like best. There are usually no mushrooms in the sauce, but I like to include them. Serve with boiled potatoes or buttery mash, veggies of your choice (think root vegetables) and lingonberry jam: Ingredients: 600 g of mixed minced meat. I like 50% beef and 50% fatty pork, but really - you can use anything. 1 egg ~ 80 g of freshly made breadcrumbs 14 g salt 1 grated garlic clove 3 g of this mixture: equal parts of black pepper, nutmeg (or mace), dried ginger and allspice. If you don’t want to go all the way: just pepper & nutmeg will do fine. 40 g butter 40 g flour 200 g thickly sliced mushrooms 1/2 teaspoon mustard* 1 teaspoon soy sauce* 400 ml beef stock 150 ml creme fraiche (or cream plus some lemon juice) dash of Worcestershire sauce (optional) salt to taste Method: Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs and set aside for 30 min. Form into balls (between walnut and goofball size), put on a baking sheet and bale at 220 oC convection for about 15 min, or until browned nd cooked through. In the meantime melt the butter, brown the mushrooms and add the flour to make a light roux. Stir in stock, mustard, soy sauce and bring to a light simmer. Add creme fraiche, most of the meat balls (reserve two or three as a cooks treat) and cook for about 5 min more. Check seasonings and serve … —- * this is a fairly mild sauce. You can double these two ingredients to get bit more oomph.

Having still some red-braised short rib handy, I made some steamed buns and stuffed them with said short rib, kewpie, quick-pickled cucumbers, cilantro and chili crisp. Drizzled with the braising liquid and wolfed down before the the structural integrity of the bun was compromised

Green asparagus & mixed seafood pajeon …

Originally intended for yesterday’s dinner, but more than welcome tonight as well … Köttbullar* (yes - you like them at IKEA, but wait until you‘ve tried the homemade version), just done carrots & peas and a buttery potato puree. Served with lingonberry jam (from IKEA). No complaints 😉 —- * are you aware how this word is pronounced in Swedish ?

Please elaborate 🙏

My butcher had lovely short rib pieces on offer today. Short rib is not a popular cut in Germany - in fact it is usually sold as „soup meat“ to make stock. I got it at 7€/kg … With the nasty weather outside I wanted something warm & comforting. I braised it Chinese style with the usual spices, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, scallion, garlic … 3.5h later the whole house was smelling fantastic. We had Köttbullar planned for dinner, but little one decided he wanted to have some of that lovely smelling beef. I diluted the braising liquid with some beef stock, added extra garlic and tomato and made some Taiwanese beef noodle soup*. Took me back to my student time at NTU Taipei. He enjoyed the soup and some anecdotes from his father’s exploits in Taiwan 🤗 —- * with what I had at hand. I substituted some spicy pickled cucumbers for the mustard greens and was surprised how well that worked.

Little one requested “dim sum” for today’s Pizza & Movie night. Specifically xiao long bao and spring rolls. I am very certain that while the kid had probably more xiao long bao in his life than most westerners, I am also pretty sure he never had a spring roll. At least not in the faux-chinese egg roll takeaway sense that I was envisioning. But hey … Made some egg rolls from scratch and pimped the “menu” up with steaming some commercial (& frozen) xiao long bao, siu mai and har goe and threw in some panfried gyoza for good measure. Served on IKEA plates, because … you know. The leftover spring roll wrappers were shredded, fried and dusted with Mission Chinese’s magic dust, as employed on the linked chicken wings. Finally, some chocolate ice cream, wrapped in mochi dough. All enjoyed while watching Studio Ghibli’s masterpiece Totoro. I can’t decribe how happy I am that the little one enjoys this movie as much as we do. If you haven’t seen it and feel any connection to Japanese culture, please do something for your inner child and watch it. You won’t regret it - I promise 🤗

Thanks, @Okanagancook - corrected !

I think it is meant for both: this walnut garlic paste is used in a lot of Georgian recipes, and provides a distinct flavour, although I have to say that in this soup the flavours are already quite strong so it is more of a background element. It does thicken the soup a bit.

This is my take on Kharcho. It might not help you to win over you Georgian mother-in-law, but it is very tasty and reheats well. Plus my little one likes it a lot … Ingredients: ~400 g of minced lamb (or beef). 1 medium onion, chopped 1 spear of celery (can use more if you like), chopped ~1 L of lamb stock (or beef) some oil 1 450 g can of chopped tomatoes salt (to taste) 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp smoked paprika (pimenton de la vera) 80 g walnuts 2 cloves of garlic 50 g long grain rice, washed - can use more to make the soup more stew-like 1 tbsp tamarind puree (or more) - sour plum puree is traditional, but any source of fruity sourness works from my point of view. Tamarind is great, but lime juice could be substituted. chopped cilantro (chopped dill, chopped parsley - optional) - Dill works magic here ! Method: Heat oil in a large pot. Add minced meat and brown slightly. Add chopped onion & celery, sweat aromatics for some minutes. Add tomatoes & stock, add some salt and simmer for maybe 15 min … In the meantime, grind walnuts, garlic, spices to a more or less fine paste. I preroast whole coriander seed, crush them in a mortar, add garlic, crush, add walnuts, crush and finally add paprika. You can add a bit chili here if you like as well. Add washed rice. Simmer for about 20 min until rice is tender. Add walnut paste, simmer for 5 more min. Check and adjust salt level. Take off the heat. Add herbs and tamarind paste. Let steep for about 10 min, then check final seasoning and serve garnished with some herbs. Reheats pretty well and is best enjoyed with some flatbread.

Yes. But made exclusively from fatty sheep’s milk. It is rich, savory, tangy - a very nice derivative …

Hahaha - not in my family. I offered a piece with half of the egg to my wife. When I cut it, the little one saw the yolk was still liquid, got excited and so the other half went to him … But (and not pictured): I made two Khachapuris 😝

Bit of a Georgian inspired dinner tonight … The Kharcho, prepared already yesterday and rewarmed, which improved the already pretty tasty dish … Accompanied by Nigvziani Badrijni, or eggplant rolls filled with a kind of walnut-garlic pesto … And a Khachapuri, with plenty of cheese, including this lovely brined sheep cheese I recently discovered … I will post the recipe for the Kharcho tomorrow in RecipeGullet, @Tropicalsenior. After dinner, my night cap (and the new episode of The Witcher) is waiting 🙏 …

I do like it with lamb the most, actually, and will post a picture tomorrow, recipe too, if you are interested. It is a well spiced, fairly „strong“ tasting soup and with that being said I would not hesitate to make it with pork if the other meats would be unavailable*. Concerning the stewing part - my recipe uses ground lamb (or beef) because thats the version I tried first, so it is not an issue. —- *And as Georgia has been scrapped from this year’s travel destinations I don’t have to fear the wrath of some Georgian grandmas for lack of authenticity. And neither should you 😉

Pretty much. „Döner groß“ is pretty much universal a quarter of a large flatbread stuffed with plenty of meat. You‘ll find that basically any Döner shop as the standard. There is usually no „regular“ size; girls and kids go for the „Döner klein“. The „Döner Big“ uses a slightly smaller flatbread, but half of it and is stuffed with a ginormous amount of meat. It could be considered „US size“, but I guess that they use the term „big“ because „groß“ was taken, as was „Spezial“, so its the next best thing to describe the next larger size. I do like Döner, and the meat in particular, but for me with the amount of meat stuffed in the bread the ratio is off a bit in that one.

I prepared a huge pot of Kharcho, but then felt it would be better the next day. Which presented a welcome excuse to get a Döner … Döner from „my“ trusted Döner shop in the next town. Buying Döner actually is a matter of trust: proper quality meat, consistent spicing, freshness … one can hide a lot of shortcomings in a Döner skewer, and many do, so having a good shop close to me is important to me. You can find the definition of Döner in a German context here. Döner (whole stacked veal slices, no minced meat, minimum spices, properly browned) Iskender Kebap*: same Döner meat, layered on roasted cubed flatbread, topped with thick yoghurt, bit of tomato sauce and molten butter - my favorite ! ___ * sorry for the crappy picture - family had already indulged.

The one with the most “agressive” bubbles. I’d guess either of the two “club sodas”. Gerolsteiner is not strongly carbonated …

You’d think by now I would know most of the popular preparations … I always wondered why people would actually point out that they “blackened” their food - besides literally everytime hearing Metallica’s “Blackened” in my head when I read this I was somewhat positive that it means “charred”. But when I read that even @liamsaunt seemingly blackens on purpose I decided to google it. Who knew* ? Another eGullet moment for me … —- * besides all of you, of course. But I am trying to make a point here 😝

Oh dear …

The sweet ones in syrup are probably the origin of ozoni, the Japanese New Year dish. The latter is famous for dozens of deaths each year in Japan from slurping the hot soup and inhaling one of the very sticky rice balls with an unfortunate fatal outcome. Is this a phenomenon in China as well ?

Beef neck was on sale this week, so I got myself 2.5 kg and made Marcella Hazan’s ragù alle bolognese this morning. I used an open red wine instead of the requested white and found that the result was still perfect. Having a little more than 5 kg of ragu at my disposal I made a lasagna tonight. Ragu, besciamella and fresh lasagna sheets (commercial). Mixture of parmigiano and provolone dolce (‘cause that’s what I had open in the fridge). It is a simple dish but boy … this is sooo delicious. Thanks, Marcella ! Yes - the Ikea plates indicate this was consumed while enjoying a movie for this week’s Lasagna & Movie night - Hotel Transylvania 4.