Duvel

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.

In that case I do not have to put you on my “ignore” list for posting such an obscenely delectable dinner … It’s time I’ll get to NYC.

I cook bare chested*. Like all men in my family I am blessed with the Yeti gene which means I can simply outgrow stains and various failed cooking attempts** —- * I know you didn’t know that … ** except when making marmalade (see the “I will never again …” thread). But then again: scars are a man’s proof he has accomplished something in life and looking like a partially shaved llama has its own merits.

The presear/resear sequence leads definitely to faster browning. But it adds a step and frankly, I do not do that anymore (and add butter in the final sear to get the color right) …

From my experience, that cured meat consistency is an issue with longer SV cooks (e.g. for not standard steak cuts). For a strip steak that stays in the bay he for 2h at 51 oC or so it has never been a problem for me. I always presalt and leave in the fridge overnight for some concentrated flavours. If you want to go funky, the same principle works with fish sauce (25% salt). Draws out moisture and seasons the outermost layer, which equilibrates during the cook.

Found some great lamb steaks today and channeled whatever else we had in the fridge into a Turkish themed dinner … Lamb, SV turkey breast turned Döner, cabbage salad, carrot/yoghurt/mint salad, roasted courgette, zaziki. Beer and ayran to go with it. A word of caution: this combination in itself is already very filling. Accompanied by two pides. One basically a khachapuri, the other with Sucuk and some kashkaval cheese. Luckily, full approval by my toughest critic 🤗

I am using liquid smoke very sparingly, so my only bottle was still purchased in Hong Kong, more than two years ago. There are two items I like it with: my favorite is ribs, where I brush it on the full meat slab before springling them with dry rub, marinating them and cooking in a low oven until tender. It gives a smokey background flavor that is quite different (at least for me) from using a smokey BBQ sauce. The other item are chicken parts (e.g. drumsticks) where it is part of an all purpose marinate. I find it especially useful when using together with sous vide, but also marinating and panfrying gives nice results (if you do like this smokey touch). I read a lot about adding it to chili (as in chili con carne), but I found using smoked paprika / smoked chilis works much better for me.

I was just wondering (as they have Lillet blanc on offer this week at my supermarket): does a “Martini” with Lillet qualify as a Martini (skip the bitters for this question) ? I prefer a straight dirty gin-only Martini, but I have to admit that the sake-infused variety I made recently worked very, very well. It can’t be called a Martini, though … Where is the borderline on what vermouth-like liquid you may add to still earn the “Martini” designation ?

You are right, the article suggests that. But with title and opener focused on wings (hence @heidihs post here in the Cook-Off) I felt closing the article stating that “boneless wings” from Domino’s are seeing reduced portion sizes as well would have been a great opportunity to point out that these are actually not wings and Domino’s is just cashing in on the shortage. But then again I am not a journalist …

Comfort food on a Friday night - fried noodles. Please note the nice shrimps … … that had disappeared in the 60 seconds it took me to retrieve the Sichuan peppercorn oil from the cellar. (Finally I got one as well though - officially they only took them away to peel them. It always helps to protest 🤗)

One thing made me wonder: On Super Bowl weekend, there will be constraints on wing mania. For example, football fans ordering from Domino’s Pizza Inc. may notice just eight boneless wings per order versus 10 previously. My understanding was that these “boneless wings” aren’t wings at all - they are mostly breast, cut in the size/shape of a n average wing piece. So how can these be affected by the demand for wings themselves ? Or is Domino’s just cashing in on the wing shortage ..?

I read that as Char siu beans and thought to myself: what a great idea. But your baos are pretty awesome, too 🤗

That kid is half German, half Catalan. How much more Dadaist blood can you have in you veins 😉 ?

Well … let me check on that. Little one is 8yo and I am sure he could have plated a at least a pirateship with that 🤗

That’s my gold standard variety as well. Simple & perfect. As is her ragu alla bolognese (as a base for this) …

Interesting … can you describe that ?

Sous vide fillet of pork, served with zaziki and carrot phkali …