Duvel

Sorry, position's taken. They do have the male version of that already 😝

Yeap … dat one !

With DW and little one still sick-ish, I whipped up a chicken noodle soup …

Back to work today after two weeks in Spain - why do holidays always have to end 😪 At least I got a lunch meeting in our company restaurant. It’s called “quick lunch set”, but it did the job … Double boiled goose consommé with roasted apple pieces … Venison filet with Spätzle, roasted chestnuts, blanched Brussel sprouts and the most dense & aromatic sauce I’ve had a in while … Petit fours and coffee to finish. I am reconciled with the day ☺️

You are correct 🤗

For some reason everytime I spend my Christmas vacation in Spain, I get sick. Must be the absence of any stress or something. Regardless. after some crappy days today was my “convalescence” linner (a lunch taken from 16.30h-18.00) at a local restaurant with Catalan favourites … Menu for @rotuts … Amuse-gueule: Pumpkin soup with jamon serrano … I had the Trinxat, a mixture of potatoes, cabbage and bacon … DW chose the red beet soup with pickled fish and avocado … For mains she took the oil poached salmon (calling it Tataki was a bit misleading) with leek confit - this was excellent ! As was my squid with blood sausage and artichoke purée … Dessert: Tarte Tatin for her … Puff pastry filled with cream and strawberries for me … Coffee & a nap 🤗

I had a bottle of Corryvreckan some years ago. It was good - dense, sweet, mineral and quite peaty. At 57% the experience of course depends heavily how you dilute it - I tend to enjoy at slightly higher abv’s, so that’s when you get above notes.

Damn … that’s smart 👍

Ahh … and I thought its some kind of 3D printing pen for chocolate.

That should be feasible …

Simple dinner: xulleta (or entrecôte) and green beans with butter & garlic. The cuts here in Spain are always too thin for my liking, so you don’t get a proper crust without overcooking. Nevertheless, I managed a decent compromise …

I’d appreciate the effort 🙏

We render Schmalz mostly from pigs, but ducks, geese and sometimes chicken, too. If you do that with meat attached (and shred that once cooked), you’ll end up in all cases with rillettes. Otherwise, just Schmalz 🤗

Indeed. Griebenschmalz will contain pieces of the crisped skin and meat bits, but in this case from pork 🤭 … This one has onion and apple, too …

After the Christmas food marathon there are plenty of leftovers, and I like to turn them into something nice … This morning: Trinxat. Finely chopped cabbage, chopped potatoes and crumbled blood sausage, lightly bound with potato starch and fried up in bacon fat and served with a fired egg on top … And for the next days … all the meat turned into Canelons. Life is good !

After all the holiday food, I just baked a rye bread and put some cold cuts & cheeses on the table (plus pickles, Schmalz and - for some reason - octopus) … No complaints ☺️

They have, of course. But you are right - not to be exported. Hence I order when in Japan 😜

I think it is more of a service than an exploit - think “omotenashi”. You can order at any national Amazon: if Amazon as a transnational company would have any interest in blurring national markets, it would have been done.

Technically, just as my last Christmas “dinner” post, this is lunch. But as we start at 16.30h and go on for some hours, the dinner thread is appropriate as well … Second day of Christmas one of my wifes aunts is hosting the 30+ members if the family. Just as on Christmas day, the menu is hard coded, no deviations. I started the dinner by demolishing the iberico plates … As usual, kids got their fill of macarons, while the adults prepared themselves for the lunch … After aperitif & snacks, we were served small sweet red peppers, stuffed with bacalla, pine nuts and raisins, then dressed with beixamel and gratinated with some cheese … I could eat a lot of those (and actually did). This is followed by “veal” fillet, marinated in white wine, lemon juice and Dijon mustard, then briefly grilled on a plancha. Served with samfaïna … Followed by torróns, traditional Christmas sweets, brandy, coffee, the works. Champagne, of course, and good conversations …

Here they are called galets. They are shaped like a shell / a conch. Easy to stuff with sausage or any forcemeat, which due to the shape will stay in place in the cooked product …

It a triple ring propane gas burner, suitable for oversized pots (like this 30L+ model) or paellas, mounted on a sheet if „unburnable“ metal … Something like this.

A Catalan Christmas dinner: Christmas soup with filled pasta … Accompanying meats & veggies … Chicken with prunes … Baked apple … Dessert !

Ahh … @rotuts is correct on the amount of plates and on the location. The picture was the prelude to the Escudella i carn d‘olla, the non-negotiable „lunch“ (~16.00h-21.30h) on the first Christmas day. Over the years I have graduated to play a bigger part of the preparation, and this year I did most of the work (under the watchful eye of my MIL) and all of the service. 24 adults and 9 kids - it was a busy evening … But starting from the beginning: my in-laws have a huge rooftop terrace, and in a sheltered corner the magic starts to happen two days before the meal … In different stages vegetables, organ meats, ears, bones, salted pork products and cured ham scraps are boiled for hours and eventually removed. It yields a rich, unsalted stock not unlike a good ramen base. Some hours before serving, the stock is salted and divided. In the larger part a variety of sausages, potatoes and cabbage are introduced and simmered for some more time. In the smaller part, huge garlic-heavy pilotas (meatballs) are simmered, then renoved and a special kind of pasta (huge shell shaped) filled with sausage meat are cooked. When done, the stocks are combined again and it’s time for service. First course (and what all are eagerly waiting for the whole year): the soup with pasta. You wont believe how much some Catalans can eat of that … Second course: boiled meats (beef, pork, chicken, lamb), ears, sausages, potatoes, cabbage and pilota, served as per request and dressed on the table with olive oil and salt. To be repeated until ~75% full … Third course (cooked in the meantime): roasted chicken with plums, raisins and pine nuts, that were marinated overnight in brandy, white wine and some proto-stock. Simmered until reduced and well caramelized. Fourth course: roasted apples with minced meat filling … Fifth course: coffee, brandy, cookies. Plus the kids reciting Christmas poems and collecting money from the grown-ups … Sixth course: Champagne & the Christmas toast. No complaints (even a foreigner made the soup 😜) ! Bon nadal 🙏

Before the storm …

Breakfast with the little one in a not so busy side walk cafe in a small town on the Mediterranean coast. Sunshine, a croissant with white chocolate and a cold beer - what could be better at 10.00h in the morning ..?