Duvel

Imteresting … what makes the mushrooms sticky ?

Sous vide tri-tip (or in German Bürgermeisterstück), cooked 7h@55 oC and seared in clarified butter. Served with cheesy mashed cauliflower and caramelized courgette with garlic.

Yes, my bad. So sorry ! It’s not really a recipe, more of a general description: You’ll need fresh pasta dough. Traditionally, a mix of wheat flour and semolina is used, with only eggs, a pinch of salt and a dash of vinegar (god knows what that does). It should be a rather stiff dough. These days I usually use only wheat flour, or I just buy the fresh dough. Fresh lasagna sheets are completely fine as well. Roll out to be just a tad thicker than you would make for lasagna. The filling is sausage meat or minced meat (veal traditionally, I use usually pork though). The latter I’d season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg, and maybe some oregano. The former should be fine as is. It should be well seasoned. For 500 g of meat you add 1 onion (finely chopped and softened, but not colored in butter), 1 large egg, about 50 g of breadcrumbs, 2 Tbsp of milk and maybe 100 g of a boiled leafy green, finely chopped. Spinach most often, but swiss chard works great, too. Or whtever you have. Plus some finely chopped parsley. Mix all very well and adjust the seasoning, if necessary (more salt, pepper, nutmeg). You cut your dough in rectangles, and place some filling on top of it in the form of a smaller rectangle. Moisten the edges that seal the Maultasche with egg or water. Then fold to have at least three layers (traditional) or roll the dough up and flatten at the end. Do not make them too thick … The resulting Maultaschen will be cooked in barely simmering stock (I like beef) for 10-15 min. After that, you either serve in the stock as a kind of soup with Maultaschen, or you remove, briefly fry in butter and top with butter-caramelized onions (or if you are lazy like me put some roasted onions on top) … Enjoy !

A critical review of the content of my fridge yielded a (slightly too) small steak, that needed augmentation … Sweetcorn with herb butter … Oven potatoes … And the slightly unusual side dish of Maultaschen with roasted onion. Because it was there …

Yeah, what’s with that ? When they start to sell stuff at Aldi, it usually means it has hit mainstream … I need to confess I never had it nornfelt the desire to buy it in tge several processed states it can be found. What is the hype all about ?

65% beef, 35% fatty pork - the sweet spot 🤗

Yeap … ハンバーグ 😉

Bit lazy today, so Japanese hambagu steak, with mixed salad and wafu dressing …

A plat ravier is a (usually small) oval plate with a raised rim, on which small starters (hors-d'œuvres) are served. The suffix riche probably indicates a certain unctuousness …

Had a can of good crushed tomatoes open (pizza night), plus some real ones at an advanced state of ripeness and chose to make tomato soup. While browsing through the fridge I also found two packages of smoked salmon that needed to go, so I whisked together some bagels. They crowded a bit the pot and took on an oblong shape, but were tasty nonetheless … Homemade bage with horseradish cream cheese, smoked salmon, onions and caper & tomato soup. I’ll stick with my opinion: the best thing about home office is the canteen 🤗

There is just one way to eat Kale: as Grünkohl! Harvested after the first frozen nights, boiled into submission for hours with the finest parts of the pig* and served with icecold caraway Schnaps … *technically only with those that did not make it in any other dish, sausage or mince. Preferably cured and smoked. “Bregenwurst” would be traditional (with Bregen meaning brain).

Noooo …

Nice crumb structure ! You refer to a straight dough, so this is a long (cold ?) rise in the pan ..?

Carrot (and leek, onion, ginger & a bit of tomato) soup with creme fraiche & refried Haxe cubes …

I think the “Sunday night Ooni” studies are over for this year. No fun when it is dark, cold and somewhat wet on the terrace. So, back to indoorsy pizza making … Family liked the recent cornmeal inclusion, so I worked on that: upped the poolish time to 36h, reduced the hydration to 63%, added a bit of sugar to get a bit better browning … family is still happy. Tuna & onion Mushrooms & sweet ham (tad overcooked crust) Homemade Italian sausage Crunchy crumb shot Little one requested “Mary Poppins Returns” - again. I can’t recount how often we’ve seen that movie this year …

Sure 😉

Gesundheit ! And kudos for making it look exactly like the chicken fingers with tangy tomato dipping sauce sans sauteed lacinato kale on the side …

Great job - looks perfect 👍

Fresh !

Yes, crispy skin. Plus a bit of puffing. It was very tasty. Haxe is not the most popular cut these days. It is not always available, yet if it is, it’s usually on offer. These ones were on offer at 4€/kg 🥳 Very hard to resist …

I love these early autumn days - cool air, yet bright sunshine. So pleasant to be outside (even when you are forced to visit a maize labyrinth …). Befitting the season, a little incarnation of the Oktoberfest. Oven-grilled Schweinshaxe (that did not puff as much as expected) … That’s what „fall off the bone“ looks like … Served with red cabbage, potato Knödel and a very good sauce made from the meat juices, onions and brown beer, scented with caraway. And the Paulaner Oktoberfestbier ! Little one had a loose tooth for almost two weeks and couldn’t really enjoy hard foods for fear of the pain associated with knocking it out … it fell out today, so he went all in with the Haxe. Family was more than full after the meal, so I enjoyed the dessert on my own 🤗

To be honest: I have never seen anyone eating tonkatsu with a knife. It gets slices into suitable portions to be picked up with chopsticks, and then eaten in 2-3 bites … Concerning the meat trimming - he does mention that he removes sinews and chooses the pieces of his menu for tenderness (while other cuts don’t make it on the menu because of lach thereof …).

I think he refers to the creation of holes by the skewers, implying a better circulation of the juices within the cooked meat.

Boulderdash … never seen Fruit Ninja ?!

I think it depends on your upbringing with that specific product. For some German sausages (especially aged Mettwurst), we remove the (sheep or cattle gut) casing; here for the Catalan varieties the thin pork gut casing doesn’t really matter in terms of texture. In terms of taste and mouthfeel, I’d consider the edible mold as part of the package (just as a tiiiiny bit of oxidized fat actually rounds off the taste of good iberico ham). But I fully get that it is a matter of cultural background, exposure and most importantly individual taste …