Duvel

After the weekend something more light for dinner: Curry Laksa, paste made from scratch and topped with chicken, shrimp (somewhere hidden), slightly overcooked egg and tofu puffs. Enjoyed outside in „not yet Singaporean“ temperatures ...

I think this is one of the perfect combinations in the culinary world !

Indeed a nice idea !

Saturday nights BBQ left a „few“ leftovers from mostly the bovine side of the meat spectrum. Time to be thrifty: Steaks, sausages, chicken thighs went through the meat grinder ... And into Marcella Hazans ragù alla bolognese ... A few hours later the ragu was done and enhanced with some Bechamel and a pound of lasagna plates ... Enjoyed in the garden with a Strawberry Mojito. We were so full that pizza & movie night had to be shortened to movie night 😉 !

I keep it for three, four days ... probably even longer, but it usually doesn’t last that long (in terms of quantity).

This is pretty much the standard side dish in Greek restaurants in Germany. The correct term would be Lachanosaláta. Preparation is pretty much straightforward: 500 g or so of finely shredded cabbage, massaged with a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of sugar and some finely ground white pepper. Dressed with 3-4 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp white wine vinegar and some sparkling water (that helps to tenderize the cabbage). Leave to marinate in the fridge overnight, then add chopped up parsley in amounts at your discretion.

My parents came over for the weekend ... as they live up in the north they didn’t had BBQ this year so far. With the weather being great this weekend, I decided to change this 🤗 My mom said my father would like to go for „steak“, which in a German context refers to beef, as for the pork cuts we have more specific terms. I was happy to oblige ... I made some faux epis from pizza dough ... Plus a few salads. Potato (of course) ... Tomato & burrata ... Greek style cabbage ... ... and chickpea couscous with veggies, raisins, mint and walnuts. Trimmed ribeye, sous vide and finished on the grill as the first item ... Full rib steak, 1.5 kg, directly grilled to medium-rare ... Some sausages (coarse & fine, got to have some pork after all) for good measure ... Not pictured boneless chicken thighs „greek style“ and some bone-in veal steaks, that were not touched. There were a lot of other fixings involved (including a fantastic Gorgonzola compound butter) which didn’t make it on any picture either ... Finished with Strawberry cheesecake with fresh strawberries from the neighboring town. Happy family 🥳

Second @weinoo‘s pesto suggestion: best way to preserve your harvest in a versatile & delicious way ...

I cured half a brisket for the last 2 weeks ... then cooked SV 36h @ 68 oC. Makes a very nice & tender corned beef, and a lot of it 🤗 Today, breakfast burrito with said corned beef, swiss cheese and a fluffy omelette.

I think this might help (forget about the equivalent page in English, thats not correct) ... The same cut is available from veal & cow, usually available in Turkish butcher shops. Strangely, most Germans don’t buy this cut in its beef version. I like to use it for stews ...

From this weeks “special offer” section of the REWE supermarket chain. They have good quality meat, and I get most of my produce there ...

As onthers suggested, this is a “Nackensteak” or pork neck/collar. It is the quintessential BBQ item in Germany & comes usually marinated to accelerate the cooking time. I couldn’t imagine a BBQ without it (lower one in the middle) ...

Gesundheit !

Oven roasted chicken wings, with and without a gochujang-based glaze, plus quick pickled cukes & sprouts with garlic, sesame oil & soy ...

Yup ...

It definitely will. Chloride-induced corrosion is a product of time, concentration, water activitiy, temperature, pH and a few mitigating factors. (Wet) Salt & cast iron at elevated temperatures is not a good idea ...

I’d go with (vitreous) enamel. You want to avoid chloride induced pitting corrosion and enamel should do the trick under your conditions (<300 oC, low to moderate moisture, minimal abrasion) ...

Siemens or bust ✊

I think the “separation” part is slightly misleading. Paellas are not meant to be dry and separable (in the sense defined below). To prepare, you are looking for medium grain, rounded rice. In Catalunya, bomba is popular. It yields a product which has not completely separated rice grains (like you may imagine from long grain varieties, or treated products like Uncle Ben’s). It does, however, have a clear al dente point, so from a texture perspective you will experience distinct grains while eating. Senia is popular as well, but produces an even creamier texture and is easily overcooked. It seems to be the most common exported variety - if I buy generic paella labelled rice here in Germany, it is usually senia. I’d go with bomba if you can find it ...

Weekend ! Weisswurst, sweet mustard, Brezel, Obatzda and some Maultaschen (veal) for good measure. Plus a wheat beer ... And something more Mediterranean for my wife ...

I understand that this topic might get some emotional replies. At the same time, I doubt it was intended to be a trashing of one’s cuisine by the OP - I see it more of a intellectual challenge how a dish would conceptually look if it was transplanted into another cuisine. If I want to make an “Italian” meatball, I use maybe basil, garlic, parmigiano and simmer in tomato sauce. A “Thai” meatball could have lemongrass, fish sauce and some sugar added, and gets grilled over charcoal. You get the idea - it’s what people who enjoy cooking play with. That doesn’t mean that I reduce the respective cuisine to these few ingredients in that specific dish. Nor is it by any means authentic. That a few ingredients pop up as a representative of American cuisine might not be correct in everyones eues, but it seems the connotation peoe have. When I suggested the “Eggs Benedict” don, the chicken bacon association popped up in my head first. I do know that there is more to American cuisine than bacon, but would it wrong to choose it as an representative for American cuisine in this Gedankenexperiment ? Personally, I would not feel offended if someone makes a “German” don by adding chicken Nuremberger sausage, Eierstich and some Sauerkraut as the pickle on the side. Sure, it serves many stereotypes, even those used by some in a derogatory way towards my home country, but because I know that there is so much more I couldn’t feel offended. Sorry for pushing my opinion here, but I liked the idea to transplant a dish into an unusual set of ingredients. And if “stereotype” ingredients pop up (and be it mac & cheese) and get elaborated on, that’s part of the fun, too - at least for me 🤗

Bun bo (technically, but I like protein and added some shrimp) ...

I’d go with an Eggs Benedict approach: rice bowl, topped with crispy fried (chicken) bacon with a poached egg in the middle, drizzled with sauce Hollandaise & chives on top.

Phở bò viên - or meatball pho. Everything made from scratch during the breaks of the seemingly endless video conferences. A tasty reward for a long day, enjoyed outside and very well accompanied by a Hefeweizen ...

I also don’t wring them ... but then again, with the grated onion, the flour and an added egg a little water from the potatoes doesn’t matter much. I certainly agree on the washing and the wringing on products where you want to have visually distinguishable and/or individual strands of crispy potato.