Duvel

And yet none of your virtual burgers could be captured on camera, pearlized paper, etched into clay tablets (w/ appropriate cuneiform) or as charcoal on cavewall drawings to memorize the occasion ?

After a week of rain, the weather turned back to summery … I found some corn tortillas recently and with pork neck on offer this week I decided to make carnitas tacos. So, with lovely weather, a cold beer and the kid on the trampoline … Carnitas (SV, then crisped under the broiler) … Loaded nachos … Sour creme, guacamole … Pico de gallo, roasted pineapple salsa … Yum !

Himmel un Ääd: Thüringer & blood sausage, mashed potatoes, fried onions and apple sauce. Served with a Kölsch.

Cornstarch works well, as does potato starch ( Flour doesn’t unfortunately, as it is not purely starch) …

If your ground beef is on the fatty side, consider making Leberkäse …

Marcella Hazan’s ragù alla Bolognese, hands down! Just made 4.5 kg with ground short rib …

Interesting indeed. A bit counterintuitive for me, but am happy to learn 🥳

@Kim Shook: fantastic 🥳

My lazy streak continues: homemade burger, broiled to medium rare, on (commercial) brioche bun, cheese, bacon & the works. Little one requested fried onions, so they were in there as well … As a curious fact: the cut you know as shortrib is not very popular in Germany (“Querrippe”). So, whenever a butcher offers “Suppenfleisch” (lit. “meat for making soup”), he typically has short rib in the mix. I usually go then, ask for freshly ground beef and ask if he can use short rib. In 90% of the cases I get what I ask for. This makes for a flavorful and juicy burger for a very reasonable price. Curious fact #2: burger (as well as pizza) for some reason are enjoyed most in this household if served on IKEA plastic plates for kids. It just tastes better that way …

Amazon Germany sells alcohol - and on Prime day at interesting prices (at least for some that I was interested in) …

Feeling too lazy to cook … but found a package a small Maultaschen in the fridge (originally purchased to amp up some chicken soup last week). Boiled and simply dressed with soy sauce, sesame oil, dash of balsamic vinegar, doubanjian, chili crisp and cilantro.

… plus a three other bottles ☺️

Yes, you can eat them. You can eat the green parts of (more) mature ones as well, just need to cut very thinly and cook them. Blanching and/or stir frying should do the trick … Disclaimer: I am not a professional either …

Little one is getting better and wasn’t feeling like chicken soup. He would have liked pizza, but remembered that pizza night is Sundays 😉 … So I made him Focaccia (Escalivada, anchovies & olives; potato, garlic & rosemary; potato & chanterelles).

SV veal breast, third installment: sliced up, marinated with olive oil, onions, garlic and „Döner“ spices and flash fried. Served with caçik, salad, tomato, cucumber and raw onion on a toasted Turkish flatbread … A quick and easy Friday night dinner ☺️

Another day, another congested family member (😉), another chicken turned into a restoring chicken soup. This time with some extra ginger added. And with a proper picture (because yesterday’s really sucked) … I really like the addition of the fried chicken skin at the end. Can’t quite remember where I saw that, but it is a nice addition …

The next iteration of a SV veal breast: sliced thickly into steaks, seared and served smothered with herb butter, Escalivada (topped with chopped anchovies) and yesterday’s Gnocchi „diluted“ with fresh chanterelles & garlic on the side. Quite yummy !

Do you have an IKEA in your vicinity ?

In principle, they are Markklöschen. One of the ingredients is beef bone marrow, that however can be substituted 1:1 with butter - as in this case. 60 g Butter (or bone marrow or mixture), molten 60 g Panko or finer breadcrumbs 1 tbs starch parsley 2 eggs salt, pepper (white) and nutmeg Combine all ingredients except the eggs. Beat the eggs, add and let rest for several hours in the fridge. Form little dumplings (I like round) and poach in barely simmering salted liquid/stock until they float to the surface. Freeze them at this point, if desired, or add to soup/stew …

My wife and the little one woke up this morning with a cold - not unsual, given how weird the weather behaves. With both at home I decided to run to the market, get veggies and a nice chicken and prepare a chicken soup (pressure cooker be praised). Served with dumplings, veggies, rendered chicken schmaltz and some crispy chicken skin. Not much to look at but very welcomed by both of them …

Let’s approach this scientifically: with the given time & temperature, and a properly sealed bag, plus ideal cooling & storage the probability of having active bacteria (Listeria, Clostridium, …) present in the bag is very low. At your fridge temperature and given the anaerobic environment, growth will be slow, but is possible. Overall, sufficient bacterial contamination is unlikely. A potential resulting poisoning from ingestion, will have a serious (major) if not severe (catastrophic) outcome. Applying a general risk matrix will give you: This will leave you at a high risk, per definition in need for fail-proof mitigation. I would assume you don’t have that (e.g. a willing taster), so I suggest to abstain from consumption.

It looks great and while maybe the shrimps & the mushroom Schnitzel might not be strictly traditional, I‘d be more than happy enjoying any of the dishes as German fare 🤗

I bought a slightly larger piece of veal breast last week on offer and cooked it over the weekend SV 24h @ 57 oC, resulting in a lovely tender & pink chunk of meat. Sliced some of it up thinly and quickly marinated with olive oil, vinegar, salt, some „Greek“ spices and garlic. Thrown ever so briefly into a really hot pan to make a faux veal Gyros. Served with a salad, zaziki and some (commercial) Gnocchis. This could quickly become my favorite faux gyros preparation …

I think our definitions of failure are somehow different - if I put that on the table at night and get myself one or two Mai Tai’s I would not only had a nice dinner (and a buzz) but also a feeling of accomplishment. Nothing wrong with being flexible and making do with what you have 😊

I am using SV to cook larger cuts of meat (read multiple portions from one chunk) significantly more than before. And then use in multiple dishes. Condiment-wise I ramped up my consumption of: crispy fried onions (IKEA), mayonnaise (Kewpie), pickles (various) and chili crisp (Lao Gan Ma). And - as @Maison Rustique mentioned - I use more convenience products. Pretty much exclusively carbs: ready made filled pasta, (German) potato products (Knödel, Schupfnudeln, even sometimes mashed potatoes).