Duvel

Due to Covid restrictions my sister and her husband couldn’t join my parents and my family for Easter this year. As they are visiting us right now, I try at least to replicate some of the food we had. Tonight: cheese board & breads ... Made (again) some rye bread with walnuts (and nut vinegar), plus some regular bread: The milder ones (clockwise from the top): St. Felicien, Comte 12m, fresh goat cheese, St. Maure. The slightly more pungent ones (starting with the plastic packed one, clockwise): Epoisses, Bleu d’Auvergne, Langres, Brie de Meaux and some fig-horseradish marmelade ... A local off-dry Grauburgunder and a very fruity Primitivo to go with.

Family breakfast ... Recently, we discussed the usage of a different egg preparation for the Eggs Benedict. My wife doesn’t care much for poached eggs, so today I used 6.5 min eggs. She and the little one preferred it over the traditional prep (probably a textural thing), I am not sure ...

That looks pretty good ! Butter for Germans is a must indeed, in some areas butter with chives is served as well. Mustard might come with the sausages, that accompany the Brezn, but not with the bread itself. The Liptauer is definitely an Austrian treat; the southern German / Bavarian version is called Obatzda and is more rich and pungent due to the use of (ripe) Camembert instead of cottage cheese. Typically, one orders a portion of it and then the Brezn comes as an accompaniment. It’s pretty much a meal.

I think throwing the skin (or any tasty bits) into the beans will always be a good idea 🤗

During my time of monthly visits to Xinjiang I had plenty of „tiger salads“, but you are right - all other veggies were either cooked or pickled ...

Thanks for giving this a go, @TdeV - how would you judge the skin ? It does look crispy, yet not „expanded“ ... would you do your protocol again ?

And my point was to make your point it would be helpful to include the English translation. Not everyone is fluent in Chinese ...

I think the translation „cold skin (noodles)“ would explain the off-putting aspect a bit ...

Got some of the first green asparagus of the season. It’s a big thing in Germany. Served with some varieties of cured raw ham, parsley potatoes and veal cutlets (w/ bone 😉). Sauce Hollandaise because it is tradional, and 6.5 min egg because I like them. And some Champagne, because ... why not ?

My knowledge of Chinese is very limited compared to yours, but as a frequent business traveler I know a little bit of the associated terminology (purely theoretical, of course) 😉

Soooo ... you mean there is a chance my tattoo doesn’t say “accomplished cook “ ?!

Well ... one corned cow‘s tongue makes a looooot of sandwiches 🤗

She typed with her toes - who knew ..?!

Beginners ... 😜 (from here)

But ... there is this 😳

By popular request (from both our little one and his grandparents): (Marcella Hazan‘s) Ragù alla Bolognese with maccheroni ! Plus a pinot gris ...

I think you had Flädlesuppe ... We usually eat it in beef broth, but a strong chicken soup should be equally delicious. You can find the proportions for the dough here (German), and for making crepes out of that you are already more than qualified 😉

You sell them in Canada as sausages ...

After visiting my mom for her 70th birthday last week the little one stayed a week at his grandparents. Today (after the obligatory bilateral negative Covid testing) my parents brought him back and will stay for three days. For tonight they requested “Nur Abendbrot”, or just the “evening bread”, which is the correct German term for dinner. Bread with cold cuts. Both of them love corned tongue, so I made some ahead this week and prepared some tongue Reuben sandwiches ... Had a wee dram while prepping ... Freshly made rye (with caraway and pickle juice) Corned tongue, pressure cooked ... TRS ... Of course my parents brought my hometowns Mett 🤗 For dessert some caraway-scented Schnapps for my dad and me ... A good way to start the weekend !

I got another rainbow trout today. Unfortunately, my filleting skills are ... somewhat rudimentary. Which is still a euphemism. Soooo ... I made fishcakes 🤗 Served with Swabian potato salad, (commercial) remoulade and a quick cucumber salad. And a Bavarian “Helles” !

My apologies - should have merged the two posts. The full recipe is a few posts before ...

I got a large rainbow trout from my fishmonger (850 g), that I roasted in the oven and served with pinenut/bacon/cream sauce and spinach. I took a picture, but for reasons beyond me it’s blurry ... Enjoyed the skin (celery-salted and recrisped) as dessert with a Somontano rosé ...

Leberkäse, as described here ...

Most welcome - and thanks to you I made a batch for lunch 😉 Before ... It takes a heavy beating ... ”Stringy” - notice the color change ! Baked until 75 oC (more or less). Sliced up and ready to eat ! Important: when you buy that fresh at the butchers, you get it in a bread roll, which in turn is wrapped in paper to take away. This steams the roll a bit and makes it soft, but chewy. I microwaved the roll - same effect. The beer is optional, but works well. Consider it alcoholfree 🤫 Yummy !

Sure. In Germany you can buy ready made curing salt (“Nitritpökelsalz”, very often abbreviated as NPS). It contains 0.5% sodium nitrite. You can mix this from the pink salt available in the US and regular salt. For the Leberkäse: 800 g fatty minced pork 200 g soda water 30 g starch 21 g NPS (curing salt, see above) Spice mixture for 1.05 kg mixture as above (I make a lot of that; you can use it for sausages, meatballs etc. - it is very good. Think “Bologna” spice) 3 g white pepper 0,25 g cardamom 0,5 g coriander 0,25 g ground ginger 0,75 g macis plus later 5 g baking powder with phosphate (this helps to bind the water) Have the meat, the soda water and the mixing bowl ice cold (see also my linked post above). Start mixing the meat vigorously. Add the salt and the spices. Mix the soda water with the starch and add slowly in portions. The meat will turn from a healthy reddish colour to a pink emulsion over the next minutes. Temperature should not exceed 10 oC. Once pink and “stringy” (you’ll notice, no worries) put into a oiled single loaf tin. It will act like a dough. Press down, you may make a criss cross pattern if you like. Bake in a 130 oC oven until internal temperature reaches 75 oC (about 1 h). It will slightly expand. If you like you can also ramp up the oven to full once internal temp reaches 70 oC and brown the exterior a bit more. Let cool down, enjoy warm right away, put on a griddle an brown or let cool and turn into a cold cut or into wurstsalat. Enjoy !