Dinner 2023

[weinoo]

 

Heirloom tomatoes, with feta, pesto (sans cheese) and olive oil.

 

 

What might be my favorite cut of lamb (well, there's the neck, the belly and the ribs, too) - round bone shoulder chops, with pan sauce of drippings, white wine, shallots, stock, mustard (and if I only had a grill...).  Potatoes, string beans, onions, garlic, red pepper, pimenton, saffron, stock, tomato, all kind of casseroled together, which turned out really great.

[Duvel]

Lake Constance round trip commencing …

 

After a brief stop at beautiful Lindau (of Nobel price winner fame) we crossed the border to Austria to visit Hörbranz (just a few kilometers north east of Bregenz). The famous Prinz distillery lured 1/3 of our party in …

 

 

Today‘s distillate: Raspberry !

 

 

You can take a tour (we did), but even more important: you can sample. Anything you like and as much as you like. Kids get all the juices they like …

 

 

 

Can you tell we are a bit done ?

 

Conveniently, the best restaurant in the town is just next to the distillery …

 

 

Wiener Schnitzel (veal, of course) for DW and the little one …

 

Sudfleisch (aka Tafelspitz) for me. This was great, aromatic broth, all veggies on point, tender meat, freshly grated horseradish. @weinoo‘s Cafe Katja proprietor would likely approve …

 

 

 

 

And an Apfelstrudel for good measure …

 

 

Everyone tired, everyone full, everyone happy 🤗

 

 

[mgaretz]

Pork chop cooked on the new BBQ, served along with green beans.

 

 

 

[OlyveOyl]

Mezza rigatoni cooked with sautéed red onion, green and yellow squash, minced garlic and peperoncini.  After sautéing the veggies, I added the pasta along with hot chicken broth that needed using up. Cooked until al dente, then topped with grated Parmesan.

 Blueberry cake with almonds  for crunch rather than the poppyseeds in the original recipe, the 1990 Pillsbury bake off winner, a/k/a Blueberry Poppyseed Brunch cake. I included some raspberries and cherries with the blueberries. We had this with peach gelato.
 With thanks to @Pete Fred for reminding me of the cake.

[gfweb]

Branzino with a tomato olive tapenade

 

[C. sapidus]

Welcomed Mrs. C home with some of her favorite things:

 

Chicken sate marinated with a paste of coriander, fennel, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and brown sugar. Basted with lemongrass-infused oil while grilling. I made lettuce-leaf wraps with mine.

 

Spiced pineapple pickle with star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds, cardamom, garlic, ginger, shallots, and brown sugar. Quite delicious, I should make this any time decent pineapples are available.

 

Peanut sauce with toasted shrimp paste, coconut milk, chiles, garlic, brown sugar, and rice vinegar

 

[heidih]

32 minutes ago, C. sapidus said:

Welcomed Mrs. C home with some of her favorite things:

 

Chicken sate marinated with a paste of coriander, fennel, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and brown sugar. Basted with lemongrass-infused oil while grilling. I made lettuce-leaf wraps with mine.

 

Spiced pineapple pickle with star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds, cardamom, garlic, ginger, shallots, and brown sugar. Quite delicious, I should make this any time decent pineapples are available.

 

Peanut sauce with toasted shrimp paste, coconut milk, chiles, garlic, brown sugar, and rice vinegar

 

Wow the pineapple pickle is on my list. As well as the peanut sauce with shrimp paste. Is that a roasted paste or jarred? Also the lemongrass infused oil to baste sate - new to me. Dig ding ding a winner meal for the lucky Mrs. C

[C. sapidus]

24 minutes ago, heidih said:

Wow the pineapple pickle is on my list. As well as the peanut sauce with shrimp paste. Is that a roasted paste or jarred? Also the lemongrass infused oil to baste sate - new to me. Dig ding ding a winner meal for the lucky Mrs. C

 

Jars of dried shrimp paste, also known as belacan, should be available in any well-stocked Asian market.

 

To use it you make a foil packet with the shrimp paste inside, smush it flat, and then toast the packet over a low flame.

 

Warning: make sure your kitchen fan is working well when you do this. 😧

[heidih]

4 minutes ago, C. sapidus said:

 

Jars of dried shrimp paste, also known as belacan, should be available in any well-stocked Asian market.

 

To use it you make a foil packet with the shrimp paste inside, smush it flat, and then toast the packet over a low flame.

 

Warning: make sure your kitchen fan is working well when you do this. 😧

Maybe on outside grill = better plan. I was mixing it up with the Vietnamese fermented anchovy sauce w/ pineapple  https://www.vickypham.com/blog/vietnamese-fermented-anchovy-dipping-sauce-mam-nem

[weinoo]

17 hours ago, Duvel said:

Sudfleisch (aka Tafelspitz) for me. This was great, aromatic broth, all veggies on point, tender meat, freshly grated horseradish. @weinoo‘s Cafe Katja proprietor would likely approve …

 

 

 

The next time we go to Katja, I'm totally showing this to Erwin!

[KennethT]

10 hours ago, C. sapidus said:

 

Jars of dried shrimp paste, also known as belacan, should be available in any well-stocked Asian market.

 

To use it you make a foil packet with the shrimp paste inside, smush it flat, and then toast the packet over a low flame.

 

Warning: make sure your kitchen fan is working well when you do this. 😧

There's lots of ways to roast your belacan/terasi.  The Malaysian stuff in jars that I can find aren't really belacan, it's a belacan syrup which has different uses.  Malaysian belacan typically comes in blocks and is very firm.  I cut slices off about 1/8 thick and bake on a rack in the oven for like 15 minutes until it's crumbly.  It's a lot less labor intensive than the foil packet method, plus it stinks up the kitchen less which is always a plus.

 

The Thai shrimp paste (gapi/kapi) comes in tubs and is much softer.  It is not typically roasted before use.

[KennethT]

11 hours ago, C. sapidus said:

Welcomed Mrs. C home with some of her favorite things:

 

Chicken sate marinated with a paste of coriander, fennel, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and brown sugar. Basted with lemongrass-infused oil while grilling. I made lettuce-leaf wraps with mine.

 

Spiced pineapple pickle with star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds, cardamom, garlic, ginger, shallots, and brown sugar. Quite delicious, I should make this any time decent pineapples are available.

 

Peanut sauce with toasted shrimp paste, coconut milk, chiles, garlic, brown sugar, and rice vinegar

 

Everything looks great!  Do you have access to palm sugar?  I find it very different from brown sugar (which I've never seen anywhere in SE Asia).  Palm sugar to me has almost a maple syrup flavor.  You can get it in scoopable jars or in lumps that need to be grated.  Just make sure that it says 100% palm sugar as some are cut with regular sugar and are not the same.

[liuzhou]

I was delighted tonight to find on my delivery app 小炒驴肉 (xiǎo chǎo lǘ ròu) - stir fried donkey with garlic, ginger, scallion, hot green chilli, carrot, Shaoxing wine and soy sauce.

 

One of my favourite meats and eats. So tender, lean and nutritional.

 

 

 

[KennethT]

23 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

I was delighted tonight to find on my delivery app 小炒驴肉 (xiǎo chǎo lǘ ròu) - stir fried donkey with garlic, ginger, scallion, hot green chilli, carrot, Shaoxing wine and soy sauce.

 

One of my favourite meats and eats. So tender, lean and nutritional.

 

 

 

lucky you!!!  I'm jealous - I wish I could get something like that here.  I can't get donkey meat - not even from sellers of "exotic" meats.

[C. sapidus]

56 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Everything looks great!  Do you have access to palm sugar?  I find it very different from brown sugar (which I've never seen anywhere in SE Asia).  Palm sugar to me has almost a maple syrup flavor.  You can get it in scoopable jars or in lumps that need to be grated.  Just make sure that it says 100% palm sugar as some are cut with regular sugar and are not the same.

 

Firstly, thank you!

 

Yes we can get palm sugar. I have tried it but found it a bit of a pain to work with. Plus, one more thing to cram into a cabinet.

 

So my usual solution is to find brown sugar that is about the same color as palm sugar. Current batch of brown sugar is darker and I do notice some difference in flavor, so perhaps I will try palm sugar again. I will look out for the scoopable jars, thanks for the tip!

[KennethT]

1 minute ago, C. sapidus said:

 

Firstly, thank you!

 

Yes we can get palm sugar. I have tried it but found it a bit of a pain to work with. Plus, one more thing to cram into a cabinet.

 

So my usual solution is to find brown sugar that is about the same color as palm sugar. Current batch of brown sugar is darker and I do notice some difference in flavor, so perhaps I will try palm sugar again. I will look out for the scoopable jars, thanks for the tip!

The scoopable jars are MUCH easier to deal with than the hockey puck palm sugar.  I typically use this brand:

https://www.amazon.com/Eastland-Palm-Sugar-1lb/dp/B00JH638SO/ref=sr_1_12?crid=3MZI5264W1DJM&keywords=thai+palm+sugar&qid=1691156216&sprefix=thai+palm+sugar%2Caps%2C1310&sr=8-12

only because it's easily available in my local SE Asian stores.  I imagine it's slightly more expensive than the hockey puck since it has a higher water content, but the ease of use is worth it to me.  It tastes so good I could eat it straight from the spoon.  It reminds me of maple sugar candies I used to eat as a kid when we'd visit a maple sugar shack.  It comes with a layer of wax over the sugar, so make sure you completely remove it (it likes to adhere to the wall of the jar) before using it so you don't wind up eating wax.. hehe...   If it does start to dry out once it's been opened for a while, 10 seconds in teh microwave makes it scoopable again.

 

One more benefit to palm sugar is that it has a lower glycemic index of regular sugar.  I can't find the source now, but I once read that it's GI was 50% of normal sugar.

[C. sapidus]

3 minutes ago, KennethT said:

The scoopable jars are MUCH easier to deal with than the hockey puck palm sugar.  I typically use this brand:

https://www.amazon.com/Eastland-Palm-Sugar-1lb/dp/B00JH638SO/ref=sr_1_12?crid=3MZI5264W1DJM&keywords=thai+palm+sugar&qid=1691156216&sprefix=thai+palm+sugar%2Caps%2C1310&sr=8-12

only because it's easily available in my local SE Asian stores.  I imagine it's slightly more expensive than the hockey puck since it has a higher water content, but the ease of use is worth it to me.  It tastes so good I could eat it straight from the spoon.  It reminds me of maple sugar candies I used to eat as a kid when we'd visit a maple sugar shack.  It comes with a layer of wax over the sugar, so make sure you completely remove it (it likes to adhere to the wall of the jar) before using it so you don't wind up eating wax.. hehe...   If it does start to dry out once it's been opened for a while, 10 seconds in teh microwave makes it scoopable again.

 

One more benefit to palm sugar is that it has a lower glycemic index of regular sugar.  I can't find the source now, but I once read that it's GI was 50% of normal sugar.

 

Yes we have that same brand in the local international market. Thanks again!

[liuzhou]

15 minutes ago, KennethT said:

lucky you!!!  I'm jealous - I wish I could get something like that here.  I can't get donkey meat - not even from sellers of "exotic" meats.

 

I've only once seen donkey in a market. That was in a small Yunnan village in 1998. The poor beast's head had been removed and propped up on the vendor's table as an advertisement or to prove the meat's provenance.

 

Here, I've never seen it in any supermarket. The only place to  buy it seems to be in restaurants which serve the meat. They will sell you a jin or two (a jin=500g) raw. I've often bought in the past to cook myself but my local place closed down a couple of years back, so I'm glad to find this new place.

 

The same applies to horse meat. I can get both from the delivery app.

 

Donkey Meat

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[chromedome]

6 minutes ago, KennethT said:

One more benefit to palm sugar is that it has a lower glycemic index of regular sugar.  I can't find the source now, but I once read that it's GI was 50% of normal sugar.

The official GI database at the University of Sydney used to list it with a GI of 54, but it's not currently on the database. Usually when that happens, it's because there's some question of accuracy/reproducibility in the underlying research. Other sources claim even lower GI, but they're mostly of the self-interested variety. It seems reasonably safe to assume that its GI is in fact somewhat lower than conventional sugar, but an exact number may take a little while to stabilize.

 

Of course everybody's system is different, and the GI recorded in one or another test subject won't necessarily correspond to the same food's impact on your own body. You could always eat 100g of it and then test your blood glucose, I suppose, but that's going to be a bridge too far for most of us.

[KennethT]

8 minutes ago, chromedome said:

The official GI database at the University of Sydney used to list it with a GI of 54, but it's not currently on the database. Usually when that happens, it's because there's some question of accuracy/reproducibility in the underlying research. Other sources claim even lower GI, but they're mostly of the self-interested variety. It seems reasonably safe to assume that its GI is in fact somewhat lower than conventional sugar, but an exact number may take a little while to stabilize.

 

Of course everybody's system is different, and the GI recorded in one or another test subject won't necessarily correspond to the same food's impact on your own body. You could always eat 100g of it and then test your blood glucose, I suppose, but that's going to be a bridge too far for most of us.

I imagine that one of the problems in measuring an exact GI is that it in itself varies quite a bit.  Palm sugar is produced like maple syrup - sugar trees are tapped for their sap, which is boiled to remove the water.  There is no standard as to how much water to remove, and I'd imagine that most palm sugar makers aren't so precise as to measure brix or something to determine when it's done boiling.  Even the "industrial" stuff that is made in a large enough volume to export has some variability.  Some tubs of what I get are slightly softer than others - whether that's because one batch had slightly high water content than another when jarring or because the wax seal wasn't as perfectly applied hence some evaporation during export/shipping, who knows.  But in any case, gram for gram of one brand could be very different than it is for another, or even the same brand but a different batch.

Edited August 4, 2023 by KennethT (log)

[mgaretz]

The wife is having some dental issues and needs soft foods and/or small pieces.  So diced chicken with diced carrots, peas, onion and rice noodles in peanut sauce.

 

 

[Duvel]

Almost concluded the Austrian part of our Lake Constance tour …

 

The lovely city of Bregenz with its famous Seebühne : this year they play Madame Butterfly - I wish I could have scored tickets (but would they let me in in bike gear ?!).

 

 

The Seebühne itself is a large floating stage inside the Lake Constance. 

 

 

After reaching the camping grounds close to the Swiss border we „indulged“ in some Austrian fare:

 

Potato crisps with „fried egg“ flavor …

 

 

Erdäpfelgulasch (potato gulash): pork, sausage, potatoes, stock, paprika and caraway.

 

 

Served with a semi-fresh Brötchen from today’s breakfast 😉

 

 

Tomorrow: Switzerland 🇨🇭
 

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Duvel (log)

[rotuts]

@Duvel 

 

very delicious looking.

 

Outdoors 

 

A sharp sort of hunger 

 

from both the exertions and the out doors 

 

Well , 

 

a plastic spoon , will aways be a plastic spoon.

 

a spoon from your delightful table 

 

at home 

 

to heavy for Biking ?

 

 

 

[Duvel]

37 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Duvel 

 

very delicious looking.

 

Outdoors 

 

A sharp sort of hunger 

 

from both the exertions and the out doors 

 

Well , 

 

a plastic spoon , will aways be a plastic spoon.

 

a spoon from your delightful table 

 

at home 

 

to heavy for Biking ?

 

 

 

Correct …

 

We are carrying a tent, three sleeping bags, a huge iso mattress, theee sets of clothing plus the rainsuits, toiletries, power banks, cooking gear, tools, … and all on two bikes. Every gram counts 🤗

[KennethT]

10 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Correct …

 

We are carrying a tent, three sleeping bags, a huge iso mattress, theee sets of clothing plus the rainsuits, toiletries, power banks, cooking gear, tools, … and all on two bikes. Every gram counts 🤗

Wow!!!!