A dinner to use up what needs using. In the middle is a mache salad with Dijon vinaigrette. A dollop of guacamole is scooped up with toasted tortilla chips and bamboo skewers hold cantaloupe with prosciutto and coppa with mint. The little earthenware cocottes nestle semolina ricotta gnudi with basil-pine nut pesto and parmesan broiled on top.
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That looks beautiful! And sounds super tasty!
I prepped my previously announced Wurstsalat but forgot to take a first shot as feared. Hereâs a shot of the second serving:
I ended up with adding one hard boiled egg
and one tomato, couple of slices of roasted sourdough bread slices. Oh, and fresh lettuce from our garden as well. Freshly harvested this morning or so.
But what is a hard boiled egg? In my book it is boiling water, added with an egg thatâs been pricked, boiled for about 8 minutes, immediately cooled with cold water.
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Tried it yesterday with Greyerzer and Emmentaler. Was OK, but the Gruyere has a stronger taste so I prefer Emmentaler. Tomatoes are still a no-go, too much taste, overlays the cheese/sausage/onion taste. However, you can add a few spoons of the Cornichon water.
Rule of thumb:
Serbilasalat: Emmentaler, but is OK with other cheese too.
Fondue: No no no no, never Emmentaler. Never ending threads of cheese all over and the taste is not great neither.
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I did use that! My sauce is usually:
- 3 parts neutral oil (e.g. sunflower)
- 2 parts balsamico bianco
- 1-2 part Cornichon water
- œ part mild to medium mustard
- salt & pepper
NeuchĂątel disagrees with you.
(I agree with you, though)
I can see how those contrast each other nicely. The salmon looks like the âeverydayâ salmon we always have in store: frozen, individually sealed in plastic, in a 1kg bag, often available for half price at Coop.
Iâm slightly hungry now ⊠is it apĂ©ro time yet?
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Denner!!
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Are we now âcategorizingâ? does the source matter?
No apéro tonight, but south-of-the-border pan-fried salmon, with a zesty crust of ancho chili powder and cumin, accompanied by contrasting cool sauce and salsa. The sauce is equal parts coriander and Greek yoghurt, spiked with garlic, lime juice, and smoked Maldon salt. The salsa is diced cucumber, scallions, and avocado with some green Tabasco. Alongside we had a salad of charred corn off the cob, red capsicum (both cooked on the dying BBQ briquets the other night), cherry tomato, and red onion, dressed with truffle mayonnaise and lime juice, topped with crispy bacon, and served on a base of Lollo lettuce from the garden. It makes a nice summer dinner.
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This evening SWDNRA and I decided on Currywurst with north German style Potato salad.
So I got to work.
Got the reds from the butcher, fried up gratered onion, garlic, frozen Naga (must wash hands ) canned tomato, ketchup, fresh herbs, brown sauce and of course curry.
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Is âthe redsâ code for the sausages? What kind of sausage would I ask the butcher for? Wikipedia seems ambiguous, at least to me? (I can drive across the border if necessary)
I spot green peas. And some other green slices of something. Green onions? Something else?
Anyway, looks hearty and tasty!
@Your_Full_Name, Iâm confused too. Rotebratwurst is made with sodium nitrite, which keeps the haemoglobin in the meat red. I didnât even know they were still using SN. Itâs not exactly healthy⊠
Those are called âreds.â Currywurst has no nitrites and is sometimes served, as Slammer did, with a red sauce. Or itâs red sausage and red sauce. Maybe he can shed some lightâŠ
Oh sorry guys.
Reds or Rote are a type of lightly smoked Bockwurst that are made with curing salt (SN) and bacon which gives the very finely ground meat a reddish hue.
You find them mostly in Swabia and in some parts of Baden-WĂŒrtemburg, so you should be able to source them.
Die Rote Wurst (kurz: âDie Roteâ) ist der absolute schwĂ€bische Grill- und Bratwurstklassiker. Sie Ă€hnelt stark einer Bockwurst, besteht aus fein gekuttertem Schweinefleisch und Speck, ist leicht gerĂ€uchert und erhĂ€lt durch Pökelsalz ihre typische rötliche FĂ€rbung.
The north German style potato salad is done with mayonnaise and/or remoulade, pickled GĂŒrken, (gherkins) onion, I prefere scally onions, peas, salt, pepper and a good shot of vinegar, but I use the juice from the pickles.
Yâall should try it.
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I am in Italy. Enjoying real food.
Enough said 
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@Izzy Hey! What are we cooking hereâchopped liver?? 
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Ahhh fegatto alla Veneziana + 1L de fresco Frizzantino
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Well⊠nothing wrong with that! (with a lot of caramelized onion, please)âŠbut Iâm just overdosing with fish hereâŠ
Overdose of fishâŠ
Tell me more.
RagĂč with pasta according to Marcella Hassan as the weather finally allows for warm dinner dishes again.
We used to prepare this for years only with Tagliatelle or Parpardelle until discovering Rigatoni as a suitable match a couple of years ago. Milady wanted Tagliatelle tonight, but luckily unfortunately we ran out of both sufficient amounts of Tagliatelle and Parpardelle ⊠so we had to go with the plenty in our storage of Mezzi Rigatoni. Not entirely sure why we only had the latter in sufficient supply âŠ
Anyway, google Marcella Hassan ragĂč for a detailed recipe with instructions and pictures as itâs been copied about a gazillion times on the Interwebs already, but â maybe most important â if you want to prepare the dish indeed, start preparing â in my experience â at least 5-6 hours before planning to eat.
My relatively close-to-the-original-letter version for tonight:
Ingredients:
- tablespoon of neutral vegetable oil (e.g. sunflower oil)
- about 50g of butter
- 400g ground beef (if you have a choice, prefer the fatter version)
- 150g ground pork (ditto)
- about 100g diced onions
- about 3-4 medium sized carrots, peeled, chopped finely
- about 2-3 celery stalks (I sourced mine fresh out of our garden), finely sliced
- 500g canned pelati
- pasta as desired, about 500g for the sauce produced above
- Parmesan as needed; I used probably about 100-150g for the recipe amount above
- salt & pepper
Preparation:
- Melt the butter with oil, toss in the chopped onion. I tend to fry the onions at a lowâish temperature for 20 minutes or so. I am sure it can be done within 5 minutes at a higher temperature without any change to the end result, just closer attention while frying the onions.
- Add the chopped carrots and celery, stir well so everything is covered in fat, fry for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add the minced meat. Add â for my version â a good amount of pepper and a better amount of salt.
Fry until every red bit of meat has turned to gray. - Add about 3dl of whole milk. If you have the time, let it simmer slowly until the fluid has mostly evaporated. If youâre in a hurry, turn up the heat but watch the pot closely and stir frequently to avoid burning anything.
- Add some nutmeg. I usually add a bit more than the recommended â of a teaspoon, but YMMV.
- Add about 3dl of dry white wine. Iâve been using Villa Antinori Bianco Toscana (by Coop) for years. Other wines will work just fine.
- If you have the time, let the wine simmer slowly until the fluid has mostly evaporated. If in a hurry, see step 4.
- Add the canned tomatoes. I use Mutti if possible. The original recipe calls for about 500g of tomatoes for less than the amount of meat than recommended above, so add additional tomatoes (e.g. passato) if available, or maybe cheat with some tomato concentrate and addional water/white wine as necessary (I went with the latter option today).
- Lower the temperature to the almost minimum (between 1-2 on our electric stove, out of 1-10 available). Let simmer for 3-4 hours. I tend to go for 4-5 hours if I have the time.
Stir every once in a while, maybe ever 30 minutes if you have the time, maybe at least once if you donât have the time. Add (very little) amounts of water if necessary. - Prep the pasta as necessary, keep a little (maybe 1dl) of pasta water, mix the pasta with the sauce after adding maybe another 10-20g of butter, add the retained pasta water as necessary while adding the Parmiggiano, maybe â of it or so to the overall mix.
- Serve into warm plates, add additional Parmiggiano as necessary. If you have to additionally season with even extra virgine olive oil, you probably spoiled the dish.
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Looks fabulous! I know this recipe well, as I had an Italian roommate in the 70s who cooked his mammaâs recipe, and it was this almost exactly, with the exception of the porkâHe used a whole pork chop, but everything else was the same. Cooked about 5-6 hours with a heat diffuser until the meat fell apart. You remind me that somewhere in some storage box I have a cookbook by Signora Hazan. (She is turning in her grave because of your pasta shortage! OH doesnât like papardelle for some reason, so we use rigatoni also.) A few years ago I took an unforgettable culinary tour in Bologna that included the ladies who make tortellini, the covered market, La Torinese (the oldest gelato maker there), and other wonderful things. Their food is the best, but donât tell the Romans.
Edit: I also think Mutti is the best tomato product, and second is Oro di Parma.
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hi all, where can i get some stronger, tangy tartar sauce - taste and falvo(u)r? iâm tired of that from a toothpaste tube or from plastic bottle that tastes like $%^ full of preservatives.. LOL.
something that is more natural and less preservative free?
zurich city âŠ
thank you.