Lunch 2021

Cheese and loroco pupusas with curtido.

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“Reubenesque” sandwich - corned beef and sauerkraut with Russian dressing, cheddar cheese (not Swiss), on white bread (not rye). And potato chips.

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You’re on a -fermented cabbage- roll. Once in a while I see curtido recipes in food mags. Never made it yet.

Too thin to be Reubenesque!

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True :joy:

I tried making the curtido using this recipe.

It came out quite salty. I think I didn’t have quite a head of cabbage (I used a bag of pre shredded cabbage) so maybe should have dialed down the salt a bit. The versions I’ve had at restaurants seemed to be quick pickled with vinegar, I may try that next time.

Thanks.

I have looked at several recipes online, all call for quite a bit of salt. It is needed. Like kimchi, I also have to experiment a few times as some batches can be overly salty.

I make quick “pickled” cabbage all the time using gherkin brine. I save all the brine for this! Toss the cabbage in it and wait a little while/until wilted but still crunchy.

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So enjoyable to catch up with your creative lunch meals. Wowser!

Even for something this small, it’s impossible to trust a fermentation recipe when the salt is given by volume. Different styles of salt fit into a tablespoon very differently, like a barrel of marbles vs a barrel of basketballs - you will accidentally get far too much or far too little, even when you’re careful.

Most cooking recipes survive this error without too much trouble, because in cooking you rarely use this level of salt; even if you almost doubled it, it wouldn’t be that bad. But in pickling and fermenting, if they don’t tell you the weight of the salt, then all bets are off.

You can get closer by using the exact brand of salt they used, but in this case they didn’t say.

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While I do prefer measurements by weight, I’m not sure if differences between kosher/pickling/etc. salt would have made that much of a difference in this case especially due to the variability in size of a cabbage. Also, the weight of the cabbage and other ingredients is not given in this recipe either. And there can be some variation in surface area etc.

It makes more of a difference when the salt is in solution, i.e. in half sour pickles where you want about a 3% salinity and where I do measure out the weight of the salt and the water. Since the brine in that case completely surrounds the item that is pickled.

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Batter fried chicken tenders with lime and Thai chili sauce. Sauté spinach in garlic and roasted baby B sprouts on the side (no pic).

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Corned beef and Jack cheese quesadillas de maiz with salsa Mexicana and crema.

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Bib lettuce, kale, spinach, roasted beets, goat cheese, baby B. sprouts. Lemon vinaigrette.

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My imaginary Austrian granny would be proud of me! Austria ticks most boxes for me. Switzerland is also my dream country.

Make soft scrambled eggs and stir in leftover (home-made) button dumplings. Add some more things such as Speck (smoked bacon) and mushrooms or any veg of your choice for a more substantial meal. Many Austrians recall this meal as one of their childhood favourites. My imaginary Austrian granny would also appreciate the red accented tea towel. Red-white combo is Austria’s national colours.

Another Austrian staple, in Tirol specifically. In the summer you eat these fried bread-cheese dumplings with a salad, and in the winter you drench them in a savoury (beef) broth. I made a broth with “leg disk” for this. “Leg disk” is beef shin, which is usually sliced in thick disks. Germans have some amusing terms for things.

Sauerkraut is a typical side dish. I prefer raw Sauerkraut, like here. Sprinkle some crispy-fried Speck and it’s perfect.

I hardly saw any fat Austrians in the mountains. They are used to walking up and down the (steep) slopes which keeps them fit despite a carb-meat-heavy diet. They also drink wine.

2/3 of Austria is like this, and the real meaning of “Wanderlust” (Wandern , verb = Hiking).

Tirol is Speck heaven

The village where I stayed, from here you could see another village in the distance. There are many villages in the mountains and their names usually end with “tal”, which means valley.

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Spam musubi. Not really my thing but my daughter loves them and my technique is finally up to her standards.

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Yet when I look at it, nicely sliced by a butcher, it doesn’t look like a shin anymore; it looks like a leg disk. Many of the amusing terms in German are amusing exactly because they’re so straightforward - I laugh at the word while also admiring the fact that nobody can argue with it. :slight_smile:

We don’t care if you don’t like it but if your daughter likes it you make it! :triumph:

I ate something similar in Okinawa. The rice and spam are completed wrapped in nori.

“Hand shoes” are gloves in Germanic languages. :rofl:

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The lemon orzo recipe has become the perfect partner for a light protein; this time scallops. I added kale to the recipe since I had it on hand. More “gravy” this batch (done stove top vs oven bake). Made grilled asparagus on the side.

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Impossible cheeseburger and potato chips.

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Patty melt! Woot!

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