Ahhh… digging through the fridge and finding yummy things to throw together and grub on. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all and I used only a few ingredients:
My standard meat curing formula
Edit: Now with an image, because I made some bacon today 🙂
So here’s my standard recipe for curing meat that I mostly use. It can be adjusted to personal needs in terms of herbs and spices, but I strongly recommend to stick to the directions concerning the curing salt.
Recipe (per kg of meat):
30 – 40 g curing salt, which equals 3 – 4% by weight (and not “pink salt” etc., see below)
10 g brown sugar
1 tsp. freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried rosemary
How To: Use a Charcoal Chimney
I have an acquaintance who has never used a charcoal chimney. He’s not particularly a BBQ-type of person anyway, but he wanted to know how it works. So I dug out my trusty old chimney, fired it up and used it right away to try out my recently made indoor grill.
Indoor Grill tested
Well, tested outside for safety reasons 🙂 . But the grill worked fine! The heat it generated downwards was absolutely tolerable – I could hold my hand between the grill and the baseplate for several minutes without discomfort, and the coconut charcoal indeed produced almost zero smoke. Next test will be indoors.
Shallot Oil
I already made the “Spice’n Pans” special oyster sauce mix and I used it a lot. Now I tried the shallot oil from the same video. The first taste test was delicious – I think I’ll keep this stuff in the fridge as well, as some kind of a kitchen staple 🙂
(Recipe credits: Spice’n Pans – YouTube. Visit his channel!)
Product Review: Microplane Kitchen Grater
I’m not a kitchen tool voodooist and I’m normally sceptical when it comes to heavily advertised “world changing” kitchen appliances. But after seeing one of these microplane graters in what felt like the 500th youtube video, I decided to buy one and give it a try.
It’s a sturdy tool, as far as I read indeed “laser-etched” (whatever difference that may make) and it’s dishwasher safe. What makes a difference for me is that it grates almost everything that comes across for me to grind, from nutmeg to lemon zest to (comparably) soft cheese. The results are always fine gratings and not the ripped and torn shreddings that you get so often using other tools. Afterwards, it’s easy to clean.
Thumbs up, recommendation.
Fassl BBQ Tripod (Western Style)
We’re planning to arrange a party for the immediate neighbourhood in the northern germany refuge because they’ve all been great people to us and we want to give something back. If this works out, I want to make a big pot of chili over the open fire for everyone. Best done in a big dutch oven over the “Fassl“, so here’s the tripod that I made for this occasion:
