You can officially call me the great Recycler! I had this leftover piece of beechwood lying around (and constantly in the way) and I saw an inspiring video on japanese cuisine.
Homemade Granulated Veggie Stock
I made homemade veggie stock these days for my SO. I’m not so much into veggies personally but she likes it and I made a batch. It’s really easy and it only takes some time to dry (where you don’t have to give it too much attention). This is not so much intended for making soup (although it will somehow work too), but merely for seasoning, for example for sauces and stews.
You can use leftover uncooked veggies and also kitchen scraps for this, as long as you make sure they’re clean and reasonably free of roots or hard skins. This is what I did:
Teriyaki Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce is one of the staple ingredients in japanese cooking. It means “shiny grilled” literally (Wikipedia) and while it’s normally just prepared on the fly while cooking, I find it nice to have a small stock of it in the fridge to use.
I tried to find a recipe that is as original as possible because there are so many “western” variations of it to be found on the internet and I wanted the real thing. Eventually, I found a simple and easy instruction in this video (at 4:20 – I generally like that guy and I have already cooked a lot of his dishes) and will follow this, because most “japanese” or at least “original asian” looking sites say mostly the same.
New Cold Smoker: First real Action
As much of a little weakling my first cold smoker was, as much of a fu**ing hellraiser is this one. I even have the feeling it might do a little too much…
Cold Smoke Generator – Next Test
Ma-han! That thing absolutely works!!! As soon as you do it rigtht, it suddenly works…
I used smaller wood chips this time and an additional hole for added draft. It really glows like hell now and I’m looking forward to smoking some bacon tomorrow.
Potato & Egg Breakfast Cups
I like these and always make them in advance for a few days. It’s not too much work (let it be 10 minutes) and they reheat in the microwave in 2 minutes in the morning, so they’re easy and convenient. They keep in the fridge for about two days, otherwise I think you could also freeze them. But usually they don’t last very long…
Cold Smoke Generator – New Approach (Prototype)
I know that not all folks out there like those cold smoke generators for smoking meat. Many rather rely on the good old openly glowing wood chips in a bowl at the bottom of their smoke house. But for my small batches in my small smoker, these generators come in really handy. Since, unfortunately, the last cold smoke generator wasn’t so much the bringer of happiness, I tried a new approach:
Finding North with a Watch
Although it’s overcast and cloudy today, I was able to locate the sun. I tried this out with a compass and hey, this Shit works!
