Turkish Beef Kabobs

Obviously I'm not Turkish, so I include this disclaimer that they are really just Turkish-inspired. That said, I started with a flank steak and cubed it up, then rubbed them all in the following spice mix.

• 2 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

The squash and zucchini got the same blend plus some olive oil to make it stick.

Cooking was on a charcoal grill, so I leave it to you to know your grill and cooking preferences.

I made some ezme for a condiment, which consists of:

• 2 ripe tomatoes
• ½ onion
• ½ red pepper (capsicum)
• ½ green pepper (capsicum)
• 1 long green chilli
• 10 g parsley
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• ¾ tsp sumac
• 1 tsp pomogranate molasses

If you're out of sumac (like I was) you can add some lemon juice or you can substitute sorrel for the parsley. All of that gets processed to your preferred texture in a food processor.

The naan is just from the ALDI down the road.

Keto Gnocchi

 Trying out a low-carb gnocchi recipe from Pinterest.

It contains...

• 8 oz (by weight) of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 5 tbsp of almond flour
• 1 tsp of xantham gum
• a pinch each of salt, pepper, and garlic powder

The process:

1. Obviously shred your cheese. Don't want to be buying pre-shredded with its anti-clumping additives.
2. Prep the egg and egg yolk in a small bowl.
3. Prep all of the dry ingredients in a cup or bowl.
4. Melt the cheese in a microwave for 30 seconds. Stir it up and microwave for thirty seconds more.
5. Combine all ingredients and knead/work into a "dough".

 

The dough that resulted from the recipe was wet and sticky. From watching cooking shows on YouTube, it's my understanding that you deal with a wet dough by adding more flour. I wasn't sure about adding more almond flour, so I used a "vital wheat" low-carb flour that I also have. This is obviously a deviation from the published recipe, so if it doesn't work, it's on me.

I left the gnocchi in the fridge for an hour or so before it was time to finish dinner prep. It's standard gnocchi procedure: put them in salted boiling water until they float, then take them out.

I served these with leftover lamb paprikash (which I salted up some), and I'm calling it a win. The overall salt content was around my upper limit, but the gnocchi are quite good. Definitely cheesy: you're definitely going to know there's a lot of mozzarella in them, but you won't be sad. Not as firm as grocery store gnocchi, but that might be adjustable.

Haricots Jaunes

This one is really about the yellow beans from the Madison Farmers' Market. These came from Una Acre Farm somewhere in Middle Tennessee. Cherry tomatoes are from the same source.

 

The chicken thighs were seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and put in the air fryer at 380F for thirty minutes. No big deal.

The cherry tomatoes were cut in half (for the most part) and seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, and Gina's Italian Seasoning. They got to marinate most of the afternoon.

I've never had yellow beans before, but I was told I could treat them like green beans, and haricots verts are the version of green beans that I have been able to tolerate. Don't give me boiled green beans, I don't want them.

1. Blanch the green beans in very salty boiling water for about three minutes.
2. Drain the beans (and dry them in a salad spinner, if you're me) and return them to the pan with half a stick of butter.
3. Season the beans with black pepper while sautéing them.
4. Remove the beans from the heat when they are tender enough to suit you and serve immediately.

Nothing complicated, but I am happy with the result, so I think I'll be picking up some more yellow beans while they are in season.

Lamb Paprikash

I found a beef paprikash recipe on Pinterest, and I decided to try it with lamb, so here we go.

You will need:

• At least 2 lbs of lamb, cubed into 1-2 inch pieces (I got a a 2.8 lb butterfly leg roast from BJs, but they don't get a link unless they pay me)
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour (I'm using a keto wheat flour I found at Kroger)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 diced onion
• 1 diced red bell pepper
• 1 diced green bell pepper
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• 3 tbsp paprika
• ½ tsp dried Mexican oregano (although Mexican wasn't called for specifically)
• ½ tsp caraway seeds, pounded a bit in my mortar and pestle
• 15 oz can of whole tomatoes that I crushed with an immersion blender
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 bay leaf

To make it happen:

1. Cube the lamb, dice the veggies, measure out the spices, and otherwise have your mise en place.
2. Coat the lamb in salt, pepper, and flour. Brown the lamb in a pot or dutch oven on medium-high heat for about a minute on each side. Remove the lamb to a bowl.
3. Sweat the onions for about a minute on medium heat in the same pot. Add the peppers and garlic and cook for another minute. Add oregano and  spices (and salt and pepper as needed) and stir to mix well.
4. Add the tomatoes and beef broth, deglaze the pot, throw in the bay leaf, reduce heat to low, and simmer for an hour or more. You could also braise in the oven, if the weather is cold.

I served this with "Skinny" low-carb angle hair pasta. I was a bit too conservative with the salt on this try, but that's easily fixed. I don't think that the low-carb flour has the thickening properties of a regular all-purpose flour, so this was rather thin. Lessons learned, but we're definitely moving in a good direction.

My First Trip to Europe - The Food & Drink Post

 

There were lovely tours during the trip, but I was really in it for the food, beer, and wine.

The food in London was unimpressive largely because we had few chances to seek it out on our own. The dinner we were provided at a hotel on the first night was just not good: hamburgers or fish and chips. The fish was bland and not at all crisp, and the burger was merely okay. I did manage to get good fish and chips at a pub in Trafalgar Square, though. Breakfast provided by our hotel was also much better.

Our hotel also had a nice bar, and I discovered that the Gordon's Gin in England is NOT the Gordon's that we have in the United States. Theirs is much better, and I really wish we could get their little canned gin & tonics.

France was also a situation where we had limited opportunities to sample the local cuisine, but where we could it was usually good. We did have dinner at a French restaurant provided one night by the tour, but that was planned to be acceptable to a bunch of teenagers, so it was a quiche with a green bean salad. I think the quiche would have been better if it wasn't still cold in the middle.

Bistro food in Paris is great. Four Saisons in Montmartes served me a delightful tagliatelle bolognaise, and the cafe down the street from the Eiffel Tower served the first escargot that I have ever truly enjoyed. As a side note, I have a picture of our check from the bistro in the Louvre. I find it amusing that Lavender's soda cost four times as much as my glass of wine.

Switzerland provided some opportunities to try new things. Bistro Gornergat-Dorf introduced me to röstis, which I have mentioned before. It's a simple idea by very satisfying. We also got sorbets for dessert. I got the Sorbet Princessie, which seems to be lemon served with a little glass of Prosecco, while Lavender got the Sorbet Framboise, which came with a little shot of strawberry schnapps.

In Crans Montana, we tried a restaurant called Le Mayen, where Lavender got some fondue and I tried Beef Tartare for the first time. When you order Beef Tartare, they ask how spicy you would like it (I asked for medium), then they bring you a little spoon of it so you can check whether the spiciness is right before bringing the whole dish. Nice concept, although I was a little confused at first.

Fondue is also serious business in Switzerland, as indicated by this endcap in one of the local grocery stores.

Most of our meals in Röthenburg were provided by the tour, but we did have lunch in town one day at Reichs Kúchenmeister, and when I saw wild game goulash on the menu, I knew what I was having. I also got an Italicus Spritz while we were waiting for lunch, and that's definitely a discovery I brought home.

Hopefully the teenagers didn't discover that there are vending machines in Germany that you can buy wine or beer from.

Finally, we did need to run by a grocery store in Röthenburg for some things, so we walked to a nearby Lidl, which is much like an Aldi (not the same company, though). Out of curiosity, I checked the adult beverages aisle. This picture isn't anywhere near all of it. Why can't we have nice things in the US?

My First Trip to Europe - Austria

 (6/18) On Tuesday we traveled to Bad Hofgastein, Austria by way of Dachau. Yes, we visited the concentration camp. I don't have many pictures. It's a somber place to visit. It reminds you of how awful people can be and makes the statements and actions of many modern politicians disturbingly ominous.

I actually have relatively little in the way of activities and photos for Austria itself. Bad Hofgastein is beautiful, and I got to walk around it a bit, but we didn't go into Salzburg for the Mozart and "The Sound of Music" tours that the kids went on. In fact, on Thursday we went to see a doctor in Bad Hofgastein to see if we could do something about Lavender's persistent cough. The hotel staff directed us to Dr. Fischer, who managed to fit us into her schedule on short notice. She diagnosed Lavender with a bacterial infection and prescribed antibiotics and some other things, which we picked up at an "apothekare" in town. The doctor visit and medications were both easily affordable, so yay for EU healthcare.

I do have a few pictures from my wanderings, the concerts in town, and the last dinner in a beer hall in Bad Hofgastein.

Friday morning, we scrambled into buses to get to the airport in Munich for the trip home.

But there is a food and drink blog entry.

My First Trip to Europe - Röthenburg

(6/16) Röthenburg originated in the 12th century CE, but it really came into its own in the 13th century. It's a walled city on a major trade route, and many of the buildings inside the walls are very old. Some members of our tour group got to stay in hotels inside the walls, but we ended up in one just outside the walls.

(6/17) We had a few errands to run that took us to places outside the walls, and even the surrounding city is picturesque.

Later we had time to walk around Röthenburg (inside the walls) and have lunch before choir concert time in St. James Cathedral. I had the Wildgulasch at Reichs Kúchenmeister.

After the choir sang in the church, the orchestra played in the town square.

After the concert we had time for dinner before taking the Night Watchman tour of Röthenburg.

In the morning, we venture on to Austria.