Almost instant ramen for Mary.  Take your shitakes and kombu

and your leftover chicken carcasse.  I used the meat to make fried chicken mmmm.

and leftover pork bone that I roasted in the toaster oven.  The rest of the pork I used for sausages!

cook that shit

this is the beauty of pressure cooking.  Look at this bone

how it crumbles.  Every bit of flavor is now in the stock

strain the broth and add your veggies, carrots, onions, green onions

strain again and add your soy sake and mirin mixture if you want shoyu ramen

let it reduce if you want super tasty thick broth and make sure you season with salt and pepper

I am cheap so I pick the meat off the bones and save it.

buy some shitty ramen noodles from the market and BAM almost instant ramen.  I added some of the meat, a 5 minute boiled egg, sprouts, and green onions.  Oh and some bamboo.

Felt like we were back in Barcelona!!!  We love Zarzuela.  Food is good and the prices are fair.

Next time we go with more people so we can order EVERYTHING.

calamari

giganto beans and snausage

warm olives mmmm

tiny smelt fish

octopus with smoked paprika mmmm 

lamb chops

sauteed mushrooms

shrimps

and for dessert some crem brulee type of thing.  was delish!!! amina didnt like it it tasted very rice pudding like.

Everything was pretty good!  You come with us next time okay?  Okay!!!

For MARY!!!!  a bunch of random posts

Been donating blood every 2-3 months.  Not sure why my blood is so dark.  I look at other peoples tubes and mine is always the darkest.  hmmmmm..........

biggest freaking spring roll ever.  More like a burrito!

getting our sashimi fix at home.  Found a good fish store that sells really fresh fish near home.  

 and they sell these tiny ass avocados at the mexican store near our house.  I love them

just some fried chicken from Louisiana Fried Chicken.

one of the best tasting steaks Ive made at home.

baste with butter, thyme, and garlic. super hot cast iron skillet

a big ol patch of nasturtium near our house.  All of it is edible!!!

and again I pick wild fennel and violas at work to eat!!!

been trying to use more flowers in my cooking.  They are prettttyy

 might have gone overboard with these brussel sprouts.  =/  who cares its all fun!

I love love love our 3d movie room.  look its richard parker!!!

big ol beer stack at a korean restaurant.  Was so much fun to drink!

oh wow 140 calories per package for stacys pita chips!!!

WAIT A MINUTE!!!  200???

remember that truffle powder I made the other week.  Been storing the rest in the freezer and I put that shit on everything.  Fuck you Franks red hot granny.  Salmon avocado roll.

warm seafood salad.

 made a new box to give Oyaji

finally after two months I got my new knife from Japan.

this is the sharpest fucking thing I have ever ever ever used.  It slices through carrots like they are cooked.  That is what it really feels like.  When you chop green onions it just slides down with its own weight.  Its awesome.  Soooo awesome.

not sure why the manequins at work have such perk nipples.  I cant seem to stop staring.  Pervy

I bought an old school bmx scooter to scoot back and forth from Aminas office to mine!  

and we found an asian market that sells ding dong.  We stocked up this time so we dont run out again.

Charcuterie  

Tried making some snausages and cured meats at home.  Its pretty scary leaving meat out for weeks and eating it raw.  But I have done it and shall no longer be afraid!!!  Stuffed some pork, garlic, different herbs and spices into some hog casings and made some spanish chorizo.  This is how it looked freshly stuffed.

also broke down a whole duck and made a bunch of shit.  Here is one breast being cured in salt.

and the leftover skin being cooked to render out the duck fat.  I need the duck fat for this....

the duck legs.  Going to use the fat to make duck confit.

nothing went to waste.  The carcase was simmered into a stock

you take the legs and you salt cure them with some herbs 

for a day

then you cook the legs with the fat in a sous vide water bath for a day.

might as well make some sweetbreads 

after you salt cure the breast for a day you hang it in the basement for a week to dry out

along with the chorizo that is starting to look a lot redder and dried out.

The basement held its temperature pretty well.  I bought this thermometer and hygrometer to measure the temp and humidity.  The room leveled off at 63 degrees and 60% humidity.  This is acceptable for drying out salami and other meats as long as the sausages arent really thick.  Needs more humidity if youre gonna do that.

 

and of course you make more bacon

heres the duck breast 7 days later.  Its duck prosciutto!  all dry and all tasty!

 and heres the chorizo pretty much fully dried.  It loses about 30% of its weight when drying.

was really tasty!!! next time I put more fat.  I want big chunks of fat you can see

plate of charcuterie.

charcuterie is also about making fresh sausages!  I took a sausage making class the other week.

We made three types of snausages.  Very hands on class was fun!!!

lamb merguez

 

got to make the links myself. wooo

soooo what do you do with all that crap?  break your fast with eggs and home cured bacon. mmm

take the duck legs that have been sous vide for a day and crisp up the skin in a hot hot oven mmmm

sear them snausages and eat them with mustard!!!

Make a delicious Paella with the chorizo