Glazed maple syrup chicken with chestnut-pear filling

I have to admit, I never really cooked a whole bird before. Breast, yes. Legs, yes. But a whole bird? Never. I know it's not that difficult on the one hand. But on the other things can go wrong easily, as well. My biggest fear is dry meat.

I found this recipe on the website of German Brigitte magazine and altered it a little bit. I didn't want to go with something as elaborate as goose, duck or turkey right away. But this chicken with chestnut stuffing sounded perfect. Just a chicken, but with some fancy and wintery extras and ingredients. Wohoo!

Unfortunately it turned out a little too dry in the end. I decided to cook the chicken in a terracotta cassserole (Römertopf) instead of steaming it beforehand, as the original recipe suggested. The terracotta gets soaked in water for at least ten minutes before and keeps whatever meat is inside nice and moist. Unfortunately the chicken looked quite pale, even though the meat was already cooked. So after removing the lid I had to cook it for another 30-45 minutes in order to fry/broil the skin.

That caused some dryness in the breast sections. But hey! My first bird! Next time I will just take the lid  off earlier, so that this won't happen again. And besides that, it was delicious!

Here's what you need:

1 red onion, chopped

400g/14 oz. chestnuts (pre-cooked, peeled and vacuum-sealed)

80g/2.8 oz. butter or margarine

1 pear, core removed, cut into cubes

2 celery stalks, chopped

5 twigs of fresh majoran (I only had dried one)

(A few fresh twigs of rosemary and thyme)

3 tbsp maple syrup

salt, freshly ground pepper

1 chicken (organic, approx. 1.5kilos/3.3 pounds)

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

200 ml / ¾cups white wine/cidre (or apple juice)

400ml / 1¾ cups chicken broth (in a glass)

150g / ⅔ cups creme fraiche

Directions

Halve 250g (a bit more than half of the total amount) of the chestnuts.

Mix with onion cubes and sauté both with 20g /0.7oz. butter until onions are translucent.

Mix in chopped celery and pear cubes. Remove the leaves from 3 majoran twigs and add them to the mixture, as well. Stir in 1tbsp maple syrup and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Rinse the chicken under cold water, cleaning the in- and outside and dry it with paper towel.

Rub it with salt (in- and outside, as well).

Fill the chicken with as much chestnut-pear mixture as possible and close it up with tooth picks or small iron spits.

Carefully place some herbs (twigs of rosemary, thyme, majoran) directly underneath the skin. Just try to separate the skin from the meat and push the herbs between. That adds some extra nice flavour!

Preheat the oven to a maximum of 180°C (the lower the longer it needs to cook, but the better and more tender the meat gets.

In the meantime soak a terracotta casserole for at least ten minutes in warm water.

Brush the bottom of the cassserole with a bit of oil. Place the chicken in the casserole, close the lid and cook the chicken for about 30-45minutes. In the meantime melt 40g/1.4oz butter. Remove the lid and cook for another 30-45 minutes at 180°C. To give it a proper tan while keeping it moist and adding some flavour brush the chicken top with melted butter and maple syrup, one at a time, every 10-15minutes. If the skin gets too dark before the meat is fully cooked, just cover it up with some aluminium foil. You know that the chicken is done when the meat comes off the leg bones. This is a pretty good indicator for all kinds of poultry. Once you notice it cook it maybe 10-15 minutes longer, just to make sure. But it should be about perfect!

While the chicken is in the oven puree the rest of the chestnuts (you might wanna add some of the chicken broth to make it easier to puree). Sauté garlic with the leftover butter in a saucepan. 

Add chicken broth and white wine, bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes, do not cover.

Stir in creme fraiche then the pureed chestnuts. Season to taste with salt, pepper and maybe some of the maple syrup and serve the sauce with the chicken.

Yum!

PS: If you have a tip on how to get chicken unresitibly moist, let me know. One info ahead: the minimum temperature of our gas oven is 150°C. That's as low as it gets...

The original recipe didn't use rosemary and thyme just majoran and didn't glaze the chicken with maple syrup, just melted butter. They also added honey instead of maple syrup to the pear-chestnut mix.

Why Onglet and Bavette is the new Filet

I love a good medium-rare Filet Mignon. It's tender and when prepared correctly almost melts in your mouth. The only problem with filet, compared to other parts of a cow, is that it is not as flavorful. It doesn't have much fat and comes without a bone, which both usually add quite a bit of flavour to the meat. It's also kind of "lazy" meat and doesn't get used much by a cow, means, it sits nicely protected in a body part where there is not much muscle activity, which as well, would make more flavourful meat.

There are however parts that get used a lot and are quite active. That's where butchers cut steaks such as Bavette or Onglet. Bavette, which is also called Flank-steak is cut from the abdominal muscles of the cow. Onglet, or Hanger-steak, is V-shaped and obtained from the diaphragm of the heifer or the steer. Both are significantly tougher than other meats. Therefore it's best prepared when marinated and quickly seared on both sides for about 3 minutes in a hot cast-iron pan. When served you're better to cut it into thin slices. With thin and tough cuts like this, you should only salt the meat after searing it.

original image found on wikipedia

Especially Onglet used to be what butchers would rather keep for themselves. Everyone likes their meat to be as tender as possible, so there has not been much interest in those kinds of cuts, until now.
But a butcher's preference can't be that bad, right? And really, it's not that tough if you prepare it right. Just make sure it stays medium rare or absolute maximum medium. Then everything should be fine.

In a very hot (cast iron) pan sear the steaks on both sides for 2.5-3 minutes

Onglet is so strong in flavour that it almost tastes organy, like liver or heart. For some people maybe a bit too intense. Bavette is a little milder, so that might be a better to start off with. But really Onglet is pretty damn good. You should try it.

After searing, wrap the steaks in aluminium foil and let it sit for at least 6 minutes.

Here in Germany Onglet and Bavette are so unpopular, or let's better say unknown, that they get sold (if they get sold) surprisingly cheap. We bought both at Galerie Lafayette, that fancy department store on Friedrichstraße. They were well-aged and each costed around 10€ for about 500g. That's nothing over here, where 100g of filet usually ranges between 4 and 8€.

it's perfect when it's medium rare!

PS: we ate ours unmarinated. Just had it reach room temperature, rubbed it in crushed pepper corns and a tiny bit of olive oil and seared it from both sides for 2.5 - 3 minutes in an extremely hot cast iron pan. Than wrapped the steaks in aluminum foil and had them rest for at least 6 minutes.

Grünkohl - German Style Green Kale with sausages and ham steak

If you think this is going to be light and healthy and vegan-friendly, you better leave this page now.

German style green kale is one of THE grandma generation dishes, that, served as a main dish usually contains quite a bit of (goose) fat and meat, bacon and sausages. You can also find it as a side dish with goose. It's rich, heavy and savoury - a perfect meal for cold days or after a long day of physical work outside. In North-West Germany it is served with a special kind of sausage, called "Pinkel", which contains grit, groats, oats and minced meat and is hard to get in the other parts of Germany. I'm not that attached to this kind of sausage and think you can just leave it out or make a mixture of grits and minced meat (pork) yourself and add a little bit of that mix to the cale. I faked a whole "Pinkel"-sausage, cause I couldn't get it anywhere here in Berlin but wanted to do it right. But it wasn't that great...so not worth the whole effort. The other sausage that are quite hard to get if you don't live in or around Germany is "Mettwurst". It's like a soft salami, smoked and strongly flavoured.

In North America and Australia you may be able to find it in German or Polish grocery stores.

The grey thing in the back is my home-made pinkel sausage. Again, not worth the whole effort. Therefore just ignore it.

What you need:

1-1.5 kg green cale (frozen)

50g goose fat

3/4l meat broth, highly concentrated 

(if you use these cubes or powder, take the double amount of what is usually required for this amount of water )

450g onions chopped

approx. 100g minced meat (pork)

50g grits

a dash of allspice

salt, pepper, sugar

sugar

white vinegar

500g smoked bacon

4 ham steaks

4 Mettwürste

1-4 tbsp oat flakes

In large sauce pan heat up the goose fat. Add chopped onions and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add minced meat and a dash of all spice and mix everything. Cook until the meat is well-done and crumbles.

Now add the frozen green cale. Heat up the meat broth and pour over green cale. Close the lid and let everything simmer at low heat so that the cale can defrost. Stir in the grits. Add the bacon (as a whole!) and two of the Mettwürste. Before adding prick the sausages with a fork several times, to make sure they won't burst. Let everything simmer at low heat for about two hours.

Remove the bacon and sausages and set aside.

Now season the cale with salt, pepper, sugar, mustard and a bit of vinegar, if necessary.

Let it sit at a cool place (fridge, balcony...) overnight.

The next day, heat up the cale again. It should be kind creamy and viscid. If it is too liquid, just slowly mix in some of the oat flakes until the cale reaches the right density. Cut the sausages and bacon that went into the cale the day before into bite-sized cubes and add them back to the cale and bring everything to a boil. Make sure to stir every once in a while to avoid the cale from burning on the bottom of the sauce pan. 

Meanwhile in a second saucepan heat up some water. 

Add the other sausages, as well as the ham steaks and let simmer for around 8-10 minutes.

Serve the green cale the ham steaks, sausages and potatoes.

PS: 

The minced meat, grit, all spice and some of the onions that I added to the cale sort of replaced the "Pinkel" sausage here.

Christmas Tiramisu and Anton and Katy's Thanksgiving dinner

Last Thursday was American Thanksgiving and our Anton and Katy invited us over to Anton's studio to celebrate this day with food and friends. I think we were around 13/14 people and Anton made a turkey and a duck that both turned out pretty damn good. We also had tons of vegetables, two kinds of stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and vodka and wine to pair with the food. It was a feast and we all had so much fun!

Rachel and I brought the desserts. She made delicious pumpkin spiced muffins that were really moist and soft. I went with my christmas dessert classic, Christmas Tiramisu.

When my Mum first made it I was so stoked and immediately asked her for the recipe.

Everyone loves it and it is so easy to prepare. 

The only tricky part may be the "quark" (or curd cheese, farmer's cheese or fromage blanc...), and spekulatius (which is a gingerbread spiced christmas cookie) cause these are German products and you may not find it everywhere. 

If you cannot find it in your grocery store you could try to replace the "quark" with cream cheese (low fat), Greek yoghurt or cottage cheese (mixed in a blender to make it smooth).

Instead of the spekulatius, try gingerbread cookies, but make sure that they are not glazed or anything cause they will have to soak.

Okay, here is what you need:

250g quark

250g mascarpone

200g heavy cream

100g white sugar

1 tsp Bourbon Vanilla sugar

400g morello cherries in a glass (drained net weight)

at least 200g spekulatius or gingerbread cookies

unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

In a bowl mix quark, mascarpone, sugar and vanilla sugar until smooth. 

Whip the cream until stiff and carefully fold in the quark-mascarpone mixture.

Drain the morello cherries.

Now take a square pan or casserole (approx. 25x15cm/10x6inches) and cover the bottom with a thin layer of the cream mixture (3 tbsp). Side by side place the spekulatius cookies in one layer on top. 

Cover the cookie layer with first the drained morello cherries, then another thick layer of cream.

 Top everything off with a second layer of spekulatius cookies. 

Spread the cookies with rest of the cream (3-4tbsp). 

Chill for at least 4-5 hours (preferably over night). 

Sprinkle unsweetened cocoa powder over it and serve!

PS: 

• If you cannot find bourbon vanilla sugar (that's the one with the little black vanilla bean crumbs), just take regular vanilla sugar and maybe slice up a vanilla bean, scarpe out the inside and add that to the cream.
• You can also try all different kinds of berries and fruits with it. I find cherries the best, though, but rasberries might be good, as well...
• I always use quark with 40% fat. The recipe asks for low-fat quark and I might go for it next time, as well cause the mascarpone and whipped cream are already heavy enough.

And here are some thanksgiving impressions:

the food

the hosts

the fun

Easy Peasy Pumpkin Soup

Last Monday, on Halloween, was the first time ever I got to carve a pumpkin.

Halloween is not a big thing in Germany really, and pumpkins for a long time were one of these forgotten vegetables, until a few years ago. Thanks to globalization Halloween is slowly establishing itself more and more as a new kid's event over here, and pumpkin dishes successfully fought their way back into the hearts of German food lovers.

This one here is a very simple and easy to make pumpkin soup that tastes delicious.

You'll need:

500g pumpkin cubes (I use hokkaido pumpkin, cause you can cook it with the skin)

250g carrots roughly, chopped

1 medium-sized onion, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp butter

juice of one orange

100ml heavy cream

1.5 l water

2 tsp vegetable stock

salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg

roasted sunflower seeds, pumpkin oil and cream for garnish

Directions

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add pumpkin carrots and onion and sauté for a few minutes while stirring. Add the vegetable broth and water and bring to a boil. Have everything boil for about ten minutes, or until the carrots and pumpkin are soft.

With a hand blender mix everything until smooth. Mix in the orange juice (careful, you might not need all the juice) and heavy cream. Season to taste with salt, pepper, a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Sprinkle pumpkinseed oil, a bit of cream and roasted sunflower seeds over it.

Serve!

PS: 

I decided to serve the soup with bacon-wrapped cod rolls. Therefore cut the cod into slices and season to taste with pepper and a tiny bit of salt (the bacon is already pretty salty). Place the cod slice on a slice of bacon and roll it all up with the bacon being on the outside. Pin the fish-bacon package with a toothpick so it won't fall apart, when frying. Fry the rolls in a pan from each side on high heat for 2-3 minutes.

Turn the stove down to medium/low heat, cover the pan with a lid and let the rolls cook for another 3-5 minutes to make sure the fish inside is properly cooked.

Serve on top of the pumpkin soup. It's delicious!

PPS: 

You can also add a little parsley for garnish. I just didn't have any...

This was us with our pumpkin on our tiny spontaneous halloween party

I think I did a pretty good job on my first carved pumpkin ever...

We even captured something weird with my camera. There was nothing there, I swear. But it felt strangely cold right next to me.... 

spooky isn't it?

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/2495985/meatampchocolate?claim=t5mt4cdbahr">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Camembert Tarte with Pears

With the change of the seasons the smell of change is in the air and this means busy, busy times over here in Berlin. That's why I haven't been cooking much new stuff lately.

But I thought I share this nice recipe here with you. I made the tarte shortly after the calvados chicken (previous post) cause I had plenty of cidre left. And there is some of it required in this tarte, as well.

I found the recipe in the lates issue of Lust auf Genuss mag, again.

I love tartes and quiche and savory cakes! They look pretty, taste good and are so French!

Also camembert in combination with apples and/or pears is so, so good, 

and the tarragon (I LOVE TARRAGON!) is so aromatic and adds a wonderful flavour to it. 

What you need:

either a square (28x12cm/11x5inch) or round (∅28cm/∅11inch) tarte baking tin.

250g / 2 cups all-purpose flour

salt, pepper

75ml / 1cup water

50g / 2oz. cold butter

dried pulses for blind-baking

2 sprigs tarragon

3 pears (à approx. 100g / 4oz.)

1-2 tsb lemon juice

250g / 9oz. Camembert 

200g / 7oz. sour cream

4 Tbsp cidre (alternatively apple juice)

2 eggs

Directions:

Mix flour with 1/2 tsp salt. Cut the butter in flakes and mix into the flour.

Add 75ml water and, using your hands, knead everything to a smooth dough.

Form the dough to a ball, wrap it up in plastic foil and cool in the fridge for at approx. 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Grease the baking tin.

On a floured surface roll out the dough so that it is a little bigger than the baking tin.

Place the dough in the baking tin and press on the edges. Prick the bottom with a fork several times.

Cover the bottom with baking paper and place the dried pulses on top of it.

Pre-bake/blind-bake in the middle of the preheated oven for approx 15minutes.

Take the dough out of the oven, remove the pulses and baking paper and let it cool down.

Pull off the tarragon leaves from the sprigs. Wash the pears, halve them, remove the cores and cut them along their length into thin slices. Sprinkle the slices with lemon juice.

Remove the rind from the camembert and cut the cheese into slices.  Mix sour cream, cidre, eggs and tarragon leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place first the pears then the camembert slices on the bottom of the pre-baked dough. Pour the egg-tarragon-cream over it and let the tarte bake in the middle of the oven for about 20-25minutes.

Last but not least, let the tarte cool down for 5 minutes before serving.

Et voilà!

Even though this tarte is more of a savory meal, the pairs add quite a bit of sweetness to it. Therefore you're actually best to have it for dessert, paired with a nice digestif or dessert wine.

PS: 

I thought the dough tasted pretty bland. Next time I definitely would add more salt and some sugar to it, and maybe use whole wheat flour. I could have also baked it longer...both just the dough, 

and the whole tarte.

The other thing was that it was far too much egg-tarragon-cream for the tarte. It almost felt like a quiche.

I'd rather pour less over the dough or use a bigger baking tin. Maybe it works better with a square one. 

Last but not least, I would always recommend to take nicely riped camembert. It's harder to remove the rind, cause it's so soft. So what you don't get removed I would just leave on. But I was thinking that a second strong cheese would be a nice addition, as well. I was thinking about grated gruyere or parmesan to sprinkle on top...

"Poulet Vallée d'Auge" or Chicken legs with Calvados

Wil and I have been eating a lot of red meat in the past and with the end of my vegan week experiment I decided to bring more "healthy" variation in our culinary life's. Steak, roast beef and filet is great. 

But I'm slowly running out of ideas how to wrap them in a blogpost. That also counts for our mushroom picking madness. Therefore I looked through some cook books and food magazines 

and found this wonderful recipe in "Lust auf Genuss", 

a German magazine I've been posting a few recipes from already.

I also haven't cooked with Calvados before and you actually SET IT ON FIRE...

...sorry: you flambee it.

It turned out super-delicious and was something completely different from what I normally cook.

You'll need:

for 4 servings

2 shallots

5 sourish apples

5 Tbsp butter

4 chicken legs

salt, pepper

approx. 5cl (1.7oz)  Calvados

100ml (3.4oz) chicken stock

200ml (6.8oz) cidre

1 bouquet garni (2sprigs of thyme and parsley, such as 1 bay leave tied together)

1tsp sugar

200ml (6.8oz) cream

Directions:

Peel the shallots and quarter them. 

Divide one apple into eighth pieces and remove the core.      

Melt 3 Tbsp of butter in a casserole or deep pan.

Rinse the chicken legs, dry them and season them with pepper and salt. 

Sauté the legs in the butter from both sides until golden brown, then take them out and set aside.

Sauté the shallots and apple in the dripping, place the chicken legs on top of them and pour the Calvados over it. By using a long match or one of these longer lighters, carefully lid the Calvados on fire. While you flambé, slightly shake the casserole so that the all the calvados catches fire. 

As soon as the alcohol has dissolved and the fire has extinguished and deglaze with chicken stock and 100ml/3.4oz of cidre. Add bouquet garni, cover the casserole up and let stew for about 30 minutes. In the meantime cut the other apples in each 8 pieces and remove the cores. In a pan melt the 2 leftover Tbsp butter and sauté the apple slices in it, pour the sugar on top and lightly caramelize. Deglaze with the  other half of the cidre (100ml/3.4oz). Add the apples to chicken legs in the casserole.

Mix in the cream and bring to the boil shortly. 

Season to taste with pepper and salt and serve with bread and a glass of white wine.

This guy obviously knows how to use his legs, still...

PS: 

Next time I'll do this recipe again, I will add less cream. I had so much sauce and it was a little to creamy for me, which I think is unnecessary. Just add the cream step by step and decide yourself how much you want.

I will also remove the chicken legs before I add the cream and apples next time. They were just in the way when I wanted to mix everything together. And it looks nicer, too, when the legs aren't all covered in cream sauce...

The only downside to this recipe is that the skin of the legs isn't very crisp. If you have a broiler you probably could broil the legs on maximum heat for 5 minutes after cooking, before serving them with the sauce.

And, of course, you can replace the calvados and cidre with apple juice and not flambé the whole thing. But it certainly doesn't taste as good as with booze and it is far less fun.

The Vegan Experiment Day 8 - the finals

Ok, a little late, but here it is: day 8, the last day of my temporary veganism.

Since it is fall and there are pumkins everywhere I decided to try out two vegan pumkin recipes that I found on www.vegalicious.com.

I started the day with a pumkin banana orange smoothie for which I mixed 

1 cup (240ml) vanilla soy yogurt

1 cup (240ml) pumpkin puree, chilled

1 cup (240ml) orange juice

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 ripe banana

dash of ground cinnamon as optional garnish    

                                                                                     

You don't have to be too correct about the measurements. Just vary the ingredients however you prefer it! I think with real yoghurt it may taste a bit better. The soy yoghurt just doesn't do it for me.

But besides that, the smoothie was alright. Maybe a bit more allspice and cinnamon to bring out the pumkin flavour. 

For dinner I took the leftover pumkin purree from this morning's breakfast smoothie and made pasta with a nice pumkin pistacchio pasta sauce.

That's what you need for about two servings:

• 1/2 onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• dash of red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup water
• 3-5 fresh sage leaves (optional)
• 1/2 lb. penne, fusilli or other pasta
• 3 TBS. minced fresh parsley leaves as optional garish
• 1/3 cup finely chopped pistachios

Directions:

                                          Saute the onion and red pepper in a small frying pan.

When the onion becomes soft and glassy, add the garlic and lightly saute it also.

Place the pureed pumpkin in a pot and add the sauteed vegetables.

Add the vegetable bouillon, red pepper flakes, nutmeg and water.

Optionally add the sage leaves if desired.

Cook the mixture until it is warmed.

                                      Puree he mixture once again to form a smooth consistency.

Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil.

Add the pasta and cook until it is al dente.

When the pasta is ready, drain and return to the pot.

Mix 1/2 the pumpkin mixture into the pasta and stir to evilly coat the pasta.

Serve the pasta garnished with pistachio nuts and optionally minced parsley leaves.

Serve the other 1/2 of the sauce in a “gravy boat” for people to add on top of their serving.

Optionally if you would like a creamier flavour you can add soy cream.

I added a dash of each cinnamon and allspice to the sauce, as well. It tasted pretty good, but still a little bland. Next time I think I might add something more acidic to it, such as lemon juice, white wine or vinegar. I could also imagine to mix in some carrots to the puree to add more flavour to it and the juice of one orange.

Cooking these two wonderful dishes on the last day of my experiment certainly helped me to forget about my dairy/egg/meat cravings for a while. I actually managed to stay vegan one day longer.

But I ate all the leftovers. so there nothing new to tell you.

On the 10th day Wil and I celebrated with two nice pieces of Entrecote and a glass of decent red wine. Boy, that meat tasted so good! And I can assure you it came from a happy cow!

My final conclusion to this experiment is, that being a vegan is not even that hard these days. There are plenty of options and organic stores offer a lot of alternatives to meat and dairy products, whether those are good or not as good... I didn't feel better healthwise, which I thought was weird. I kind of thought I would sleep better, have an excellent digestion (no lactose) and feel more awake and energetic during the day. But nada. Everything was normal. Maybe I am just healthy already...

I did get a lot of inspiration for more vegetable based dishes. we have been eating a lot of red meat lately. It's just very easy to prepare and you get so much flavour! 

But hey, there are good reasons to eat less of it, environmentally and from a health perspective.

We have been more conscious about where our meat/eggs and dairies come from already. Still I think we can improve on that. It just makes you feel better to know that you are eating something for which no animal had to suffer or go through unnecessary pain.

I will not become a vegan or a vegetarian in the near future, that's for sure. But I have big respect for people who decide to dedicate their life to these kind of diets. I wish some of them would stop being so damn militant about it, though. Veganism is simply not for everyone and it's also not about joining the latest and hippest club. Sorry, but that's often the impression I'm getting. 

I think it is more important to figure out ways to consume less but therefore better and ethically unquestionable animal products from preferably small local business.

The Vegan Experiment Day 7 - the big withdrawal

At day 7 of my vegan experiment the big withdrawal hit me. Nothing could really satisfy me that day.

I wasn't craving meat, but something rich, creamy and fatty, that is not oil, but butter, cream and cheese. Or simply REAL milk.

I still had one bag of "vegan chicken nuggets" with sesame oil and was kind of suspicious on whether those will be any good. Especially after my vegan convenience food shock of day one...

But to my surprise they tasted pretty good. The consistency was kind of rubbery but I didn't mind that too much. It didn't taste like chicken at all. Rather like some sort of savory dough? I sprinkled some sweet soy sauce over the nuggets which added a nice flavor to it. 

 

 Maybe it's just because I'm getting used to the whole non meaty stuff and don't taste the soy anymore.

But later that day I pretty much inhaled the rest of the vegan cookie dough ice cream, searching for satisfaction, and, as mentioned, that didn't work...

Earlier that day I had a vegetarian/vegan wantan soup at the one Asian place my colleagues always go to at lunch break.  There is a lot of Asian dishes that are vegan or at least vegetarian. So, if you decide to become a vegan you will always find something to eat there. Careful wth Indian food, though. They often add cream and gee (clarified butter) to their dishes.

 There is only one more day of my experiment left and, since it is fall here, 

it will be all about pumpkins!