As promised #cookstr #foodstr. We had it for dinner this evening.

As expected, much much better if you let it sit for one day as we did.

It's kind of lame that I say it myself, but it was outstanding.

Unlike my pictures of it 🤷🏻‍♂️ nostr:note10lazvrmt9q6ycwvs5cjtkslr7caq2ygevx6dkkpcyttfsj527assvvsy8p

Spain is a rogue state within NATO. It has a record of allowing the Russian fleet to resupply in its ports. Pretty unconscionable. The only reason why Spain is not considered as treacherous as Turkey from the NATO point of view is because of its irrelevance in the Middle East, or really anywhere else in the larger strategy board game these past decades. Even in stuff related to Atlantic Africa, Spain's role is nonexistent.

Critical detail I forgot: all the while after you add the meat, you let it all simmer with the pot COVERED. Otherwise it will evaporate way too fast and you'll need to keep adding water/broth, which interrupts the process and makes the resulting dish not good at all.

#cookstr #foodstr As you fry the slices, let them sit for a minute on absorbing paper to get rid of some of the oil, but do not slumber. It's time to put them into the stew. And after that, there go the mushrooms. I threw in the mushroom water too because I intend to cook this for a long time.

If you kept the heat low, you should still have enough liquid to cover the meat. If there isn't, add water or broth, but do not overdo it.

Now, the final step: the picada. I've talked about it many times before, so I won't go over it again. In this case: a couple of garlic cloves, almonds, hazelnuts, and some spices like peppercorns, a pinch of cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg.

Depending how much you want the sauce to thicken and taste like raw garlic, you can wait until the very last minute when you turn the heat off. I wanted to have lunch and I prefer to cook the mix and tune down the garlicness, so I just threw it in immediately.

And the rest is just a matter of letting the low heat work, until you get something like this. In my case, after adding the meat, it has simmered for about one hour.

Then turn it off, and let it sit for six to eight hours before transferring it to another recipient and putting it in the fridge for tomorrow or the next day.

Will upload pics when we eat it.

Bon profit a tothom nostr:note18p0zd2fk7mkve9vpvqkcwymugad4d5lwccylwlrysrgeq3etc77qqfm3uu

Alright, #cookstr #foodstr, while the whole base simmers but before it really starts to reduce, the meat.

It is thought that the name of the dish refers to the fact that the meat is fried before stewing. In any case, that's precisely what happens, so let's go.

1. The best parts are either what we call "llata", which I guess is the brisket or somewhere near it (I'm more of a fish person), or the "jarret", which should be the round steak from the hind legs.

2. The purpose of frying the meat is to shock it into a firmer texture that can withstand the long cooking time, so you want a high heat.

3. Do not overdo the flour

4. Ideally, you want cuts 1 cm thick that you later manually smash thinner. If you, like me, neglect to do this because you bought thinner slices and thought it'd be OK, know that the meat will curl, which is a pain in the ass when you flip it to fry the other side nostr:note14kkr4ylq2vpyz3vcnqy4sw3c835ulwe6fe97ntljld7x3r0wwfgsydtd6q

No knife required 😬

#cookstr #foodstr By the way, this is what I made yesterday for today's lunch. Some random pumpkin and lamb stew I improvised and didn't think about documenting. I'll come back to today's fricandó (which is for tomorrow) after lunch. nostr:note14kkr4ylq2vpyz3vcnqy4sw3c835ulwe6fe97ntljld7x3r0wwfgsydtd6q

#cookstr #foodstr Let's continue:

Now, even at such low heat, eventually all those roots and bulbs and even the tomato will caramellize, so you will have to deglaze. In traditional Catalan cuisine, we use what we call "vi ranci", literally "rancid wine", which I can't seem to find an equivalent for even in Spanish. It's basically a dry wine that is aged in oxidative conditions. I guess similar, but different to Jerez wines?

Anyway, today I'm using one full glass of vi ranci and half of red wine, which is more astringent and will help a lot. After the alcohol is gone, I'm adding one glass of broth.

After adding all this liquid you obviously have to turn the heat on quite a bit until everything is back to a boil and then turn it back down always allowing it to keep chugging along. Let it do its thing. nostr:note1gt9fulh7g8jhzfgy62v3p9y4vl9q3vn7wdjquccxd2e3krphprpsv449gl

It begins. #cookstr #foodstr.

"Fricandó de vedella amb bolets", that is, veal "fricandó" with mushrooms. I keep the Catalan denomination instead of the gallicized "fricandeaux" because the Catalan dish has little to do with the French one, even the current Occitan one. Nevertheless, veal recipes are very uncommon in Catalonia, so it may well be the case that this came over from across the mountains in any of the successive Occitan migrations during the late Middle Ages and the end of Catalan sovereignty in the 18th century.

No matter what, this is a very ancient dish. It's found on all Catalan cookbooks since at least the 18th century in its current form, and the fact that it's one of those recipes lacking any type of American ingredient (tomato, potato, bell pepper...) also points at a pre-16th century origin.

Today I'm committing a transgression against the Nation then, because I'm using tomato for the base. I decided to do so only after realizing that I was overdoing the sweet section: onion, parsnip, turnip, leek, celery, garlic. Tomato helps to deglaze all those sugars and to raise a bit the acidity and the umami.

The bundle of herbs contains the usual local mix of bay leaf, thyme, rosemary.

I'm also using a mix of dehydrated mushrooms which I'm reviving for one hour in cold water. I'm too lazy to try to figure out the names in English, if they even exist. Those DO NOT go with the base, they come in at the end.

The key points for the base are:

1. to chop everything (never grate!) into dice as little as your knife skills allow you (not much in my case as you can see)

2. to use barely enough (extra virgin olive) oil to barely coat the pot

3. to keep the flame at the bare minimum your stove allows

4. to begin with the onion by itself until it is starting to "sweat out", then add all the other vegetables, and only add the tomato (half as much as you used onion, peeled and chopped)

5. Do not fry, sauté, make golden, or anything like that. If you're roasting the vegetables, there is too much oil and the heat is too high nostr:note1h4vhn7aa4585vd2cku3q3hwfqjyqy84rv93lvy5cjnsq4nq8u95stnsjlc

It hasn't though because I'm a fucking psychopath and all I do is stack and hodl. Never once have I sold one single sat. So they will have to either believe me, or have fun staying poor!

Today's #cookstr #foodstr, a classic among classics of Catalan-Occitan cuisine.

I have pushed several times for the company I work for to add BTC to the treasury. I am not privy to the exact composition of it, but because it's a private company and there are some really smart heads sitting at that table, I have the intuition that they may have some already. nostr:note1enhennfgw8amv4p934awt4tej48t2xtt6vu6m2d9l6jq8rkan2fsmhp7gm

Look at "him", and look at "his name"... It's gotta be a psyop.

Think laterally. If you eliminate 99% of the State and the events of people's lives upon which it can exert influence and coercion, the exact form that the government takes become pretty irrelevant.

I don't even think it works at a local level. Local majorities in fact tend to be absolutely vicious against the designated minority as anyone who has lived in a small town can attest.

The only thing that works is a government that stays the fuck out of everyone's business and has no say on anything significant. In that case, where the "decisions" are made becomes immaterial.

Oh well

Do you want my prediction? OK: these lawsuits are being strategically deployed as an electoral weapon against Trump, since "Operation Warp Speed" was his.

One first things the Biden administration did was to restructure it, as early as January 2021. So they will be able separate both phases of the program and eventually get away with everything, once they have achieved their electoral goals.

I'm not implying that Trump doesn't deserve to be made accountable for those crimes. But once again the other side of the Single Party will come on top.

The SEC lies even in court, as seen in the article. Maxis just repeat the lies because they think they benefit from them. Until the SEC or any other part of the State apparatus decides to turn on them, which they will inevitably do.

BTC was totally centralized when it launched, and the distribution was limited to one single individual at first (who presumably still holds 5% of the total max supply), and then to just a few insiders. Not being sold at an exchange where anyone could buy it didn't make it less centralized, but more. That was eventually overcome.

I think the same criteria can be applied to many other projects out there. You can be centralized in the beginning and then become decentralized.

Not that I particularly care about any particular "crypto", because my wealth is stored in BTC. I simply dislike the inconsistency and the maxis' naïveté of thinking that they can ride that monster.

Today I'm getting my third Morakniv of this exact model and make.m, and I'm as excited about as if this was a 400€ knife. Let me tell you, if you're into knives, this 17€ thing is simply unbeatable.

The shit I put them through at work - corrosive salt water, blood, cutting through bone, rope and the occasional can, prying metal, crushing and removing ultrafrozen ice at -60 C from steel fixtures and floors... they can take anything, and given the cost, the lack of need for restraint is invaluable.

Best purchase ever, I keep going back to it (without prejudice of all the other excessively expensive knives I keep buying because I'm obsessed).

They have just under one year to convince Americans that the Obama's third term has been the Second Coming (onto their faces).