Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

I was going through different websites again today. I had some sourdough that really needed to be used. The volume got to big for the jar. I decided to jump into the deep end of the pool and just make something up. I have not baked many breads so far. So here we go: 200g sour dough starter 200g all purpose flower (not self rising) 200g strong whole wheat flower (14.7) 1 cup of water  hand warm 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp dry active yeast 1/2 tsp sugar 1 tbsp balsamic (yes balsamic, yes that is vinegar) In a bowl mix the 2 flowers and the salt. Bring the water to hand warm temperature, add the dry yeast and the sugar and stir. It should all dissolve Put all of the ingredients into a bowl for a stand mixer. With a dough hook mix them all on low speed, Once the dough curls up to a ball around the hook, we need to get to hand kneading. Turn off the stand mixer, remove the dough and keep kneading it for 10 min on a well flowered surface. Spray a bowl with non-stick cooking spray...

After 8h without power and my house starting to get cold, I needed some comfort food. All of this can be done in about 20 min. We need 6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces less then 1/2" Tomato salad: tomato finely chopped red onion fresh basil, finely chopped olive oil balsamic vinegar salt and pepper to taste A store bought sesame bun, lightly salted butter from Finland Pickled herring: Pickled herring from a glass (usually I take it store bought in white wine sauce) 2  very generous tbsp of sour creme finely chopped red onion Start with the potatoes. Put them in a pot, cover with cold water, add 1/2tsp of salt bring to a boil and let them cook till finished. Then mix pickled herring, source creme and finely chopped onion, add some of the liquid from the herring glas, mix it all up and set aside. If you plan meals, do mixing of the herring etc a day in advance and let it stand in the fridge. Let the thing mingle and start a party. Now it is time...

In my grocery store, I always saw those pork shoulders. What to do with this? It usually has some skin on, which reminds me of real German speck (salt cured and smoked port belly), where the fat part was used for dishes and the skin was added for flavor to other dishes e.g. Lentil stew. I of course did love to eat the cooked down skin from the lentil stew. I asked on Facebook how to do best a pork shoulder. I got many replies and merged several of them to this. 8 lbs pork shoulder, rinsed down with cold water and dried with a paper towel. 0.5 liter of Pilsner beer 0.25 liter of  Guinness 5+ cloves of garlic very coarsely shopped (more if you like garlic) Put the shoulder in the freezer for 30 min, we want to cut the skin into diamond patterns. The knife has to be really sharp. Don't be afraid to sharpen again and again. Also do not cut the meat. Only cut the skin. Use Salt, pepper and ground cumin and some thyme on the outside. There are more spices to come, don't overdo...