All Activity

Pro tip: high-conductivity pans like the Falk Copper Coeur or Demeyere Atlantis pans are going to heat up really quickly if you use the fast or extra-fast (2400W) intensity setting. With clad pans like the Falk Copper Coeur, that means you're going to see more overshoot while the temperature at the center pan catches up to the rapidly-rising temperature over the induction coil itself. And if you're doing a sugar test, you almost certainly want to use the "slow" heating intensity of the Control Freak for that. The theory with the slow/mid/high/max settings is that the heating intensity should match the food you're using. And that goes for the pan you're coupling it with too. If you're just boiling water or searing foods, high/max intensity is fine. But if you're cooking eggs or doing a sugar test, etc. I'd highly recommend using the slow intensity setting. Note that max intensity is only available on the 2400W (UK/EU/ANZ) models. And again, if you're looking for a pan with a really tight band of temperature consistency across the bottom, you're probably going to want to find a pan in the 14-26cm range that has a highly-conductive disc bottom style of construction. That's what I use my Demeyere Atlantis pans for. I actually thought I'd use them most of the time because of the temperature consistency--but in real-world applications I've found that I usually pick up the Falk Copper Coeur instead. While the temperature uniformity isn't actually inversely proportional to the cost of the pan, I can see how you'd get that feeling when testing a higher-cost clad pan against a lower-cost thick disc-bottom-style pan. It's the construction style of the pan and the material properties (including the thickness and conductivity of the heat-conducting material) that largely determines the tightness of the temperature across any given surface, the temperature ramping and spreading speed, etc. I have zero issues using highly-responsive pans with the Control Freak. But please remember that the intensity function (slow/medium/high/max) is basically the Control Freak's analog to turning another induction stove to a low, medium, high, or excessively high setting. So if you're warming up your pan on high or max, it's basically behaving like if you put it on a powerful induction burner and set it to high--except that the Control Freak stops heating the pan once its sensor hits the temperature setpoint. So please, be kind to your food and use the slow or medium intensity for more delicate items (or if you're wanting a tighter temperature gradient on clad pans). You may also find out that you want a few disc-style pans and a few clad-style pans in your collection, each tool optimized for its application.

Successful “fusion” cuisine combining Indian cuisine with Southern cooking from “My Two Souths” by Asha Gomez - Southern -style pork vindaloo and green bean verakka with cardamom cornbread Pork vindaloo braises cubed pork butt and onions in a pureed mixture of garlic, brown mustard seeds, sugar, tomato paste, paprika, hot paprika and white wine vinegar. The green bean verakka stir-fried with coconut oil, brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds and thyme. And the cornbread is baked with cornmeal, cardamom powder, black pepper, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, butter and baking soda

*bump* I've been making my own kefir from a packet of dry granules (Yogourmet brand Kefir starter) (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) after discovering the product. However, I've become disenchanted with it because of the separation of materials that happens while it's incubating. (That speck on the right side is something on the outside of the carafe.) It doesn't recombine nicely when I simply shake it. I haven't had access to a whisk until recently. Blending it with a banana is a nice way to improve the texture, but I tired of bananas after a month or so - and I didn't have a blender for a short time. I began branching out to other juices, or fruits, and therein lies the problem: I find the texture unpleasant as it is. I recently began purchasing commerical kefir so I could mix it with mango juice or some other lovely sweet juice that balances the tartness of the kefir as a breakfast drink. Still, it's expensive stuff and I know I can make it on my own...if I can overcome these texture issues. Hence, I'm reviving this topic.. I hope @andiesenji drops by to do some explaining. I see, in rereading her tutorial, that she didn't simply do one quart worth of kefir all at once. She started with a small amount and encouraged it to grow by adding milk gradually as the culture developed. It reminds me of the sourdough starter process. My process involves dumping a packet of the dried granules into a quart of milk all at once. 1. What exactly is going on with the separated layers? It looks like I have fluffy materials on the top (the fattier components?) and finer materials settled to the bottom, with only whey in the middle area. I'm curious about the chemistry. 2. Is there a way to keep the stuff from separating like that? It makes a mess of the jar when I shake it, because of the clumps that stick to the sides. I may need a different vessel. I don't remember whether this batch was made from 1% or 2% milk. Proably 2%. I've gotten much the same result with every fat content of milk I've used, although I can't remember whether I've tried it with skim milk.

Bacon with avocado, blueberries and blackberries. . . on toast.

WaPo has a nice piece on an impending Smithsonian display and documentary. https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/05/12/marcella-hazan-smithsonian-documentary/

Not sure if it was here or elsewhere, but I decided to try a suggestion to snip the leaves off my volunteer tomatoes at the end of the season to get light into the green ones to start them ripening. Worth a try but probably should have been done earlier. They only get late afternoon sun.

Tri tip, roasted tomatoes and a splash of demiglace, Germanic potato salad.

Mint-cilantro chicken with spinach, garlic-ginger paste, onion, jalapeno, black pepper, turmeric, and lemon juice Okra, broiled from above and then baked at the bottom of a 450°F oven. Mrs. C, who does not like slimy okra, approved of its crunch. 🙂

Yeah, maybe. Shake or sift or whatever. It's much the same as scattering flour for scorchprints--it doesn't need to be perfect to tell you what you want to know.

Taco plates! My Gawd what a great idea!

This was an early taco dinner for me and a late lunch for Charlie.

Thank you. Yes, oysters. I removed the top cover of 1 box to quickly make some photos. I eat them every week. Used to shuck them and have them ready with the rest of the food but no longer do that. They release a lot of water once shucked and it drips everywhere. Got 8 boxes of 6 (in each, like these below) this week! So this week I eat a box a day, usually just 2 at weekends. Some people would rather take zinc pills.

@BonVivant everything looks so interesting and delicious. what is this ? oysters ? you and @Duvel end up w the most plump herring Ive ever seen. congratulations.

I eat radishes all the time, more starting in spring and a bit less when the weather turns chilly. Like with cucumber, I never cook "radi", love the crunch and freshness. Beside cold soups I just eat the slices in a salad, on bread with cottage cheese or ricotta. Chilled radish-buttermilk soup and pureed radish greens. Another radish "soup" (cold), with kefir. Radish greens-chard "soup" (cold) I plan what to cook in my head so if I'm not eating I'm probably thinking about what to eat!

Thanks, Steve. Super easy to make. Roughly how I make the sauce: steam the eggs to soften, grate or pulse in FP (I grate each yolk using a coarse strainer), warm butter in a pan on a low heat and add the grated yolks. Stir until smooth, don't let the sauce burn. Experiment with some extra ingredients, too. Garlic, Laoganma, stock powder, chillies etc. I use the sauce in all kinds of dishes. Goes well with white meats, firm tofu, (green) vegetables, prawns, crabs, noodles, steamed savoury buns. Or sweet custard buns. Speaking of salated eggs, why not have fun with your own salt-cured yolks directly, too! And if you ever come across these... (I like both. Bought them in Hong Kong but I think it's probably easier to get hold off now. If not, try the knockoffs. The original products come from Singapore, IIRC.) I have this lying round.

We‘ve spend the sunny Saturday in the nearby town of Strasbourg, just across the border. Haven’t been there for a while … Brought back a lot of food, including some stuff for tonight’s BBQ … Soooo, we had: lamb, some Merguez, some sausages with herbs & garlic, some saucisse de Toulouse and a kind veal & milk sausage, that was sinply excellent … Plus a horse rumpsteak and a marinated rabbit skewer … To match the French theme, a very garlicky potato grstin instead of Kartoffelsalat … And - because it’s the season - Spargel en papilotte 🤗 All accompanied and finished with a sweet white wine from the Jura … No complaints 🥳

Pasta with asparagus and beetroot marinated Matjes. With smoked salmon for the other one who doesn't like Matjes. -------------#2--------------- Cold cuts (my favourite here is the liver) Prawns, raw rhubarb slices, and quark. Cheese is cremeux de Normandie. Dry-roasted poppyseeds added to warm honey and butter. Kumquat marmalade. Mango and blueberries. I got these in Düsseldorf last time, hoping they would be more like crumpets. Turns out they are not like crumpets but not quite bread. I know what "Toastbrot" (toast bread) is, but my first time seeing it looking a lot like crumpets. The whole country was shut down on Thursday. An opportunity to enjoy a long, relaxing lunch. ------------------------#3----------------------- Chewy, seedy sourdough bread from the countryside bakery. A new-to-me small farm that makes cheeses using their own cows' milk, in a village near here, only 15 minutes away by bicycle. Costs twice as much as supermarket stuff but I do want to support our small(er) (local) producers. ----------------#4------------------------------ It's half way into May and I'm still eating squashes from last year! They keep so well that's why they are the last ones. Watery, fibrous but very sweet. I made a soup with it. Last one. To be cooked next week. I think this pattypan is meant to be a decoration. I have actually eaten it a few years back. Tasted like a super dense courgette but more flavour than worthless courgette. Blue Dolphin, I have a kilo of black chickpeas. Haven't got round to cooking them. Still waiting to finish some other grains and pulses in the cupboard first.

Toasted coconut pound cake for the mama.

Blue Fin Poke, Scallops in black bean & garlic sauce

I am so doing this...

It looks like Annie's makes a lot of g-f entrees. They also offer two varieties of g-f pizza, although the website says one of them is currently unavailable. I haven't had or made either one, but Ms Alex is a big fan of their regular spinach pizza.

Frozen Food aisle. Weston Loblaw's stores. Superstore, No Frills.... FreshCo.

Section of what store/s please?

We harvested a feral pig in 2023; the getting is fairly easy, the sanitary safe processing can be fairly challenging and pricy. We will be eating that animal for another 12 months. 1 300lb pig for a small household is a steady food source with good processing and storage. My sous vide and Instant pot and meat grinder got a really good workout making now and future meals out of the sow. The feral pig problem is actually quite horrifying for native environments and agriculture.