edsel

Yeah, those were the first ones I figured out, too. Set the Rotary Switch (2) to the full counter-clockwise position (the lower case greek letter). The switch on mine is finicky, so I usually click it back and forth a couple of times to be sure it locks into the continuous setting. Submerge the unit in water to cover the immersion heater coils. Turn the over-temp trip dial (6) up past 60 or so. I'm assuming you didn't use super-hot water to fill the tank. Turn on power switch (7). The indicated temp should be something like 20° - maybe higher if you filled your tank with warm water. Hold in Setpoint mode button (4). Displayed temp should change to something other than what you were seeing. When the button is held in the display reads your setpoint. Otherwise it reads the actual temp. While holding in button (4), adjust setpoint dial (5) until the readout shows your desired target temp. Release the button and watch the temperature climb towards your target. At first the heat indicator (3) will stay lit nearly continuously. As the actual water bath temperature aproaches your target, the light will stay on less. Eventually it will be mostly off, only flickering on when the water temperature drops ~ 0.1 ° below your target. You can adjust the over-heat trip to just a bit higher than your target setpoint. If the actual temperature ever excedes the trip point, you'll hear a "pop" as the safety relay shuts off the heater. EDIT: Corrected number of Setpoint dial.

I was never able to locate a manual for the MS, but it wasn't too hard to figure out how to operate it. There are specs and manuals for similar (more recent) models on the Lauda web site, so the operating guidelines should be pretty similar for a (roughly) same-size unit. I just leave the rotary switch set to the continuouly-variable setpoint and "dial in" the temperature I want. I leave the over-temp threshold a few degrees higher than my target so that the unit will switch off if it overheats. (This only happened once, when I let the water level get too low).

Laura Taxel's new regional food magazine Feast has an article about the slow food movement that features CC and Kathy Breychak's blue eggs. (Access to the current issue articles is for subscribers only). I've been buying eggs from Kathy for some time now, but haven't tried using the yolks in ravioli. Got to get to CC some time to try theirs. (And the Carbonara!)

I think that those are straw mushrooms I ate at Krua Thailand this evening (thanks to seeing your post). I had the hot and sour fish soup. I think it's called Thom Yum Pla (?) It has Thai basil, kefir lime, lemon grass, galangal, and chilis. The fish soup has oyster mushrooms rather than straw mushrooms. The fish pieces are cross-sections of the whole fish, unboned. They're fried before going into the soup, so the outside is crunchy and the inside moist. Very tasty, but a challenge to eat with chopsticks. Nice restaurant, great food and very friendly staff.

I recently encountered the term "Amuse Gueule" in a book by Richard Olney published nearly thirty years ago, so I don't think it's a sudden affectation on trotter's part. It does sound like the vegetable menu was the more interesting choice. That made me laugh.

Funny how this discussion of RR's GB has developed a subtext of "Composte it!" vs "Seal it in a landfill for all eternity!" . One thing that kind of bugged me about Rachel Ray's garbage bowl was the indiscriminate mixing of compost-able and non-organic trash. The implied message is that the contents of the "garbage bowl" will wind up in a plastic bag, destined for a giant land fill somewhere in Staten Island or Jersey. Yes, I realize that Rachel Ray's Thirty-minute-meal "kitchen" is a studio set in Chelsea. Her own kitchen (in the Village??) is probably tiny, and it's doubtful that she has room for a garden. Still, is she really setting a good example by dumping everything into the same bowl? My fantasy is that there's some hapless FoodTV flack (Hello, summer internship!) who actually compiles media references to RR's shows. Is there any chance that this discussion will make it's way back to her? If so, here's my advice to RR and producers: Keep the "Garbage Bowl" concept, but separate the compost-able stuff from the plastic. It's a subtle message, but some of us notice these things.

Alright! When I saw that you were blogging this week I was hoping that cachaça would make an appearance. Feijoada is even better! Can you get Brazilian-style chorizo there? I have trouble finding a reasonable substitute. You didn't mention farofa as an accompaniment. Isn't that pretty traditional with feijoada? I think you should start a second pot with all the scary bits (ears, tail, tongue, etc.) - or does Mrs johnnyD not even allow them in the house... Your stovetop has two burners, right?

The beet salad is roasted beets, pecans, apple, ricotta, and truffle honey. (I saved a menu ) It's fun to see a beet salad inspire so much conversation. You got the description of the striped bass exactly as it was on the menu, except that it also mentions tomato. That bass looked absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks to Kristin's ISO post, six of us met up at Lolita on Tuesday. NancyH and husband Bob, RagallachMC , Palladion, torakris, and I had a nice view of the open kitchen. When someone expressed astonishment that that little area behind the bar was really the kitchen, RagallachMC volunteered that his kitchen is half that size. (If you want to learn more about working out of a tiny kitchen, see Ruhlman's Soul of a Chef). Barely one week after my initial post, the menu has already changed significantly. Quite a few of the dishes have been changed out, but the layout and pricing structure have also been subtly altered. Rather than pricing the "small plates" individually, they charge a flat price of $4.50 each, or three for $12. The previous menu priced the "small plates" $3 to $5 and separated them into "Veggies", "Cheeses", "Seafood", and "Meats". I think that the previous price breakouts were a distraction - the new menu encourages a "let's try some new stuff" sort of attitude. Some of the cheese and meat items have been moved to the "Meats and Cheeses" (Appetizer) column and are priced individually. The "Antipasta for Two" item has been replaced by the similar "Big Board for Two". NancyH and hubby had this, and it resembled a greatly augmented version of the "salumi of the day" I had last week. It was served on a plank of wood, and included prosciutto, lomo, and something striated with fat (guanciale?), plus the mostarda I was served last week (yay pickled ramp!), plus some other yummy-looking stuff. Hopefully NancyH can fill in the gaps. When asked about what the "Big Board for Two" contains, our server informed us that it's pretty much whatever the cooks think looks interesting. This led to a brief discussion of avoiding the "chef's special" in most restaurants, but I think the consensus was that Chef Symon & co. actually want to serve you cool stuff. OK. Quick summary of what I had. Three "Small Plates": Molten Croquettes - Pretty much as good as that sounds. Fried Smelts - The orange aoli is what tartar sauce wants to be. Lobster Grape Leaves - The lobster was subtle, the dolmade effect was awesome. Two "Meats & Cheeses" apps: Guanciale Crostini - This was salty but also sweet - I don't know what was on the crostini other than the cured pork jowl, but this had a strikingly sweet note - good, but I would back off on the sweet component. Maybe they were trying to compensate for the inate saliness of the Guanciale. Get over it dudes! We know that cured hawg jowl is gonna be salty. Don't try to hide it. Robiola - Gorgeous triple-cream cheese. Can't recall what was served with this, but I think there were sweet notes there as well. Very nice. Finally, dessert: Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta - A great finish to a wonderful meal. Complex and not overly sweet. Also had coffee. I usually don't risk ordering coffee in restaurants, but this was a nice accompaniment to the Panna Cotta. ===== One last note to all of you who have a rather romantic notion of Lola/Lotita courtesy of Ruhlman's book. The place was packed on a weekday night in Cleveland. Most restaurants in North East Ohio? *crickets*. Chef Symon was workin' the line through the thick of it. Smoke was pouring out of that wood-fired oven. The Ferrari-red slicer on the counter was set to paper-thin, and the house-cured leg of prosciutto on that slicer was absolutely gorgeous. He was clearly in his element. Partner Doug P. was handling the FOH, including what passes for "the passe" (walk into the restaurant and you're there). This is, when all is said and done, a small neighborhood restaurant. All the more extraordinary, considering the publicity (notoriety?). After things wound down a bit, chef MS came around to chat with the clientele. When we told him we were the eGullet gang, he seemed genuinely pleased. Hopefully he knows he's got fans here. We didn't quite close down the place - they're open until 11:00 on weeknights, and we left a bit before that. We ended the evening on the street in front of the restaurant chatting with chef Symon and wife Liz - she's actively involved in the business, especially in the wine service (which is outstanding). It's abundantly clear that chef MS loves this place. He's nominally handed off the kitchen to his highly competent chefs, but he just can't stay out of there for now. That's going to change soon. The new Lola Bistro will be opening in October (if they're on schedule), and chef Symon will be wrapped up in all that excitement. For the next few weeks you can get a taste of what the old Lola Bistro was like. As I said before, Lolita is not Lola, but the "vibe" is definitely there. For those of you who want to get a taste of what Ruhlman described in Soul of a Chef , get thee to Tremont post haste. p.s. to japan forum: rest assured that your procrastination trophy remains unchallenged. We managed to decide on our first round of dishes in less than 1 hour.

This is probably a bit late for tonight's dinner, but have you ever done a savory cheesecake? I bet that the Zingerman's cream cheese would be great in something like that. Ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, smoked or roasted peppers, herbs work well. Vegetables like zucchini would be too watery unless you cook them down first. I think that savory cheesecakes are usually made with riccota rather than cream cheese - the latter would probably be too rich for a main course, but might make a nice appetizer or side. The lack of gum stabilizer in the cream cheese means that it will melt more smoothly than the industrial stuff, so you could probably substitute it for part of the white sauce in an old-fashioned casserole. (Maybe thin it with a bit of milk or stock?) Oh, and congatulations!

Interesting that Jennifer Ludden chose this piece for her fairwell story as host of ATC. Sounds like she had fun doing it. One thing I noticed from the landing page: Is there something about Alinea I'm not aware of...?

Steven, it's true that there are millions of FoodSaver appliances out there, but how often do people think of them in a culinary context, rather than simply a means of avoiding freezer-burn, or protecting rare coin collections? I found the article to be thoughtful and well researched. I especially enjoyed the background stuff on Goussault and Pralus, and also the little anecdotes from various chef's impressions of sous vide.

There's also some previous discussion of Lola / Lolita in a previous thread. Lolita is not Lola Bistro, but that's mostly a good thing. The new Lola Bistro will open on E. 4th St. in a couple of months, but Lolita will retain that funky Tremont neighborhood charm. I'm optimistic that we'll be getting the best of both worlds. Lolita will be a fun, relaxed Mediterranean restaurant, and Lola (downtown) will be chef Symon's showcase. Several eG members will be reporting on Lolita shortly.

I decided to pop in to Lolita last night. I'd been wanting to check it out after the transformation from Lola Bistro to Lolita. Lolita has a Mediterranean theme. There's a wood-fired oven blazing away behind the bar and a cool-looking red enamel slicer set to paper thin for the prosciutto (cured in house!). I asked the server about the in-house salumeria, and he said that everything but the pancetta was made on the premises. I'm not sure how they have prosciutto already. It was my impression that they didn't start curing their own meats until after Lola shut down for the move/renovation. Doesn't prosciutto take months to cure? Anyways, I decided to do the "three course tasting menu", which is basically just a bundling of two small plates, one app, and one entree from the menu. I chose: Small Plate no. 1 - Yellowtail Crudo. This has a playful pseudo-Japanese presentation. What looks like a maki roll is actually a rolled grape leaf. The yellowtail tasted stronger than I expected, perhaps because of the olive oil and sesame dressing. Small Plate no. 2 - Country Ham. This was the "Today's Salumi" item from the menu. Very similar to prosciutto in flavor and texture. It was accompanied by a mostarda (relish) of pears and garnished with a pickled ramp. Appetizer - Grilled flat bread with prosciutto, manouri, and mint. The flat bread was wonderfully crisp and smoking hot, right out of the wood-fired oven. The prosciutto was delicate and very flavorful. The manouri was milder than expected, and the mint was quite subtle. Very nice! Entree - Bucatini "Carbonara". They put "Carbonara" in quotes because this is really a departure from a traditional carbonara. It has peas, pancetta, veal tongue, and is topped by a poached egg. It was yummy, but I would have preferred a sauce texture closer to a traditional carbonara. I ordered a cheese from the small plate menu for dessert. A Graviera, semi-soft Greek sheep's milk cheese, labeled "good action" on the menu. Apparently that was the comment of one of the cooks after tasting it. No one knows what "good action" means exactly, but it's on the menu. I think in the future I'd assemble the entire meal out of the small plates. There are twenty-odd items, with the "Today's Salumi" rotating frequently, so there's a big variety to chose from. p.s. to Kristin: Sorry I didn't PM you that I was going. I was already on the road when I decided to make a detour to Tremont.

Ted, the chamber machines can do liquids because the vacuum is applied to the entire chamber, not just the pouch. With a clamp machine (FoodSaver) the pouch is exposed to the atmosphere, so as the air is sucked out the surrounding air pushes in on the bag. If there's any liquid content it will get pushed into the machine. That's why you have to freeze liquids and chill fats so that they're solid if you're working with a FoodSaver. With a chamber machine there's no air outside of the bag to push on it - the whole chamber is under vacuum. When a chamber machine is doing its thing the pouch just sits there rather than collapsing. After the air is removed the sealing bar closes and seals the open end of the bag. Then the machine releases the vacuum - it's at that point that you'll see the bag collapse.

I see that they've updated their web site. Until recently, it made them look pretty much like an old-school Italian-American family restaurant (which in some sense I guess they still are). I remember looking at the site after reading about the BER that NancyH mentioned. I don't recall seeing anything about the use of organic ingredients, but now it's featured right on the opening page. There's still no mention of their connection to the slow food movement or their membership in Cleveland Originals.

Vue_de_cuisine, Your beef ribs match almost exactly the way I did it just two weeks ago. Same time, same temperature, and I even use a Lauda MS with a big stock pot like yours. It's a small eGullet world! Did you do any "finishing" cooking (to brown the meat) after the sous-vide? I tried it both ways and actually preferred the straight S-V in this case. A couple of differences: I didn't brine the meat - just enclosed a pinch of salt in the bag. Also, my ribs had a larger cap of fat than the one in your photos. I'd probably do a better job of trimming the meat next time. Nathan, Thanks so much for sharing your research with us. I've tried to glean as much information as possible from Roca, Ducasse, and various web references, but I still find it hard to come up with reliable time/temperature combinations other than by trial-and-error. You've done a lot of research on the subject, and it's greatly appreciated. BTW the table looks fine in my browser - perfectly legible.

Actually, this brings up a good point (or, rather a bad point ) for me. I'm happy that Alinea is evolving and growing. But I'm frustrated that I'm missing out on so many of the wonderful dishes that are served now but will be dropped soon in the name of progress. I absolutely understand the need for ChefG and staff to keep everything fresh, pushing the frontiers and all that. I just feel that I'm watching from the sidelines. Seeing the evolution of elbulli (and knowing I have scant chance of getting reservations there) is frustrating, but seeing the same sort of creativity happening within a day's drive from here (North-East Ohio) is all the more exasperating. I pop in and out of Chicago on business, always on short notice. I'm going to set aside some time for me to travel there for my own purposes. Dammit.

OK, in all seriousness, one person's "weed" is another's culinary delight. Epazote, dandelions - off the top of my head those are "weeds" that have culinary uses. Ramps? Poke? I'm sure we can come up with an extensive list. Milkweed is a new one for me. I'm open to new ideas.

OK, I'd love for chefG (or someone else from Alinea) to elaborate. Really, is milkweed pod edible? Talk about pushing the boundaries!

I have to agree with Ruhlman that it's best to eat at locally-owned places. The organization he mentioned is Cleveland Originals. There are a few asian restaurants listed there, including a couple that are close to Cleveland Heights. Matsu (in Shaker Heights) looks interesting. Another Japanese place I've been meaning to try is Aoeshi in North Olmsted . It's at the corner of Lorain and Columbia in the strip mall behind where Danny Boy Market used to be. The description in Laura Taxel's book sounds intriguing. Of course, North Olmsted is a bit of a hike for Kristin....

Hah, I didn't count the individual hens! Cool that you're raising your own. Can't get more control over quality than that. The egg-over-easy with toasted homemade bread is my Sunday morning standard. This weekend the bread is sourdough rye, and the eggs are from Blue Egg Farm.

MichaelB, what's the connection between Maisonette and La Petit Pierre? (not from cincinnati - just curious). Wow, that sucks. Lots of startup restaurants fail in the first year, but it's sad to see a long-established place go under.

Poppers are <s>butyl nitrate capsules</s> deep fried cheese-stuffed jalapeños . I didn't know you could get them frozen - figures that you can, considering that the food service industry must churn them out by the million.That frittata sounds yummy.

I hope you're referring to the truffles rather than the eggs. Actually, the freshness of the eggs is also important, though I don't think you necessarily need to be five minutes from the chicken. I've got three reliable sources for organic free-range fresh eggs - fresh meaning gathered this morning. Duck eggs too, though that's another topic.... As for the poached egg at WD50, is that the one poached at super-low temperature? I've tried doing that several times without much success. I fully intend to try Dufresne's version - I'm sure it will be a revelation. My favorite egg dishes usually feature poached or coddled eggs. I like the soft, delicate texture of a gently cooked egg. Another fave: pasta carbonara - the eggiest, smoothest sauce ever, provided you don't make a scrambled mess of it.