mtigges
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Posts posted by mtigges
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He demonstrates boiling the steeping grains, which are going to release lots of tannins and is not a good technique.
Just wanted to come back and say -- yep, bad. I watched the youtube video of this episode while brewing. "Ok, he's doing a mini mash. (Off to do stuff in the brewery.) Ok, he's pouring it all through a colander. (Off to do more stuff.)" I should have paid more attention.
Boiling grain is a great way to make crap beer. Agreed. That's an egregious error. Deal-breaking, even. The only upshot is he's using so little grain in his mini-mash, that there won't be a whole lot of tannins. Even so, "Duuuuude, sparge first, then boil."
My, do I feel sheepish.
To paraphrase Alton -- "Kids, don't boil your grain. It's really, really bad."
IIRC it wasn't a minimash. He had no fermentable grains in there did he? Just steeped some crystal and whatnot. So, everything he did was fine - except for the boiling.
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The most egregious error Alton made in the brewing episode was putting un-sanitized packaged ice directly in the cooled/cooling wort. No brewer with even the most basic level of skills would make this error. You're just asking for contamination by doing this.
This is what I do for a living.
Using ice to cool wort is sloppy and lazy. But it works. It'll contaminate one out of five batches this way instead of the 10% average. Repeat -- even at the commercial level, brewers botch about one out of every 10. The bigger breweries get around this by blending. The smaller breweries are nuts about sanitation.
I doubt the truthfulness of the claim that you're a pro brewer. If a pro brewer screws up 10% of their batches, they're not making money. It's ridiculous. I've been brewing for 10 years, and I'm ridiculously lax about sanitation (though not as lax as throwing ice in my wort), and I've only had a couple batches go bad.
I'm friends with several of the brewers / owners at local micros and brewpubs, and if I was to be married again, I'd probably ask the lhbs owner to carry the rings. I would be seriously willing to bet a mortgage payment that each of these people would say you're off by a factor of ten. I'd be surprised if a brewpub has a 1% failure rate. With the caustics they use, and the steam flushes the only reasonable way to expect bad beer is through dirty lines, but that won't contaminate a batch.
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I have the Cuisinart that CI reviewed as 'highly recommended'. I can't complain with it at all.
The other one that they highly recommend which boasts the 60 min timer that Paul wonders about is a machine that does not need it's canister frozen. I would bet that it merely keeps things chilled before churning for the last 15 minutes. Why people would need to set for 60 minutes seems odd to me as well, but I can't see it churning for the whole time, that doesn't make much sense.
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I'm no pizza expert - so there's that disclaimer; Nicli Antica was a whole new world to me. I presume that it is putting a serious dent in the "vancouver pizza sucks" theory. No?
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Thanks guys. It's an image an mls listing that we'll be seeing on Sunday. I will report back.
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I am curious to learn as much as I can about the range / stove equipment seen in this little kitchen.
It's a crappy picture (best I have sorry), but I presume someone here will know exactly what it is.
Edited to add, I'm not asking about the countertop insert coil electric range on the right of the image, rather the antique thing on the left.
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I'm an svs owner, so, hopefully this statement will have some foundation; I wouldn't ever use sous vide to "hard boil" an egg. I'm sorry to say this but the picture you posted is one sorry looking egg. That amount of grey around the yolk is .... less than ideal. IMO any grey around the yolk is unacceptable. (I realize this might have sounded insulting,I really don't mean any insult.)
Fortunately, there is an extremely simple way to perfectly hard boil eggs. Alton Brown on his show employed an electric kettle to boil eggs, and quite frankly I'll never do them another way. There's no reason why you can't use exactly the same cooking schedule in a pot, but the kettle allows you to walk away.
Put the eggs and water in your electric kettle.
Set it to fire.
Returns at least 10 minutes after it has automatically turned off (I've returned about 30 minutes later with excellent results)
Cool the eggs
ABSOLUTELY NO GREY ON THE YOLKS AT ALL
You could put the eggs in a pot in cold water, fire the pot, and turn it off when it reaches a boil, but the kettle does that part for you. To reiterate the time after it shuts off (in my experience) is not critical.
Side note: I love my svs for eggs at 63 C for an hour. I think the whites are beautiful.
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Really? "Rob Feaney (sic) is famous not for being a great chef, but for competing on a reality TV series on a minority, dumbed down cable channel. Tough, but true." Feeny was famous long before his appearance on Iron Chef. You've sold him about as short as one could.
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I don't know of many of the contestants, but I'm surprised to see someone of the stature of Dave Mackay on the show. For those not in the know he's been running Boulouds Vancouver restaurant for the last couple years. He's recently out of a job though, so a TC win might set him up as an owner.
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There's a new entry. The folks at SVS are marketing a branded chamber sealer aimed at home use: http://m7.tm00.com/tmsubscribe.net/viewonline.aspx?u=Thxd5JDvJfuh&e=&t=&l=%20&i=&m=
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smoked herring packed in oil.
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There is nothing wrong with your machine it does not need to be calibrated. Others have said what the problem is. An quite frankly simple logic will tell you. If the bags are swelling it means that nothing is getting out. If nothing is getting out there is no hole in the bag. If there is no hole in the bag, it is sealed.
Sealing meat in a bag without (much) air in it does not mean it will last forever. In fact I don't think that it would last much longer than just wrappin it in saran wrap. Neither magically removes the bacteria that are present.
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Yes. There's something different about carrots. A fresh pulled carrot is vastly better, and even different, than one that's been shipped and sat in a grocery store for awhile.
I'd be shocked if everybody couldn't tell the difference. Every neighbour that I let try a fresh carrot exclaims surprise.
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After a few more successful projects, including a great mustard, I had my first so-so experience today with the UP: making pesto. In some ways, it was terrific, particularly the silky texture created from all of that crushing. However, there were two problems. First, some of the leaves got wrapped around different components and had to be dislodged, which was a pain. More importantly, the time it took to grind it up and the motion of the grinder itself incorporated a lot more air than other methods, which meant that the pesto was a darker greenish brownish. No deal breakers, really, but worth noting with the machine that has knocked everything else out of the park.
grind the pine nuts and cheese in the UP and then into the foodpro with oil and basil?
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I'm interested to know what others do too.
Though one winter a few years ago we prepared oat overnight, I don't quite remember the ratio we used but I put them in a small ceramic casserole in our slow cooker. I filled the slow cooker with water so that it came most of the way up the outside of the smaller casserole. It worked perfectly with the slow cooker on low. I started with hot water from an electric kettle.
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If you've been on the fence not sure if you can decide if you should jump in to the waterbath or not, the folks at SVS are trying hard to push you in.
http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/product.aspx?productID=28&AdID=23
That's less than I paid for the unit by itself. Seems like a pretty good deal as I believe that the original price was not ridiculous.
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Say what??? I have the apex, but the pro doesn't look that much bigger. How small is your apartment?
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I can't say I've ever had this problem (and I do make hard boiled eggs often enough). The only thing I can think of is that I use eggs that were laid within seven days, so they're very fresh, and they're from birds that get exercise and scratch in the dirt and have fun. Just a guess, perhaps a lack freshness or quality may affect it.
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We work in Discovery Park near bcit. Every Friday we screw off head out for lunch at some good local spot.
Our regular spots are:
- lhy thai
- burgers etc
- the good indian place on canada way
- posh
- saffron
- couple other small ones, can't remember
So, we need a new spot. Beer is a requirement. Anybody have a recommendation for a good place we haven't figured out? Ten to Fifteen minute drive? Unfortunately, no sushi.
- lhy thai
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That is ONE HELL OF A GOOD PRICE.
I own one global knife. A santuko (is that the right spelling?). I have one high end Japanese chef knife, and a shun santuko. The Shun is their "sumo" santuko, it's not really santuko, but is a nice thick heavy knife to work with.
I have recently returned to using the global more and more. I'm loving the lightness. It makes it a joy to use in some situations. Fast chopping of small items (radishes, garlic, particularly), and other light duty tasks.
As for sharpening. The harder steel on these knifes compared to german style does present a maintenance challenge. I use an edgepro apex for sharpening and have nothing but good things to say about that tool. Just make sure that honing you use a ceramic steel as the steel in your new knifes may chip against a metal steel.
Chad did a knife maintenance course on eG a couple years ago. Very good info in there.
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We have a small company in our neck of the woods: Estevan. Very good quality product.
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Just got back from lunch at La Mariachi on Hastings near Boundary.
The only redeeming factor is they have Negro Modelo. It was ridiculously slow. The salsa verde looked like pea soup, and the tomato salsa looked like campbells tomato soup. Neither tasted very good either.
Strongly un-recommended.
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The sous vide magic can be larger, and is more versatile (as you also have a rice cooker). The SVS is nicer looking; it has its pid built in and just isn't a large vessel with wires hanging out of it, which I for one, find unsightly in my kitchen.
The SVM is less expensive. So, ultimately, it comes down to your priorities. I bought the SVS.
If I ever envisioned doing shortribs for more than six, I'd probably opt for the SVM. Though, there are ways to still do it with the SVS.
Mark.
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We hit :
Kyung Bok Palace in North Vancouver (much better than the Richmond location)
143 3rd Street West
North Vancouver
604-987-3112
yesterday for Dinner. I know very little about Korean food, but my wife just came back from two weeks there, and wanted to go. I have to say I was blown away. Soooooooo good!
It's just down the street from us, so contrary to my post in the "Your Place" thread, it may now be this place. Cheap and phenomenaly delicious.
M
Mexican food in Vancouver
in Western Canada: Dining
Posted
This was recently discussed on /r/vancouver
https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/3udr4w/what_is_the_best_mexican_restaurant_in_vancouver/