FoodMan
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I grabbed a Wagner heat gun at Home Depot for $25; here it is on Amazon. Turned it up to high/1KF, brushed a bit of fat on the short ribs I just pulled from the SVS, and it did a great job. Maybe for restaurant production it's a bit too slow, but I can't imagine needing anything faster.
The heat gun works better than a blow torch for searing? I've been meaning to pick up a blow torch to finish off my sous-vide meats, but I may have to go for this instead.
In my opinion, a heat gun is nowhere near as good as a good torch. The heat gun will cook the food much more than a hot torch will in the time that it takes to get a nice crust since the heat gun doesn't get nearly as hot. In my opinion, a super hot pan (i.e. one that has been on high heat for 10 minutes) works better than a heat gun. (NOTE: I have both a heat gun and a few torches). An Iwatani blow torch is $30 or less and the butane canisters about $2 a piece. One canister lasts quite a long time. So, the cost per use is quite low (the bags you use will cost more per use than the gas).
By the way, I don't know of a single person using an Iwatani that has ever complained of a chemical taste. I have only read complaints about chemical taste in connection with people using propane torches -- and that only happens when one doesn't use the torch correctly OR has a defective torch. I have experienced it when mis-using my now retired propane torch but never with the Iwatani.
I got no experience with the heat gun, but like you, I do like my Iwatani. I probably have to change the canister maybe once every ten months. I do use my cast iron skillet for most of my searing though.
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Buying some skirt steak tomorrow
Thanks for the heads up, I can totally see this being my go-to considering the yield, cooking time, flavor and price.
Skirt steak cooked sv is fantastic. I made the best fajitas by bagging the beef with my normal marinade, a rick bayless recipe, made from grated onions, garlic, cumin, lime juice and a little oil. I cooked them for 10 hours at 135, then seared them in a very hot cast iron pan.
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" I'm trying to get some guidelines so I don't mess anything up too badly".
Has anyone posted whether the product to be SV'd should be brought to room temperature before placing in the water bath I have scallops that have been seasoned and vacuumed but I don't know if I should let them come to room temp for two hours before placement into the bath????
alanjesq
Definitely not. Just drop then in. I put frozen items in the SV tub often. Like Sam said, they will get to temp much quicker in the water.
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I never refrigerate it. I'm sure it is not bad to do so, I just never do and usually go through a jar in about 6 months and it always tastes good.
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Input needed please: Is there any reason why we should not buy a different brand of NO2 (or CO2) cartdidges for the iSi Canister? I am specifically talking about these: http://www.acemart.com/prod7661.html
They are about half the price of the iSi ones and claim to be compatible with standard dispensers. Has anyone used these? Of course iSi tells you to only uses iSi brand, but they are not exactly unbiased.
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So, in a 100% humid envrionment, we will not observe a stall but we will observe a much gradual temperature increase over a longer period of time depending on the size of the meat?
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Again, I am not quiet sure what your point is Pam. You ignore every sensible answer given to you by many posters here and point out to the fact that people can be "harmed" if they do not know what they are doing. Oh yeah and add a lot of emoticons. Fact is people can get harmed canning at home or eating a salad or mishandeling any food item. Should we just all give up and eat in restaurants with labs attached to them preferably. If you are a crappy cook then SV is not going to improve your cooking. You can still make a crappy steak, especially if you think SV is analogous to "Boil in Bag". Please do some proper fact checking before blanketing everyone's hard work, talent, research and good common sense with derisive comments that make no sense.
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Just roasting some chicken wings - how about skinning them and sous vide them
I think you are going OTT and making a farce of sous vide - a brilliant method of cooking in some circumstances.I'm guessing you are being facetious
, but no that whole chicken wings thing would not make sense. Sous Vide is a realtively new technique that has many merits and in some cases allows you to achieve results that are not possible by roasting or pan cooking or whatever. Saying you can get a 'perfect' duck by traditional cooking methods so why use sous vide is entirely besides the point. You get a different result is all. If you want to grill a steak you can get a 'perfect' result just like you would get a 'perfect' steak by CSV. One methods 'perfect' is different than the other's.Edit to add: The part that does not make sense with the wings BTW is not the SV part, but the skinning part. Who wants wings with no skin!? If you sous vide first, hold in the fridge for when needed, and then fry up you'll get a 'perfect' batch of wings
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Darn it. It has to drop down to below $500. I'm kicking myself for not adding it to my cart earlier. A 20% off discount is not typical with Amazon. 30 - 35 is more usual.
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I recently attempted to make pastrami sous vide figuring it might be more ideal than steaming the brisket. A pastrami is a piece of brisket that is cured, spiced and smoked for a while to develop a smoky flavor but certainly not anywhere near cooked. The meat is then finished by steaming for a few hours until tender. So what I did is instead of the last steaming part, I CSV for about 20 hours at 65C.
The result was definitly not as good as a traditionally steamed pastrami. The meat was a bit tougher than I like but not much. It was closer to a good steak in texture than a nice deli pastrami. That is easily fixable obviously. The main problem was the flavor. The smoky flavor intensified in the pouch and gave the meat a slighlty acrid taste as opposed to nicely smoky. It also did not seem as juicy as I would've hoped but that could be due to the first problem of not cooking it long enough. I took a couple of pictures but have not uploaded them yet. I can if anyone is interested.
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I never wanted to visit Dubai, or any country in that area for that matter, much. Last night's NR episode did not change my mind and re-affirmed my belief that the place is nothing more than a disney world for rich adults, complete with a fake ski slope in a mall, minus the greenery and with no Mickey Mouse.
In contrast to that, I very much enjoyed the previous episode, the one that was a condensed version of the doc "Out of the Frying pan and into the fire". The contrast fo the old-Tony Vs. the younger-Tony was staggering. It's amazing what 10 years and fame can do (I a guess a baby has something to do with it too. LOL)
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Wow. This looks spectacular Nathan and will be the highest item on my Xmas list. Your team seems to have done an outstanding job. Unfortunately I might have to wait a bit before I can convince my SO of how much I NEED this as opposed want this at this price tag.
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Here goes the "sweet" part of my trip to Lebanon this summer. I talked about the glories of the Hallab in Tripoli before in a previous post. I am specifically talking about what is now dubbed the "Sweet Palace". This place is the best place to have middle eastern sweets in the region IMO. I drove through Tripoli twice and could not resist stopping there both times. The staff is more than happy to let you take as many pictures as you want. Thank goodness I did not forget my camera on this trip. They invited me to go behind the counters and take a tour and pictures. Contrast that to the place in these picture:
The two pictures above are from a shop in Beirut called Sibon that we went to for ice cream. They have pretty decent ice cream and some unique flavors like Kenafi, Snickers and Mafrookeh and their cakes (all European style) are ok but they flipped out when I took a couple of pictures of the display! You'd think they have some unique super top secret and very creative designs. Oh well.
As far as ice cream goes I found that the best is at the original branch of Le Cremier off the freeway in Jounieh. Unfortunately their ice cream cases are not see through (ie not camera friendly) and the place is usually packed so a few pictures that would do their stuff justice were not feasible. My favorite flavors from Le Cremier are Avocado, pistachio, Ashta and Mango. I am so craving some of that slightly chewey ice cream now.
Back to the pastry heaven known as Abdul Rahman Rifaat al Hallab aka The Sweet Palace (hopefully that's enough pictures
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Here we have several varieties of nut filled pastries. All are very similar to Baklava but don't ask me about all their names.
This one is Barma. Shredded kataifi (almost like extremely thin angel hair) filled with nuts. I think these are not baked, but fried before being doused in syrup.
Hallab makes very delicious middle eastern style ice cream and they sure know how to display it.
These are karabij. Semolina dough filled with pistachios and topped with sweet meringue (not sure it is an egg meringue though).
Lahm b'Ajeen. In the last few years, Hallab started also serving savory dishes. I've never had any except this because this is an old favorite and dates back to before adding the savory kitchen. It used to be the only non-sweet item on the menu. It is a must have for me. Layers of very think dough and a filling of ground lamb with pomegrante molasses and pinenuts make this deliciously exotic and a good break from all the sweets we usually get. For a more decadent version, ask for a triple layered serving.
Mafrookeh is certainly one of my top 3 favorites. A sweet semolina dough gets gently fried with syrup and butter and mixed all the time to get a sort of soft and crunchy pudding. It gets a topping of clotted cream (Ashta) and toasted almonds.
A mixed Ashta plate. It's tastings of most of their Ashta filled pastries
A mixed nut plate.
Namoora. Semolina cake soaked in syrup.
This one is Halawit el Shmaisa. It consists of a dough made of turkish delight and a filling of ashta. It is topped with powdered sugar.
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any pointers on how to find jabbour short of just telling them dora and getting lost?! looks delicious and a damn site cleaner than most of the other places ive been too
Well, I would tell the taxi driver to take you to Jabbour and Makloof on Dora. They should know where that is. It is on the beginning of Arax Street and there are several sandwich shops, and "Cocktail" places there. If not, ask them to take you to the CIT institute. Once there ask anyone where Jabbour is and they should know. It's right across from it..more like daigonal to it I guess
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I'll split my recent Lebanon pics into two posts, savory and sweet. Here is the thread from 2007 and I visited the same places for Shawarma and Kababs of course.
In the mostly Armenian area of Burj Hamoud in Beirut youi'll find several places that make and serve the Armenian specialties of Basterma and Sujuk. Basterma is a spiced cured beef (garlic, paprika and fenugreek dominate). It is sliced very thin like Proscuito and served in a baguette with pickles and tomatoes. Sujuk is a tyoe of semi-dried sausage with a similar type of spicing. It is grilled or pan-fried and also served in a baguette or pita bread.
You can see the basterma lying on the meat slicer here
Basterma sandwich
We really enjoyed our dinner at a restaurant called "Balad". There are a couple of locations and this one is in downtown Beirut. The food is fresh and very well made. It seems odd to say that but the most memorable thing they made was a perfect Fatoosh salad with pomegranate molasses.
Fried cilantro potatoes and Hummus with Lamb
Fatoosh
Lamb Pie
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You are doing a great job nikki. Keep up the posts. I just came back from visiting my family in Lebanon about 3 weeks ago and I miss it sorely (I visit every 3 years or so). I've been too lazy to post much pictures and most of the places I visited are the same as the ones I posted about here somewhere in 2007. Maybe I'll get a few up anyways.
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Not to be overly argumentative -- because once again I don't know what their cancellation policy will be -- but if I had to choose between waiting 15 minutes or a half hour at the bar before being seated and losing $300-$500 every time unexpected work obligations cause me to cancel dinner plans, I'd easily choose the former.
I am not being argumentative either, just reasonable. I do not think just because that's how restaurants have always been is a good argument against what Achatz is proposing. Again having NO cancellation policy is not an option and makes no sense. He will have one. In light of what I already said and FG mentioned (restaurants taking a cc at time of making res) this new process is just a modern way of streamlining everything. I do not think I am in any way in worse shape because of it. Now if your work just forces you to cancel last minute all the time, then of course it's your personal choice as to what you should do.
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Aren't you guys offended by the fact that if you can't make the dinner, the risk of loss shifts to you? I lose thousands of dollars a year on tickets to theatrical and musical performances I have to miss because of unexpected work obligations. Now I have to lose money on restaurants as well?
Offended? why? Why should a reservation at a restaurant be any different than the tickets to theatrical or musical performances. If you cannot make it to any of those events it's not their fault, be it restaurant, theater or baseball game. I am not saying it shouldn't happen, I am just saying that "offended" is definitely not the right word to use.
That being said, I am sure there will be a cancellation policy, probably more similar to a one at a hotel. Cancel within X number of hours and you wont get charged. If I am not mistaken, Alinea and many other top restaurants will charge a card that you give them at the time of reservation if you do not show up. I am pretty sure I had to give them a CC number when I made my reservation a couple years ago. Same deal here.
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My most recent dish from the book was the eggplant and lentil casserole. Simple and delicious and has one of my favorite flavor combinations (eggplant + lentils + garlic + mint). I served it with home baked pita and garlicky yogurt.
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I was not a big fan of the blogger section of the show either. It was more or less a useless bit of filler that really did not belong in the same episode as the other segments. I especially liked Lahey's bit about pizza and would've liked to see more of it. The Wagyu beef comes a close second.
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I made the Provencal Omelete with Mushrooms, Croutons and Lardons for brunch this weekend. Came out very well and certainly very much a frittata. Adding the small cubes of croutons in there is a brilliant touch. I did get a bit confused with the instructions for cooking the mushrooms though and hopefully Paula can clarify. The recipe states to cook them over low heat wrapped in parchment in a Chinese sandpot for 30 minutes. I did that and ended up with mushrooms that are more or less fully cooked (the ones closest to the bottom and the flame) and with ones that are closer to raw (the ones farthest from the flame). What is the expected result? somewhere in between? Should I have spread them out more evenly in the parchment maybe?
This is right after the flip
Served
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Sorry, I did not have the book in front of me and I must've misspoke as to timing. not sure where I got the 30 seconds from! The goal here as I understand it is not to pasteurize the meat, but to just kill surface bacteria. 3-10 minutes should be more than enough. As to the difference in timing, It might depend on the temperature of the meat now, wouldn't it?
Chicken cooks at a much higher temp than red meat, so the bacteria issue might not be as prevalent, but a dunk might not hurt either. I usually go for the shorter dunk not the 10 minutes. The practice makes sense to me and figured it might help the original poster with the unexplainable weird smell.
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Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment (Part 7)
in Cooking
Posted
Yeap. That looks right Chris.