FoodMan

Wow! Thanks for the tip. I just ordered from Amazon.Ca and my total is like $97 USD including shipping! Sure, I might have too wait an extra week, but that's not an issue. I cancelled my Amazon.com (US) order

Sweet! Mine is due to arrive from Amazon.com between 10/2-10/6

Great job Jfrater! Everything looks amazing and I know it tastes brilliant too. I agree with you about that potato salad and the eggs in it. It's a great version of potato salad. I made it last year for 4th of July along with a few other items of BBQ from MC and it was all a huge hit. I need to start a batch of ribs ASAP now after seeing those pics.

Honestly both are very easy and tasty. I like the modernist cuisine process of curing in a vacuum sealed bag. Their cure proportions are great too. I just would recommend against using the ground coffee in there.

I'm finally getting around to updating about this. The beef dried and cured perfectly in my wine fridge (I made a fantastic Finocchiona in there recently from "Salumi" as well).The Bresaola as part of a plated dish with the strong garlic sauce worked very well. I do think served by itself, as in slice and eat with a piece of bread, the coffee cure is a bit much for my taste. I made the sauce from the recipe using the MC garlic confit as opposed to black garlic and it is really is a winning combination with the crunchy celery and delicious beef. I'll juts stick with no coffee in my cure though, but I do love the juniper in there so that's staying! On another note, I so wish I have a good meat slicer...

I'm reading Sandor Katz's wonderful The Art of Fermentation book, so I would definitely try my hand at juicing and fermenting the juice as he recommends to make cider or even mix it with honey for mead.

This looks nice. How did you cook it SV? Did you vacuum pack the whole terrine pan after filling it with the forcemeat? At what temp and for how long?

They have the exact same heating element from what I could tell. With proper insulation it might not have an issue heating up to 30 liters I would think. Seems like the main difference is the variable pump rate.

Yes you are correct sir. I enjoyed auldo's blog very much! Apples and oranges though when it comes to comparing your setup with this product. You need no contraption at all then if you are willing to wait by a pot with a thermometer in hand while the steak cooks for an hour. My point is that to create a product like that AND you are not a huge corporation like Cuisinart, the price tag seems very reasonable since a rice cooker and PID is close to 125 pounds (around $180. Right?) as you say. So, no, I do not think we are just paying extra because the lable "sous vide" is tacked on it.

These complaints and others have been brought up numerous times. You are wrong. It is NOT like a deep fryer thermometer. This uses a PID controller, seems well designed and is compact. DIY Sous Vide equipment are possible (just Google it) and they will cost you a bit more than a deep fryer.

They actually met their funding goal this morning, so they'll be going into production with them if anyone is interested in picking one up. I'm already in for one. Looks like it will retail for $360.00 according to their latest update. They are over 500K now in funding! I might just pre-order one as well. Edit: I contacted them regarding warranty info and received this "We are offering a one year manufacturer's warranty. So basically if we did anything wrong on our side that makes the Nomiku not work we'll replace it after you send it back."

I just put up a large piece of beef (I used eye of round not tenderloin) to cure last night to make bresaola following the MC recipe proportions (Page 111 in the KM, Cured Beef Tenderloin "Bresaola Style"). I am making the true bresaola version so I will be curing it for 3 weeks and then hanging it for another 2 or so. I've made bresaola before several times following Ruhlman's recipe more or less. This cure sounded very interesting though so I wanted to give it a shot. I am just hoping the amount of ground coffee in the cure won't be too overpowering. Has anyone tried that?

I had a crap load of mint when I "weeded" my garden recently. Of course, making the Mojito spheres was a perfect use for the bulk of those fragrant weeds (I dried a whole bag of them too). I honestly do not have much more to add to Chirs Hennes' excellent pictorial of the process other than to say, follow his direction about "dropping" the mixture into the Alginate bath. That works best. My only "innovation" is how to serve it. Since I had a lot of mint still I went ahead and made a lime-mint granita to serve as a base for the sphere. This is basically the mojito mix without the rum. It really worked great for both looks, taste and texture. I would love to try a Mai Tai for example with a base of coconut or pineapple granita. I am not sure I will go the carbonation route again though. I lost too many spheres transferring to and from the iSi canister. The ones I did serve did not seem to be that heavily carbonated to make that worth it.

We are planning on being in Rome for a few days end of June. We are travelling with two small kids (8 and 5). Any recommendations brkfast, lunch and dinner would be much appreciated. Obviously no fancy high end places. I'd be more interested in more casual joints but not tourist traps. Pizza places and gelato are definitely a must as well. We are staying with family outside of Rome, but will be seeing the sights in the city (museums, colosseum,...) most of the time. Many thanks for any suggestions.

Eye of Round really makes a superb deli style roast beef. Here's a link to one I posted about a while back: SV Deli Style Roast Beef

Sous Vide Lemon Curd Once again my Meyer Lemon tree is going crazy and I have way more lemons than I know what to do with. I made lemon olive oil, Lemoncello batch, salt preserved lemon...and I also wanted to make a batch or 3 of curd. I figured I'll try the MC version this time around and the first thing I noticed is the quantity of butter used. It's a crap ton of butter compared to typical lemon curd recipes. I plowed ahead and gave it a shot anyways. Egg yolks are cooked SV at 65C. I did not use lemon essential oil and opted to use the extra-fragrant lemon zest. I also used a total amount of lemon juice equal to the combination of water and citric acid that MC uses. This is something the MC authors in a recent video and email said is fine to do and makes sense to me. The lemon juice and sugar gets blended with the cooked yolks and then butter, a lot of it (400gr) gets incorporated. After a chill time the curd is ready to eat. Now, the verdict: It's a good tasting product, but the crazy amount of butter makes it like no other citrus curd I've ever had. I usually expect a stiff custard of sorts, this was more like a lemon curd flavored butter and the texture out of the fridge was more like a cream cheese. No way I would use this to fill a tart or cream puffs, it is just way too rich. I know the recipe has no errata since they just republished it on the MC website and emailed it to their subscribers. So, this is the intended resutl they are shooting for I suppose. Two questions: - Is there a reason why the lemon juice, sugar and yolks cannot be mixed together and then bagged and cooked? The last step would be to incorporate the butter. This makes it simpler and more like how a traditional curd is made. - I am thinking of making it again with half or even less the butter amount. Any thoughts if that would or would not work?

SVD keeps getting better. I finally got around to posting my review for it in the app store recently. Keep up the great work.

What a timely and fun blog Hassouni! We'll be in Lebanon this June and this just makes me look more forward to the visit. Have you thought of heading over to get Armenian Basturma sandwiches in burj hammoud? If you are in the area definitly stop by Bedo for some. BTW, I love the kabab mashwi sandwiches at Abu Koko in the Dora area. I posted about it a while back here. They changed locations since then, but they are still in the same general area.

Yeah! Right! but he is NOT Italian born and I am glad. otherwise there would be millions claiming Italian citizenship and original recipes. I have no problems accepting him as an "American" (North of Rio Grande citizen). Would you accept me as an American because I am blonde and blue eyed of Russian origin and Spanish speaker? Yeah right?! What an odd thing to say and to get hung up on. My kids are born in the US, they are still Lebanese as well. Man, Irish people who have been here for generations still say they are Irish.

I would use the whole thing after chilling it. BTW, I just stopped by Academy at lunchtime and picked up a fryer stand and a propane tank. I'll be frying something outdoors this weekend for sure and making a stir-fry soon after.

Same here. Just this week I got an email from Amazon.uk advertising the new Pierre Herme book "Pastries by...) and I'm trying to convince myself that I do not need it but not sure how long that will last. Another exception is the older books that I want but do not have. Most recently I bought Thai Street Food by David Thompson and I do not regret it. I doubt this particular cycle will ever end.

I use an modern, high-tech material formed from an extremely complex chemical synthesis of various petroleum products. (They are zip-top plastic bags with the sides and zipper cut off. 1 quart size. MUCH easier to deal with than Saran wrap, and you can even wash and re-use if you want to.) I do the same thing, I use the little ziploc sandwich bags and cut off the zipper and sides. They work great. A little late comment here, but I am finally convinced to get off my lazy behind and buy a turkey fryer rig to use with my wok after seeing your pictures. It will be great for beer brewing as well.

Exactly. I also appreciate that I can use it as added counter space when necessary, though that's a pretty minor, secondary consideration. I have never found that this unit lacked enough power to get a pan as hot as I wanted, but then again, you and I have very different cooking styles, I think. My ventilation hood couldn't keep up if this stove cranked out any more heat when I am searing things, I smoke up the house pretty well as it is, so I have taken to doing that sort of cooking on the patio: better ventilation (and 65k BTUs, but the only time I have it cranked all the way up is for stir-fries). But obviously I have the luxury of having a patio, wok burner, and fabulous weather, and lack the luxury of decent interior ventilation. Yeah, I'm with Sam on this one. I do not like those smooth tops at all and much prefer my gas top. Maybe it's a partially a romantic aesthetic notion but I love the look of the flame in addition to the pros that Sam mentioned.

I'd say keep it, especially if you do not think it tastes burnt or bad. Looking forward to the finished dish and to the rest of this blog.

Has anyone made the Beurre Rouge from the Escolar recipe? I've made it 3 times and it splits as soon as I let it sit for five minutes after it is done. The first time I thought I maybe reheated it too quickly, but I followed the recipe to the letter the last 2 times. It is not nearly as stable with the Xanthan as the classically made Beurre Rouge. Could it be the liquid brown butter that is the problem??