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FoodMan

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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Everything posted by FoodMan

  1. I tried the MC method for pressure-cooked risotto and it produced fantastic results. I used the vegetable risotto recipe as a base and made mine with mushrooms, acorn squash and roasted red pepper. I was amazed how good this turned out after no time at all (about six minutes) in the pre-ssure cooker. It was creamy, the grains fully cooked with the slightest bite. I will be cooking my risotto like that on a regular basis. I also made mahi mahi fillets to go with the risotto. I cooked the fish sous vide bagged with butter and a little salt. They came out perfectly cooked and delicious. That red stuff was supposed to be the red butter served with the Escolar in the book, but I screwed up and it ended up splitting on me.
  2. Now I'm craving Bedo's basturma sandwiches! I made basturma before using the online recipe from Len Poli. It was pretty good, but not exactly right. Tasted more like an Armenian falvored Bresaola . That recipe uses a thick purtion of sirloin which also workes great. Yours looks much like the real thing and I will have to try it now.
  3. This looks excellent Keith. I had tried the original version of this based on Blumenthal's recipe a while back and it was the most fantastic piece of crispy fried fish ever as well. That was also without Trisol or fish stock gel. What fish did you use? Cod?
  4. I have been using these bags in my Foodsaver 2460 with excellent results. They have a mesh strip down the middle which helps control liquid migration to the pump and they are almost half the cost of the Weston's and 1/3 the cost of Foodsaver bags. I have used them up to 85C with not a single failure. I ordered some of these bags a couple months ago to try them out since they are cheaper than the regular FS bags. Unfortunately I cannot say I love them and I am sure I won't be ordering them again. It is possible that they work better with different FS models, but I am not sure (I have the FoodSaver Professional III) The material they are made of is a bit odd and causes them to wrinkle easily. This means I have to be extra careful when folding them back to add any items to them. Wrinkles = problems seasling. My biggest problem with them though is that they just do not seal as well, especially in the area where the "VacStrip" is located even if the bag is totally dry. I basically have to triple or quadruple seal every bag before dropping it in the SV tub. Sure enough usually the frist 2 seals are breached after the item is done cooking. Using a regular FS bag is far more efficient IMHO. On the plus side, the VacStrip is a little better at handling items with liquids included.
  5. It's also really interesting to see how diffrent (looser) 70C eggs are from 71C eggs! Was the temperature really the only difference? or is it a totally different recipe?
  6. Love this idea, its execution and the vibrant colors. What else is on the plate? Short ribs? What are those fried breaded items?
  7. Right on the river walk. They have a sort of market there for arts and such on the weekends. This artist hand makes all his pottery with various clays and all are just beautiful. His sign says "Greek Potter" or something like that but the credit card reciept is registered under Chohlidakis Originals. There was another guy who hand makes lovely salt and pepper grinders as well. Since neither those nor the pottery is exactly cheap I had to pick one...I went with the clay pot.
  8. Here are a few recent and semi-recent recipes I tried from this. Gnocchi I have a lot of detail and pictures on my blog about these here because I loved them and have made them a few times already. They are simple to make and really are one of the most tender and tasty dumplings ever I sauced some in a Gorgonzola-Pinenut-Caramelized onion sauce. I used the Modernist Cuisine technique using Sodium Citrate to make the sauce smooth and creamy. Another batch was sauced with a venison ragu. Ribollita Comforting and delicious. This made for work lunches for a week. Provençal Pork Shoulder with Potatoes and Tomatoes This is a great combination, especially using fantastic pastured pork. This was the first recipe I cooked up in a beautiful hand made clay pot I bought from San Antonio, TX Some guests ended up showing up unexpectedly so I threw in a few links of homemade Roman Luganaga sausage along with the pork as well.
  9. Funny thing is, at 50% off, even with delivery charges from the UK it comes out a tiny bit cheaper than Amazon for me (I'm in TX). So, I just did the same thing and ordered from UK and cancelled my Amazon order. I guess I should've ordered it a while back along with Macaron which I got this week...
  10. If they did, they'd also have to rewrite the paragraph on 'Precision' found on page 396 ... The book itself says (on page 396, Precision, under Using This Book) "The best way of giving you the chance to reproduce these recipes at home, it seems to me, is to specify precise weights, timings and temperatures. That's why weights are given only in metric and not in cups. While cups might seem like a convenient system that's appropriate for a book on home cooking, it can be quite inaccurate, particularly with irregular solids." (The emphasis is mine.) Strikes me that a gram-free bowdlerisation of the book would be contrary to the author's clearly expressed intent, and cause enough for an immediate return for full refund. If they indeed do that (removing proper weights and putting in cup/spoon measures) I will be returning my pre-ordered book to Amazon and getting one from Amazon UK instead. I seriously doubt Blumenthal would agree to completely remove the metric weights though. Possibly adding cups and spoons is reasonable but not using that instead of weight!
  11. The soda is basic, so it will help tenderize and will enhance browning when the chicken is cooked. The aclohol...I am not too sure honestly.
  12. I agree. I never bother with the quick cooling and always let the mixture "mature" in the fridge overnight at least. Works better for my schedule and makes better ice cream. I just tried The Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World recipe and it is delicious. It has coffee to emphasize the chocolate flavor, but the flavor of the coffee does not stand out. All you get is dark pure chocolate and of course it has a great texture right out of the freezer.
  13. Since we are on the carrot soup topic again, I have a quick update. I've made it a couple of times since my last post about it and never had an issue (using the 20 minutes cook time per the Errata page NOT 50 minutes). It is, for now, one of my wife's favorite soups. This week I needed to make a double batch but wanted to see if I can reduce the butter a bit without messing up the recipe. Bottom line is that for a double batch I used about 112 grams of butter (one stick) to saute the non-cored carrots. Another thing I was not sure of is the cooking time. Doubling it to 40 minutes did not seem right, so I stuck with about 25 minutes. I, as usual, also omited the extra butter that is supposed to get blended in after the carrots are cooked. The end result was fantastic. The soup was as creamy as ever with a beautiful color and vibrant taste. Since it was made with much less fat than the original recipe, one could easily have a decent sized bowl as opposed to a tasting portion. Hope that helps anyone trying to double or triple (might get tricky dependign on the size of your pressure cooker) the soup recipe.
  14. The Red Spoon Company in Sydney sells small quantities but I don't know if they ship internationally. Looks like Transglutaminase is finally available in small portions (50gr for $12.99) from Modernist Pantry, here: http://www.modernistpantry.com/activa-rm-transglutaminase.html I have not ordered anything from these guys but the site seems pretty well stocked.
  15. I sort of agree. Once you know the base recipe, you are pretty much set in making a myriad of flavors without the book. I've been using her base recipe since I first read about it in Food and Wine a few years back. The texture is always great IMO and scoopable, but not too soft. My latest batch was a cherry pit (noyaux) ice cream using Jeni's base and it is spectacular. That being said, I honestly felt that paying the $14 for the book is the least I could do to pay her back. You still get a lot of good flavor combination ideas and some serving suggestions (like ice cream sandwiches). I have not tried any of her frozen yogurt recipes yet though. Has anyone tried those?
  16. Beet-Citrus Cured Salmon I've seen Jamie Oliver use beets as part of a cure for salmon and it looked really good. So, I used the recipe for the Grapefruit Cured Salmon from MC and omitted the grapefruit. Instead I used one grated beet. The result was great. The beet gave it a lovely wacky color. The flavor of both the citrus and the beets came through as well and complimented each other perfectly. I am glad I stuck with the MC shorter curing time, otherwise I think it would've come out too salty. I served it with a chive yogurt sauce, marinated yellow squash (should've sliced those thinner), red onions, and rye bread. Caramelized Carrot Soup A lot has been said about this one already, so I'll summarize by quoting Keith from the duck confit post: "DO IT!!!! It is well worth it!". Both my wife and I loved its deep flavors and beautiful texture. I did juice the carrots, but did not centrifuge them. I also omitted the additional carrot butter (or butter). The soup was delicious and rich already and that would've been overkill IMO. I garnished it with lightly whipped cream flavored with grated fresh ginger, lime juice, ajawan seeds and a little salt. This might be our Turkey Day soup this year instead of our regular pumpkin soup. OR would the same recipe made with pumpkin or butternut squash yield a comparable result? Other than maybe cooking it for a shorter time in the pressure cooker, would any other changes be needed? It might be worth experimenting with...
  17. Looking forward to those lentils. I am planning on doing those soon as well. I recently made a variation on the Grapefruit Cured Salmon and the Caramelized Carrot Soup. Will post on them when I get the photos downloaded.
  18. Wow. That is a crazy tender brisket Keith. Well that certainly explains why the MC one was so mushy. You cooked it twice as long as the other one more or less. I would cut the time when cooking this particular brisket if I were you.
  19. Thanks for the clarification Keith. I am looking forward to Brisket 2. Let us know how that turns out. The seasoning/rub should not make much of a difference. The mop...maybe slightly I suppose. What I am very surprised with is that you say the conventional brisket was smoked at the same time as the MC one! Was that at the same temp as well? ie 65C (~150F)?? Maybe that is not what you meant, but 6 hours at 150F would result in a very tough brisket. Usually I hot smoke a brisket around 250F or so and still it takes maybe 10 hours. If that time is really enough to tenderize a brisket from raw to cooked in 6 hours at 150F in your smoker, it will surely demolish the texture of an already cooked MC brisket. Am I missing something?
  20. Well, isn't this the case with pretty much any meat we cook? Using a precisely controlled water bath gives you more control. So, sure, poaching the chicken will give you the same result from a doneness perspective. However, if you bag it you can add aromatics, stock, liquid, fat or whatever in the bag. Also, as opposed to poaching, you don't lose any flavor to the surrounding liquid if the chicken is bagged. I was addressing Kouign Aman's point that for short cooking times, poaching and vacuum sealing can achieve similar results, provided you have precise control of your poaching temperature. You don't have to poach in water: I used to poach chicken breast in stock, etc. I prefer vacuum-sealing because water is much cheaper and easier to deal with when using a circulator, and you can use less aromatics, etc. However, even if you don't vacuum seal, I'd suggest that the very fact that you are poaching with precise temperature control makes that poaching action a Modernist cooking technique. Classical poaching with mediocre temperature control yields much poorer results for chicken breast. Agreed.
  21. Well, isn't this the case with pretty much any meat we cook? Using a precisely controlled water bath gives you more control. So, sure, poaching the chicken will give you the same result from a doneness perspective. However, if you bag it you can add aromatics, stock, liquid, fat or whatever in the bag. Also, as opposed to poaching, you don't lose any flavor to the surrounding liquid if the chicken is bagged. It really unltimately depends on what you want the end result to be in many cases. Going back to Sam's original post, he was hoping for a better CFS. Instead he ended with a pretty good one that still did not save him any effort or time.
  22. For me, the benefit of Modernist techniques or ingredients can be divided into two broad categories: 1- Makes a better or otherwise impossible-by-any-other-means end product (medium-rare short ribs, powedered olive oil, warm gels,...) 2- Makes for a comparable, not necessarily better, end dish as a conventional method, but is more efficient, convenient or precise (great spare ribs, perfectly cooked sausage,...) It seems like your short rib CFS was neither of these. Right?
  23. Keith- I have not tried the smoked brisket from MC yet, so my comments here are based on the smoked ribs and pulled pork I made. Both were superb. Doing what you did, however, does not seem like a fair representation of the MC brisket. There is a specific reason the brisket is smoked first at a relatively cold temp and then cooked SV. When you inverted the process, did you by any chance smoke both briskets at the same time and the same temperature? or did you smoke the MC brisket at the recipe specified "cool" temperature and the conmventional brisket at a much higher temperature? Was the MC brisket cooked and cooled, then smoked? Was it the same size as the recipe suggests? I do agree with you that an extremely tender brisket (or ribs), the proverbial "fall off the bone" meat, is not necessarily a good thing. I just would like to hear some more details about what you did. Thanks.
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