KennethT

That's a good idea - I can heat up some water in the microwave and use that to refresh the pasta before adding the sauce. Pasta cooking water not necessary for this application, but could do the same, in theory - just chill and save the pasta water and reheat that in the microwave.... Thanks

I am having a few friends over for NYE dinner tonight - one is a vegetarian who loves cheese, so I figured I'd make her a truffled Mac n cheese for one of the courses. I have a very small kitchen and only 3 usable burners, two if I have a large pot going. I'd like to, ideally, cook the pasta earlier today and chill it so I don't need to worry about cooking it while I'm prepping the course for everyone else. Is there any way to do this and still have it come out well? For those with experience, I'm making a modern cheese sauce using sodium citrate. Would it be ok if I were to fold cold pasta into the hot sauce or would it start clumping/seizing due to the cold shock?

Also, why did you bag them before freezing? I would think it would be better to freeze them naked, then bag once frozen, as the bag is slightly insulative and will lengthen freezing time a bit. Also, doesn't freezer burn come from drying out/oxidation over long periods of time, not from extreme cold? I think what you're thinking of is frostbite, which I don't think affects non-living meat. Do watch out for your fingers though!

I second Il Buco. A few years ago, my wife threw me a surprise bday party down there and it was such a great success, we did it again the following year (not as a surprise though).

I once did a creme fraiche mousse (fitting to go after the moose) dusted with matcha tea powder sitting on a lemon tea cake base that was a nice transition. Also, I don't know your location, but if you can get decent strawberries, you can do strawberries drizzled with a traditional balsamic (the thick syrupy stuff) in a caramel lace bowl. The bowl always impresses people, and is simple to make - make a dark caramel, then with a whisk, drizzle either onto an inflated balloon, or a small bowl (slightly oiled). either slowly deflate the balloon (with a pin near the knot where the rubber is thickest) or just slide the caramel bowl out of the oiled bowl when cool.

Check the original SV index page - there's tons of info on pork belly... http://forums.egullet.org/topic/136274-sous-vide-index/#entry1777784

I've also been including stock and getting better results. I do a hainanese chicken rice by making a very concentrated chicken stock with shallot, garlic and ginger as aromatics. Stock goes in the bag with chicken breast - meat comes out great... then the stock for cooking gets recombined with the master batch of stock of which some is used to cook the rice. The stock gets more and more chicken-y as time goes on, so once in a while I'll refresh the aromatics and top up with a bit of water.

I've worked with dry ice quite a bit in the past. I find the way to get the best conduction and heat transfer is to put chunks of dry ice in the food processor for a second or two - it very easily becomes "dry snow" which you can then dredge your steak in and have all surfaces in contact. I would do the steak naked rather than presealed since the bag will be a insulator and not all direct contact of the snow. Also, the snow is VERY cold, which would make the bag very brittle.

If you're just looking for fat (and not cracklings) I'd like to suggest nathanm's idea of the "fat shake". Rough chop the fat/skin and put in a blender, covering with water. Blend until completely liquified then pour into an SV bag or you can do covered on the stovetop. Makes the most yield I've ever seen.

Sam, sounds great - I like the idea of pressure steamed potatoes.. Definitely have to try it sometime!

Several years ago, I bought a "hose-torch" (made by Bernzomatic) for my propane canister - it's basically the gas valve connected to a 3 foot long hose, which is terminted with a "swirl-torch". I bought it because I thought it would be more convenient to sear things with the canister hanging on my belt just holding the light torch in my hand - plus, as anyone who has done lots of sweat-plumbing, holding the canister sideways with attached normal torch pointing down doesn't always work too well. The swirl-torch is advertised as making a more even and hotter flame for use with plumbing... but I find it works very well for searing post-SV stuff. I use it for all searing purposes, and I have never had a torch taste yet. It does take a bit of practice - I usually stay farther away from the food than I'd normally think was necessary and I get nice even browning with a very small amount little charred freckles so to speak. If there are no spices or ground pepper, then I can really blast a steak and get a really good crust without overcooking the interior. Spices/pepper tend to burn easily.

What is MP? I got the information to apply it dry directly from one of Ajinomoto's north american sales reps... I commonly use it dry when I remove duck breast skin - remove the fat, then glue it back on to the raw duck breast.

You could have also applied the GS dry - like you would for RM... much easier for this type of application

I've found that turkey leg/thigh confit was a huge hit (I confited in duck fat since that's what I had lying around). I took the confited parts, pulled the meat, made into patties bound with some methylcellulose (done ahead) and seared at service to serve along with the SV breast meat. I found that turkey skin cooked SV wasn't so good (can be rubbery), so I puffed the skin and seasoned with dried "Thanksgiving spices".

Blue ribbon is good, but I would say far from the best sushi in NYC. I have heard the same about yasuda as Weinoo - I used to go there quite frequently and always thought it excellent, but haven't been in about a year so I can't comment about it now. One of the aspects that I thought set them apart was the quality of their rice. Much more delicate than what is typical in the neighborhood sushi place. I can't say whether that has changed though...

I have - it works ok - but one aspect of the Bouley method is the evaporation, hence concentration. Doing it in the pressure cooker gets you part of the way there faster - but you'd still have to reduce it down

I once took a cooking class with David Bouley who makes a very dense mushroom stock as a base for many preparations. Take a ton of white button mushrooms, medium chop, and just cover with water. Simmer for about 8 hours until the volume has reduced by about half then strain. I've done it before - it comes out very good - almost truffely...

be careful with chocolate - as most commercial chocolates (even dark chocolates) contain quite a bit of sugar. There are sugar-free chocolates on the market - I don't know about quality though....

have you tried Evernote? Really good for things like this.

which transglutaminase are you using? Most people use the RM for meats, but the GS (typically used for seafood) has a stronger bond. And at one point, I seem to remember the rep telling me that salt should make it work better - more available proteins or something like that... also, RM doesn't work well with fat or bone, so they recommend using the GS for those applications as well.

I loved this dish in Thailand - it's very popular in Northern Thai.... here is a recipe I've used and it tasted very similar - especially if you can find Betel leaves or pepper leaves in your area.... http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/mkum.html

SV is great for dinner parties - I can't tell you how many times, when prepping for a dinner party with multiple courses, I had several SV rigs running simultaneously.

I've always found it difficult to keep veggies from floating - even "dense" ones like asparagus... I can't imagine what it would take to weigh down a whole head of cauliflower! Maybe using a chamber vac, but I'd be afraid that too much vacuum would crush the head and snap the branches. Please keep us posted! Pics if possible?

I also have a dwarf citrus - a Bearss lime tree growing indoors for 5+ years in a NYC apartment. I used to grow it in soil, but kept having root rot problems even though I had tons of redwood and cedar shavings mixed in with the soil to improve drainage and reduce clumping. Citrus are very root rot sensitive... I bought the tree as a 3 year old tree from a compnay in CA that specializes in dwarf citrus - they have many varieties, many of which do very well grown indoors in containers. Check out 4 Winds Growers.... Being in NY, I also have a grow light on the tree for 18 hours a day for a little supplemental lighting. I used to use a 200W metal halide light, but have since switched to a 90W LED. I have also switched the tree to hydroponics a few years ago - it's a simple ebb/flow system that basically floods the root zone for 10 minutes, twice a day. I used to do it more often, but had some root rot issues. I also add a product called hygrozyme, which is an enzyme that devours rot, every two weeks. Now, the tree is doing great - I have tons of limes that are ripening at the moment, and the tree is also flowering so that means more in the future. I posted some pics of it a while back in the gardening forum... here's the post: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/141848-gardening-2012-season/page-2 .. that was about a year and half ago, so now the tree is probably double the size... if I can, I'll try to take pics this weekend....

there are literally tons of information about duck confit sous vide on these boards... look in the sous vide main thread here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/136274-sous-vide-index/ I'm sure there are other discussions in the subsequent sous vide thread, as well as in the modernist cuisine/MCAH threads... or do a search for it and I'm sure you'll find tons of responses...