nickrey

Being an avid foodie, I often receive kitchen gadgets most of which languish in some drawer or another. This year I was given a garlic roller which has already seen many uses. I thought I'd share it with you. I'll start off with an observation that I can't use garlic presses. Maybe I'm using old garlic but the pressure needed to get the garlic through the holes has led to me snapping more handles of garlic presses than I'd like to recount. And yes, this includes some of the supposedly strong garlic presses. Anyway on with the roller. I'm not sure if it's new but it was new to me and it works extremely well for my needs. This is the garlic zoom roller cutter. Here it is with the cutting mechanisms removed. Now with a clove of garlic in the top. After having rolled it back and forth across the bench top. and the chopped garlic. The brand is called chef'n. It's called a "garlic zoom." I've seen it on Amazon. This one is a keeper.

Brie and Camembert are made in exactly the same way. The difference in France is that they come from different milks. In places other than France they often simulate a Brie by adding some cream to the milk before making. The double and triple bries simply have more cream added. Any of these cheeses should be matured such that the centre is soft (this is done by letting the mould on the rind extend its filaments to the centre of the cheese, it is also why the cheeses are of a uniform thickness in large or small wheels. There is a limit to the distance that the mould can extend its filaments. Too thick and you get a chalky interior. If these cheeses get too old, they develop an unpleasant ammonia smell in the rind.

Knowing you, spinach is the main ingredient but one of many. What's with it?

If we're moving in that direction, there's always cucumber and gin. Try it as a garnish in a martini made with Hendricks.

45 minutes is a bit light on for time. I'd want it in the bath for over an hour to reach temp. My bet is that the core would have been at around 56-57C, which is too uncooked for my liking with chicken. Perhaps try 1 hour 10 minutes next time. It will still be moist but at a more appropriate temperature for chicken.

Try compressing watermelon with balsamic vinegar. Instant sweet and sour.

I've had both smoke and clove smell leak out of the bags. Even chamber vacuum sealed with high temperature bags. The only advantage I can see for smoke then sous vide is when creating serves for large numbers of people (I did ribs for 50 using this technique). The process is smoke, cook sous vide, fast chill, store, reheat in water bath for service. It worked very well.

Simple really, the acid eats away the shell.

Once you get the bottomless filter, you'll know whether your tamp is correct. If it isn't there will be channels in the coffee and the pour will not look like the really good one that Mitch has above.

I tried it with white vinegar and it worked well. Perhaps you needed a stronger solution. I'm doing some quail eggs on a few weeks. Will experiment with different concentrations to see what works best.

I have mine set at 105C (221F). Works well. Fill the basket up with loose grind coffee (don't press it down at all) such that it is level with the top. Run your finger across it to make sure it is level. Press down solidly in the middle of the tamper and then roll it around in a nutating motion (how a coin rolls when it is transitioning to flat). Brush off excess coffee around the edges. Run it through and adjust your grind so it takes around 30 seconds to pour 40ml of coffee.

One of our better Sydney chefs recommends soaking the eggs in a water and vinegar solution overnight. It thins the shell down and makes them very easy to peel the next day.

I agree with Scotty. Sous vide is the best way to prepare swordfish to keep it moist. Though I'd recommend somewhere around 52-55C rather than 62.

After a few mishaps (those are nasty little cuts!) I invested in some kevlar gloves. I just keep my palm flat against what I'm pressing across the blade and don't use the guard. Works like a dream.

In addition to coating the container, run a knife around the edge of each souffle, that gives a clean trajectory upon which it can rise. Also, look at souffle recipes that cover the twice cooked variant. You can pre-prepare and then cook them again for service. They sink, they rise. There is so much ritualistic BS around souffles, I'm surprised any amateur cook ever tries them.

Nick - what is sprinkled on your rice? Rice Seasoning. Contains sesame seed, shrimp, potato starch, seaweed, sugar, salt, and egg yolk.

Had some fresh pineapple and some duck breast in the fridge. Off to Eat Your Books for inspiration. Found Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall's duck breast with pineapple, chili, and soy. Served with simple steamed bok choy and rice.

I make a shrimp consomme by chopping shells, meat and all up in a food processor. This should work well for your stock.

The original recipe is from Martin Boetz, who is one of David Thompson's protégées.

45.8C here in Sydney today (that's 114F). That's our highest recorded temperature ever. So it was time for a salad. This one was Thai salad with flaked sous vide cooked salmon (marinated after cooking in fish sauce). Salad leaves were mint and coriander. Also had cucumber, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, long red chili, and freshly cut pineapple. Sauce had elements of tamarind as well as the usual suspects (palm sugar, fish sauce, chili, lime juice, some sliced herbs from the salad).

I always sauté mushrooms used in these dishes in plenty of butter and some salt. This gives both a textural contrast to the sous vide cooked meat as well as an additional shot of umami. Many of my sauces are prepared using the liquid thrown during the sous vide process and then frozen into ice cubes for later use, including the addition of sauteed mushrooms and a splash of sherry vinegar for finishing.

I'd like to get back to Chris' original point rather than address a whole lot of spurious issues. The sous vide rig is set either at or one degree above the desired cooking temperature. The food is quite possibly frozen or at the very least chilled. You put the food in the bath and it causes a drop in the temperature (same process as putting ice in a drink). By filling the bath with water a few degrees (C not F) higher than the food, you reduce the bounce required to get the bath up to temperature. If, by chance, the water was slightly too hot normal pid processes will bring the temperature back to what you want rapidly (Although possibly not so rapidly with some of the hyper insulated home rolled rigs we're hearing people describe). Having the food exposed to temperatures slightly (not significantly) higher than target for a few minutes is not going to do anything bad to something that you either have seared or will sear later as the slightly hotter water will only affect the part that you are trying to gain a Maillard effect on anyway. It is a handy hint (thank you Chris) and something the I've done since I started sous vide cooking over four years ago. Bottom line. If you add cold food to your bath, the temperature will drop. To reduce the impact of this add water a few degrees higher. Simple really. Let's use the technique rather than overcomplicating it.

I use the canning liquid. It works well.

Scrambled eggs and overcooked meat are both examples of irreversible protein damage. The effect of a temperature overshoot on meat can be subtle, while the effect of a temperature overshoot on eggs so dramatic that everyone notices it. http://quoteinvestig...03/07/haggling/ Either not reading again or not understanding, I'm not sure which. My full point was that you either pre- sear or post- sear meat. There is nothing subtle in flaming the meat with a blow torch or pan. What sort of damage do you think that does to the proteins? Would a few degrees too high in the water at the beginning do more damage than this? Not in the physical universe I inhabit.

When I overshoot just a little making crème anglaise, I get scrambled eggs. Sometimes it helps to read the posts.