nickrey

Down home here in Sydney we had a fourth of July lunch. Our wine and food society meets on Tuesdays so I cooked and served this a day early: Kentucky style ribs (rub for one day, hickory smoked for one hour at 70C then cooked sous vide for two days at 60C). Served with Bill Jamison's Bour-B-Que sauce. Sides of coleslaw, fried green tomatoes, fried pickles and Boston baked beans. Forty-three covers and uniformly positive comments. Only drawback was that it proved impossible to match with wines. Appetisers were variants on Reuben sandwich made with Modernist cuisine pastrami and sous vide cooked turkey.

I want back the five minutes it took me to read that article and try to work out the logic of what he was saying. Apparently if you want tasty steaks, you need to sear it rather than cook it in some other way oh and by the way, this is because the juices are sealed in. It's the equivalent of saying that meringue tastes good, therefore you need to whip the eggs in a copper pan. There seem to be a lot of links missing in the logic, most of which would contain the core of the argument.

Wishing you all the best in your new challenge. I'm sure we'll see you posting as often as you have but you won't be doing the huge amount of work that is hidden from most of us. Thank you for making this such a safe, friendly, authoritative, and influential forum.

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. It is a marvellous opportunity for Australians to get a piece of kitchen electrics at a US price (plus $20 postage). Our distributors would normally at least double the price adding the "Australia Tax" which makes our retailers some of the most profitable in the world. I've pledged the amount needed to buy one as well.

Yep, that's one of the things that makes it so fabulous. And it's unpasteurised... heaven on a plate.

Tried to get Trisol but couldn't find it and the distributor had none in store or on order. On researching frying and crispness, I found that it seems that trisol is most likely Wheat Dextrin. Dextrin is also made from corn and tapioca. Corn dextrin is sold here in Australia as maltodextrin and is used in home brewing to add body and mouthfeel to beer. Off to the home brew store. Bought a kilo for $9.60. Tried it out on some fried green tomatoes that I am making for a food group next week. They were crisp on being made and were still crisp two hours later, which makes them perfect for pre-preparation and reheating at the venue.

Is that a fortifying beer before you start cooking or is it an ingredient?

High-end Sydney restaurants seem to be dropping like nine pins at the moment. Just this year we have had closures of Bilson's, Pier, Berowra Waters, Manly Pavilion, Cotton Duck, Bird Cow Fish, and Montpelier Public House amongst others. We have also seen Becasse and Justin North's other restaurants go into receivership. Is this phenomenon happening in other locations as well? Are we seeing a rationalisation of fine dining to meet more limited discretionary budgets or is it representative of a shift towards more casual eateries? What's happening in your area?

It has now arrived. I lent it to the chef at our local providore/restaurant. He is Sardinian and started his training in a Michelin-starred restaurant on the island. His preference is to cook more traditional Sardinian fare and he serves a lot of this in his restaurant. His opinion is that it is the best Sardinian cookbook that he has seen and that the author is very true to the cuisine. What's more, he is getting his own copy. Given this recommendation, I'd totally recommend it to anyone who wants to explore this interesting regional cuisine.

I never thought of using a salad spinner as a centrifuge. Brilliant! Look forward to your results. Only thing I'd add is to recombine the separated broth and the solids to make the two more equal in sensory terms rather than trying each individually.

Freeze it?

If the animal is properly cared for in the first place you won't need any additives to make it taste better. As an aside when I was curing a ham and wanted to accelerate the curing process I used a large syringe and a penicillin needle to cheat a bit. I was stunned by the amount of liquid the pork was able to absorb. Let's also consider the the added water is being sold to you at the same price as the meat; that's possibly even more expensive than bottled water.

Try it on oat crackers (the Scottish type). While we're on things scottish, blue goes exceptionally well with peaty pure malt whisky. You could also try blue Castello, it is again a soft introduction to blue cheese. Another way of trying the flavour is to use a little in a cream-based pasta sauce over fettucine (the cream and the pasta moderate the flavour) just don't overheat it as it splits.

Interestingly in the scientific method typically observation precedes experimentation. Testing whether something isn't incorrect is at the heart of the scientific method (note how this is worded). I've observed that flavours seem more rounded when the stew/curry is left overnight and am tending towards supporting Michaela and others that flavours diffuse through the stew over time, in the same way that we marinate or pickle meat. Please all the scientists out there, can you either disprove or explain this? Citing a lack of scientific 'proof' is almost as useless as an assertion of faith. I'd add that saying that I 'know' these things may be taking things a bit far; let's just say that I hypothesise that they are true based on observation.

Bendigo Wholefoods has a small Mexican section that includes canned black beans. They are pretty expensive but so are any canned beans at Coles or Woolies. I saw that they had Masa and dried peppers but yes Mexican ingredients aren't always easy to find. And even the Costco salsa comes in laughably small jars. Good thing though because I'd never be able to fit a gallon in the fridge. Pop online to fireworks foods. You can get everything you want at very reasonable prices from there.

I received my copy of Mugaritz a few days ago. Here are some first impressions. First up it must be said that the pictures of dishes are stunning. Each dish was photographed on a white plate and/or surface creating the impression of a small degustation portion that sits as comfortably on the page as it would in front of you in the restaurant. Secondly, the influence of Ferran Adria is apparent throughout the text. Anduriz appears to have taken to heart both the extreme creativity and evolutionary approach of his mentor. It is apparent, however, that he has infused this with his own personality and abundant talent. Like Adria's El Bulli books, the first section of the book deals with his philosophy and approach to both cuisine and his diners. It also documents the evolution of new approaches over the time period 1998 to 2001. This includes which processes and techniques were added each year. For example, in 2006 they added impregnation sous vide, and rheology studies (the science behind edible bubbles). Dishes in the book that demonstrate each of these techniques are listed. Like Heston Blumenthal, Aduriz works with scientists to understand and evolve processes or sensory experiences and puts this to use in his recipes. To give an idea of the scale of the introduction, the first recipe only appears on page 94. Now onto the recipes themselves. While many can be created in a more conventional kitchen, others are unashamedly modernist requiring (at times) access to a sous vide setup or combi-oven, a thermomix, a roto-vap, etc as well as a range of kitchen chemicals (xanthan gum, calcium oxide, pectin, and so on). Rather than making these appear exotic, Anduriz follows the tradition of many contemporary chefs and incorporates the techniques and equipment into his cooking as a matter of fact. I think this indicates an answer to the question of where modernist cuisine is heading. Not to obscurity as many suggest but more towards the mainstream as an element central to many chefs' everyday restaurant cooking. Having been travelling recently, I haven't tried cooking any of the dishes as yet. However, reading through the recipes it is apparent that this is a book that can be used by someone with advanced cooking skills and a willingness to undertake a number of different processes to create a dish. It is very much a restaurant rather than a home cookbook. The flavour combinations look exciting and delicate but be warned: this is a book of degustation-style and sized dishes. While these dishes could be placed at various stages within a conventional type meal schedule, making a complete dinner with them would require the creation of a number of complex dishes, which would be difficult to achieve in a home situation cooking by yourself. I think I'll use individual dishes as either an appetiser, entree, or dessert in combination with other, more substantial, dishes. In all, this is a marvellous addition to the cooking library of advanced chefs who are comfortable using a wide range of cooking processes, including some that fit under the modernist category. It's also a marvellous book to read and drool over the food pictures.

Agree with Shalmanese on this one about Asian food using a lot of pantry ingredients. I'd also add Worcestershire sauce to his list. However, I also agree with teapot: freshly made curry pastes (and powders) are far superior to their bought counterparts. Keep persisting, it is worth the effort.

Instead of water chestnuts or yoghurt, which could make the mixture to runny, try adding some chopped up solid tofu. I use it in low-fat sausages to good effect.

I'm a firm believer that if you can't eat food appreciatively and understand its nuances then you will not be a good cook, no matter how closely you follow recipes. "Cook and adjust" is my dictum in the kitchen. For this reason, I'm recommending not so much a cookbook as an eater's book. This gem was written by a food developer who has a life-long interest in taste, flavour, and balance. The author is Barb Stuckey. The title is: Taste What You're Missing. The Passionate Eater's Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good. It comes with recommendations by David Chang, Heston Blumenthal, and Ming Tsai to mention a few. Try it, you'll like it.

Very similar but without the gas function. Will post a picture on my return home later this week. Do it.

Finally after searching for a reasonably priced one, I bit the bullet and bought a chamber sealer. The machine is a generic, Chinese, single seal, oil machine So after doing the sealing thing, I decided to play. This post contains my first experiment with compression pickling. All vegetables sliced, placed in bag with pickling juice (recipe courtesy of Momofuku cookbook). Each was vacuum sealed, opened and sealed up to a total of three times. The results were extremely tasty. The first, pickled watermelon will feature sometime in the future as mock sushi tuna. The pickled radishes have a finely sliced scallop look that may also come in useful. Also did carrots: and cucumber (the best tasting in terms of texture and pickle). The complete lot in a Mason jar: Can't wait to play some more.

Expensive book. Try this thread for info.

Just a note to let you all know that I have been looking at the cooking temperature recommended in Sous Vide Dash and various other sources for chicken breasts, which sits around the 65C mark. Tried this with some chicken breasts recently to see if they were better than the 60C that I normally cook them at. They weren't. The 60C breasts are well-cooked and extremely succulent, just the thing with which you'd convince others to turn to sous vide as a preferred cooking medium. At 65C, they were stringy and disappointing. Be very careful about what temperatures you cook at: even if they come from "reputable" sources, you may be upset with the result.

I found a new Kindle book that is a translation of La cuina de la meva mare by Joan Roca. English title is: Roots: Essential Catalan Cuisine According to El Celler de Can Roca. It is a tribute to his Mother and Grandmother's cooking and covers the Catalan cooking that he and his brothers grew up with in the family restaurant.

I've booked for next Tuesday: Looking forward to it.