nickrey

Sous vide magic controller $150. Vacuum sealer $100. Rice cooker, well it's a rice cooker and is used to cook rice so I have one of those. At $250 a fully functional entry level sous vide cooking set up is cheaper than an 8 1/2 quart Le Crueset casserole. Not quite sure where the expensive equipment comment comes from.

I bought some Vialone Nano rice last week and made risotto with it for the first time this evening. That means I've now made risotto with Arborio, Carnaroli, and Vialone Nano. I'd have to say that while they all make excellent risottos, they tend to absorb different amounts of stock. You really need to taste and know when to stop cooking rather than just use the amount of liquid recommended in a cookbook. Moreover, all come up with a different texture in terms of: 1. creaminess from absorbing the stock, and 2. the al dente nature of the finished product. If you have only ever had one type of rice in risotto, you might be tempted to think that risotto made with a different one was somehow wrong. My thought is that each would best be matched with different types of core ingredients to ensure a pleasant texture profile to the finished dish. Does anyone have experience in using different risotto rices for different dishes?

I'd agree with ChickenStu, making gnocchi is not difficult if you are careful about your technique. The trick I've found with gnocchi is to use "light hands" to form the dumplings. Rolling vigorously such that you compress the mixture leads to a chewy, gluggy product.

Check out the freight on Amazon. I got in early with a pre-order but including standard international shipping to Australia the cost was only US$431.85.

To my mind the partial cooking technique does not seem to work effectively. Perhaps it's where I've eaten but the restaurant version of Risotto never matches up to freshly home-cooked risotto. I've given up ordering it for myself; although I will try it if someone else orders it to see if I should vary my opinion. So far, my opinion stands.

The Chef's Armoury has an on-line store that sells some food, ingredients and kitchen supplies. Other on-line shopping sources include Ibicha Junction and Kei's Kitchen

I suspect they've found out how big it is! The shipping charges to Australia in the pre-pricing were, thankfully, very low.

Iodine binds in peat with exposure. As such it is likely that the source for the iodine is the ocean, as you say, but via the peat. Otherwise one could suggest that the Bruichladdich Islay whiskies that are less peatier but exposed to the oceanic environment during finishing would have a medicinal quality. They don't.

I can only comment on a few of the questions Chris. Because I don't tend to marinate the meat, I jaccard just prior to cooking. Does it decrease the cooking time? I have overcooked more Jaccarded meat than non-Jaccarded meat when grilling because it accelerates the cooking.

Sounds a bit like a motorised version of a mouli legumes. With smaller holes in the insert, you should be able to separate out the seeds.

This post continues the theme of what to do once you've cooked some meat sous vide. In this case, I used chicken breasts. The sous-vide cooked chicken was coated with a home-made bang bang sauce and tea-smoked for around five minutes. The resulting chicken was sliced and served on a salad. A photo of the dish can be seen at this thread on the eGullet Dinner! thread.

The index to your book fully justifies the faith we placed in you by pre-ordering when it appeared on Amazon. Well done! Can't wait to read and use it.

After making some chicken stock, I was left with the set-aside raw breast meat. It was vacuum packed and cooked sous vide for 2 hours. The chicken was then coated with a home-made Bang Bang sauce and tea-smoked for around five minutes. The resulting chicken was sliced and served on a salad. Tonight's dinner: Sous-vide cooked, tea-smoked, bang bang chicken salad.

I take it you mean green bacon. If the bacon has been cooked and smoked, this is not an option. A number of us also do sous vide cooking and use vacuum sealers to package the cut bacon prior to freezing. Comparing freshly sliced and cooked to the pre-frozen bacon, I can't detect a difference in texture. Have already talked about the flavor difference above. What is your brine recipe so you can leave it in and not get oversalting? I assume that the saturation that you use represents the level that you want so the osmosis process reaches equilibrium. Does this lead to a longer brining time?

Those of us who make our own bacon slice, bag and freeze it all the time. There was some discussion over on the Charcuterie thread that it actually keeps curing to some extent while it is frozen so it actually improves the taste (see this post and several around it for more information).

I don't know if it is apocryphal but Jacques Pepin has been reported to have said to Julia Child when she asked him why he didn't wash his chicken before cooking "if the bacteria can survive the temperature in that oven it deserves to kill me."

Oh, you are talking about real fruit. I thought it may be flavour profiles. But if that's the case, I love a blackberry taste in a wine. That may be one to try.

It's interesting that you mentioned medicinal. It is a bit earlier than TCP though. In the Scotch Malt Whisky Society tastings if a malt is peaty, it tastes of iodine. As a result, one of the descriptors used for the flavour is "hospital bandages." Any really peaty whisky is going to have this in addition to the smokiness. Personally, I love the taste but perhaps it is acquired.

I bought some nice looking brisket the other day and cooked it for around 30 hours at 57C. Not sure what to do with it, I searched my cookbooks using the new eat your books library bookshelf and found that beef brisket was recommended for David Thompson's Beef Penaeng Curry. On consulting the curry recipe in the Thai Food cookbook, it is one where you cook the beef separately, cook the sauce, then add the beef to heat through. So I made up the sauce from scratch, simmered it until cooked and then added sliced, already sous vide cooked, beef brisket along with some of the bag juices to increase the beefy taste. Instead of simply reheating, I left it sitting for an hour for the flavour to infuse the beef and then reheated. The result was absolutely delicious. Am looking forward to trying leftovers as the curry taste is likely to have further penetrated the beef.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has a recipe for devilled lamb's hearts or one for Paprikash of Hearts, Liver and Tongues (prepare for more wifely scorn on that one). On the other hand, you're more likely to find lamb heart recipes in Spanish or Greek recipes rather than Chinese. May I suggest that you look up pig's heart recipes and substitute?

If it's bitter, ramp up the salt content.

Vichyssoise is a puréed soup that is typically served cold. It contains leeks, onions, potatoes, milk/cream, and chicken stock.

Check out The Essential Pasta Cookbook. It is on Amazon with the "Click to look inside" function.

Just the website it seems.

Just brought the website up on my iPhone. As it doesn't use software downloaded to your computer it works just fine. Now I can look in my own recipe books for cooking ideas while in the supermarket rather than using Epicurious, as I do now.