dtremit

Curious if anyone out there has had any experience with induction wok burners, for restaurant or home use. Up until recently the only ones available have been pricy restaurant models or equally pricy built-in models. However, I've noticed a few much cheaper options coming to market. For home use, there's this Nuwave countertop model — $169, but it looks like it has sold for $99 at some points in the past. 120v, 1500w I'm also seeing a number of much less expensive countertop restaurant models: Galaxy GIWC18: 120v 1800w, $229 Avantco IWC35: 240v 3500w, $359 Sunpentown SR-34BWC: 240v 3400w, $612 Wondering if anyone has any experience or thoughts on any of these new models. I was thinking of adding a 240v outlet when we renovate our kitchen, but one of the 120v options might be a nice stopgap. I can't find any reviews on the restaurant models. The Amazon reviews for the NuWave are mixed, but a lot of the negative reviews seem to be from people who don't have a clue how to season and use a carbon steel wok. There's also a wok cooking teacher in Florida who seems to like the NuWave as an alternative to an Iwatani butane stove.

Those sorts of drinks are go-tos for people with the flu, so I imagine people are stocking up in COVID hot spots.

If you're headed to Penzeys in Arlington, it may be worth making another quick stop at Curio Spice — they're on Mass Ave in North Cambridge. They're one of the companies mentioned in that article. Super sad about Russo's closing — I didn't go to say goodbye because I honestly found the store crowds a little overwhelming pre-COVID. If they did anything special for their ex-employees, I haven't heard anything about it (and a commenter in the Globe article suggested they didn't). You'd think they could spare a little of the $36M...

@Annie_H That's a good point — it's not the heat that's unique in those chiles, and I always have hotter peppers around. That cheese looks phenomenal! It's one of the things I'm really looking forward to doing. I did a smoked cream cheese as one of the first things into the smoker — coat it in a BBQ rub, and smoke for a couple of hours. Bizarre recipe, but a food writer I trust wrote about it. It was amazingly good. I did it in a small cast iron skillet so it went straight to the table as an appetizer. I'm thinking goat cheese would be even better. I am hoping to get a pellet "maze" to do something closer to true cold smoking when the weather eases up a bit — you just light the pellets in the switched off smoker. I was expecting I would use the smoker mostly for meat, but I am finding I really love it with other stuff. Smoked peaches were great in a salad, and smoked tofu was phenomenal. Some eggplants will be going in this weekend.

Thanks -- that's super helpful! I am on the fence about Big Jim vs Sandia — think we might like them a little hotter. (I wish they'd let you split a 10lb box between two varieties.) What's the time and temp you use for smoking them? We are supposed to start getting tomatillos from our farm share soon...super excited about that.

You all have me tempted to order some chiles. Which of the varieties do you prefer? @Annie_H — how do you smoke the chiles? I just got an electric smoker this year and this sounds like a fantastic use of it.

Is anyone else finding that Imperfect's selection has gotten sparse and expensive recently? I've skipped the last few weeks because the fruit selection, in particular, has seemed sad and overpriced. But maybe I am just spoiled for choice locally right now.

To add another voice to the chorus — it *can* be cheaper, though it isn't always. Now that we are back to having a lot more options for shopping, I have started being a bit more careful about checking the value of the items we pick. (Back in the early pandemic when we started I was just glad to get the stuff.) Both of the boxes have moved away from the "surprise box" model — you now get pretty much exactly what you ordered. I get enough surprises in my CSA that I'm glad for the change. Notably, I have never had particularly good luck *ordering* produce (in particular) from Walmart or their ilk. The shoppers don't know how to pick items well. Since Imperfect and Misfits focus on produce, I find the average item is fresher and higher in quality than most of what I can get from local grocery pickup, with the possible exception of higher priced stores like Whole Foods. A lot of the "wins" are things I don't necessarily post about on here. For months when they were in season, we got excellent pears from Imperfect. Nearly every one was delicious and ripened promptly. I have largely given up on buying pears from supermarkets at all — even when I buy them in person they go bad before they're ripe. And they have a house label body butter my partner really likes that's about half the price of options elsewhere.

I'm not sure what you mean by "uselessness" -- or at least it doesn't describe anything either service has sent us. We've had stuff damaged, but it was all stuff that I imagine was fine when they put it in the box.

Apparently I spoke too soon; our Imperfect box this week was once again missing about a third of the items. Still suspect it's a second box staying on the truck (for us they deliver the orders themselves in Imperfect-branded trucks); both times this has happened we've had a lot of heavy items and only had one box dropped off. I'm sure they'll take care of it, and I wasn't depending on anything for a particular meal, but it's annoying.

From today's BookBub: Falastin: A Cookbook, by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley — Kindle edition $2.99 (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Great cookbook of Palestinian recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi's longtime collaborator (and co-author of Jerusalem).

Some TJ's products I've been impressed with recently: These Sprinkles Walk Into a Sandwich Cookie: pricey (about $0.50 each) but really hit the spot — very similar to some cookies my aunt used to make. I think they are on hiatus for a strawberry version for the summer, right now; we got some but haven't tried them yet. Hold the Cone mini ice cream cones: we tried the coffee version. The cone is actually crunchy like a real ice cream cone -- not chewy like the one on a Drumstick. I got a taste for that at convenience stores in Japan and this is the only thing that's ever come close here. Also, they're a lovely tiny bite for when you want something sweet but not much. Bomba Hot Pepper Sauce: a nice spicy calabrian chile in a jar that fits well in my fridge. Soy chorizo: this is a staple for us. Stays fresh for a long time, and we like the flavor profile; we don't get a ton of great mexican chorizo around here, so it's about the best option we have. It *really* needs more fat, though -- I add a lot of olive oil when I deploy it. Misses: Fruity Chewy Candy: they look like Starburst but taste like disappointment. Tarte au Brie et Tomates: was hoping this would match its close sibling the Tarte D'Alsace (which is a perennial favorite) but the amount of liquid in the brie and tomatoes made it soggy.

K-R has made multiple designs over the years — the newer ones work like this, and they're amazing: I have lots of stuff from the Guardian article, of course: Ice cream maker — found an old Simac at a thrift store for $15 (!) and I use it occasionally to good effect. I hated my "freeze the bowl" one that I had prior. The compressor is really necessary for me to be bothered with it, but I'm not entirely sure I'd spend the money on a new one. Honey dipper — ok, I don't use it much, but it's also one of the smallest and cheapest things in my kitchen -- who cares? Popcorn machine — have one, but have mostly moved over to making my popcorn in a wok. So I guess this fails the test. If we made popcorn more often I'd get a whirly pop. Coffee grinder — I classify this as a medical necessity because my brain does not work without it. Bread maker — I unapologetically love mine. Great for sandwich bread on a weekday and great for dough when I want to do something fancier. Garlic press — someone mentioned on a Splendid Table episode recently that opposition to garlic presses is kind of a class thing in the UK, which I found fascinating. I use mine frequently but not exclusively. I have never gotten that side-of-the-chef's-knife garlic paste thing to work for me, though. As should be obvious from the image above, garlic getting stuck or wasted is not an issue with a well designed press; I have never seen one as useless looking as the one in the article. Electric juicer — I suspect they mean the grinding sort, which I don't have, but I do have a citrus juicer. I like it, but don't really use it all that often. I should use it more!

Definitely in the latter category here — hoping my CSO will hold out until Anova has a v2 and I have a new kitchen to put it in

We're closer to gfweb than Franci is, and we haven't had anything like his issues — I think the problem is far more granular than the East Coast.

Same wattage as the (US) Control Freak, no? The sous vide bit is useless to me, but in other respects I really like some of what Njori has designed. The storage case is really beautifully designed, and the "reduce by weight" feature enabled by the built-in scale is pretty cool. I secretly hate recipes that say "reduce by 1/2" because it's so hard to gauge that in the quantities one uses for a lot of home recipes. Price is too high for me to take a chance on it from an untested vendor, though.

I feel like the chicken breast and the sausage give you some options here that will please both of you. You didn't specify it had to be boneless or skinless chicken breast — so why not do a spatchcocked chicken, or a beer can chicken? Breasts for them, legs and thighs with crispy skin for you. I feel like a whole bird on a platter, surrounded with grilled vegetables and maybe even grilled fruit, always punches above its weight. Likewise — their preferred sausage fits nicely into a mixed grill, with boring sausages for them and interesting ones for you and yours. Maybe they'll even try something new and like it. The only thing I struggle with is the pork fillet — assuming it's the same as what we in the US would call pork loin, I really struggle to imagine it as a good grilling cut. Blink at the wrong moment and it's dry. One aside — I think your serving presentation really makes a big difference here. Pile everything that comes off the grill on an enormous platter or carving board and it'll look like a feast.

@Shelby I'll bet you a scrap metal place would give you a few Imperfect boxes worth of cash for those. I think we are officially done with Misfits — ultimately because of their shipping. Our last box was delivered by LaserShip, who I've rarely had good luck with. It was a day late and looked like it had been turned upside down quite a few times. Only one thing was completely ruined, but several things were damaged in transit — bruised fruit and whatnot. And the herbs were rotten by the time they arrived. Misfits customer service is great, and they of course refunded the damaged items — but ultimately we have better options. Imperfect has better selection (including a couple of non-produce items that we've really grown to love), and I'm willing to order stuff from them that I wouldn't from Misfits because I'm more confident that they'll arrive intact. And the local vendor I mentioned upthread has actually been super reliable and cheaper than either of these two.

My theory is that multiple boxes were damaged and some delivery person shoved the bars that fell out of another box into your open box so they didn't have to deal with the paperwork for loose items.

Depends if you want the steel to fully render -- 2800F if you do, a little lower if you want a more toothsome texture.

Thanks for all the replies. They are all sealed up so we might just end up donating them — I had thought of that but figured the bags would be too big. But as @Margaret Pilgrim suggests it might be just the thing for a soup kitchen or similar. We *also* have a huge bag of old fashioned oats that I think most of these suggestions would work just as well for 🙂 I did see some mention that quick cooking oats are steamed for significantly longer than other oats — apparently they don't work well in oat milk recipes for that reason. So it might make them a poor choice for oat flour used as flour (though probably fine in the breadcrumb use case).

Oh boy. I have somehow found myself with ten pounds of quick oats. I bought a huge package by accident six months ago — my partner uses lots of rolled oats to make granola, and I hit the wrong button on Amazon. Oh well, I'll figure out something to do with them, I said. Well, apparently I clicked "Subscribe and Save," because another 80oz box just showed up. Normally we are steel cut oat people for normal eating — the texture of instant or quick oats cooked "normally" is not exactly our favorite. I would love to find some recipes that we can make regularly to use these up. I know I can put them into cookies and the like, but by my math this would make 400 cookies, and we really don't need to be eating 400 cookies right now 🤣 Healthy breakfasts would be especially great, but totally open to just about anything — sweet, savory, breads, whatever.

I have no useful feedback to the OP, but you're all making me lean even more heavily towards passing up gas when we redo our kitchen.

They're still for sale — for $175 (!!)

Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques — US Kindle edition $2.99 today (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)