mgaretz

I have never had a problem sealing Foodsaver bags (mind you, I have only done it a few times). I am using a 4 second seal time, which I believe is the default.

I don't think it necessary and haven't done it in years. But I am also usually adding in caramel coloring, primarily to brown up the gravy, but I think it also adds the same subtle flavors as browning the meat as it's basically the same compounds.

The meat was not dry and I have never had the jus re-enter meat. But it was the meat, onions, potato, celery and mushrooms for 10 minutes, quick release, add in carrots, parsnips and frozen peas and corn for another 6 minutes with natural release. Meat is not pre-browned. Additional seasonings/add-ins were 1 cup of chicken broth, 1 tsp of soy, 2 tbs tomato paste, garlic powder, thyme, salt, pepper and 2 tsp of caramel coloring. Jus thickened with Precisa Sperse 1000.

Beef stew made in the electric pressure cooker. Chuck, onion, carrots, parsnips, potato, celery, mushrooms, peas and corn.

Check the bolts that hold the cover onto the arms. If they are loose you won't get a good seal. Mine work loose after a few months and need to be re-tightened.

I use a vanilla mix (non-dairy) from Precision Foods. I will use some kind of nut milk with it instead of water (these days I have been using unsweetened cashew milk) and flavoring. I am not making soft serve but I am churning and freezing it like normal ice cream, but it would be soft serve if eaten immediately after churning or, I'm assuming, made in a soft serve machine. I also found if you want to keep it scoopable when frozen, adding vegetable glycerin does the trick. My recipe is: 200 grams of mix 16 oz (liquid measure) of unsweetened nut milk (or soy or coconut) 1 tbs vegetable glycerin approx 1/4 cup of flavoring if liquid or 4-5 tbs of powder like peanut butter powder or cacao. Here's a recent batch of peanut butter banana with hand chopped dark chocolate. 4 tbs powdered peanut butter and 1/4 cup Torani banana flavor.

Just got an email from ChefSteps, makers of Joule. If anyone wants one you can follow this link: http://chefsteps.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9f69331c823fb9ca452fe5184&id=b813053348&e=0050e63d63 and get $30 off and I get a $30 gift card! This offer is good for today and tomorrow (9/25 and 9/26).

I have the Sous Vide Supreme and it works very well. I still use it when I am doing a long cook. I also have a Joule and I use it most of the time now, especially for short cooks. It works extremely well, is quiet, comes up to temp very fast and doesn't take up much space. You need an app, but if you have an Amazon Echo or Dot, you can use voice commands to control it. I do that about half the time, the other half I use the app's convenient guides to set time and temp. I rarely turn it off with the app as you can do that with the button on top.

Same brewery, different beer!

Last night we had mini beer-brats, made with chicken and Lagunitas IPA, an impulse buy from yesterday's Costco trip. I pan-fried them. They were pretty good. Served with onion mashed potatoes, raw snap peas and salad.

Hamburger steaks, cooked SV then seared, served with sauteed mushrooms in cream sherry and fresh snap peas, cooked ALV.

One of things that turned me off of CI was they kept publishing variations on recipes they had done, often with very minor changes, and keep calling the latest one the best ever. Meatloaf in particular. Once all they did was change the breadcrumbs to crushed saltines.

Last night we went out to a friend's newish restaurant. Basically it's a build your own poke bowl. You get a choice of base (white or brown rice, romaine or spring mix) and includes a scoop of crab or poke (spicy raw tuna). To that you can 1-4 scoops of protein, like maguro, sake, hamachi, etc., which were my three choices. Then you can choose from a huge variety of toppings (I chose just avocado) and a dressing from a list of nine or so. I chose unagi sauce. They also do a roll they call a Brito and they also have Donburi. The place is called Kanpai Poke and it's in Danville CA for those that are local. Very inexpensive too. Didn't take any pictures but I did shoot my dessert: Homemade dairy-free ice cream. Peanut Butter-Banana with hand chopped dark chocolate bits.

My meatloaf is loosely based on the CI all-beef recipe, which uses a tsp of gelatin to provide similar effects to mixed meat approach. Mine gets sauteed fine diced carrot, onion and celery and uses oatmeal as the panade. It gets two eggs and 1/2 cup of water for 2lbs of beef and one cup of oatmeal. Spiced with soy sauce, Worcestershire, thyme, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Glaze is ketchup with sugar added. Like @gfweb I cook it free-form. I can post the exact recipe if folks are interested. A recent one from last week:

I got a big jar on Amazon, but most places that sell spices, even most grocery stores, will have it. I like the granulated garlic as well.

I use granulated onion instead of powder and it doesn't clump.

Tried fresh broccoli for the first time last night. It was packaged with butter. I gave it one minute, then a rest of 8-10, then more minutes until it puffed (didn't time it, but about 3 minutes). It was edible, but regular steamed broccoli is much better. So for me, this method fails on fresh broccoli.

Meatloaf, served with mashed potatoes, peas in butter and salad.

Sorry, that acronym is not an appetizing way to describe cooking.

It's simple and fast for most vegetables. Like tonight I made peas with butter for dinner, from frozen, in about 80 seconds. I think the vegetables taste better and are way less likely to be over cooked like can easily happen in the dish covered with plastic wrap method. @weedy says it also saves a dish. For me it doesn't because I am going to transfer the veggies to a serving dish, which, using the normal method as above, would typically be the cooking dish. But I will say that cutting the top of the bag and pouring the veggies into the serving dish is a lot easier than trying to get the plastic wrap off the hot dish!

Some veggies, like thicker pieces of carrots and cauliflower, take some extra effort. What I usually do is give them a few minutes or until the bag just starts to puff and then turn off the microwave. Let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes and let their residual heat cook them some more, then just before serving I will redo them until the bag gets almost to bursting. That usually does the trick, but I have given up on getting Brussels Sprouts to come out good with this method. I also use it a lot on frozen veggies, like peas, corn, green beans, etc. (the straight method, not the two steps).

Salmon, cooked SV then seared with a maple-bourbon glaze, served with peas cooked ALV and salad.

Yes you were! I got tired of typing tehewhole thing so I started the acronym. Hope it catches on!

Not this lactose intolerant boy...

What, you didn't like the cauliflower? Thanks!