mgaretz

Yesterday I made a batch of dairy-free Peanut Butter-Banana. Came out very good and scoopable with a regular teaspoon. 200 gm Precision Foods soft-serve mix (vanilla) 16 oz almond milk, unsweetened 1/4 cup Torani banana syrup 4 tbs peanut butter powder 1 tbs vegetable glycerin

Last night I made a char siu pork tenderloin. Dry rubbed with char siu mix and cooked SV for 5 hours at 145F. Then dried and coated with honey and seared with the Sansaire Searing Kit torch. Sliced and used is a stir fry.

Since an Air Fryer is basically a mini convection oven (possibly with higher velocity air), I am wondering if there is a significant difference in the results of getting that close to deep-fried effect in one vs. the other? Basically I want to make crispy fried chicken and fries without deep frying or even pan frying. That is, of course, the promise of the Air Fryers. I was debating getting one, but I also own a Breville Smart Oven. Why buy something else when the BSO can accomplish the same task. Maybe a bit slower, but it can also handle significantly more food at once. I have asked at several different WS and SLT locations and those employees that actually sound like they have cooked and used the BSO or the Air Fryer seem to mostly agree that you can get the same results with either. But asking here seemed like a good option, so any thoughts?

If you have a KA mixer, get the pasta set for it. I love mine. Makes it very easy to make fresh pasta. Having the motor lets you feed the dough with one hand and catch it with the other. And unlike the motorized versions of the hand crank machines, the KA is up much higher and makes it easier to catch longer pieces. I do everything with the KA - mix the dough and make the noodles. I can go from nothing to fresh pasta for two to four in 15 minutes or less, and that includes weighing the flour and cleaning up.

1 cup of water and 1/4 cup red wine. Normally I use about 1/2 cup of barley and that thickens it. This batch I used a lot less barley and a lot of mushrooms, so the sauce was thin. I thickened it with some modified cornstarch thickener. I think it was Ultrasperse.

Yes.

I have a pellet smoker so I use a pellet made of a wood blend of Maple, Hickory and Cherry. I used to use a blend of Apple, Maple, Cherry and Hickory but this new blend is from a different supplier. Some of us who live near each other bought about a ton and half on group buy and it worked out a lot cheaper. I can't say that I have noticed a difference in the taste. I assume you are not using a pellet smoker, but using real wood or chips. You can get yourself one of these: http://www.amazon.com/A-MAZE-N-Pellet-Tube-Smoker-6/dp/B00IXMPW5K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1458165431&sr=8-3&keywords=amazen+smoker and use pellets which are available in a wide variety of woods. Just be sure the pellets you get are the real woods, not a base wood like oak or alder and then "flavored" with oil. This company http://bbqrsdelight.com/ offers an amazing selection of pellets in large and small quantities.

Ribs last night. St. Louis style ribs, rubbed then smoked for 6 hours at 225F. Sauce applied at the 5.5 hour mark. Served with white corn, salad and a glass of John Christopher Cellars Starlight red blend from 2008. Dessert was homemade cherry-chocolate-almond non-dairy ice cream.

Not anymore they don't!

I made a second batch of Cherry-Chocolate-Almond ice cream with some changes to the recipe and it came out much better! See up-thread a bit for the recipe. Changed almond extract to 1 tbs and accidentally changed the cocoa to 4 tbs.

Beef stew made with ends of tri-tips that I cut into steaks. Tri-tip, carrots, celery, onion, potato, parsnips, peas, mushrooms and barley. Made in the Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker. High pressure on everything but the carrots and parsnips for 10 minutes, then quick release, then 6 minutes more with carrots and parsnips added, then natural release.

Beef stew made with ends of tri-tips that I cut into steaks. Tri-tip, carrots, celery, onion, potato, parsnips, peas, mushrooms and barley. Made in the Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker.

Last night I made a lasagna with homemade noodles, leftover red sauce, mozzarella, and fresh spinach layers. Served with sauteed fresh spinach and salad. I didn't have lot of sauce, so it wasn't very wet and some of the exposed noodles on top dried out and were kind of like pita chips Not exactly normal for lasagna, but it was good!

I actually cooked them in the microwave. It was one very large parsnip, weighed a little over a pound. Cooked them for 6 minutes.

My chunky red sauce with spiralized parsnip noodles. (Are those poodles? Nah, sounds too weird!)

I can't have milk products and I don't like most of them anyway. But if I commented every time someone posted something with cheese, it would get tedious very quickly. Just sayin...

Somehow I knew you were going to dis the celery! Just saying...

Home for a couple of days so I made a cross-rib roast. Seasoned with Sansaire Steak Aging Sauce and Montreal Steak Rub, then sous vide for 24 hours at 130F. Seared with the Sansaire Searing Kit and served with corn and salad. It was tender and tasted like Prime Rib, but only $3.99/lb!

The powder is a lot more concentrated since it's missing the water. So a large amount of liquid would be required to get the same flavor as the powder.

Tonight I made smoked pork loin chops. They were rubbed with Memphis Dust and then basted with honey and BBQ sauce for about the last 20 minutes of the cook. Smoked at 225F to an IT of 142F then lightly seared with the Sansaire Searing Torch. Served with steamed and buttered Brussels Sprouts and white corn (not pictured).

For those of you, like me, that are lactose intolerant, I have been experimenting with using lactose-free real dairy products. I wish I could find lactose-free cream, but no one in the US seems to distribute it. Closest I can find is Horizon Lactose-free Half and Half. Working on vanilla for now. Making a somewhat traditional custard-style, but using the sous-vide process for heating. Results have been very good so far, but a bit eggy to my taste. Going to try reducing the eggs and using some Cremodan-30 instead.

The other day I made an experimental flavor, inspired by a Ghirardelli bar that someone gave us for the holidays. Cherry/chocolate/almond. Made dairy-free of course! It came out pretty good, but next time I will cut the almond extract back. 200 gm Precision Foods soft-serve mix (vanilla) 16 oz almond milk, unsweetened 1/8 cup Torani cherry syrup 1/8 cup cherry snow cone syrup 3 tbs cocoa powder 2 tbs almond extract The syrups contain propylene glycol and the almond extract has some alcohol, so these kept the ice cream easily scoopable with a normal teaspoon right out of the freezer.

Last night's dinner was ribs made two ways: Smoked and char-siu style. Served with roasted parsnips (olive oil, honey, salt and pepper), salad and homemade non-dairy cherry-chocolate-almond ice cream for dessert:

An alternative to alcohol is food grade glycerin. When I use 16 ozs (liquid measure) I use 1 tbs of glycerin.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage Borscht. Made in the Cuisinart version. 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes 1 14.5 oz can of tomato sauce 1 cup water 1/2 to 1 tsp of sour salts (citric acid) 3 tbs sugar 1/2 tsp garlic powder 2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 2 lbs stew meat 1 medium onion, cut into 8ths 1 small head of cabbage, cored, cut into 3" sized pieces, separated 1 pound of carrots, cut into one inch pieces Mix everything in the pot, no need to brown the meat. Cook on hi pressure for 12 minutes, natural pressure release.