Keith_W

Yes, Simon has the right answer. Kiwifruit juice has the property of dissolving proteins. In fact you can use it to tenderize squid. Gelatin is protein based, so it will not work with Kiwi juice. I am not so sure if Agar would work that well either, because the gelling power of Agar is pH dependent. A bit of googling suggests that agar works best within a pH range of 4.5 - 9.0 (source) but Kiwifruit has a pH of 3.2 (source), so perhaps you need to both inactivate the enzyme and raise the pH.

sigma, I didn't. The white chicken jus was from MC@Home. I should have attributed it in my post ... sorry!

Dinner tonight was turkey breast with potato puree on white chicken jus. Turkey breast: injected with a brine made from milk and apple juice, then rested for 12 hours. Sous-vide for 2 hours as per Modernist Cuisine at Home. Potato puree: potato starch retrograded at 72C, then boiled for 20 minutes and passed through a tamis twice on butter and milk. White chicken jus: equal parts chicken wings and thighs and made in the pressure cooker for 90 minutes. (I cheated - I did not prepare this tonight. I always have some in the freezer). Carrots: sous-vide for 60 minutes at 85C. Broccolini: blanched for 4 minutes then refreshed in cold water. Brussel sprout leaves: blanched for 45 seconds then refreshed in cold water.

I didn't realize there was a savoury pastry cook-off! Anyway, I made these some time last year so I suppose I may as well post them now. Malaysian curry puffs. The filling is chopped chicken, potato, peas, carrots, onions, curry leaves, dried chilli, and Malaysian meat curry powder. How to fold and pleat a curry puff. Curry puff production line Fry the puffs until they are golden ... ... then enjoy!

Two portions of beautiful line caught wild barramundi. Panfried barramundi with mashed potato on a light ginger broth with autumn vegetables. The mash was piped on to the barramundi then finished in the oven. The chilli looking things are baby capsicum - I chose those colours because that's what the tree in my backyard looks like. It's autumn here in Australia.

Right now in my pantry, I have Megachef and Red Boat fish sauce. In my humble opinion, Megachef easily beats Red Boat. Both are equally salty, but the Megachef carries a bigger umami punch.

I moved from a Borner V-slicer to a de Buyer Swing. These are the differences: - the Borner adjusts slice thickness by means of choosing notches. The de Buyer adjusts thickness by loosening a thumbscrew and moving the plate up and down. This allows infinitely variable thickness adjustment. - the de Buyer's blade is straight, as opposed to the V blade on the Borner, or the angled blade on the Benriner. The V blade on the Borner sometimes leaves V shaped marks on your cut. Not so with either of the straight blades. Having said that, I do believe that the angled blade on the Benriner might be less prone to crushing soft foods. - the blade on the de Buyer can be removed and can be sharpened. Not so on the Borner or Benriner. - the julienne attachment on the de Buyer and Benriner are compact blades that you slip in. In contrast, the Borner uses great big plastic plates. - the de Buyer can make crinkle cuts. Neither of the others can do that. Overall I am quite happy with my de Buyer.

Scott, I would like to thank you for your detailed and informative replies. This is why I enjoy being a member of this site. I was thinking of getting the MC cooking steel, but you make an excellent point about the broiler being able to saturate the steel so that it is hot enough to cook the base. At the moment, my method is to preheat a cast iron pan on a gas hob. While the pan is still on the hob, I place the dough on the pan, then build the pizza while it is still on the gas. I then shove the whole thing into the broiler, and it cooks in 90 seconds. The downside of this technique is that the size of the pizza is limited by the size of the pan.

No Tina that's the length ... the width is the dimension which is not the length and not the thickness! Err, a cleaver is a "wide" knife, while a boning knife is a "thin" knife ... if that makes sense.

Tina, it is difficult to communicate what I mean in words! What I meant was the WIDTH of the knife and not the actual thinness. I don't know if knives have x, y, and z dimensions but what I meant was a knife which was not too wide. Sorry for the confusion.

Tina, you did very well even with your knife problems! Those are very nice juliennes. Why food sticks to your knife - this is because the surface tension of water and vacuum makes the food stick to your knife. To get around this, either use a thinner knife (like a Japanese sushi knife) or get a knife with scallops near the cutting edge (like a Santoku knife). The scallops introduce air and stops the food from sticking. I wonder if you can oil the knife (though I have never tried it). I have tried making that rosti as well. In my case I had all the equipment needed - non-stick pan, mandolin, etc. But I couldn't get mine to flip without breaking the rosti. After a few failed attempts, I now crack one egg white into a bowl, whisk it, then add it to the mixture - I found that it works perfectly with no noticable difference in taste.

Thanks to you, I went out and bought this book. What I like about it - every dish is approachable. It does not call for modernist ingredients (no Xanthan, or Carageenans, or transglutaminase) like The Fat Duck Cookbook or Alinea. It rarely calls for extremely local produce - which is why dishes like those in NOMA is impossible to reproduce outside the home country. The cooking methods suggested are available in most home kitchens - it does not call for a centrifuge (I am looking at you, Modernist Cuisine).

Prawncrackers, it is pure genius to use Ox cheek in rendang. I am so going to steal that idea! Beautiful food as always. Dinner tonight was a disaster. My mashed potato turned into a bowl of glue. I normally buy Royal Blue or Nicola potatoes, but tonight I bought "brushed potatoes". I retrograded it at 72C for 30 minutes then boiled it for 15. This normally works - but at 15 minutes the potatoes were still hard and refused to mash. So I boiled for another 15 minutes. It was softer, but still impossible. Then I recall reading that the starch retrogradation step makes the potatoes safe to mash in a food processor - so I got the FP out. That's when it turned to glue. It was a waste of good potatoes and good butter. I got Chinese take-away instead Anyway, since you posted a picture of your rendang, here is one of mine prepared earlier. I used my usual rendang cut - oyster blade. The other highlight of that dish is the "son in law eggs" - boiled with a soft, runny yolk then deep fried.

Tina, wonderful dishes. I am going to go against the others and say I prefer the professional chef's version. It is supposed to be one block of tofu cut into 5000 pieces. I don't mean to cause any offence because i'm pretty sure you would agree Having said that, I have never made this dish. I wonder if a Mandolin would help with the fine julienne? I can make extremely fine julienne with my Mandolin - I use the Mandolin to slice vegetables into thin sheets, then use my knife to make the julienne. I have never tried it with anything as soft as tofu however. Watch http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pomme-rosti'>this video on ChefSteps on how to make a potato rosti. Admittedly that julienne isn't as fine as what is called for in this dish, but you get the idea.

I definitely do NOT recommend searing the fish after the SV step, because the fish is incredibly tender and fragile at this point. What your fish needs is a crust of some kind. Here are a couple of mine: SV ocean trout with a crust made from crushed Nori and Wakame (inspired by Tetsuya Wakuda). SV salmon. This time I couldn't find Wakame, so I improvised. The soft salmon needs a contrast in texture otherwise you feel as if you are eating a fish mousse. That's what the fried lotus root, Tobiko and salmon caviar are there for.

Double injected roast chicken, Mk. 3 (roast chicken injected with roast chicken jus). This time I followed the Modernist Cuisine at Home cooking technique - i.e. slow roast to 60C, then rest 45m, then brown the skin under the broiler. Result: my oven cooks the chicken in half the time specified in the book, but broils the chicken in double the time without satisfactory uniform browning (note slight burning).

90 day dry aged ribeye, with a saffron Bearnaise sauce, Russett Burbank, and asparagus. The Bearnaise was the highlight of the dinner, but I had a panicked moment when the *(&&^(*^&* Bamix broke down. I had to use the food processor and was really concerned that it would not be smooth enough. I thought I might have to get the hand whisk out! Bearnaise - traditional reduction of white wine and vinegar (instead of Tarragon vinegar I used Banyuls) with shallots and Tarragon. Sous-vide with 4 egg yolks for 35 minutes at 63C, then mounted with 225gm butter. Whisked in the food processor, then into the ISI whipper, charged with 2 cartridges, then back into SV at 60C to hold. Steak - 90 day dry aged Cape Grim grassfed with excellent marbling from Gary's of Prahran. Sous-vide at 53C for 40 minutes then finished on the charcoal grille. It might look rare, but it's cooked! Potatoes - retrograded at 72C for 40 minutes with the skin on, then cut into shapes and parboiled for 15 minutes then dried on a rack. Panfried on duck fat and rosemary. Asparagus - simply panfried while the steak was resting. BTW Wapi, I do a peri-peri chicken also. This is what mine looks like:

Because - I get to eat the food but you get to look at the photos I assure you the food tastes great!

Uncivilized savage. Off with his head!!! If you are going to make a "cassoulet" with anything but confit duck, don't call it a cassoulet. Using the name "cassoulet" brings with it certain expectations. Just as you would be disappointed if I served you a "roast chicken" which does not contain any chicken, you should not call a dish a "cassoulet" without any confit duck. I am sure whatever you prepare would still be delicious, but the last thing you want to do is load it up with unfulfilled expectations that come with a certain name.

Funny you made that, Chris. Guess what I had for dinner tonight! Argentinian style Asado with chimichurri, potatoes, and Chanterey carrots. This time I SV'ed the beef short ribs for 48 hours at 62C, then chilled it in the fridge. Why 62C for 72 hours for the previous effort? Because MC&H said so! For tonight, I fired up my charcoal grille until it was an inferno, then cooked the ribs directly from the fridge. They developed a nice char but remained medium well done. The chimichurri had a nice garlic punch. I used coriander instead of parsley - it went really well with the red meat. Breakfast was bacon and scrambled eggs, with mushrooms and a tomato compote. For a change, I baked the bacon in an oven instead of panfrying it. This meant that I didn't monitor it quite as closely as I should have, which meant that we had crispy bacon for breakfast. Some might like crispy bacon, but I definitely prefer mine a little moist! The photograph also flatters the scrambled eggs, which by this time had curdled and were weeping fluid. So yeah, breakfast was a disaster. But the photograph still looks pretty, so i'm posting it!

This is a John Dory. Legend has it that St. Peter caught this fish. Knowing that it was mostly head and had little meat, he threw it back, leaving his thumbprint on the side of the fish. Little did he know that John Dory has firm, sweet flesh and a subtle flavour. This carnivorous fish uses its slim profile to sneak up to prey, then captures it using its extensible jaws. These are sea bananas, a type of coastal succulent. The leaves are tender, slightly salty and has a faint iodine flavour (nowhere near as strong as samphire). Panfried John Dory with a beurre noisette with boiled lemon and capers, with fingerling lime, sea bananas, Chanterey carrots, and baby Nicola.

Great dinners everyone! TinaYuan - welcome to eG! Which part of China are you from? My family is from Guangdong ... but I spent most of my life in Australia dcarch - Great fanciful plating as always. I get what you are suggesting for my photography and I tried to elevate my glass plate in my second photo. Unfortunately I do not have a point source light as you recommend. I see that my post is the next one after yours ... i'll bet everyone looks at your food and not at mine Steve Irby - If the second pizza is a Margherita, I am all over it. I believe in minimalism on pizzas, and there isn't anything simpler than tomato sauce, good mozarella, and basil on a pizza. Nowhere to hide! Kim Shook - I love that coconut cake. If you ever come to Australia, could you make that for me? mm84321 - times must be hard! I haven't seen you use truffles for a few weeks now! Stunning looking food as always. Anyway, two dinners to post tonight. First up: BBQ ribs. Beef ribs sous-vide at 62C for 3 days with a rub (minus the salt). Pork ribs sous-vide for 2 days. Both then smoked for 2 hours over hickory. Argentinian inspired rockling - panfried rockling with chimichurri, roasted baby capsicum, potato rosti, and broccollini. The messy plating is what happens when you buy a delicious wine to go with dinner, and can't help but take a few swigs of the wine when still cooking dinner. So sorry, it should look nicer but by this time I was drunk and hungry and couldn't really be bothered with plating or photography! (dcarch - plate was elevated to try to get more of a dramatic shadow).

Hi plantes, it is just cold water from the fridge with two trays of ice cubes thrown in. I shake the water from the veggies before I throw it in the wok. Because I used bok choy, there wasn't too much water there. If it was something else I might have spun the veggies first.

Dinner tonight was Chinese. Sorry, no pictures. Sous-vide Patagonian toothfish. There are no recipes in existence for SV toothfish, so I made it up. I packed the bag with some toasted sesame oil, grated ginger and garlic, then SV'ed it at 47C for 35 minutes. I served it the traditional Cantonese way - on soy sauce, with ginger, spring onions, and fried shallots. My wife was amazed that SV easily beat the traditional method of steaming - the sauce was less watery and more intense, and the fish was perfectly cooked with a nice ginger flavour. Veggies were stir fried bok choy, but done my way. Most Chinese cooks will cook their veggies from room temperature, but mine sits in an ice bath before I throw it on the superheated wok. This gives nice little charred bits ("wok hei") but also helps stop the vegetables from overcooking and preserves the super-crunchy texture. Both dishes served with steamed rice.

Chris, you might have more luck if you did a google search for "capretto". I suggest a long braise or pressure cooker.