Keith_W

It's good enough for Jehovah

I have cooked beer can chicken many times and I am convinced that it is a myth. The only benefit comes from roasting the chicken vertically. Depending on your heat source (I use a charcoal grille) this places the legs closer to the heat meaning they will reach a higher temperature than the breasts. The other benefit of vertical roasting is the uniform air circulation around the chicken, particularly if you splay the legs out. Also, the can helps conduct heat into the interior of the chicken, which would otherwise receive little of the convection air currents if conventionally roasted. The last benefit is the skin - it is uniform and golden with no grille marks. Other than this: - does the type of liquid in the can influence the flavour (I have tried beer and water): no difference - is the chicken more moist: cooking to the correct temperature and brining has a greater effect than trying to humidify the interior of the chicken, which has zero effect. Case in point: it is possible to boil chicken into a dry stringy mess - the poaching liquid offers zero protection against drying out the chicken. Neither does the beer in the beer can.

Ah, I was just joking about the plural of "asparagus" being "asparagi" The plural of asparagus is also "asparagus". Seems as if everyone is making asparagus dishes, I need to get in on the act. I use the Modernist Cuisine salmon brine, i.e. 5% salt for 3-5 hours. Link here: http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/sous-vide-salmon-in-the-kitchen-sink/

Very nice cookalong! How did you get that green colour? BTW, is the plural of "asparagus" ... "asparagi"? dcarch, lovely as always, but ... if you want to get rid of that white that coats your salmon, try brining it.

A pork rack is already tender, so I would question whether prolonged sous-vide is necessary? I do not like SV'ing meat for too long, particularly if there is salt in the bag. You tend to lose a lot of juice. The question of whether to sear the meat prior to SV is also a vexing one. Cooking issues has an article on it. I used to pre-sear meats prior to SV, but this step can sometimes produce a bitter taste (don't ask me why). These days I do not salt and do not sear my meat prior to SV. One method which does work is injection brining. Weigh your pork and measure out 10% of its weight in water. You could use milk if you prefer. Then weigh up your brine and add 5% its weight in salt. For example: - pork rack 1kg - water 100mL - salt 5gm - (optional) sugar 5gm Stir the brine thoroughly until the salt dissolves, then inject the brine evenly into the meat. Leave it in the fridge for at least 2 hours for the brine to equilibrate, then vacuum pack. Cook at 60C for 1 hour if cooking from room temperature. After the SV step, remove the meat from the bag, dab it dry, and rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. Apply a rub of your choice then grille using extremely high heat over charcoal. Since you asked for a rub, this is what I use. No doubt others may have better rub recipes. Sorry, I don't actually weigh these ingredients! - smoked paprika 2 tbsp - cracked coriander seed 1/2 tsp - garlic powder 1/2 tsp - onion powder 1/2 tsp - brown sugar 2 tbsp - salt 1 tbsp - freshly ground black pepper 1 tsp

Soba your vegetable dishes are seriously inspiring. I try to have two vegetarian dinners a week (healthier, cheaper, and good training). So far I haven't dared to post a single one since they look so unappetizing. I think that my repertoire has expanded thanks to you.

Relax huiray, I knew exactly what weinoo meant. He's right ... can I pump out 8 Parisian omelettes for a dinner party? No, I can't. In any case, we should all stop fighting about omelettes before we end up with egg on our face.

I can do better than that ... I can link you to the recipe! Here: http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/striped-mushroom-omelet-2/ As you may know, the omelette skin is made separately to the filling. The skin is made by pouring a beaten egg mixture onto a silpat which has been cut to fit your pan, then baked in a CVAP oven at a specific humidity. Since I don't have a CVAP oven, I simply put a lid on my pan and put that in the oven. Obviously, my result is going to be different to MC's since I did not follow their method - there is a risk that my egg skin might be more dried out or more rubbery than it would be if you use a CVAP. Having said that, I managed to get the skin quite tender. The filling is eggs which have been sous-vided, then held in a whipping siphon and dispensed into the skin along with the rest of the filling (sauteed mushrooms in this case). It tastes like a savoury egg custard. It's not unpleasant, but it's a little gloopy for my taste and it really needs a contrast in texture otherwise it feels as if you are eating baby food. What does it taste like when the whole thing is put together? A traditional omelette tastes like you are eating soft curds with a delicious eggy sauce. The MC omelette does have the traditional egginess but the texture is quite different - it feels as if you are eating an egg skin with egg sauce. If I had to choose, I have to say I still prefer the traditional Parisian omelette.

I like both styles of omelette, but recently I have been serving the Modernist Cuisine omelette. The advantage is that all the prep is done in advance, meaning you can serve it at a dinner party. There is no way I would attempt to make either omelette described in the OP for a dinner party!

Wow, that is a pretty small kitchen! Real credit that you can turn out such lovely looking food from there! Bit of a bodybuilder are we? Are those protein shakes on the floor?

Thanks hongda The orange bits are carrot. I know, I know ... it's a SE Asian thing

Indeed a one egg omelette would be quite a challenge. Would it help if you had a smaller pan? As per huiray I grew up eating SE Asian omelettes which had lots of browning, so I was confused when people said that a true test of a chef's skill is how well he can make an omelette. Simplest thing in the world, how can it be? Well, that was what I thought until a friend made me an omelette - blonde on the outside, gooey and eggy in the center. It needs nothing else but a sprinkling of herbs and some salt. I tried it at home and my omelette resembles scrambled eggs more than an omelette - and I use three eggs! I don't think I will be posting my efforts at a 1 egg omelette any time soon. Would you be able to show us some pics of your kitchen and your kitchen toys? That is, if you don't mind. It would be nice to see where all this lovely food is made.

It is an awfully cold night in Melbourne and I was asked to prepare one of our favourite dinners for cold evenings - congee. I was planning to make it with leftover shredded chicken, but I had an abundance of leftover filling from yesterday's wan tons and no more wan ton wrappers, so I had to use it up somehow. Change of plans then - I made pork meatball congee: The meatballs were made from leftover wan ton filling mixed with some egg to bind. They were then poached and set aside. The poaching liquid was then used to make the congee along with some leftover chicken stock. I like my congee really thin, so I use 1 cup of rice to 10 cups of liquid (most typical recipes are 1:5 or so). Not pictured - a plate of Chinese crullers, pickled mustard greens, and fried bak choy. I think dinner tonight came in at under $5, was really healthy, and I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow. This has to be the cheapest and most satisfying meal on my regular menu.

This was dinner tonight. The beauty of Hainanese Chicken Rice is that the leftovers can be used to make several dishes for the next few nights Tonight, the chicken stock was used to make Char Siu Wan Ton noodles. The Wan Tons were made with minced pork, shiitake mushrooms, spring onion, and water chestnut. The water chestnut gave an interesting textural contrast. Thanks to egulleteer annachan for teaching me how to fold them. The finished dish. The char siu this time was made using a bought marinade (instead of my own recipe I posted a few pages back). The Lee Kum Kee brand marinade is much superior to my own recipe, such that I asked my wife what I can do to improve it. She said it was not possible to improve it - it is perfect. More ginger? Add fermented soybeans? She gave me a dirty look and told me to just use the marinade as it is. So there you have it! And yes, that's choy sum two nights in a row. I managed to buy incredibly fresh choy sum for a very cheap price, so I went for it

Haresfur I don't think that pressure cooking is a good solution. It will massively overcook the chicken and extract too much chicken flavour out of the chicken and into the stock. SV off the bone is OK, I have done this a few times.

I predict that this book will be the same as Modernist Cuisine. Just as many of the recipes in MC are inaccessible to the average cook because specialist equipment or ingredients are required (LN2, centrifuge, CVAP ovens, etc) ... this book will probably call for equipment that is not available to the average photographer.

My sous-vide setup is a Sous-Vide at Home PID controller (similar to sous-vide magic) controlling a Breville Hot Plate. On top of this I lay my giant stock pot. What do I do to agitate the water? Every 10 minutes (or when I remember), I go up to the chicken, grab the strings, and dunk it up and down in the water. Primitive, but it works!

A great start soba. FWIW I don't cook Soba at home either, but that's because I have no idea what to do with it I have to read some Japanese cookbooks.

That's right, rotuts.

Looks like you weren't the only one to be inspired by Dejah's HCR Tonight I made "modernist" chicken rice. For more details, see this post in the Hainanese Chicken Rice thread.

Dinner tonight was "modernist" Hainanese Chicken Rice These were the steps: The stock was made by first chopping a "boiler chicken" (a retired egg laying hen) into pieces, then bringing to the boil to purge the scum. The chicken pieces were then rinsed and put into 6L of water, to which was added 8 cabbage leaves, 100gm ginger, 25gm goji berries, and 2 konbu leaves (thanks Nick for the idea). It was boiled for an hour. Borrowing an idea from Modernist Cuisine at Home, I calculated 15% the weight of the chicken then weighed out the chicken stock. I added 3% the weight of the brine in salt, then injected it into the chicken. Because I was in a hurry for dinner, I could only let the chicken rest for an hour to equilibrate. Ideally I would leave it for a few hours. I then cooked the chicken sous-vide at 62C for 90 minutes. A length of twine tied through the cavity of the chicken makes it easier to fish it out of the stock. It was then rubbed in sesame oil. Carving the chicken. Injection brining and careful sous-vide ensured that the meat was just cooked and incredibly tender. Side of stir-fried choy sum. Plated. The rice was made by frying the rinsed rice in chicken fat and garlic prior to cooking in chicken stock with some pandan. It was beautifully soft and fragrant.

Thank you!! I just had a look at the website. It looks exactly like what I need. Now I need to find an Australian distributor. Out of curiosity, you said you had the ricer attachment - I presume you mean this one? Does it do a good job with mash potato without turning it into a starchy mess?

You could use Sriracha.

I am thinking of getting a new immersion blender. I have owned my Bamix Swissline (the top model) for 7 years. About a year after I bought it, the motor burned out. It simply overheated and died. I was told to use it in short bursts. It was then repaired under warranty. About 3 weeks ago, my Bamix suddenly died. I hadn't been doing anything particularly strenous with it - I picked it up and it wouldn't turn on. Strange, it was working perfectly before I put it back into storage! I am waiting for my Bamix to be repaired. This time it won't be under warranty. But I am quite annoyed now. Would it be worth considering a Robot-Coupe? The Robot-Coupe does not have the mini food processor attachment, which I find invaluable. Is there anything else which is robust and reliable?

Nick, interesting twist on HCR with the Konbu and Dashi stock. I must admit I don't use either ... but will try that next time. The rest of your ingredients sounds pretty traditional though.