dcarch

If the flavor is good, don't change. Just add starch to thicken. Clay pot with the cover on adds less liquid to the sauce because of low conductivity. Moisture of a metal cover tends to condense more steam back into water and returns to the sauce. dcarch

Neither way can tenderize the meat. Meat Tenderizer - typical meat tenderizer makes the meat mushy soft, too much and too long with tenderizer can turn the meat into a nasty pasty texture. Jaccard - the meat never gets tender. The fiber gets shorter and the meat becomes more chewable, and swallowable. Be careful with jaccard if you are sous viding meat. dcarch

Thank you everyone. Vegetarian cooking can be fun. The design on the tofu is silly simple. I like silken tofu. I like them a little firmer. I just let the tofu rest on a surface that had a design to drain off some water. In a few hours, the tofu took on the design of the surface. Scotty, the black garlic sauce is black garlic blended with olive oil. dcarch

So many amazing dishes. Too many to comment each one on. But still------- Scottyboy – You really know how to cook beef. Chris Taylor - a very gorgeous plate of The Zuni Cafe roast chicken Jason Perlow – incredible scallops. SobaAddict70 - Crostini di bietoline, WOW! Panaderia Canadiense, Very nice tenderloin. Kim – You are the queen of pan cakes. Prawncrackers – very nice photos. Dejah – that is one good looking crispy chicken! Liuzhou - Mixed Seafood and Mushroom Stew, I like! Nickrey - duck breast with pineapple, I got to try that, orange duck is getting boring. Kayb – Amazing Germanic pork shoulder roast. ------------------------------------------------------------ Meat! Meat! Meat! Had too much meat. A few vegetarian dishes. dcarch Steamed tofu on sesame noodles Steamed tofu with truffle oil and black garlic sauce Wild rice salad

I have this one. Baked wild rice. dcarch

Thanks again everyone. Scottyboy, "---Haha well mine plating is always for one or two.---" Exactly what I do. I do the same even if I am microwaving leftovers eating alone. I don't really call it plating per se because most of the time it does not take any longer or any thinking. Just pile the food on a plate. After a while you feel that each ingredient tells you where it wants to be on a plate. dcarch

Thanks guys, you are very kind. Tofu was braised in thick highly condensed chicken stock on very low fire for a couple of hours. The chicken was sous vided at 150F, with skin on, 3 hours. Then quick chill in freezer for about 40 minutes before browning in ultra hot cast iron pan on two sides. Those scallops were large dry scallops. At $15.00 a lb is not cheap, but no fat and no bones, all lean meat. Sous vided at 120F for 30 minutes, no lost in weight either. dcarch

It took me a while to go thru all the fantastic meals I have missed, because I read them several times; they are so amazing! I have been traveling and not much time to post. Here are a few recent ones: dcarch Plain braised tofu with black garlic sauce Sous vide chicken thighs Sous vide brisket, latkes Sous vide scallops on wild rice soup

Sorry going off topic: Why flight attendents do not get tips? They do the same or more than a restaurant server. dcarch

The power rating is important for a stick blender, equally, the max RPM for the motor. They don't generally give you that information. Get a cheap digital tachometer to check RPM when you shop. You can have a 100 HP motor blender which will do nothing for you if it goes to only 100 RPM. The difference in blade tip speed as it encounters the food is what makes chopping effectiveness, Here is a technique I use: I let the blender reach full speed and plunge into the food, pull out to let the motor reach full speed and plunge again and again. I use a tall container to avboid splashing. dcarch

Very glad that you are eating/cooking again. A very sure sign that you have won the battle. dcarch

For those of you who is not planning to get a Vitamix, a low end blender can be very useful if you: 1. Sharpen the blades. The blades are normally extremely dull for your typical home blender. 2. Lower powered blender gets over heated from heavy use. Take away the jar and let the motor run free-wheel to cool the motor down once in a while. 3. Most blenders achieve low speed by using fewer magnetic field coils or a diode to cut down voltage. Those schemes can be stressful for the motor to do heavy duty low speed grinding. Get a PWM motor speed control to control the speed of the blender. A Paulsed Width Modulated speed controller can operate the motor at much high power at low speed. dcarch

The science of adhesion is very complex and there are many reasons why two dissimilar material adhere to each other beside mechanical stickiness as stated by Keith above. An adhesive tape can stick to an optically flat glass very well, two flat surface with a drop of water in between will require more than 14 lbs / sq. in. of force to pull apart, one metal can be electrically plated (bond) to another metal -----------. Just use lot's of oil, a non-stick cookware and enjoy your dinner. LOL! dcarch

I have done risotto with all kinds of rice, including couscous. dcarch couscous risotto Regular rice risotto

Not sealing the bag has the benefit of testing to see if the cooking needs more time. You can also reuse the bag many times. dcarch

What wine pairs well with McRib? dcarch

Sous vide does not mean vacuum in reality. It means airless. dcarch

Dazzling, spectacular, delicious, ------------------------- and fattening!! LOL. Looking at all the amazing creations is like a kid in a toy store!! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Playing with simple carrots. Dcarch Roasted duck with carats (carrots) Shrimps with carrot hearts (cores) Tilapia, carrot hearts (cores) and risotto made from plain rice.

Those are Enokitake mushrooms to be eaten raw. The black "dust" sprinkle is chopped black olives. dcarch

The method I use is for low fat cracklings. Low fat because I like to eat a lot. 1. Boil pork rind to render fat. 2. After boiling, cool and scrape off still more fat. 3. Set dehydrator at high heat, with fat side of pork rind down on paper towels and dry for at leeast 12 hours. 4. Using a convection toaster oven preheated at 380F and bake the rinds with fat side down. In just a few minutes, the cracklings will be ready. Practically fatless! dcarch

You are probably doing stoneware plates. Some of them can get hot in a microwave. The wet towel method, I can stack 12 plates 5 minutes in the microwave. dcarch

How about Risotto made with regular rice? 10x cheaper. Real Native American (not farmed) wild rice dcarch

It's good for the ecosystem. Cheap fishes are more plentiful or farm raised. They are doing it to save the environment. dcarch :-)

I bought workshop cotton towels from Home Depot, 50 white ones and 50 pink ones. They are about 12" x 12" each. Put one wet one in between every two dishes and microwave. You will have a pile of hot hot hot dishes. The pile stays hot for over and hour until you put them out. The towels are for general kitchen use, White for clean, and pink for dirty. When they get soiled, they go in the washing machine. It is very convenient to have lots of towels in the kitchen and not have to use paper towels. For large serving platters, I use a table top butane stove under the platter. It keeps the platter and the food hot the entire dinner. Never cracked a platter. For some recipes, I have a large block of Himalayan salt that I heat up in the oven to serve food on. I refrigerate the salt block to keep sushi cool the entire meal. dcarch

I went to a restaurant in NYC, where they serve only congee. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lzhtTXZHQk4/TgyjY9rlsSI/AAAAAAAAAmc/ijMg9abGfI0/s1600/Congee+Village+Exterior.JPG I learned from them the making of thousand year old egg congee. dcarch