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dcarch

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Everything posted by dcarch

  1. dcarch

    Dinner! 2012

    Wonderful tamales ScottyBoy. The slight irregularity in shapes makes it that much better, otherwise people will think you bought them from Trader Joe's. dcarch
  2. dcarch

    Dinner! 2012

    rarerollingobject, thanks. You know, after you have done enough cooking for a while, you can basically tell if a recipe is worth your time to try out. I definitely can see your lamb dish is a keeper. All the dishes were sous vide cooked, using two cookers. The scallops were done at 120F then seared. The red leaves were probably a cross of Japanese maples. There are many Japanese maple trees in my neighborhood. Maple leaves are edible when they are young. For my scallop dish they were very tough, just for seasonal decoration. dcarch
  3. Thanks everyone. The turkey was solidly frozen. I indeed used a roasting bag in the bath. They are plenty big for a turkey. I seldom vaccum the bags when I sous vide. I typically weigh the bags deep and let the water pressure to remove air from the bags. This way it makes it east to check internal temperature and sometimes reuse bags. I set the water at 150F, I think it took 10 hours. The dark meat came out very good at 150F. I thought I needed to cook it further at 170F. To roast, I had the turkey in the refrigerator for a while, then into the 500F preheat oven to brown the skin. BTW, when turkeys were on a big sale last year, I got a couple extra ones and I sous vided them right in the plastic bag they came in. Since those were for meat only, the skin were throw out in case the plastic was not completely food safe at 150F. dcarch
  4. dcarch

    Dinner! 2012

    Actually I don't know. It sprouted from a seed in my front yard. beautiful bright red leaves. dcarch
  5. Fantastic TG dinner everyone! I sous vided a whole frozen turkey. Also many other dishes which I posted on the Dinner Thread. dcarch sous vbided turkey before roasting turkey wings
  6. dcarch

    Dinner! 2012

    Franci – amazing looking duck breast and oxtail. So perfect! patrickamory – the Orzo with sausage and peas is so elegant and enticing. rarerollingobject – Lovely steak tartare, with endive. Stunning Scotch eggs. SobaAddict70 – very nice photos of Cannellini beans and lobster pasta. And that Crosnes and turnip green salad is out of this world. C. sapidus - Maple mustard pork chops looks very apetizing. Mm84321 – award winning recipes. liuzhoub – Your dish of coriander pork coninces me to want to try that recipe. robirdstx – that is one expertly done Pan-Seared Magret Duck Breast. Kim – even you dull dinner is festive, especially the Garlic-cheese bread, grilled meatloaf, slaw and onion rings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, I had some friends over for Thanksgiving. I did sous vided a 16 lb frozen whole turky. Since no one really like turkey, I just served the turkey wings. (pictures posted on the other Thanksgiving thread). Instead, we had all kings of other meats. dcarch pork tenderloin with roasted peppers scallops with white and green asparagus, shiitahi mushrooms. London broil romaine lamb shoulder chops. beets
  7. I have never had problems with bone framents. I have never heard anyone else (When I was in the Far East) had problems with bone fragments. dcarch May be off topic: I saw this sign in a supermarket, which I thought was crazy: "disclaimer - The unpitted olivers have stones, please be careful eating them"
  8. A Chinese cleaver will do all kinds of cutting, chopping and slicing. It can crash garlic, it can scoop up stuff from your cutting board. Use the handle end and a cup and you have a pestle and mortar. With two cleavers, one in each hand, you can chop meat faster than any food proccessor. The only thing it cannot do is what a paring knife can do. dcarch
  9. Oy, good luck cleaning that thing haha Cleaning a drum pump is not that problematic. There are no valves and pistons. It's like a centrifugal pump, except centrifugal pump is not self-priming. Inside drum pump: http://www.globalspec.com/ImageRepository/LearnMore/201112/T0218E185969b7d3d6aa463cb35390eaf4c9186e.png A peristaltic pump is ideal, but difficult to find one with high capacity. dcarch
  10. Someting like this may work: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Rotary-Drum-Pump-4-ethylene-glycol-non-corrosive-liquids-gasoline-gas-/390366034363?pt=BI_Pumps&hash=item5ae3a0f9bb Also, I remember there is another kind of pump which can work. It is basically a round tube squeezed continually by two motorized wheels rotating in one direction. It is self-priming (poitive displacement pump without a piston.) dcarch
  11. Siphonig thick liquid does not work very well. Also most tubing gets soft if used for hot liquid and tends to collapse. dcarch
  12. dcarch

    Adios Twinkie

    I think Hostess Twinkie was at one time a division of International Telephone & Telegraph. dcarch
  13. This will not work, if it is based on the Venturi effect, which I think it is. dcarch
  14. You may have seen the video of Heston's sous vide whole pig in a hot tub. What is the largest piece of meat you have ever cooked sous vide? How did you do it? I have sous vided an 18 lb turkey. I have done whole racks of spare ribs a few times. I use oven baking bags for large size items and a beer cooler. dcarch.
  15. Or: eBay, all you need for better performance: 100 watt (v.s. 30 watts, more than 3 times the power) solar panel with charger: $250.00 1,500 watt power inverter: $60.00 12V car batteries say $500.00 dcarch
  16. Two food forums shut down recently: Chef2Chef (spelling?) Cooking.com (in another week or so) dcarch
  17. Simple solutions: 1. Use a solid state relay. 2. Or connect in series with a diode to cut current in half. dcarch
  18. "---Desperate to use it I got some porn tenderloin---" LOL!! dcarch
  19. dcarch

    Keeping meat warm

    1. Use a heavy plate, heat up the plate first. 2. Use large block of Himalayan salt and have the salt block heated. 3. Infrared heat lamp. 4. Electric hot plate 5. Table top butane stove dcarch
  20. dcarch

    Dinner! 2012

    Actually I have been able to get crispy skin, I mean crackling crispy without over cooking the fish. The salmon was SV at 120F. dcarch
  21. dcarch

    Dinner! 2012

    Kim - Pot roast may be easy for you, but I find it not alway come out the way I like. David Ross - That fried shrimp dish is not easy either. mm84321 - ugly fish, beautiful dish. Rico - nice looking steak, so what it's a little chewy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Storm after storm here in NY. There was not much to do, everything was shut down, Only boring weather reports and campaign commercials on TV. So I turned off the TV and cooked dcarch Salmon can have three textures: Raw as in sushi, fully cooked flaky like canned salmon, then there is Sous vide salmon. Salmon cooked at very low temperature has this amazing tender juicy creamy consistence. Roasted pork with roasted pepper Baked ribs with baked cauliflower Sometimes, just too lazy to fry green tomatoes. Season the slices and pop them in the waffle iron
  22. Not trying to be a purist; however, is it just me or do they look more fried than poached?. What you are looking at is powdered bacon sprinkled on top. You can't fry eggs in water dcarch
  23. In the unlikely event that you have electricity but no water: An air conditioner can extract water from air effectively, so can a dehumidifier. If the lack of water for an extended period of time is of major concern, look into how to make a simple solar distiller. It is not that complicated. dcarch
  24. "------ if I see a cheap one I'll give it a go, see how it goes with tomatoes (I eat a lot of tomatoes, they're always my test for knife sharpness)" You don't need to spend the money for a good knife for cutting vegetables and tomatoes. If you keep a consistence slicing angle, a sharp plastic knife will last a long time. I find a ceramic knife not that good for slicing tomatoes. Because the brittleness of ceramics, they have to grind the edge at more blunt edge angles. dcarch
  25. The purists are not going to like this one either. I have seen all the videos of "perfect" poached eggs, including those by famous chefs. This is my egghead approach of poaching eggs: 1. I don't use vinegar, salt or baking soda. 2. I don't stir the water 3. And I don't want to waste any egg white. 4. I want my poached eggs done exactly the way I like, EVERY TIME, regardless of how big, how old, or how cold the eggs are. The basic property of egg white and egg yolk and the thermodynamics of water are simple, and the desired end result can be predictable and repeatable. 1. Crack eggs into small plastic cups. Season the eggs if you prefer. 2. In a large pot bring water to rapid boil. 3. Place cups with eggs in boiling pot on a rack to STEAM the eggs. Do not BOIL the cups in water. 4. In a minute the egg white will be somewhat firm and the yolks are still runny. 5. Remove the cups, and turn off the fire. 6. Gently pour the eggs into the hot water. The egg white will not spread all over because it has been cooked firm. 7. Select from the egg charts (you can find many on the WEB) the degree of runny-ness you like the yolks, add cold water to the boiling water and use a thermometer to check the temperature. I use my sous vide cooker to keep temperature to within one degree F. 8. As long as you keep the temperature constant, your eggs cannot be overcooked. dcarch
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