EnriqueB

FWIW, I last cooked Barberie duck breasts at 55ºC for one hour. They were great, though I will likely use a lower temperature next time. Don't know how they are different from Gressingham ducks. (edited to correct the name of the duck breed)

patrickamory: Love the tahdigs, had never seen them, so had to google them. Also nice Pasta e Faglioli, which is one of my favourite comfort foods. mm84321: wowowoow! As usual. How do you cook your peas to keep them so green? Xilimmns: Your rice looks spanish, though I've never seen such variation here ;-) rarerollingobject: Nice stuffed squid! What type of "morcilla" are you using, we have a good number of different ones around here. Kim: That buttermilk roll looks just perfect. David Ross: The smoked scallops dish is beautiful and succulent. I'd love to have a smoker... avaserfi: What an original variation of porcetta! I've tried porcetta sous-vide following Serious Eats, but this extra twist is a wonderful idea. And some of my latest dinners: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Papardelle au vongole (plus shrimps) Fava beans, fresh onions, serrano ham, sea scallops sous vide: Presa ibérica sous-vide with raf tomatoes: You may have Angus and Wagyu, but in Spain we have our ibérico pork! This is a tender cut called "presa" which is wondefully marbled and cooks nicely sous-vide at 55ºC, then seared. Doesn't need much more, so we just had it with tomatoes dressed with arbequina extra virigin olive oil and sherry vinegar.

Kouign Aman: nice frittata, believe I've never made one, have to try. Avaserfi: beautiful as usual. Really want to try liquid nitrogen, though I'll start with dry ice next week. Kim: thai-american fusion! Have to give a try to charring pineapples after seeing yours. SobaAddict70: More ideas to try, I've never made polenta, looks really great. mm84321: Always left with an open mouth after seeing your creations. Dcarch: Same comment as for mm84321, and I specially love your color combinations, wow! C. sapidus: That panang makes me hungry. ------------------------------------------------------ And my dinners: Spanish duck rice (not paella!): duck stock, green beans, garlic scapes, chicken thighs, chickpeas, tomato, "ñora" pepper meat, saffron, paprika. Topped with sous-vide duck breasts. Roasted broccoli with soy and fish sauces, grated lemon rind, parmesan. Sous-vide duck confit with pommes salardalaises, from Modernist Cuisine.

Sounds great, I'll try soon. Thanks for the details Paul!

Too late, I already used most of it! Bones and 1 kg minced meat for stock, 1.5 kg for pressure-cooked carnitas and another 1,5 kg for cochinita pibil sous-vide! And froze the remaining 1 kg... Next time I'll try to experiment as you describe. Enrique

Kim, thanks for your answer about the hamburguers. And beautiful salads! Andrew (avaserfi), the evolution from the first dishes in your blog, like the MC's confit, to your own current recipes presented so beautifully is astonishing! dcarch, your imagination has no limits, that leg of lamb goes beyond anything I can conveive!! Paul Bacino, pistachio crushed! That's something I must try soon. mm84321, wonderful dishes as usual. How did you get that green on the favas dish???? And what about the "scrambled eggs", please give some hint! You seem addicted to morels lately. percyn, THAT is a sandwich, wow! Had to look up what a Reuben sandwich is, that's not in my cultural culinary background :-) ---------------------------- And here we go with some dinners: Quinoa with sun-dried tomatoes pesto: "Pularda" (Poularde? Young hen?) with Heston Blumenthal's "Pommes Purée". The "poularde" is from Cal Rovira, likely the best Spanish farm for this animals, many compare them to French Bresse chickens. And it was a really exceptional meat. Breasts were cooked sous-vide at 56ºC, legs and thighs stewed in a stock made with the carcass, then briefly roasted. Cochinita Pibil sous-vide with "pico de gallo". Followed Jaymes' RecipeGullet for Pico de gallo with guacamole.

Thanks Andrew! I have also just read in MC that some muscles in the shoulder can even be considered tender cuts. For my latest tests I bought the whole pork shoulder, so I could have make the test, but I wasn't aware of the differences and it's too late now. Will think about it next time. This is something I must also try. I guess the shorter times produce firmer, more solid, textures, don't they?

The shoulder has a number of muscles. I probably wouldn't run any as high as 82C, but would adjust temperature depending on which muscle I was using. I just cooked pork shoulder with achiote paste for a cochinita pibil sous-vide. First time to cook shoulder, I did not differentiate between the different muscles. Avaserfi, do you think there is much of a difference on how the different muscles should be cooked? I put the bath at 60ºC and two bags, the first one removed after 48 hours, the second after 72 hours. 72 hours was too much, meat lost more liquid and was a bit mushy. 48 hours was very good, but I may try shorter (24 or 36) next time.

Yes, I've prepared MC's oxtail recipe (100 h @ 60ºC) twice. Everyone who ate them agreed that they were excellent, though we've never tried any other temps/times to compare.

I cook chicken breast sous-vide at 56ºC, they are perfectly succulent. I used to prepare them at 60ºC but they are noticeably better at 56ºC. I have also done slow roast chicken several times using Modernist Cuisine version, which is close to Heston's method. With brining and at low oven temperature (probe close to the chicken surface at 65ºC for 3-4 hours) the breasts are great but still far less moist and succulent than SV @ 60ºC. And then the legs are, in my opinion, chewy and not cooked enough, exactly as Karri says. A higher temperature does improve the legs but makes the breasts less moist (much better than most roasted chickens, but once you try them SV there is no way back)....

They look really succulent Kim! May I ask for a recipe, or what makes them so good? I just bought a Kenwood stand mixer with the mincer attachment and I am going to start making burguers at home.

FrogPricesse, wonderful tart!. And so many ideas from all these nice dishes. These are some of our latest dinners: Cream of cauliflower with red beet chips adapted from Ad Hoc at Home Pressure-cooked carnitas with guacamole, julienned carrot, sauce from the reduction of the cooking juices plus home-made achiote paste, sweet pickled red onions. Italian-style soup: brown chicken stock, mirepoix, ditallini pasta, soft-boiled (actually sous-vide) egg Guinea fowl in dutch oven from The Complete Robuchon, with a true french "label rouge" Guinea fowl

I'm not sure about EU regulations, but all local sources I've looked up, as well as butcher's, use the following classification: Ternera de leche (milk's veal): Male or female <8 months Ternera (veal): Male or female 8-12 months Añojo: Male or female 12-24 months (wrote <18 in previous entry, further search seems that it can be up to 24) Novillo: Male or female 24-48 months Cebón: Castrated male <48 months Vaca (beef): Female >48 months Buey (ox): Castrated male >48 months Toro (bull): Male coming from bullfights >48 months From those, nowadays you only find easily the ones in boldface. Ox you can buy, but it's quite expensive and I'm convinced often you're sold meat that is not actually ox...

We pretty much only have veal (<10 months) or "añojo" (<18 months) in Spain butcher's. No beef. And for sure sous-vide works wonders with tough cuts of veal such as tail or cheeks. I cannot compare with beef, but for example I have tried the same times (100 h @ 60ºC) with both oxtail and "añojo" tail and both were excellent. Also have used the same times and temperatures for veal cheeks or shanks as those for the same beef cuts (from Modernist Cuisine recipes) and have always liked the result, even if they are likely already done with shorter times.

Franci, those must be really old tough chickpeas!

So many wondeful dishes, make me hungry! Here are some of our latest dinners: Marmite Consommé from Heston Blumenthal at Home, with noodles, scallions, and enoki mushrooms. Used agar clarification. Season vegetables en coccotte - fennel bulbs, onions, carrots, small potatoes, celery stalk, celery root, dark chicken stock, mushrooms, fresh beans (don't know the type in english), peas, ibérico ham in small dices. No picture of the plating. Spanish potatoes omelette "Tortilla de patatas", a must in every spanish home :-) Tom Yum consommé. Used gelatin-frezze-unfreeze clarification Pressure-cooked mushroom risotto and sous-vide ibérico pork cheeks, the cheeks were cooked 36 hours at 65ºC, then coated in heavy cream, breaded with panko and deep fried for one minute.

Hi Franci, why such long soaking times? 12 hours should be enough, according to McGee and also to my experience. The 10% brine (again following McGee) works perfect for me with chickpeas: salt in the soaking water makes later cooking faster. I soak in 10% brine (100% dry beans, 300% water --not hard--, 30% salt) for 8-12 hours, then 10-12 minutes in salted non-hard water in the pressure cooker at high pressure, natural release, and always get perfect soft chickpeas.

Thanks for the nice words, Heidi, Paul, Patrick, Prawncrackers, Kim. Prawncrackers, wonderful dishes. I would kill for that pastrami! I would love to have a smoker but living in an apartment makes it difficult.... mm8241 and dcarch, your works of art always amaze me. I only aspire to create dishes half as beautiful some day. Meanwhile.... Roasted red mullet, microwaved small potatoes, parsley & chive mayo. The mayo was made with an egg pasteurized sous-vide (pregnant wife!)

Indian-style curry and coconut prawn soup, adapted from a recipe in James Peterson's Splendid Soups. Homemade fish stock (Modernist Cuisine recipe), onions, carrots, tomato paste, curry, achiote, chili, coconut milk, prawns, bread. Ibérico ham croquettes with salad

Thanks Paul

Yes, in the standard version the vegetables and chickpeas are served as a second course, and the meats as a third. That said, every house has its own version and preferences. For example, onion "morcilla" is the standard, but I prefer the rice "morcilla" from a different part of Spain. Bone-marrow toast is pretty much non-standard, and I prefer myself to serve and eat all the vegetables, chickpeas and meat together in my plate. It is standard to serve it with bread at the table.

Afraid to post something after so many wonderful creations here.... So, for my first time to post in this thread I choose a "typical Spanish" lunch (this is the dinner thread, but actually lunch is the strong meal of the day in Spain, so I assume I should post "lunchs" here), Cocido Madrileño. The local version of pot-au-feu. We start with bone-marrow from the stock bones, on toast: Then it is served in three parts or "vuelcos". First one is a soup from the cooking liquid, degreased and with small noodles: The vegetables (carrots, potatoes and cabbage) and chickpeas: Finally come the meats: chorizo, rice "morcilla", hen, veal shank, ham (serrano), and pork fat:

I have recently changed my convection oven and I also wondered about buying a Gaggenau. My main issue was that, being able to have only one oven, the Gaggenaus only reach around 220ºC or less if I remember well, while the convection oven I was looking at goes up to 300ºC, something I find very useful for roasting, pizzas etc.

I have explained my tests with more detail on my blog (in Spanish, I'm afraid): first a survey/summary of the technique and variations, then the tests that I summarized above, with some more pictures and explanations.

In Heston words (from his last book HB at Home):