Anna N

Well how about the last time we took one for the team, I believe it was at Taco Bell, the product was so disgusting we still had to find somewhere to eat. We only get out for lunch once a week and I don’t think we’re going to waste it on a fake burger when we could have real calamari.😂

Not sure how that happened.

I wouldn’t count on it!😂

Tonight it was not shrimp on the barbie it was shrimp in the box! and served over instant noodles. I could have also have cooked the noodles in the ceramic insert if only @JoNorvelleWalker had arranged for the shipment of my other boxes.😂

This was my answer some years back. Don’t travel now so don’t need such things.

Scrambled duck egg on toast with TJ’s umami seasoning.

Well I thought I would sous vide a duck egg today. I probably did not do enough due diligence on this one. I did find a recommendation for 63°C for 45 minutes. Nope. Didn’t work for my egg. Not exactly the white I was looking for. So I popped it into the microwave for one minute after making sure there was sufficient shell peeled off to avoid an explosion. This alien looking creature was not exactly what I wanted either. The microwave definitely toughened the white most unpleasantly. But I was determined. Very unattractive. I added some salsa closed the sandwich up and called at breakfast. I was disappointed but at least I’m not hungry. Not sure if I will try this again.

Fabulous. I’m quite jealous.

Never had an issue. Can’t imagine where this might have come from unless we are talking about warped pans.

It is in Kenji’s jeans – – just remember where he started! No it’s not a mis- spelling. I just mean it is the baggage he took with him on his solo journey.

Today we returned to a favourite haunt, Salad Thai. It is a tiny restaurant that is family run and we have never had a bad experience there. I had a small glass of white wine. It wasn’t quite this small when it started but we forgot to take a photograph. Calamari, of course. Deep fried tilapia. Chicken and broccoli stirfry. We also had some rice. There was just enough left over to make my dinner this evening.

Bully beef?

I am finding the same. Keep eating a little bit and it becomes less and less obnoxious.

Perhaps you need another cup of coffee?😂

So, you know how it is when you have a shiny new hammer – – – everything becomes a nail. I discovered a bone-in strip loin steak in the freezer yesterday and so I gave it a sous vide treatment and then seared it on the grill pan of the A4 box. I was able to put the box on top of my induction range bringing it under my range hood so that I did not set off any smoke alarms because it certainly did get hot. To my horror this morning I found the rest of this steak sitting on my counter where it had been all night long. Braver souls than me might’ve eaten it. The corn is dressed with Trader Joe’s chili onion crunch. The jury is still out on this. Yesterday @Kerry Beal grabbed me some sweet potatoes at a farmers’ market. I had seen a recipe for a sweet potato, jalapeño and corn bisque and wanted to give it a try. Well I was defeated almost immediately when I could not find the jalapeño peppers that I know are somewhere in the freezer. Then when I began to peel the sweet potatoes I realized they were not what I was expecting. As you can see these are the Japanese style with almost white flesh. But I soldiered on. Once the sweet potato was tender I removed the corn cob pieces and then put the rest into the Thermomix. I added the corn and the molasses but when it came time to add the additional seasoning – – cayenne, salt, pepper and cinnamon- - - I opted instead to use some guajillo chili powder. This somewhat improved the colour. With a naan it made a perfectly adequate lunch.

Beautiful! I always love your mini blogs.

You make vegetarian fare looks so good it might take me months to miss meat!

You know Sandwich Saturday sounds so boring… until you do it!

Methinks you are desperately in need of remedial training in the joy of kitchen toys.

And you’ve arranged to have my other ones delivered when?

Straight from the refrigerator into boiling water. Boil for 6 1/2 minutes exactly and then into ice water.

So some further play time with my new toy. I had some green beans that needed using up, half a chub of kielbasa, and I knew I had seen a can of cherry tomatoes and a tetra pack of Pomi tomatoes in the pantry. With those I thought I could pull together a meal. Using the ceramic dish I sautéed some onions and some sliced kielbasa. I added the can of cherry tomatoes and was about to add the can of Pomi tomatoes when the best-before-date caught my eye. Hmmm. May 2017. But what the heck. They were in a tetra pack. They should be safe to eat. I opened the package carefully and poured out some of the contents into a saucer. Glad I took this precaution. They no longer resembled tomatoes. They were almost the colour of dark chocolate. A tiny taste convinced me that they were not going in anything that I wanted to eat. Had this been a can of evaporated milk I would’ve had a lovely supply of dulce de leche! But this left me somewhat short on liquid. So I quickly supplemented with some Better Than Bouillon vegetable stock and water. I added the green beans put the lid on and let whole thing come to a boil before turning it down to a slow simmer and letting it do its thing for about an hour. Made a perfectly satisfactory dinner with some orzo and a piece of garlic naan. I had to be careful and eat around the tomatoes as they are currently having a quite unpleasant effect on my system. (For those who don’t know they are a natural diuretic.) This morning, while checking all the various news outlets that I follow on my iPad, I found a grilled cheese sandwich recipe offered by the Washington Post. I am not generally a grilled cheese fan. But this one offered miso butter and caramelized onions. That is my language they are speaking. The Washington Post is behind a pay wall that didn’t stop me finding the recipe! Anyway I could’ve figured it out all by myself if I was so inclined. While I attended to my morning chores (that would be the ones that should’ve been done last evening), I caramelized two small onions in a mix of oil and butter on the plain grill plate of the A4 box. I made up the spread which was a mix of miso, grainy mustard and butter and spread it on some rye bread. Then I assembled the sandwich with cheese and onions. The outer side of the bread was spread with plain butter as the miso would certainly burn. As luck would have it my bacon press fits my new toy like a glove. (So I have a panini press as well as all the other functionality of the A4 Box.) Grilled cheese sandwich with Seriously Sharp Cheddar, caramelized onions and miso-mustard butter. The rest of you can dip your grilled cheese sandwich in ketchup if that’s what you want, mine was dipped in mango chutney. One thing to think about when using the box is that’s the lid is going to be dripping condensation so you need a parking spot for it. I think I’m going to find this toy much more than a toy. So far it has proved capable of meeting my requirements. I am guessing there are some things I can bake in it but at the moment I’m not quite sure how to approach that. Any thoughts anybody?

Me too. Judy Rodgers was my inspiration.

Host's note: this topic is split from the original A4 Box Induction Cooker topic in the Kitchen Consumer forum. See also @Duvel's translation of a recipe, earlier in that topic, here. This particular post seems most appropriate to start the new topic. Many thanks go to @TdeV for the topic split suggestion, and for identifying posts to be moved! So I took the A4 for its maiden voyage this morning. As I mentioned to @Kerry Beal, its name sounds like a British highway! Mis was mushrooms, a sausage, split in half, an egg and a slice of buttered rye bread. I preheated the flat grill plate for two minutes at medium heat (between 320/392°F 160/200°C) then added the mushrooms and the sausage. I covered the unit with the lid for five minutes. I turned over the sausage and the mushrooms and cooked them for a further five minutes. I added the bread and the egg and continued cooking until I was satisfied that everything was done to my liking. It made making breakfast a bit more fun than it usually is. There is really nothing to clean up other than the grill plate which is just going to be wiped down with a paper towel I think and then a damp cloth over the unit itself for any grease splatters . I particularly enjoyed the roominess of this configuration as against a round frying pan. Stay tuned for further meals on the A4.

Aaarrrggghhh. You are just cruel.