Baselerd

Any soups or liquid heavy meals reheat reasonably well in a microwave - I suppose this is due to the bulk fluid heating faster than the meat due to water content... Curry dishes are great because you can smother your meat and vegetables in the sauce and reheat, which usually will prevent your meat from becoming overly dry. Pasta is a good option too.

Similarly I quite enjoy the added depth of smoked foods. Not so sure about that toaster though. Seems like you could get a nice, fully featured convection toaster oven for less, and it comes with a window as well.

No worries, I wasn't necessarily referring to you - just that this topic is very un-zen like.

Nine-ten (La Jolla, a straight shot down I5) is great if you are into modern food. I believe you can get a 3-course dinner for $55, and they have great cocktails (and some craft beers iirc). Excellent desserts as well. Maybe a little too fancy based on what you said - although it might be considered a local spot considering the average incomes in the area...

People being judgmental about others' food preferences?

Perhaps it was made with some liquid smoke of sorts?

Braising vegetables in flavorful stock and then puree'ing is a good way to make a soup or vegetable puree. Of course, it's always nice to add butter or oil but it isn't mandatory. Here's one I made recently (minus the butter): Dashi 2-3 large pieces of dried Kombu.5 oz bonito flakes (maybe sub for some dried shiitake to achieve vegan status?).5 gallons waterSoak Kombu in water for 30 minutes at room temperature. Bring the mixture to just under a boil and remove the kombu. Once boiling, add the bonito flakes and reduce heat to low. Infuse for 10 minutes and strain.Pureed Dashi Soup 1 lb carrots, chopped.25 lb Daikon Radish, Chopped1 lb shiittake mushrooms, chopped.25 cups roasted pistachiosDashi (from above)Soy SauceMirinCombine carrots, daikon, mushrooms, and pistachios in a large pot. Pour dashi onto the veggies until they are covered Let simmer for 45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Strain, reserving the liquid Puree the vegetables with enough cooking liquid to achieve the desired consistency Season with soy sauce and mirinThere's a lot of things you can do with this general approach. Instead of Dashi, you could use plain old vegetable stock. Add some miso to spice it up, etc. If you add just enough cooking liquid to make a puree you could serve it with roasted veggies topped with some greens.

There's no substitute for good old fats and oils that will taste as good. I personally like to have dehydrated/freeze dried vegetable/fruits if I'm in a healthy mood - but I wouldn't say they taste as good as potato chips.

I've made a few desserts from this book so far - all out of the plated dessert section. Above is the "Melting Chocolate Box" (without the box, with smaller molded/tempered chocolate bits) with the Fig [Leaf] Ice Cream, shortbread crumble, Jasmine Tea Cake, and chocolate sauce. It was a pretty good dessert, but I was somewhat dissapointed by the cake. It was way too dry - maybe an error on my end. The rest of the components were great. I also made the chocolate tile with shortbread crumble, salted caramel, clotted cream, and soft peter's chocolate. This one was really tasty - the caramel sauce is one of the best I've ever tasted or made. While I am enjoying the book a lot, I can't help but think the book isn't as informative about cooking as it is plating.

Just search for local metalworking or machine shops. Give them a call and ask for a 1/4" or 1/2" thick plate of steel in your desired dimensions. I can almost guarantee it will be cheaper than the "Baking Steel." If you want it to have the nice matte finish ask them to bead blast it for you.

I'm in the same boat as you Samuel. As much as we try to convince ourselves our crappy food savers and edge sealers can be used for things other than sealing dry foods, they really can't. At least not to a satisfactory degree. I think the Vac Master VP112 is the cheapest widely available vacuum sealer. I know Sous Vide Supreme has a rebranded version for $100 more too. All under $1000, but I don't really know if it's worthwhile to go economy with such an expensive piece of equipment. Especially one with so many potential failure points.

Nice plating on those pork chops - what are those stems underneath?

Yellowfin tuna sashimi, watermelon, olive oil, marinated fish sauce fluid gel, herb puree, thai chili (from the Uchi Cookbook):

That pork jowel looks amazing! From the Momofuku cookbook: Glazed Mushrooms (Oyster and Shimeji), braised pistachio puree (with a few sprinkled on top), pickled sunchokes, quick-pickled radishes, sorrel. The technique for cooking the mushrooms in this recipe will probably be my go-to technique for quick dishes: pan fry the mushrooms on each side for two minutes in oil, then add butter and sherry vinegar (2:3 ratio) and reduce to a glaze on high.

If you're worried about the water content you can always dehydrate and grind (in a spice mill / coffee grinder) the cooked (or raw) onions to make your own powder.

There's really no reason not to have a microplane. They can be purchased for under $10 and have countless applications. I suppose its one of those things that you don't know you need, but once you have it you can't imagine living without it.

No doubt junk/convenience foods are definitely aimed at filling that gap which is the lack of time of the overworked members of society. Not to sound too heartless, but a household in which the parent(s) have no time to feed their children properly probably isn't the best environment for a child. Obviously there are plenty of great single parents, etc... These types of situations are a part of a larger problem that includes how American society is overworked in general, and how our 21st century lifestyle and economy is affecting the home. Obviously if everyone had the money and time to have three healthy, home-made meals a day this problem wouldn't be so pronounced.

Regardless of the author's merits, I agree with annabelle. I'm sure what was meant by "nebulous others" was simply that people are so unwilling to admit their faults and instead shift the blame to other entities and begin finger pointing. If someone feeds themselves or their kids crap food, they'll be unhealthy. If this is not obvious to people, then the issue is public education (or the laziness of society), not that these evil corporations are allowed to advertise on Saturday morning cartoons.

A technique from the Modernist Cuisine that I've had luck with: -Choose an oil (neutral or flavored) and chill over ice or leave in the freezer until cold. -Make a gel base and fill a syringe (fitted with a needle-tip / hypodermic tip) with the warm base -Slightly submerge the tip in the cold oil and expel droplets As the droplets sink they will form into spheres due to the natural repulsion of the oil and (presumably) water-based gel solution. They will be solid by the time they fall to the bottom of the oil provided it is cold enough. I've used this technique to make pretty nice spheres. Once you have enough, strain the beads from the oil. You have to work quickly - I've ended up with half of my gel set inside the syringe before. With that said, I've always used Gellan or Agar for this process, which does not produce the brilliant clear beads as in the picture above.

I have the SVS: Demi and have found it to work very well. I've had it for about two years - here's my thought: It does not have an active pump, and relies on natural convection to keep the bath isothermal. Some purists may argue that this causes a temperature gradient in the bath (which it may, although I can't imagine that it would be significant to affect cooking) - in either case everything I've made in it (a LOT of food) has turned out great. It's nice that it has a lid to prevent evaporation for those 3-day cook times, and since the entire unit is insulated I would imagine it is more energy efficient than a Polyscience unit on a stovepot. Operation is 100% silent since there is no active pump. It does take up quite a big amount of counter space though - about the same size as a small microwave.

I used to love Lunchables as a child back in the day. However, my parents would not feed it to me everyday - it was their responsibility to make sure I had a generally balanced diet. Of course companies are motivated purely by profit. Of course they are marketing to their target audiences on Saturday morning cartoons. Would removing these ads solve the obesity "epidemic"? I don't think so - the root of the problem is laziness. Lazy parenting, and people who would rather pick up a Big Mac and watch TV instead of prepare a healthy meal.

Black truffles can be purchased online here: http://www.dartagnan.com/51180/565765/Truffles--Mushrooms/Fresh-Black-Winter-Truffle-Tuber-melanosporum.html A fair warning, they don't stay fresh for more than a few days.

Those steaks look amazing - as does the dover sole. I wish I could get my hands on a suckling pig like that - pretty awesome. Here's a little sea bass inspired by the John Dory recipe from Eleven Madison Park. I poached the fish sous vide in chicken jus with cornstarch and herbs to a core temp of 113 F (a la MC recommendations). Following the EMP components, it was served with dehydrated citrus fruits, citrus buerre blanc, edamame, pickled daikon, and a daikon vinaigrette. Finished with some tarragon, green onions, and olive oil.

Doesn't ultra tex give the puree a nice sheen too?

Another easy way to cook a reasonably thick steak is a low-temp oven. Pretty foolproof too. It's described below in detail, although I prefer to throw on olive oil with rosemary and thyme. http://modernistcuis...emp-oven-steak/