Unpopular Poet
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Posts posted by Unpopular Poet
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Yesterday was a treat...leftover pork belly sandwich, served with homemade chamber pickles, tomato chutney and herb mix, on a crusty french bread. The pork belly was dry brined, then cooked sous vide for 30 hours, then pressed under a brick for 10 hours, then sliced and crisped up. Best sandwich I have ever made in the confines of my own home.
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I'm probably going to be unpopular here, but if an ingredient doesn't constitute a major part of a dish or dessert, or a major flavour component (spices etc), I can't tell the difference between high-cost and low-cost. Organic, raw-milk butter is great on bread or at a push in croissants, but as part of a cake, mashed potatoes or whisked into a sauce? Forget about it.
I also can taste zero difference between factory-farmed meats used for long-cooked dishes and their organic counterparts. And when you're paying 20€/kg for something like organic oxtail, that's a kick in the teeth.
Likewise, I never use enough vinegar to taste the vinegar, so I couldn't care less if it's organic, and salt is salt- you're never using more than about 0,05% per recipe weight so any difference is negligible (except for finishing salts).
Where I am (Paris), the mass-produced ingredients are perfectly fine and I can't even really taste the difference between organic and mass-produced vegetables and fruit here. Certainly not enough to justify spending up to 100% more on them.
I am the only one unpopular around here
-- I agree 100% with what you have said as far as taste goes -- I do think however that organic has become a sort of lifestyle choice for people -- if it isn't organic, it isn't good -- or whatever is said. Sometimes it is nice to buy organic -- but limiting oneself to it at all times is folly in my opinion -- there are plenty of great products which don't use the term organic that are perfectly healthy and acceptable. One thing you have going for you is that you are in Paris -- in my short time there, I discovered that no matter what it is, it is better there. -
Steve -- thanks -- I appreciate the recipe -- I am pretty excited to give it a try.
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The liquid tray is the key to sealing liquid - my mvs-31x came with a slanted tray that sits in the machine and allows the bag to kind of "sit up" on an angle so the liquid doesn't spill out once it begins to boil in the bag while evacuating. Basically, I use the liquid tray and the bigger bags and I have not had 1 spill in a few hundred seals. Is the Polyscience a single seal or double seal bar?
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A few dishes from this week. Locally sourced pork butt stuffed with rosemary, garlic and red pepper flakes. The shoulder was huge so I sectioned it into four portions hence the weird looking cut.
Steve -- that looks absolutely amazing -- can you share your preparation of this pork butt? I need a dish for my birthday on saturday and this is calling to me!
Thanks
Dan
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Tonight to start we had a variety of three oysters. They were not bad but I'm totally missing my French oysters (and mussels)
That's funny, I was discussing (American) East Coast vs. West Coast oysters with someone recently. I had to inform the guy that we can debate the merits of both, but French oysters were pretty much better than anything we have ever laid eyes upon in the USA. Makes me want to go to France right now. Those and the unfiltered Gauloises.
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Interesting video on the Polyscience -- I am super curious to see what the first comsumer on here has to say about it. I had a strange (I am calling it weather related) phenomenon with my Minipack recently -- It was showing 99.9% vacuum but was clearly not getting there. It was probably sealing in the 92-95 range based on previous settings. It was also super cold in the basement where I have the machine hooked up. Once the weather slightly broke, it was back to normal. Colder temperatures are the only variable I could come up with.
Overall, the Polyscience machine looks nice -- it is too bad there isn't any sort of gauge to determine the level of vacuum, but, as discussed above, who knows if those are even accurate. Being a person who seals tons of "wet stuff" I would be concerned with the statement of "maintenance free" -- has anyone had any experience with the dry pump getting jammed up with moisture? I know with an oil pump, you can always change the oil and pretty much solve the moisture issue. It does look like a nice machine for sure though.
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Homemade Chicago Style Beef sandwich - turned out great.
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Afternoon everyone -- I wanted to bump this thread a bit and ask if anyone has bought and can give some insight on the bluestar salamander -- I have a 48" bluestar that I love and we are in the process of starting to consider a kitchen remodel -- I would love to hear people's thoughts on the bluestar salamander - I should note I am more interested in the performance of the salamander - not whether or not I should/should not buy it.
Thanks!
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Would you siphon much like gas from a car's gas tank via hose ?If you get a length of nylon tube, you can siphon stock from the bottom up. You can get 100% fat free stock.
dcarch
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It is a sheet of pasta coated in a carbonara cream. The cream is made by cooking down bacon, ham and lardo, then infusing with cream. That get's thickened with an egg yolk and some grated parmesan. It is then sprinkled with more bacon, ham and lardo, as well as chopped truffle and some veal jus. The sweetbreads were soaked for one night in salted ice water, drained, blanched in lightly salted water with some thyme, bay leaf, white peppercorn and garlic, membrane removed, then cooked first in oil, flipped, then basted with foaming butter. It is usually about 5 minutes on each side, and it's good to let rest for 10 minutes. Here's a snap I took before it all got cooked:
Outstanding. Thanks for the run-through -- I can see this for certain in my future. Adding it to my "My wife is in Bahrain and my friend's wife is in London" Valentine's offal explosion.
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Sweetbread carbonara
MM -- is that polenta or mashed potatoes (or something else) under the sweetbreads? Am I correct in assuming the sweetbreads were traditionally prepared (soak, poach, press, fry?) Fantastic. ( I should note traditionally for me)
edited regarding traditional disclaimer.
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My guilty pleasure crackers are Triscuits. Plain old regular Triscuits. Just the right amount of oily, salty, crispy I need.
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Last night, in honor of the second Polar Vortex, I went with beef bourguignon. Not the prettiest plate, but it turned out really well.
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I would agree with Weinoo --- go with the original recipe first, then meddle...If the CI and ATK chocolate chip cookie recipes are the same then I would agree -- by far the best I have ever made -- so good I am now going to make them tonight!
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Personally, I would do the rum - what kind of rum is it? We are only talking about 2 tablespoons, so I think you could reasonably replace it with a nice spiced rum -- I think that would be good -- rum and orange juice definitely go well together...
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Congrats -- I think you will be super happy with it -- had a nice member here not had a mvs-31x for sale, I am certain I would have gone with the VP-215 -- seems like a great machine for the price.
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I suppose it depends on how you like your salmon -- what other ingredients are in the loaf? I like my salmon rather under cooked, so I like the 120ish range -- but that is not for loaf -- 145 is the suggested FDA number, so anything moderately under that would probably be good.
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BlueStar's IR broiler is light years better than my old Amana gas oven's weak output.
I forgot to mention the Bluestar broiler - pretty top notch. I think if you love your Vulcan, but want more even oven temps, the Bluestar is perfect -- it also has convection in the big oven -- but no rotisserie.
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No, done in the oven -- next time I will try them in the steam oven.
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I grew up with a 60" Vulcan -- and I loved it. It is like its own heating system in your house. I went with a Bluestar when I finally got a house where I could put in a stove I wanted -- I love it, but it is definitely not perfect. I never cared for sealed burners either -- cleaner, but I think that sacrifices burner power -- but how often do you need the full 22k btus that a bluestar spits out -- I am certain I do quite a bit, but not all the time -- from a searing point of view, a high power burner has no comparison -- but I have also heard great things about induction...
The cost of the bluestar at the time was a few grand less than the wolf/viking/thermador equivalent. I don't know if it still is.
Ebay is also a great place to find stoves...if you don't mind the scratched and dented type.
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Last night's dinner was my first attempt at the Maximum Flavor beef short ribs (3.5 hours at 250 F). A friend had stressed they were amazing. He was right. Served up with a popover and some sauteed kale and yellow rice. The beef was obviously the main focus. Pretty sure I will never do 72 hour sous vide short ribs again after this recipe. Salty, smokey and so easy that it was almost a crime.
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Thanks Ann! I have that book, now I just need to find the time to read it.
-Dan
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I was really happy with the crust. I used the Saturday White Bread recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast, but increasing the water from 720g to 820g.
~Ann
Ann -- those pizzas are absolutely beautiful - if you don't mind my asking -- what did you use to bake them? Based on the charring, I would assume some sort of outdoor oven at high temp...Really, really beautiful.
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Dinner! 2014 (Part 2)
in Cooking
Posted
The chamber pickles were as follows: ~3-4 sliced "pickle cucumbers" (that was the name at the store), chopped fresh dill, 1 sliced shallot, ~3 table spoons of rice vinegar, 1.5 table spoons of olive oil -- then put into the chamber, sealed at 99.9 and then put into the fridge until dinner time. I also did a variant where I chopped up a jalapeno (ribs and seeds) and gave it a nice blast of sriracha - those were really nice as well.