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hattermad

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Posts posted by hattermad

    Cambro / Polycarbonate container

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Have an Anova on the way (just couldn't resist), and since in the past my sous-vide setup has been in a large jam maker, I need a container.

    I will admit to being lazy, but a quick search on Amazon for 'Cambro' didn't really turn up what I was expecting - anyone have a good UK supplier for containers suitable for a circulator? Ideally with a lid, one I can cut with home tools.

    Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine at Home" (Part 2)

    in Cooking

    Posted

    I think I win the award for most imprecise MC@H cook ever!

    I decided to cook the Pork Belly Adobo last night. Was convinced I had all the ingredients, but didn't actually check. My Rice vinegar turned out to be gone...substitute white wine vinegar. Soy Sauce....also gone. Sub Dark soy sauce and a bit of dilution. Bay Leaves....ah, no. And of course I checked all this after the kids were in bed, so no nipping to the supermarket for additional supplies.

    So, a bit of a hotch potch, but a nicely flavoured dish in any case...probably just not as it is was originally intended.

    Thanks pbear for the additional explanation - I suspect my vented pressure cooker is not reaching the level of pressure (and so temperature) required for the ideal caramelisation in any case, but I am going to try with some additional water and being a little less careful about minimal venting just to make sure the pressure and temperature are as high as I can get. I've had my eye on one of the Kuhn Rikon pressure cookers, but it's not made it to the top of my list yet.

    Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine at Home" (Part 2)

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Hey hattermad. I've done the carrot soup in a venting pressure cooker (a Presto). I found I had to add water to avoid scorching. As I recall, a few folks on the MC forum reported the same thing. Don't recall how much I added, as this was a year ago and I've since decided the soup is better and more easily made by simply roasting carrots, then adding back the water lost to evaporation (using a scale to determine exactly how much to add back). My suspicion would be that you only didn't have this problem because butternut squash has more water than carrots. Can't comment on the browning, as I've not tried the recipe with other veggies.

    Another way to do carrots per the MC recipe, by the way, might be to use the canning jar bain marie method (cf. onion confit). This way, evaporation from the pressure cooker ceases to be a concern, as the carrots are contained in their own little non-venting vessels. (Well, slightly vented, but not enough I'm pretty sure to affect the recipe.) I intend to try this some day, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

    I will try with the additional water - I was concerned that too much water might also prevent the caramelisation so tried it without at first but I think I was trying to prevent venting so much that I botched the caramelisation of the squash. Always happy to make a mistake once, but prefer not to repeat it if I can.

    I also like the idea of the canning jar method and will definitely give that a go if a bit of extra water doesn't work.

    Thanks for the suggestions.

    Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine at Home" (Part 2)

    in Cooking

    Posted

    This thread has inspired me to start cooking from the book - previously I've just read and drooled.

    So far, the eggs have been a great success, both steamed in omelette and scrambled sous vide, though I admit I omitted the whipper stage on the latter - I'm still a bit frightened of my whipper from early experiments gone awry (and all over the kitchen!).

    On Friday night I set out to make the caramelised carrot soup but an error on my part led to my not having enough carrots to make both the juice for the carotene butter and the soup itself, so I just made the carotene butter for future use and then proceeded to make the soup with a butternut squash and coconut milk I had laying around. Two questions arose:

    • I have a conventional (Tefal) pressure cooker which does vent at pressure, which I tried to minimise due to the low amount of water in the cooker. I tried to balance the pressure as best I could, but I'm not sure it attained enough pressure to colour the butternut squash to a stage I would call 'caramelised' - cooked, pleasant tasting, but not much maillard taste going on. Anyone have any tips on the recipe when using a venting pressure cooker with this recipe?
    • The recipe suggests substituting the carrot juice with the 'flavourful liquid' - in this case Coconut milk. In the same quantities? I used 400ml of coconut milk and was loathe to add another 290ml as the soup seemed plenty rich enough already. Any comments?

    The resulting soup was nicely textured, quite rich but not flavorful enough for me - I suspect my pressure cooking is at fault per the above. I will try the carrot version soon.

    Anova Sous Vide Circulator (Part 1)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Weird thing just happened with the Anova unit. Nothing bad, but weird. I turned it on and at the same time I was wiping water off of the touch screen with a paper towel. A white screen "rolled" down and there was a dot in the upper right corner. I went to touch the dot and then a little bit after I touched it the dot moved to the lower right. It eventually went all the way around. I couldn't get out of the screen so I just turned it off and turned it back on and it was all good. I did the paper towel thing again because I was curious and sure enough if happened again. Weird...but all good now.

    Sounds like a touch-screen calibration routine...odd that you managed to trigger it with a random 'wipe'.

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