Richard Kilgore
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Posts posted by Richard Kilgore
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Great looking Pork Daube with wild Mushrooms, Elie.
Elie, Paula, anyone - regarding Elie's comment about the different conductivity of various clay pots, can you tell us more about which pots are likely to take more time or less time than others to cook the same dish? That would be really helpful to know.
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This morning I had the Nilgiri Glendale Estate Handmade from Tea Source. This is the one featured in one of the previous Tea Tasting & Discussions. A great tea.Now drinking a Da Hong Pao (Great Red Robe) from The Cultured Cup. I have had this wonderful, but expensive, tea for a few years and have been parceling it out slowly. It has always been one of my favorite Oolongs. And today I am brewing it in a new-to-me Yixing made in the 1970s, and this is the best this fine tea has ever brewed. Amazing what a diffence a clay can make. I'll post more about this in both the Yixing topic and the Oolong topic once I have played with the pot a bit.
Ceylon Lumbini Estate from Tea Source this morning. In a little while I'll also try brewing the Great Red Robe wet leaf leftover from yesterday.
I have continued to drink this wonderful Wuyi Da Hong Pao Oolong today. The older Yixing clay has even more of an effect than I thought it would. And the tea has legs - nine infusions (plus the initial 20 second rinse and another before brewing today) and it has a long way to go.
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WmC, which Alishan Oolong is that, one of the 2009 Spring harvest teas, or the Autumn, or the 2008 mid-roasted?
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That's a good question, velveeta, but before we can try to answer that, it would be helpful to know what you consider "pitiful teas"?
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Ah! Thanks, Mark. I bet I heard only part of what the vendor was saying. He must have been referring to frozen desserts; he made several while I was standing there. Mine was not just creamy and smooth, it was thick and I ended up adding more OJ, and it was still fairly thick. So I'll try to hit that half and half ratio tomorrow morning. Unless I want dessert for breakfast.
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Ceylon Lumbini Estate from Tea Source this morning. In a little while I'll also try brewing the Great Red Robe wet leaf leftover from yesterday.
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Well, it's several hours later and I'm still living, so the flax seeds must be working.
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A 64 ounce container comes standard with the Vita-Mix 5200s and Vita-Preps. I just gpt a Vita-Prep and am going to get a second container, either the 48 or 32 ounce. Has anyone found the 32 ounce to have any advantages over the 48, or vice versa?
Also, how different are the containers for the 5200 and the Prep? Are they interchangeable?
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That looks like a tasty combination, Steven.
I made a run to Central Market and picked up some flax seed and vanilla protein powder last night. Got home and noticed mention here of ground flax seed. Do I need to grind it or buy ground instead of whole seed? Does it make any difference?
This morning I tried to replicate the approach of the vendor doing the Vita-Mix demo at Costco. His general recommended ratio was 2/3 frozen, 1/3 liquid. Vanilla protein powder, flax seed, frozen peaches, 5 mini carrots, slice of green cabbage, OJ. No ice cubes or water this time, though the vendor added ice cubes or water depending on the other ingredients. Very tasty, thick and creamy. But with a faint chalky-gritty component to the mouthfeel - is that the flax seed? One tiny fragment of frozen peach escaped the blending. Perhaps I should have blended a little longer. Would that take care of the faint chalky-gritty mouthfeel as well as the fragment of peach?
Sam, and for anyone else who has the 3 horse Vita-Prep: this thing starts smelling hot when cranked on high? Is that a problem?
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Does rubbing the interior with garlic also add any flavor, Paula?
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Tea
in Coffee & Tea
LuckyGirl - I think you'll find as you continue to explore that even many quality black/red teas are better without milk or sweetner - Darjeelings, Yunnan reds, Keemuns, Ceylons, even Assams. You'll be surprised what great, complex flavors they can have alone.
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I think it mostly depends upon how sensitive you are to caffeine. All real teas are going to have enough to get your attention if you are very much sensitive at all. If you are one of those people who can drink a cup of coffee and then go to sleep, it will not make much difference what tea you drink. And it makes a great deal of difference how strong you brew it.
Tisanes, rather than teas, are usually my night time solution.
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Picked up the Vita Prep box where UPS had left it outside and within 15 minutes...we had smoothie! No recipe this time, I just threw in a little of this and a little of that (frozen OJ concentrate, banana, frozen peaches, ice cubes and a little water). Not a less than smooth smoothie with bobbing chunks of ice cubes like all my old blenders produced. A little too high for the counter, though, so I will need to get the 48 or 32 ounce container.
Next, I'll re-read this topic for more ideas on smoothie ingredients.
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This morning I had the Nilgiri Glendale Estate Handmade from Tea Source. This is the one featured in one of the previous Tea Tasting & Discussions. A great tea.
Now drinking a Da Hong Pao (Great Red Robe) from The Cultured Cup. I have had this wonderful, but expensive, tea for a few years and have been parceling it out slowly. It has always been one of my favorite Oolongs. And today I am brewing it in a new-to-me Yixing made in the 1970s, and this is the best this fine tea has ever brewed. Amazing what a diffence a clay can make. I'll post more about this in both the Yixing topic and the Oolong topic once I have played with the pot a bit.
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Ending the day with a Houjicha from Dan at yuuki-cha.com. I'm still working on a 100 g bag he sent me free with the quirky lidless kyusu. Nice low-caffeine tea and I only have a few nights worth left.
Does this tea drink really smokey? The description of it on another website described it as "mesquite" tasting.
Houjicha is a roasted green tea so it is going to be roasty-smoky, but there is variation among hojichas (yuuki-cha alone has 4 organic Houjichas) and it also depends on how you brew it.
Various Houjichas come up in the discussion on the Japanese Green Tea topic.
Also here's more info in this Tea Tasting & Discussion on another Houjicha from The Cultured Cup.
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I have a cazuela soaking for its initial seasoning and have been jotting down some questions while reading through a bunch of recipes in the book this weekend and picking up some special ingredients.
First, I notice that some recipes call for an unglazed casserole and some call for a glazed one. While I realize most, if not all, of these recipes can be done successfully in a wide range of pots and pans, I wondered if there is a general principle for selecting one over the other - due to ingredients or cooking technique? Or is it just a matter of personal preference?
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Ending the day with a Houjicha from Dan at yuuki-cha.com. I'm still working on a 100 g bag he sent me free with the quirky lidless kyusu. Nice low-caffeine tea and I only have a few nights worth left.
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You don't need to disassemble the Vita-Mix/Vita Prep to wash it. Vitamix recommends that you do not unless absolutely necessary.
One reason I chose VitaMix is because it gives you more control over the process with the variable speed control, allowing you to use it for more than just making smoothies. That goes for the Vitamix 2 hp model at Costco as well as the Vita Prep 3 hp commercial model. It's not clear to me how flexible the Blendtec is? Can you run it manually with out using the programs? Does it have variable speed control?
I think the vendor demoing at my Costco said that theVitamix does better than a juicer, but I can't speak to that myself. Anyone else know?
Mine arrives tomorrow or the next day. Smoothie reports to come.
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Never say never.
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I also suspect it's the adjustment. If you don't have your manual handy, I think you should be able to access one on the KA site.
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Started out with the Dian Hong Imperial from norbutea.com. This has been one of my favorite Chinese red/black teas for a few years now.
The last time I got some teas from norbutea, Greg gave me a small sample of the 2008 Medium Roast Ali Shan Oolong shipment that came in recently from his Taiwan tea grower. Interesting middle ground with the floral still present along with the roasted flavor. I am going to play with the gong fu cha brewing parameters and report on this in the Oolong topic Oolong topic soon.
Gah! I just placed a small order from Norbu and I thought about trying the winter, medium roast Alishan but didn't. I ordered a few different pu erh samples.
Shoot Greg an email and if he has not shipped it he should be able to add it if you still want to.
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Started out with the Dian Hong Imperial from norbutea.com. This has been one of my favorite Chinese red/black teas for a few years now.
The last time I got some teas from norbutea, Greg gave me a small sample of the 2008 Medium Roast Ali Shan Oolong shipment that came in recently from his Taiwan tea grower. Interesting middle ground with the floral still present along with the roasted flavor. I am going to play with the gong fu cha brewing parameters and report on this in the Oolong topic Oolong topic soon.
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One minute at around 160 in a pre-warmed pot is the usual starting place for any sencha, but whatever pleases your tastebuds is what counts. At higher temps and longer times you are unlikely to get 3 - 5 infusions out of it, as you found.
That said, your 3 g to 8 ounces is weaker than the usual ratio for sencha, which runs .6 g up to about 1.0 g per ounce. So for your 8 ounces I would be using 4.8 g and up. But I'll try it at your higher temp, longer time and see what happens. Later though, since I am on my fourth infusion lower and slower.
Edited to add: I realize I wrote in the first post something about 2.5 g per 6 ounces, and your ratio is similar to, though still a little weaker than, that.
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You're already in the right range on temp, WmC. The Cultured Cup recommends 155 F for one minute for the first infusion. I have been doing that and 30 - 45 seconds for the second infusion and 60 - 90 seconds on the third. For the fourth infusion I add about 30 seconds to the third, and for the fifth I add about a minute to the fourth. This is a fairly flexible sencha, but I have not brewed it higher than 160, so let us know what happens if you do.
You all may not care for the fourth and especially the fifth, since they are usually thinner. But if you go really short on the second infusion (10 seconds), the third and fourth ones may sing to you.
Vita-Mix Blenders & Mixers
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
The short answer is it has a 3 hp vs 2 hp motor, Sam says it makes finer purees, and I was able to buy it on eBay for only $45 more than what it cost with tax at Costco. If it will survive in a commercial kitchen for 3 years, with home use I'll be able to put it in my will. That seems like a reasonable deal for only 10% more.
The longer answer is in a discussion in the The Art & Science of the Smoothie topic. There are trade-offs and not everyone agrees that it's worth it. I am sure the consumer model is fine, and better for people with weak hands for any reason, since the consumer model has a lid design that is easier to put on and remove.