Tropicalsenior

Well I hope this helps. When I showed him the picture he took me straight to this knife. It's not as curved as yours but it is similar. He said his mother in China had one with a metal handle just like yours and it is a fruit knife. She uses it both to cut up fruit and harvest fruit out of the garden. the young man that works in the shop with him said that his family had a farm that grew something that he could only describe as mustard, and that the children were given the knives with wooden handles to harvest the plants. I have no idea what part of China they are from. Stupid me, I didn't ask. Now I have one for you. This little Gizmo was right in the middle of the knives. I had to ask, but can you tell me what it is? It would be considered restaurant equipment. And they had my tea. all I had to do was show them the translation you sent me and they got it for me. I'm anxious to try it. Thank you so much.

Okay, you've got my curiosity up, too. I was going to wait until later in the week to go to my Chinese store downtown and get my tea but I'm going to download this picture and go right now and ask my Chinese restaurant supply man if he knows.

It looks to me like something that you would use to harvest herbs in the garden. It also looks like it would be good to use to butterfly steaks or to prepare pockets in pork chops for stuffing, neither of which the Chinese would be apt to do.

My mother had a manual Presto aluminum pressure cooker that blew up with her twice. I can still see the noodles hanging from the ceiling. I was scared to death of pressure cookers until I got an Oster pressure cooker. I didn't really use it all that much, just for beans and broth and soup, and it blew up for me. I was lucky, I was well away from it when it blew but my kitchen didn't fare so well. I was cooking pork soup and I had broth and pork splattered on everything within 12 feet of the cooker. Thinking back, I don't think the lid engaged quite right but I used it anyway. Just a word of warning, if it doesn't feel right don't use it. That extra minute of precaution can save a lot of cleanup and possible injury. The people that use the stove top pressure cookers love them and have total confidence in them. I admire them for that because, to use them safely requires an expertise and a level of concentration that I don't have. I love that I can set mine and walk away and do something else until it's time to take out the finished product. On another note, I had an electric pressure cooker in the 70s. It was from Sears and it was made just like the Presto deep fryers with four legs and an electric element in the bottom. It was green enamel. I used it with complete confidence until the rubber parts wore out and I couldn't get replacements. I then used it as just an electric cook pot until it died. Does anyone remember these?

I think what this boils down to is the fact that all of us cook differently and have different levels of expertise. Your method of cooking sous-vide yields results that make my mouth water, but I don't have the expertise or the patience to use that method. I'm too much geared to instant gratification. That chicken that I poached would have been delicious baked in the oven but I didn't have the time that day to babysit it for 2 hours and the leftover meat wouldn't have been as moist and good to use in the meals I wanted to make the rest of the week. And my kitchen would have become an oven (it's hot down here). Everything I did could have been done equally well by conventional methods but I would have used more electricity, taken more time, and I would have been terribly uncomfortable doing it because of the heat. For me, anything that accomplishes those goals and puts good food on the table is a better way. I hate to tell you this, just the fact that you own one and you are interested in our opinion and methods makes you a convert of sorts. Maybe little by little you will find more things that you like to do with it or you may get tired of it and it will go the way of my waffle iron. The thing that I like best about it is that it's not a one-trick pony. I can do so many things with it that it has definitely earned it's space in my kitchen.

It couldn't be easier. Here's a picture of the equipment that I used. The ramekins are 8 oz. They are 3 1/4 inches inside diameter. You're right when you called them egg pucks, at least the first batch. I cooked them 6 minutes and that was too much. They were tasty but a little bit chewy. Haven't tried it but they might even bounce. The second batch I cooked five minutes and they were perfect. For three ramekins, I used three eggs, about two tablespoons of milk and salt and pepper. I sprayed the ramekins and covered the bottom with shredded cheddar cheese. I did beat the eggs until they were really smooth. For the Mexican Bread pudding, I used a 6 inch glass dish, three inches deep. I used, probably: 1 1/2 cups of leftover chocolate cake, cubed. It filled about half the dish. 1 1/2 cups whole milk 2 eggs 2 Tb. Sugar 1tsp. Cinnamon 1/2 tsp. Almond flavor 1 tsp. Vanilla Beat the eggs, milk, sugar and flavorings together well. Pour over the cake and let it sit for about 10 minutes to let it soak up the milk. Put it on a rack in the IP and pour in one and a half to two cups of water, just so it comes up but not over the rack. I covered it with the lid in the picture and I cooked it on high for 20 minutes. I left it on natural release for 10 minutes, quick released it and took it out of the pot. I make this with banana bread, any leftover quick bread, cinnamon bread, leftover cake and just vary seasonings or add some fruit. if you feel so inclined, this chocolate pudding is also good with about a quarter cup of rum substituted for part of the milk.

Here is what I found that the IP does better. Saturday I bought three beautiful big beets at the Farmers Market. I halved them and cooked them in the IP for 20 minutes. They cooked to perfection and I could peel them with a spoon. No mess! I then steamed six eggs to make pickled eggs with the beet juice. Again, perfection. No cracked eggs and they peeled beautifully. I steamed diced carrots and potatoes together for three minutes to use to make an Olivier salad. I've always had to cook them separately before. I poached a whole chicken to have the meat for things I want to make this week, deboned it and put the bones and the broth back in the IP to make chicken bone broth. I cooked some fresh red beans that I got at the farmer's market for dinner. Six minutes in the IP and they were perfect. I then made ham broth with some leftover Sorento ham and a smoked ham chop with mushrooms from the market and the beet tops, combined it with the beans for soup. No photo. It wasn't all that pretty but it sure was good. Sunday I made a Mexican bread pudding with some leftover chocolate cake. Also, not so pretty, but really good. Today was maybe the best yet. I used the idea of kayb to make some eggs for Egg McMuffins. I've always made them in the microwave and they've always exploded. And I had to make them one by one. Then clean the microwave. I used ramekins so I had to make two batches, but even then, I think it took less time and the cleanup was practically nothing. And they are so much better! the ones in the top of the photo I cooked 6 minutes. Too much, so I cook the next batch 5 minutes and they were perfect. Thank you kayb. Not only did I save energy by not using my stove, microwave or convection oven, but my IP didn't heat up my kitchen. It's hot down here so for me, that's a big consideration. I'm able to use the IP for so many more things than I did my regular pressure cooker. Since I've had it, I've given away my rice cooker, a small electric cook pot, my electric roaster and my waffle iron. No, my IP doesn't make waffles. I just always hated that thing.

Oh, don't do that, unless you really love your dog. Chop it up in the food processor and make some good roast beef hash. Or you could chop it and make a really good bolognese sauce. How about tacos, burritos or enchiladas.

It would give a new twist to refried beans instead of using bacon fat.

Here's another use for that beef fat. Make roux by cooking it off with an equal amount of flour. Cook it until it is a light amber color, then freeze it in small ice cube trays or in a roll that you can shave the roux off to have instant roux for thickening soups or stews.

I measured my regular cupcake pan and it looks to me like this would be about nine and a half inches wide. My pot is just barely nine inches. I'm looking here for the individual silicone cupcake molds. Those you could put closer together in the pot and there would still be room for the steam to rise around them. kayb, did you cover them with foil when you used them?

I had to go to the internet and look up Lagunitas. Was it by chance this one?

Looks like success and then some. Those potatoes are beautiful.

I would volunteer to have this burger dripping down my chin. It looks wonderful.

Here is the recipe for garam masala that I have used.

Why do they do that?

Here, they don't have a culture of eating or raising any type of poultry other than chicken. I have occasionally seen baby ducks in the stalls where they sell chicks but they never appear on the market. They must be buying them as pets or for private consumption. It's only within the last 10 years that we are able to buy turkeys at holiday time and they are all imported.

OMG, that looks so good! They are absolutely impossible to find here. The one time that I brought some down from the states they got confiscated at customs. The explanation that I was given is that they are an invasive species. I tried to point out that they weren't likely to crawl out of the can and propagate. They were dead! Didn't matter. They kept my snails.

Thank you very much, David.

Look in thrift stores and flea markets. I use a glass lid that fits an odd sized cast iron skillet that I have. it took me quite a while to find it but what I did was to take an old tape measure and cut it to the exact size I needed. I stuck it in my purse and every time I saw a lid that looked like it might work, I whipped the tape out and measured it. I finally found the right one and, by my good luck, it also fits my instant pot.

I got mine by accident to replace my other electric pressure cooker that blew up. And although mine is a Chinese knockoff, since the instant pot is also made in China I like to think of it as a brother or perhaps a cousin to the ones that all of you are using. But thanks to all you enablers, I plan to have my grandson bring me a mini pot the next time he comes to Costa Rica.

Thank you so much. We have wild duck here but if I shot one, I'd probably gets strung up by my toes. I did see a whole frozen duck in an Asian market once and it was $55. We have great chicken here and I can get lots of good fresh lard so I am all set. How long will it keep in the refrigerator?

I can't buy duck in any form here. This looks so good. Could I make this with chicken? What changes would I have to make?

I'll second that.

I would definitely make this the day before I wanted to serve it, just to let the cake set up and to let the flavors meld. I would have no hesitation to keep this for about 4 days in the refrigerator. I made mine with salmon and I wouldn't keep it more than 4 days. Anna's recipe might keep a couple days more, but if I planed to keep it for very long I would freeze it. This cake should freeze very well.