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CanadianHomeChef

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    Click and Grow

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Transplanting should be easy. It’s a self contained pod. It feels more spongy than dirty, so it should come out easy. Company says it can be transplanted and there are pics online of it being done. 

     

    The soil oil isn’t too deep, so larger fruit bearing plants will have to be transplanted. I will measure when I’m back home. 

    Click and Grow

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted · Edited by CanadianHomeChef (log)

    And yes the pods are expensive. But if it means fresh, hassle free basil, it’ll be worth the cost. Of course I’ll experiment with my own soil and seeds to see if I can save money. 

    • Like 1

    Click and Grow

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted · Edited by CanadianHomeChef (log)

    Decided to start an indoor herb garden, and bought a “Click and Grow” based on the recommendation of Cook’s Illustrated. The starter kit

    comes with 3 basil pods, 3 romaine lettuce pods, and 3 tomato pods. Planted all three, and came home today (day 3) and saw that all the lettuce and basil pods have sprouted. The image is of the tallest plant so far—Romaine lettuce.  The tomatoes are taking the longest but I think I see a bit of green buried in the soil. 

     

    Anyone else have have one of these? I think I’ll just stick with herbs moving forward as I’m too impatient for lettuce, and from what I can see online the fruit bearing plants yield little. Tomatoes are super tiny; much tinier than cherry tomatoes. 

    BCD2769A-8272-4CED-BC3C-D2EC1B0B3493.jpeg

    • Like 3

    New Toy: Breville/Polyscience Control Freak!

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted · Edited by CanadianHomeChef (log)

    On 12/12/2018 at 9:59 AM, iPat said:

    I've done slow cooking in a dutch oven with limited success.

     

    With the slow cooker, the heat comes from the side of the pot (cooking vessel) so the content is heated quite thoroughly.

     

    With the Control Freak, the heat only comes from the bottom, and the top portion of the food stays under-cooked (tough).

     

    It will work out a lot better if you use a braiser instead of the dutch oven.

    Must depend on what you’re cooking? Most of the things I slow cook are submerged in a liquid. I have a stew going right now on the CF and the liquid matches the pan temp exactly. Any parts sticking out are in a steam environment heating it up. Once it starts to thicken up, maybe I’ll run into problems?

    New Toy: Breville/Polyscience Control Freak!

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted · Edited by CanadianHomeChef (log)

    Thinking about trying some slow cooker recipes on the Control Freak, using a enameled dutch oven. For temps, I'm going to use Cook's Illustrated's top rated slow cooker. They say that at "low" the cooker got to a max temp of 193.5°F. And at high 203.8°F. I will start with those temps, but may adjust as I'm at a relatively high altitude (Calgary), so simmering happens at different temps. Also on the Control Freak I expect consistency of temp, whereas in a crockpot it probably fluctuates a lot (meaning an overall lower average temp). But I think these two temps are a good place to start.

     

    I'd also like to program a rice cooker temp. Already did one for my stove top pressure cooker. The Control Freak is making many of my counter top appliances redundant :)

    Edited to add: Also might need to adjust temps a bit since Cook's Illustrated measured content temps, not pan temp. If I use a clad pan, fill it with water, and set the pan temp, I usually find the temperature of the water to eventually equal the pan temps (+ or - 1 degree). Thicker viscosity contents (e.g soups or stews), might be a few degrees off.  I could solve this by drilling a hole in my dutch oven to take a probe temp, but I don't really want to do that, and I really don't think slow cooking needs that kind of accuracy :P 

    What kitchen equipment are you getting for xmas?

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted · Edited by CanadianHomeChef (log)

    47 minutes ago, boilsover said:

     

    The hefty part I get.  The heat-distribution part not so much.  My impression from the truly thoughtful reviews (e.g., Centurylife.org) is that the good 'ol All-Clad triply is the best clad line they offer in terms of moving heat.  

     

    The original selling point of d7 was not that it was even, but that it retained heat, e.g., "Holds heat like cast iron, only 30% lighter!"  They claimed d5 was even, but the concept of interleaving thin alternating layers of poorly-conductive steel just isn't all that persuasive to me.  I think Centurylife's testing and FLIR imagery bears this out. 

     

    By heat distribution I was talking about eveneness. Yes it takes longer to heat up, but I don’t have a 10 inch induction burner that will make contact with the entire base.  So I appreciate that the heat will travel further to the edges of the pan. 

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