Jump to content

Bernie

participating member
  • Posts

    250
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Bernie

  1. freeze the egg. SV at 65C till the whites are cooked.

    The theory is that the white will thaw and cook while the yolk is still thawing. The residual heat will warm (cook) the yolk

    I haven't done it. You need to freeze a couple of dozen eggs then vary the time. When you find the right time you can tell us.

    I have no idea what happens to eggs when you freeze them.

     

    Seriously (I was kidding) Heston has a video on cooking the perfect boiled egg. I think it uses some of the same principle.

    Do a search but its something like get a pot of water just boiling, add the egg, turn off the heat and wait 6 minutes.

    The idea is the egg slowly heats through as the water loses heat and the white will reach 71C ? (white coagulates at 70C?) but the yolk wont reach this temperature because the water is cooling and as the egg is heating

    You probably need to find the video. My memory is fading with the isolation (that's my excuse it has nothing to do with age...)

    • Like 1
  2. On 5/8/2020 at 1:12 AM, blue_dolphin said:

     

    I'd love to hear what you think if you do.  Make sure to throw in a couple of cans of their tuna belly as a treat. It absolutely melts in your mouth. 

    This is what you'll see in a can of their regular tuna.  Just one big chunk of good tuna.

    IMG_2432.thumb.jpeg.7d95378ccc0078e1d867ee00e519ff00.jpeg

     

    Out of the can:

    499559166_IMG_2433(1).thumb.jpeg.8143a0095bce8ac528885528817f31af.jpeg

    I went to your link to see what they actually sell. The reason for my curiosity was the contents of the can. It seems to me that half the contents seem to be oil. Is that normal in the US? That maybe makes the price ~$5 per ounce of actual tuna. Seems high to me.

    Are regular cans of tuna that price?

    I assume this is being sold as a premium product. I am in no way denigrating it I am just curious.

     

  3. 7 hours ago, gfweb said:

     King Arthur says 210F is "done" for pastry.

     

    So boiling would work, as you've shown.

    SV can reach 210F, but that's pretty much boiling. Would SV add any advantage?

    What I was thinking is that the filling could cook long and slowly. SV at close to boiling for say 20 mins and then drop the temperature to cook the filling for a much longer time.

    The other idea was to cook the pastry first. The vacuum bagging with the pie tin would mean it holds its shape without drying out.

    Time to play, I think

    • Like 1
  4. OK here is one from way out of left field.

     

    Has anyone cooked pastry in their SV?

     

    I started to think about this because I am a fisherman and like to have hot pies. What I came up with was freeze pies and vacuum sealed them in a bag and then just heat them in boiling water. Results are excellent!

    Pie is hot, the already cooked pastry does not dry out, the water is available to make tea. Longer time in the water doesn't matter.

    So I started to think.

    I wonder what temperature shortcrust pastry actually cooks at? If I was to make frozen raw pies vacuum package them and  put them directly in a SV would they cook ? It may need to be in a pie tin before vacuum bagging. By freezing, the pastry should start to cook before the filling has a chance to  mix and make the pastry soggy. Then the filling can be cooked long and slow.

    • Like 1
  5. 34 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

     

    I have more than one too many.  But that could apply to my pots in general.  Someday I may count them.

     

     Same here and you know what the most annoying thing is?

    I never have the quite the right size when I go to use them. I always have to compromise!

    (I wonder if its an OCD thing or its just isolation madness)

    • Like 2
  6. So you had it tucked away. What I would do is convince myself its still tucked away and then bin it. If you haven't use it in 6 years, revisit the subject in another 6 years. By that time the guilt of throwing it away will be completely forgotten🙂

  7. Yes, most pork of the better cuts of pork is very lean and its the fats & connective tissues in those lesser cuts that benefit from SV process.

    I am trying different temps and times but its an ongoing battle. I have tried brine to increase its moisture content so it doesn't lose too much moisture during long high temperature SV. It does work to some extent but not as well as I would expect.

    The best method so far has been to SV at 62C for 45min in BBQ sauce and finish in the oven 30~45 mins at 140C or so. This thickens the sauce and combines any juices from the SV process.

    Any longer and the meat dries out too much. Still a work in progress. I have tried slow fry and flash fry and although the outside looks and tastes as expected, I can't get the tenderness or texture I want.

  8. I hope everyone realizes that when you start using the cloud (or indeed any free web storage) that once you get over a certain size you are stuck with it.

     

    My neighbor stores all his photos on the cloud. He now pays for extra space (only about $1 per month). He says "its only $1 month". I answer with "for now and even if it doesn't rise its $1 a month FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE", then we go and drink more wine.

    BUT he has so many photos stored he can't download the lot and he can't actually view or find them randomly because there are just too many.

    Just on that Google now stores your phone photos in a "new & better" format. All good, saves you space right. Well it turns out you need a google app to open them. You can't download them to your PC and view them. Whats the bet that now advertising revenue is falling, Google will start reducing their  free online storage limits and start charging to store on the cloud.

     

    Its fine to have lots of information (even at home) but if it takes a long time to find anything it becomes useless.

    • Like 1
  9. And why the bread with all the pips? Read the label, white bread has the same fiber as wholemeal or multigrain😁 (white bread shows up all the necessary dirt from your hands when you "rustic" BBG)

    And mustard with tomato sauce and where the salt, what were you thinking?😁

    • Haha 3
  10. Got to say I initially got a laugh.🙂

     

    But then I felt sad for you. I remember my first time...she was...no wait we are talking about pasta.

     

    Don't be a coward and make the dough again.

     

    Its got to be much drier.

    Put a cup of flour on the bench, make a well and crack an egg in it. Combine adding flour till you have a dry mix. Just egg & flour. (when you become a master pasta maker you can add semolina (corn meal) or  wholemeal buts that's for the yuppies)

    It should not be sticky at all.

    (One variation is to use only egg yolks)

    Lightly flour the rollers of the machine.

    Start with a small piece of dough about golf ball size.

    Form the dough into a log and sort log and sort of of flatten it. liberally coat with flour (so it wont stick!)

    Start with the thickest setting on the machine

    Roll through once then flour the dough lightly both sides  and roll through again.

    Coat lightly with flour and fold in half. (longways or cross ways depends on how wide your machine is and how wide your dough is.)

    Roll again

    Decrease the thickness setting and repeat all the steps again.

     

    Dust lightly with flour (or a bit heavier if you need to fold it before you need to use it)

     

    When its the right thickness you can use it as you did or make spaghetti or fettuccine depending on what cutters are on your machine.

     

    This first piece of dough is for practice 🙂 so don't worry if you muck it up. That's what the bin is for.

     

    By using a small piece of dough the sheet wont get to long and is easy to handle.

     

    The smarties  can use a big bit of dough and end up with 6 feet long dough, but that's just showing off and I never want 6ft long noodles anyway.

    I stick with about 1 ft (or 2 ft if I am feeling brave).

     

    Don't worry if it seems to dry, the pasta will be boiled or the sheets used like you did and cook in liquid. It must be dry enough to cook before it dissolves in the sauce. That's what causes it to be mushy.

     

     

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1
  11. Back on Topic!

    We have tried to eat as "normal" as possible. We had my famous beef wellington last night. The one concession to the lock down is that I am giving a lot more thought to portion control.

    Because we will be doing a lot less physically, we have decided to make sure we adjusted our food intake (fuel in = fuel out) to adjust to the loss of normal calorie burn. Just the act of not going shopping as often is actually a significant reduction in exercise.

    Its fine to think along the lines of "I am under stress...I need to eat lots of comfort food to take the stress levels down" but we will come out of this and I do not want to ruin my health by consistently overeating.

     

    We are going to embark on a search of the recipes from our childhood (although we eat a lot better now with better and more varied ingredients) and get comfort from our memories.

    • Like 2
  12. 1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

    But do you want to be treated by emergency room staff who slur their words?

     

    Slightly better odds that a whiskey breathing emergency room staff is not infected........

    I like the odds...(particularly when I am probably slurring my words as well) 😀

    • Like 1
    • Haha 2
  13. 18 hours ago, Bernie said:

    Whiskey

    Wine (Red but if not then white)

    Snacks to eat with above

    (probably going to need AA after the pandemic, but its a small price to pay)

    I am hoping after a strict diet of any/all of the above I will lose some weight and be healthier.

    😀

    There must be a god and he must love me.

    Or I may be a complete fool but sometime, just sometimes fools get lucky

    https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.12444

    • Thanks 1
    • Haha 2
  14. Whiskey

    Wine (Red but if not then white)

    Snacks to eat with above

    (probably going to need AA after the pandemic, but its a small price to pay)

    I am hoping after a strict diet of any/all of the above I will lose some weight and be healthier.

    😀

    • Haha 4
  15. 14 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

     

    Sadly not, it seems.  I just checked.  Amazon Australia offers spaghetti speedily to major cities, if one can make do with Barilla.  Delivery to "remote areas" is 2-4 days at best.

     

    that's what they say but alas sometimes the nomenclature (always wanted to use such a high sounding word) is different depending on where you are in the world. Here, remote areas can mean a city of several thousand, maybe the distance could be 900 miles OR it could mean remote areas as in a town of less than a 100 and 3000 miles who only get deliveries weekly or monthly then only half the year by 4 wheel drive.😃

    Delivery wise, for me its usually at least an extra day and I am less than 60 miles from a capital city!

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
    • Sad 1
  16. I seem to remember cumin  takes the heat out.

    If you do a search on the net you get lots & lots of tips but they seem to be all copied from the same source. Some don't even change the words, just the layout. That's the trouble with the web these days, every 10year old with google can become an instant expert and put it on a website, whether its fact or fiction or just opinion.

    Some say pineapple, acid (vinegar lemon juice, lime juice) and surprisingly peanut butter.

    I vaguely remember there is something in peanuts that changes the capsaicin (the hot chemical) rather than just providing oil to coat your taste buds.

    All the things like cream, yogurt, rice, potato, oil affect it in the mouth, not the actual heat.

    Surprisingly, cumin will actually damp down the heat. There are a couple of other herbs/spices that do the same (oregano?)

    • Like 3
  17. Morning tea time is what the toffs call smoko.

    (very original naming it "Morning Tea time"  it's just having a cup of tea in the morning)

     

    When men were men  and labored 10hrs a day, there was certainly no smoking on the job. But the bosses relented a bit (they got a bit soft as time progressed) the men were allowed a Smoke break, originally just 5 minutes. That was when you went to the toilet if needed.

    Originally I think their pay was docked the five minutes, but the union movement negotiated for a paid break of 5 minutes.

    Not bad, you worked from 6am, till 10am, then a 5 min break, then worked til 1pm and had a 30min break for lunch,  worked through till 4:35pm, then you knocked off and went to the pub (hotel) about 5pm (it took about 20 minutes after knockoff to wash up and clock out). The Pubs closed at 6pm so it was off home about 6:15pm, where you would have "tea" (Dinner for the toffs) see the kids, give them a belting if needed and off to bed.

    Later, the unions became more powerful and working hours were reduced to 8hrs with 30 minute lunch break & 2 x 10 min paid "smokos".

    My father worked from 8am to 5pm (he actually worked an extra 30 mins which was paid as overtime.).

     

    Hence "smoko" 😀

     

    Probably still called "smoko" only by us categorized as the older generation. Everyone else calls it "personal time" as smoking is officially frowned upon and political correctness has become a way of life.

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 3
  18. It was Yesterday for us.

    Starters:

    Bacon wrapped Prawns baked on a bed of buttery earlier oven roasted Garlic (I think I could have served the buttery garlic as a side but it would have bordered on gluttony )

    Main:

    SV fillet steak with oven roasted potato roasted in beef fat that had been flavored with oven roasted Garlic,  mushrooms oven roasted with a tomato,cheese & jalapeno topping.

     

    Wine was a 2010 Vintage Brut sparkling (we are not allowed to call it champagne) for the starters and a superb 2012 Shiraz with the main.

     

    We skipped desert, and just had  a bit of Triple Brie as we finished off the wine.

    • Like 4
  19. Well on Monday 30-12-2019 we received an ALDI catalogue (more junk mail).

    Big news! Hot Cross Buns are for sale.

     

    When I was a kid, traditionally Hot Cross Buns (or Easter Buns as the politically correct agnostics among us call them) went on sale about a week or so before Easter, you know fasting for lent and all that.

    Their sale has been getting earlier and earlier, but come on guys not till after the new year at least.

     

    And stop selling CHOCOLATE chip Hot Cross Buns or Peanut Hot Cross Buns or mixed nuts Hot Cross Buns.

     

    We had the GFC to tell the bankers to at least take their greed off the front page.

     

    What sort of crisis do we have to have to get Hot Cross Buns back to even a modicum of decorum. Perhaps a public flogging or 2 of grocery chain bakers?

    • Like 4
    • Haha 4
×
×
  • Create New...