Cooking with the A4 Box Induction Cooker: What'd you make?

[Anna N]

Host's note: this topic is split from the original A4 Box Induction Cooker topic in the Kitchen Consumer forum. See also @Duvel's translation of a recipe, earlier in that topic, here. This particular post seems most appropriate to start the new topic. Many thanks go to @TdeV for the topic split suggestion, and for identifying posts to be moved!

 

 

 So I took the A4  for its maiden voyage this morning.  As I mentioned to @Kerry Beal, its name  sounds like a British highway!  

 

 

Mis was mushrooms, a sausage, split in half, an egg and a slice of  buttered  rye bread. 

 

 

 I preheated the flat grill plate for two minutes at medium heat (between 320/392°F 160/200°C)  then added the mushrooms and the sausage.  I covered the unit with the lid for five minutes.  I turned over the sausage and the mushrooms and cooked them for a further five minutes.  I added the bread and the egg and continued cooking until I was satisfied that everything was done to my liking. 

 

 

It made making breakfast a bit more fun than it usually is. There is really nothing to clean up other than the grill plate which is just going to be wiped down with a paper towel I think and then a damp cloth over the unit itself for any grease splatters . 

 

 I particularly enjoyed the roominess of this configuration as against a round frying pan.  

 

 Stay tuned for further meals on the A4.

 

Edited December 22, 2024 by Smithy
Added host's note (log)

[lemniscate]

It's looks like nice even heating end to end on the griddle in the pics.   Does the lid fit over the griddle when cooking in case one would want to "steam"  the top of a sunny-side-up egg?   

 

EDIT:  I reread and see that you did indeed use the lid over the griddle, so question answered.

Edited September 21, 2019 by lemniscate (log)

[Anna N]

So some further play time with my new toy. 

 

I had some green beans that needed using up, half a chub of kielbasa, and I knew I had seen a can of cherry tomatoes and a tetra pack of Pomi tomatoes  in the pantry.  With those I thought I could pull together a meal.

 

 Using the ceramic dish  I  sautéed some onions and some sliced kielbasa.  

 

I added the can of cherry tomatoes and was about to add the can of Pomi tomatoes when the best-before-date caught my eye.  Hmmm.  May 2017.  But what the heck. They were in a tetra pack. They should be safe to eat.  I opened the package carefully and poured out some of the contents into a saucer. Glad I took this precaution. They no longer resembled tomatoes. They were almost the colour of dark chocolate.  A tiny taste convinced me that they were not going in anything that I wanted to eat. Had this been a can of evaporated milk I would’ve had a lovely supply of dulce de leche!  

 

 But this left me somewhat short on liquid. So I quickly supplemented with some  Better Than Bouillon vegetable stock and water. 

 

 I added the green beans put the lid on and let whole thing come to a boil before turning it down to a slow simmer and letting it do its thing for about an hour.

 

 

 Made a perfectly satisfactory dinner with some orzo and a piece of garlic naan.  

 

I had to be careful and eat around the tomatoes as they are currently having a quite unpleasant effect on my system. (For those who don’t know they are a natural diuretic.)

 

 This morning, while checking all the various news outlets that I follow on my iPad, I found a grilled cheese sandwich recipe offered by the Washington Post.  I am not generally a grilled cheese fan. But this one offered miso butter and caramelized onions.  That is my language they are speaking. The Washington Post is behind a pay wall that didn’t stop me finding the recipe!   Anyway I could’ve figured it out all by myself if I was so inclined.

 

While I attended to my morning chores (that would be the ones that should’ve been done last evening), I caramelized two small onions in a mix of oil and butter  on the plain grill plate of the A4 box. 

 

 

 

 

 I made up the spread which was a mix of miso, grainy mustard and butter and spread it on some rye bread.  Then I assembled the sandwich with cheese and onions.   The outer side of the bread was spread with plain butter as the miso would certainly burn.

 

As luck would have it my bacon press fits my new toy like a glove. (So I have a panini press as well as all the other functionality of the A4 Box.)

 

 Grilled cheese sandwich with Seriously Sharp Cheddar, caramelized onions and miso-mustard butter. The rest of you can dip your grilled cheese sandwich in ketchup if that’s what you want, mine was dipped in mango chutney.

 

 One thing to think about when using the box is that’s the lid is going to be dripping condensation so you need a parking spot for it. 

 

 I think I’m going to find this toy much more than a toy. So far it has proved capable of meeting my requirements.

 

I am guessing there are some things I can bake in it but at the moment I’m not quite sure how to approach that. Any thoughts anybody?

[lemniscate]

I'm getting pretty excited about this appliance as you cook.  

 

I noticed the A4 Facebook page has some videos of uses and recipes, especially for the takoyaki pan.  Also a pizza.  And a rice burger(?!?).

[Anna N]

 So, you know how it is when you have a shiny new hammer – – – everything becomes a nail.

 

 

 I discovered a bone-in strip loin steak in the freezer yesterday and so I gave it a sous vide treatment and then seared it on the grill pan of the A4 box.   I was able to put the box on top of my induction range bringing it under my range hood so that I did not set off any smoke alarms because it certainly did get hot. To my horror this morning I found the rest of this steak sitting on my counter where it had been all night long. Braver souls than me might’ve eaten it.  The corn is dressed with Trader Joe’s chili onion crunch.  The jury is still out on this. 

 

Yesterday @Kerry Beal grabbed me some sweet potatoes at a farmers’ market. I had seen a recipe for a sweet potato, jalapeño and corn bisque and wanted to give it a try. Well I was defeated almost immediately when I could not find the jalapeño peppers that I know are somewhere in the freezer. Then when I began to peel the sweet potatoes I realized they were not what I was expecting. 

 

 

 As you can see these are the Japanese style with almost white flesh. But I  soldiered on.

 

 

 Once the sweet potato was tender I removed the corn cob pieces and then put the rest into the Thermomix.   I added the corn and the molasses but when it came time to add the additional seasoning – – cayenne, salt, pepper and cinnamon- - - I opted instead to use some guajillo chili powder.   This somewhat improved the colour. 

 

 

  With a naan it  made a perfectly adequate lunch. 

 

 

[rotuts]

Nice  @Anna N

 

""  I removed the corn cob pieces and then put the rest into the Thermomix. ""

 

so what happened to them in the TRMX ?

 

you didn't grind them up ?  if not , did you choose to

 

discard the well washed SP skins ?  why not add them to ThePot and

 

discard alter ?

 

nice 

[Anna N]

 Tonight it was not shrimp on the barbie it was shrimp in the box!

 

 

 

 

 and served over instant noodles.

 

 

 I could have also have cooked the noodles in the ceramic insert if only @JoNorvelleWalker had arranged for the shipment of my other boxes.😂 

[Anna N]

 

 

 

 

Onions and mushrooms sautéed in the Box, piled onto a toasted English muffin, showered with some grated cheddar and broiled until the cheese melted. Nothing missing in the umami department!

 

 

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by Anna N
To remove an extraneous photograph. (log)

[rotuts]

 

does the box broil ?

[Anna N]

54 minutes ago, rotuts said:

 

does the box broil ?

 Nope. The broiling took place in the Cuisinart steam oven.

 

[Smithy]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

 Nope. The broiling took place in the Cuisinart steam oven.

 

Directly on the pan from the A4? Pretty handy, if so!

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

Directly on the pan from the A4? Pretty handy, if so!

 I bet I could’ve done that but I didn’t. 

[rotuts]

for a small apartment 

 

with less say very limited space and appliances 

 

and no more that two mouths to feed

 

exp Companioinns

 

looks like the A2 + CSO would be very complementary.

[KennethT]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

 I bet I could’ve done that but I didn’t. 

Does the A4's griddle pan fit in the CSO?

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, KennethT said:

Does the A4's griddle pan fit in the CSO?

 Almost but not quite.   At first I believed it was fitting  Then closer examination shows that it is hung up on the tracks for the shelf. I tried using it as a shelf but again it is just a tad too short so that it is unsafe and will not remain in place.  So the final answer is no it will not fit. 

[Anna N]

 

 Not going to apologize. It’s my toy. It’s my morning. And it’s my breakfast.😂  I wanted to fry an egg in one of the hollows of this plate. But I also wanted to fry up some pepperoni. The ideal configuration is not available – – that would be one or two  hollows/cups and the remainder a flat griddle.  But I wasn’t prepared to dirty another pan just for a few slices of pepperoni. So in they went. 

 

 

 Egg and pepperoni onigirazu.  As I suspected, the perfect sized egg to fit my rice sandwich.

[Smithy]

This little gizmo is providing me a great deal of vicarious fun. It makes me wish we had a "Whee!" icon.  I'm so glad you're playing with and posting about it!

[gfweb]

Fried lebanon bologna (not the sweet kind) is great too.

[rotuts]

and Mortadella

 

USA , not italian

 

Italian has pistachios in it

 

" God's Bologna [ USA vs ] ""

 

 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

This little gizmo is providing me a great deal of vicarious fun. It makes me wish we had a "Whee!" icon.  I'm so glad you're playing with and posting about it!

Thanks. Sometimes I think I’m just talking to the wind so it’s nice to know I’m amusing somebody!  
 

Edited to add

 

I am looking at, studying and weighing up recipes/methods for making takoyaki although it won’t be tako because I’m not going to find any octopus around here but there’s a very legitimate ebiyaki (shrimp) I understand. But I admit to being quite intimidated by the whole procedure. Pumping up my courage. 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

and Mortadella

 

USA , not italian

 

Italian has pistachios in it

 

" God's Bologna [ USA vs ] ""

 

 

I do like mortadella although I’ve never had the Italian kind.

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

Fried lebanon bologna (not the sweet kind) is great too.

I really tried to like Lebanon bologna when we were down in Lancaster but I just can’t do it. 

[rotuts]

Mortadella 

 

no pistachios , please !

 

good quality Swiss  ( nutty )

 

melted

 

the egg

 

and the sea weed wrap

 

Im just mentioning it

 

just in case

Edited September 28, 2019 by rotuts (log)

[demiglace]

30 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Thanks. Sometimes I think I’m just talking to the wind so it’s nice to know I’m amusing somebody!  
 

Edited to add

 

I am looking at, studying and weighing up recipes/methods for making takoyaki although it won’t be tako because I’m not going to find any octopus around here but there’s a very legitimate ebiyaki (shrimp) I understand. But I admit to being quite intimidated by the whole procedure. Pumping up my courage. 

 

 

Not talking to the wind. I'm really enjoying you checking out all cooking options on the box. Thank you.

[gfweb]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

I really tried to like Lebanon bologna when we were down in Lancaster but I just can’t do it. 

Did you get the sweet stuff? Foul. The regular LB is great stuff.