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

[JoNorvelleWalker]

12 hours ago, rotuts said:

@JoNorvelleWalker 

 

lets review a bit :

 

I have a MeatBall  history , 

 

esp w Swedish Meat [ real meat ] balls

 

my mother has some sort of cooker thing  , a back in the day

 

and she made SB  for Students etc that came over to your house

 

as they had Killer tasty gravy , nice

 

if you were to make the SMB's this way

 

versus , the oven method that does not require turning 

 

and you save the Oven Jus for the sauce

 

what do you think about those two methods :

 

a tasty MB  ( Swedish or Not )

 

w the A4  vs the oven.

 

looking forward to you analysis.

 

BTW  Im having some M.R. just now 

 

two very different TJ's white table wine

 

combined   50:50  and ice cold

 

I know its a bit early here

 

But for Science ?

 

It Waits for KnowOne

 

 

I am no meatball expert, but I would think oven meatballs would be more like mini meatloaves?  These were fried.  The little takoyaki cups are generously filled with butter.

 

My gravy expertise, though, needs more work.

 

 

 

As shown in the dinner thread.  Would love to hear more about your mother's sauce.

 

 

 

[Anna N]

Not meatballs although I am sorely tempted. Not takoyaki because I don’t have the appropriate ingredients and not aebelskiver because I’m not in the mood for anything  sweet. So how about pseudo gougères?

 

I still have not purchased The Little Book Of Takoyaki since the Kindle version costs almost twice as much as the paperback version and I resent that. But I did find a book by Kevin Crafts called Ebelskiver.  After ensuring that it had some recipes for savoury concoctions and that its Kindle price was reasonable, I purchased it.

 

I turned quickly to the savoury section and was very tempted by many recipes but only one would work with the ingredients I had on hand. On reflection, for someone new to the whole process of producing anything from a takoyaki pan, this was probably a poor choice. A slightly stiffer batter might have given me less trouble. but come along for the ride anyway. 
 

 

I only prepped the centre two rows of the pan with some melted butter. Actually I’m a bit of a lazy person as far as that goes and I used a silicone pastry brush on the warm pan and my already softened butter which works quite well and does not leave me with leftover melted butter.  
 

I had the heat at what I considered moderate. That is no more scientific than saying the control knob was in the middle position. Were I to repeat this exercise I would increase the heat from the very beginning. 
 

 

The mixture which is just a basic batter with stiffly beaten egg whites folded in along with some grated cheese. I used a small cookie scoop to transfer the batter to the pan but a spoon would’ve worked just as well (or been equally messy). .

 

 

This is an extremely messy process at least it was for me on my first try.  The little guy in the centre back is the first one I tried to flip. Obviously it was too soon. 

 

I added another row when I saw how much batter I had left.

 

 

I am dubbing the one in the centre at the rear the Ring of Saturn. As you can see it was a bit challenging to make sure that when they were flipped the uncooked surface would be fully inside the pan. I was using chopsticks, and let’s face it, my fingers, to manipulate these. 
 

 

So here they are.  Tasty little bites reminiscent of gougères. 

 

 

 

 

 

[lemniscate]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

I was using chopsticks, and let’s face it, my fingers, to manipulate these. 

 

@Anna N   I haven't used chopsticks to flip the meatballs and hash brown balls due to lack of skill, I use a jar spatula and it seemed to do a pretty good job of fitting around the food to flip.   I also start the A4 hotter than I think I need because the "balls" need to set pretty quick.

 

Your gougeres-balls look good to me.

[Anna N]

14 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

 

@Anna N   I haven't used chopsticks to flip the meatballs and hash brown balls due to lack of skill, I use a jar spatula and it seemed to do a pretty good job of fitting around the food to flip.   I also start the A4 hotter than I think I need because the "balls" need to set pretty quick.

 

Your gougeres-balls look good to me.

Thanks. Yes I do believe that a hot pan is the route to go. It also occurred to me today after I had made them that the batter might’ve been more easily dispensed from a squeeze bottle provided of course that it had a large enough tip. 

[lemniscate]

5 minutes ago, Anna N said:

squeeze bottle

I do believe I saw that technique is some of the videos about the A4 or similar products.  That's brilliant.

 

[Anna N]

42 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

I do believe I saw that technique is some of the videos about the A4 or similar products.  That's brilliant.

 

I have not yet watched such videos but I guess I should. 
 

For those who make popovers or  Yorkshire puddings (not sure what the difference is), the little book I got today has a method of using the A4 takoyaki pan insert in the oven to make tiny ones. 

[lemniscate]

@Anna N  squeeze bottle/piping bag technique video

 

 

[lemniscate]

Used A4box to make large, thin, rectangular omelet this morning.  I did 4 whipped large eggs, but I think 3 would have been better.  I sauteed chopped  precooked bacon and leftover cooked plain bucatini noodles together in a little ham fat.   Then poured the whipped eggs over and put the lid on.  About 5-6 minutes on the mid-way dial heat setting.   Then I added blobs of some homemade fromage blanc with green onions and chopped celery in it ( I had been using it as a dip and it needs to be used up soonish) and then attempted a letter fold on the omelet.  It went better than I expected but not perfect since it was first attempt.  It was a clean out the fridge dish.  Great little Sunday breakfast for two.  

[lemniscate]

Couldn't leave well enough alone this morning and a lightbulb went off in my head regarding the takoyaki pan, egg bites?!?!?!   I used four eggs and the remaining fromage blanc and whipped it.  I only did the half fill on the cups and slowly coaxed them over.  They look like yellow UFO's.  The texture is light and airy, souffle-ish.   I was worried they would be rubbery, the other tasters pronounced them light and airy and delicious.   So maybe a takoyaki pan victory.

[Anna N]

20 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

So maybe a takoyaki pan victory.

Perhaps then you can build on your victory and combine it with the idea of the squeeze bottle and make teeny egg “planets”! 

[lemniscate]

@Anna N  Perhaps, but my Space Program is in its infancy.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Last night I had only one small lamb chop to grill so I decided to try the A4Box.  The A4Box worked very well indeed.  As Anna has said, it does get hot.  Maybe I'll just save the Philips for bigger things.

 

[Anna N]

9 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Last night I had only one small lamb chop to grill so I decided to try the A4Box.  The A4Box worked very well indeed.  As Anna has said, it does get hot.  Maybe I'll just save the Philips for bigger things.

 

 My Philips is moving on. It just takes up too much room for the few times that I have used it.  I do find that the A4 Box does just fine for my one lamb chop or whatever else I need to cook for just me. I enjoyed playing with the Philips and I hope its next owner appreciates it as much as I did. 

[DesertTinker]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

 My Philips is moving on. ... I enjoyed playing with the Philips and I hope its next owner appreciates it as much as I did. 

I really like that  you’re willing and able to “share the joy”!

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, DesertTinker said:

I really like that  you’re willing and able to “share the joy”!

Thanks but I cannot accept unearned kudos. It was always here only temporarily. I simply do not have room for it. @Kerry Beal could not walk away from a bargain so I got the opportunity to play with it which I really enjoyed. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I used the A4Box for some bluefish the other night.  Worked well.  And compared to bluefish on the Philips, it looked less like a trilobite.

 

So far my experiences with the A4Box have all been positive.

 

[lemniscate]

As luck would have it, I received some smoked pulled pork from a family member.   The remains of it were heated in the A4 with some tomatillo sauce (TJ's), some chopped hoagie sauce (Centos) and some cheap grated yellow cheese.

 

Scooped up with the TJ's flax seed corn chips.  And beers.  And sunset.  Patio food.   It was excellent and relaxing.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Has anyone tried using the A4Box to heat a small pan, say for fondue?

 

[lemniscate]

You mean, like, put a non-ferrous pot on top of the griddle part and heat up?   Hmmm, don't see why that can't work, would be something like those metal heat diffusers I got with my original Burton.   Just a transfer of heat.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

7 hours ago, lemniscate said:

You mean, like, put a non-ferrous pot on top of the griddle part and heat up?   Hmmm, don't see why that can't work, would be something like those metal heat diffusers I got with my original Burton.   Just a transfer of heat.

 

Exactly.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

The other night I dug the A4Box out for cooking swordfish.  So far anything that's not fatty grills well on the A4Box.  I should try to use it more.

 

[lemniscate]

I just seared off a whole bunch of home-cured back bacon slices on the patio on the A4, THEN I used the leftover fat/juices to sear/steam a whole bunch of brussels sprouts along with a glug or 2 of balsamic.   It was about 100F air temp, but at least the house didn't smell like brussels sprouts.  Worth the temporary discomfort and the A4 did a nice job on both ingredients.

[lemniscate]

I did some more Kefir Oladi in the A4 Box today.   I was out on the patio on a pleasant morning (rare rain is in the forecast).  I had a breakfast beverage (German Pils for day 3 of the Beer Advent Calendar from Costco) to assist.   The pancakes turned out very nice, I used the circles insert.  You can see in the pics how the heat varies from middle to sides on the insert by the browning of the pancakes.

[lemniscate]

I found that a bag of TJ's pork dumplings/potstickers fits exactly in the A4box   Was at a get together and brought the cooker as a serving device.   Steamed a bit then fried on the bottom.

[dtremit]

I am late to post here, but ended up grabbing one in Moon Blue during the Christmas sales. Have used it a couple of times now for table cooking to great effect.

 

I was particularly impressed with how the grill pan performed for Korean BBQ — probably no great surprise as I am pretty sure the company behind A4Box is Korean. Great browning on the meat with almost no smoke at all. The griddle pan also cooked pajeon nicely to accompany the meat.

 

Just got the three additional pans set in — will be experimenting with some hot pots soon, and maybe budae jjigae on a cold night. We are traveling to Japan soon so both okonomiyaki and takoyaki seem likely to make an appearance at some point!

 

I'm also tempted to use the six pancake insert to make something like crumpets or English muffins. I'm not sure if the wells are tall enough for the extremely fluffy Japanese-style pancakes that are so trendy over there now, but it might be worth a try.