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No one has posted in here for a bit, so why not me? Last night's dinner. Potatoes by the wife, green beans by LG (microwave). London broil by yours truly using a different recipe from the Internet than what I used the last time I made this about three weeks ago:
The five year old who ate with us had two helpings so I figure it wasn't terrible.
Location: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
Posts: 5,680
Total Cats: 804
I don't have one. But from what I understand, some sous vides have a programmable controller. This allows you to heat along a curve.
To think of it. when I forget to pull frozen stuff out of the fridge the night before, I just thaw stuff in a small sealed container with water in it, on the counter.
1. Vacuum sealer - I recently bought a deep freeze for the garage so we can start stocking up more when we see sales.
I've had pretty good luck with the ubiquitous Food Saver units. They're not as good as the chamber style units, but I've sealed hundreds of pounds of wild game and fish over the years with mine. The biggest downside is that some of your bags will eventually lose seal and let air in. I'd estimate that it happens to less than 10%, and it's normally obvious fairly quickly so you can simply reseal.
I took America's Test Kitchen recommendation and went with the Breville Joule. Nice unit, has both wifi and bluetooth. 1100 watts seems to be above average as well which I'd imagine results in substantially faster warm-up time. The app that it comes with is really nice too. Gives good recipes with suggested times and temperatures. If you want one with just basic button functionality instead, I'd go with an Anova. Also, for most normal sized sous vides, the Rubbermaid 12 quart container is fantastic. Lots of lids made to fit specific devices as well. Or you can use a cooler when you want to sous vide an entire brisket
I have an Anova unit - also because of the Test Kitchen comparison. Wanted something basic, with good temperature consistency and it seemed like the best choice.
Also have a Food Saver, works well enough for us.
I took America's Test Kitchen recommendation and went with the Breville Joule. Nice unit, has both wifi and bluetooth. 1100 watts seems to be above average as well which I'd imagine results in substantially faster warm-up time. The app that it comes with is really nice too. Gives good recipes with suggested times and temperatures. If you want one with just basic button functionality instead, I'd go with an Anova. Also, for most normal sized sous vides, the Rubbermaid 12 quart container is fantastic. Lots of lids made to fit specific devices as well. Or you can use a cooler when you want to sous vide an entire brisket
I had to search for this to see that it was a sous vide and not a vacuum sealer. Because at first I was thinking to myself, "Self, what in the **** do I need WiFi and Bluetooth on a vacuum sealer. I will literally be standing right there."
"Self, what in the **** do I need WiFi and Bluetooth..."
i had the same thought, but for the sous vide machine. i returned the $200 joule, i didn't like the complication. who needs an app to cook a steak? i bought a $70 anova. i no bells. no whistles. simple. easy.
It's been quite a while since I've been in here. The News Nation project really threw me off my game. 12-14 hour days, 7 days a week, for six months, pretty much killed my motivation. And it took a while to get it back.
I'm not saying that I actually have it back just yet, but I'm trying to find it. I can kinda smell it, though that might just be a grue.
Anyway...
Sauté the things:
(Mushrooms, garlic, green onion. Added some crushed tomatoes, pepper, basil, oregano, a bit of cream cheese, and some red wine after this shot.)
Season and cook the other things:
(The melted Asiago makes this shot look pale and weak, but it worked well.)
Plate the things:
(Chicken is topped with a mix of panko and garlic, browned in olive oil.)
The sprouts have been soaking for a while in a mix of balsamic and olive oil. Also in the bowl is some pepper, chopped pecans, and dried cranberries. The garlic has been baked in the oven for about 30 minutes. (Peeled, drizzled in olive oil, and wrapped in foil.
The bacon, sliced, will go on top as they all go into the pan.
Here in Chicago, it is traditional to observe the end of the summer rioting season by putting on Jimmy Buffet and indulging in the flavors of the Baja region of Wisconsin the Keys.
Fish cakes: Tilapia, finely diced onion, panko, mayonnaise, lime juice, mojito-lime seasoning. Bake Tilapia 12 minutes, then mix with other ingredients, form into *****, and pan-fry until nicely browned.
Salad: Sliced Persian cucumber, store-bought pickled ginger (finely sliced), a bit of cabbage and carrot, topped lightly with poppyseed dressing, black pepper, and lime.
Location: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
Posts: 5,680
Total Cats: 804
Last week, we did a TOTD trip. We brought along a chef. Guy is pretty good, has his own place, has been on TV and the cover of magazines.
This fella had us eating Fettuccine Alfredo out of a dish washing tub and i'd be lying if i didn't tell you it was the best damn pasta i've ever eaten.
(yeah Chris has our / my team shirt on) haha
Here in Chicago, it is traditional to observe the beginning of the autumn rioting season by putting on Metallica Goes to Punjab and indulging in the flavors of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region of southern Wisconsin.
Bake chicken breast. After resting, dice the chicken and add to a small saucepan containing yogurt, fresh cilantro, yellow curry powder, and garam masala. Simmer.
In another pan, saute thinly sliced onion and the left-over cabbage and carrot mix from the fishcakes recipe in olive oil for a few minutes. Add cooked rice, chicken broth, butter, saffron, salt, and the sachet of dried peppers which you get from the old woman at the bazaar in exchange for finding her lost broach which is shaped like a frog.
It's rare that I purchase single-purpose kitchen gadgets. And it never happens without months of hand-wringing, vis-a-vis "can I justify cluttering the kitchen relative to the utility of this?"
When it comes to splurging on a nice sharpener, the answer is yes.
This evening, we feature Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Audioslave, Seven Mary Three, and those fabulous Smashing Pumpkins.
And also some food.
Prep the things.
Cook the things.
Plate the things.
2020 has fucked with most people in some way. For me, it was eight months of 12-14 hour days, seven days a week, to launch this new newscast. All while bemoaning the fact that everyone else seemed to be on a Permanent Vacation. In the process, I spent millions of dollars, and purchased the biggest and most complex example of pretty much every piece of equipment which goes into a TV station. Like, every single vendor involved in the project has, at some point, uttered the phrase "Well, we've never done anything like that before," or "...but you guys are special."
I sent one email late at night which ultimately resulted in all of Nexstar Broadcasting (my company, consisting of about 190 TV stations) getting a permanent 20% discount on all equipment purchased from one of the largest manufacturers in the business, across the board, in perpetuity. (Seriously, our lawyers scanned that contract with an electron microscope; there is no end-date to the discount.) I was fairly intoxicated and pretty much at my wits' end at the time. The email, to greatly paraphrase, described in some detail certain physical acts which I vaguely suggested that the president of the company in question ought to perform if they were unable to adhere to a commitment which had been made verbally but not in writing the prior year, and hinted that my inclination at the time was to be rather publicly vocal about same.
Apparently, drunk-me is a hell of a good negotiator.
The point of that alcohol-fueled rant is that this year totally fucked me out of my culinary groove. And it's taken a while to recover.
There were a number of false-starts.
Tonight, I think I finally found it again.
It was the music. That was the thing which seemed so trivially insignificant that I'd forgotten it.
But this, THIS, my friends, is the single most important tool in my kitchen:
I spent an hour and a half doing 15 minutes of prep-work this evening, and loved every minute of it. As Jake famously said: "The band, Elwood! THE BAND!"
I mean, yeah, I seared pork in ghee, and tossed stuff into couscous, and made a reduction of pork juices and chicken broth and cider vinegar and red wine and a diced pear over a base of sautéed garlic and thyme, and all that high-falutin' culinary **** and so on.
But it was the music that was lacking this whole time.
A month or so ago, I had a damn near religious experience out in the wilderness of the north-central US. I think it may have actually been a legitimate epiphany. I'm being serious.
It's a long story. The Bee Gees were involved. And I'm OK with that.
But while that sort of music is perfectly fine when you're piloting an RV up a twisty mountain road at the cusp of twilight, with a cigar in one hand and a dixie cup o' whiskey in the other, it is not the sort of thing that motivates me to do good things in the kitchen.
Also, my sister got new lungs and a kidney, and seems generally to be moving in the direction of "will probably remain alive for the foreseeable future," which is a welcome change from the previous outlook. So that's nice.
Excellent news, on not only the email and finding your groove in the kitchen, but also for your sister.
If you want something less bulky for music, check out the dual-driver BT headphones from Status. They are on sale right now at a huge discount. I thought they were underpriced, based on performance, at the normal price. https://www.status.co/products/btstructure
I actually just gave mine to the better half since I don't use them as much as I thought I would. The sound quality and battery life is really fantastic for the price.
No recipe tonight, as it was a late evening at work and I haven't got the time. I did go to the grocery store, however, so more to come.
Originally Posted by z31maniac
If you want something less bulky for music, check out the dual-driver BT headphones from Status. They are on sale right now at a huge discount. I thought they were underpriced, based on performance, at the normal price. https://www.status.co/products/btstructure
I own a couple of sets of earbuds, both wired and wireless. And while I do appreciate their compactness and ease of stowability when out in the world, when at home or at work I very strongly prefer full size over-the-ear headphones.
The Sonys are great cans. I bought that set last year, to replace one that finally broke after 21 years of ownership. Literally the only problem in this application is that the plug is rather on the large side, relative to a phone. It barely fits, and the act of unclipping the phone from the belt clip knocks it out 100% of the time.
So, I've ordered a set of full-size bluetooth headphones. I looked at a lot of offerings from Audio Technica, JBL, Sennheiser, etc., but in the end wound up buying some no-name pair for $50, on the basis of the fact that the ergonomics look decent, and the reviews seemed... real. We'll see how that works out. They seem to be of all-plastic construction, but I'm not planning to rough-handle them.
No recipe tonight, as it was a late evening at work and I haven't got the time. I did go to the grocery store, however, so more to come.
I own a couple of sets of earbuds, both wired and wireless. And while I do appreciate their compactness and ease of stowability when out in the world, when at home or at work I very strongly prefer full size over-the-ear headphones.
The Sonys are great cans. I bought that set last year, to replace one that finally broke after 21 years of ownership. Literally the only problem in this application is that the plug is rather on the large side, relative to a phone. It barely fits, and the act of unclipping the phone from the belt clip knocks it out 100% of the time.
So, I've ordered a set of full-size bluetooth headphones. I looked at a lot of offerings from Audio Technica, JBL, Sennheiser, etc., but in the end wound up buying some no-name pair for $50, on the basis of the fact that the ergonomics look decent, and the reviews seemed... real. We'll see how that works out. They seem to be of all-plastic construction, but I'm not planning to rough-handle them.
This reminds me that I need to go to the office and grab my Sennheiser's and headroom amp.
Got the new headphones today. So time for a recipe.
For $60, I'm quite happy with them. Sound quality, for the purpose of listening to compressed audio from a tablet, is perfectly adequate, bordering on good. I mean, I'm listening to 90s grunge rock here, not restoring the original master tapes of Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours. Perspective is important.
And they're pretty decent in the comfort department as well. They stay firmly in place even while moshing, but don't feel like they're squeezing your head in a vise like so many cheap over-the-ear units do. I'm looking at you, Philips.
What really surprised me however was the weight. I'd been prepared for them to be heavier than my Sonys (what with the battery and all), but I was impressed by just how much not-heavier they are. 228 grams vs. 212, and that's excluding the cord in the case of the ones they're replacing. Obviously they have a lot of plastic in places where the Sonys have metal, but they don't feel brittle.
The range is great. The tablet is mounted to a gooseneck on the center island in the kitchen (the prep area), and the connection doesn't start to break up until I'm two rooms away. Which is nice, as it means that Pearl Jam's Even Flow keeps right on streaming as I step away from the kitchen to, well, stream the flow after a few beers. (Pun very much intended.)
So, yeah, I'd recommend these to anyone looking for a decent set of kitchen headphones:
The beef is a top sirloin, bought thinly sliced. Turns out that if you say to the butcher "I really wish I could get such-and-such piece of meat, but about 3/16" thick," they will happily oblige. My impression is that for a good butcher, fulfilling reasonable custom orders, and having a conversation about what you intend to do with it, is a welcome relief from the tedium.
The marinade consists of sesame oil, rice vinegar, coconut aminos (feel free to use soy sauce), crushed garlic, and sriracha. Stick it in a zip-loc, and let them get acquainted for a couple of hours.
Those bell peppers are gonna get sauteed along with one of the shallots. Slice 'em.
Slaw consists of store-bought cabbage-n-carrot mix, thinly sliced radish, half a shallot and about half of that thumb-o-ginger finely shredded. Prepare a dressing of fish sauce, aminos, rice vinegar, and a bit of sugar in a large bowl first, then add the dry ingredients and toss. Back into the fridge to marinate for a bit.
I'm going to pause here for a moment to reflect upon another kitchen gadget. After a particularly gory incident involving the mandoline about a year ago, I bought a set of cut-resistant gloves. Nothing super fancy or expensive, but they really gave me back a lot of confidence when using this tool.
I haven't rammed them hard against the blade in the name of testing, but I can easily get a radish or a shallot down to the last usable little bit. The tip of the glove barely catching against the blade is the sign that "you're done with this one. Time to move on." They haven't started to fray yet.
Anyway... Prep done. The peppers go into the pan on medium with olive oil. After a few minutes, the shallot joins them. Simmer until they start to char, turning occasionally.
Into another very hot pan goeth the meat. Sear that bitch for about a minute per side. We're talking about the sort of treatment which, in Dante's Inferno, is reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.
Well before it's actually done, remove the meat to the cutting board, and slice thinly. Return to pan, and toss in the marinade. Simmer on medium until a sauce-like consistency is reached.
In the background, medium-grain white rice has been happening. You may have noticed that bottle of Mirin in the first photo. That's gonna get mixed into the rice after it's done cooking. We're not doing full-on sushi rice here, but that's the direction it's going in. Slightly sweet, slightly sticky.
For those unfamiliar, which I was until about two years ago, Mirin is one of the least well-known Japanese vinegars in the west. It's a close cousin to sake, but sweeter. Kind of like comparing Chablis to vermouth. In most grocery stores, you may find "Aja-Mirin" in the Asian foods section. A figurative translation of this would be "tastes like Mirin." If there is any grocery store at all in your area which is of any east-Asian persuasion whatsoever (Korean, Vietnamese, etc), there is a decent chance that they'll have the real stuff. Having tasted both, I can say that, in my own case, it's worth driving the extra five minutes to the Joong Boo Market, which is literally located inside the interchange of I-94 East and N. Kimball Ave. I have no idea how they got that tiny little piece of land zoned for retail, but it's worth the visit.
Assemble, from bottom to top: Rice, slaw, peppers, beef. And bon appétit!
This was definitely a top-ten dish. Will be doing this one again.
05-06-2020, 12:43 PM
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