What's cooking?

Reverse sear works great in the home environment, but would never work in a busy kitchen

 

left off "for the home cook".

I can see sous vide being VERY useful in a professional kitchen. But at home--dragging out the equipment to vacuum bag, filling a water tank, emptying it after so everything can be stowed away--sounds like a whole lot of work.

 

Lucretia, after several years of successfully using Kenji's beer cooler sous vide method (http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/...er-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html ), I finally sprang for a Sous Vide Supreme Demi, and I couldn't be happier. While it's true that prepping ingredients can be a bit of fuss, there's minimal attention needed for the equipment or process itself beyond paying attention to the timing. The unit is light and not much bigger than a toaster oven, so it stows easily on a shelf; if space is an issue, the Anova immersion ciculator is even smaller and works just as well.

But none of that would matter if the results weren't worth the trouble. To me, they are: perfect medium-rare steaks and roasts, rack of lamb, and what have you, every time. Recently used it to make duck confit, which came out spectacularly. I find I rely on it mostly for big family dinners and dinner parties, since it allows me to cook and hold the main course well ahead of time; then I just need to sear it off right before serving.

Just my $0.02 .

 

Stock from a recent visit to Peter Lugers with a couple of maniacs.

 

Pumpkin cheesecake for the clinic potluck later this week:

 

Doc you are speaking my language!

 

Good looking cheese cake Doc

 

Thanks, Jeffery! Jim, imagine it with a big scoop of bourbon-brown sugar whipped cream...

 

Wow! That sounds great!!

 

Pass the napkins please!

 

It was a hot 41*c here in Sydney. Had an urge to try my hands at sausage making, so I went to Bunnings (a local hardware store in Oz) and get a sausage caulking gun, then went to see my regular butcher to get pork and casing. I am pretty please and happy with what came out. Definitely caught a sausage making bug.

Here is my first attempt at pork fennel, sage, and parsley sausage, about 1kg total.




Also resuming pizza baking on a Q after a long long hiatus: pizza bianca, potato, rosemary and rock salt; and pizza pomodoro, sopressa, bocconcini, rocket, and prosciutto. Dough is a bit wonky, being out of touch and it was too wet, but came out ok in the end.

 

Outstanding.

 

That sausage!

 

Unofficial summer is already here in Sydney, 41*c last week, 38*c the other day. With a new ice cream churner, it is time to play with frozen desert.

Here is a homemade french vanilla afogato to chill myself down late in the morning.


And also had another go with sausage making, fairly plain pork and fennel this time, still with chunky pieces mixed with finer mince and lots of pork fat, around 30% in weight, I think.

 

Sausage looks great and I'm loving your toys.

 

I haven't looked in here for a while, spectecular stuff, everyone. Hard to point anything out, but Lucretia's roast beef made me drool (and I am happy I have one of these thermometers on order), and I love the sausage. For some reason I keep thinking that making sausage is only worth the effort if you make 20 pounds - and then never do it - but this looks like something everyone can do in reasonable time. And, of course, I can see 'I make my stocks only from Luger steaks' as Jim's tagline I can't wait to move and get back to a place with a real kitchen...

Stefan

 

A tardy update!

 

Thanks, Stefan!

I'll take a bowl of that soup, with a sausage on the side and some french vanilla for dessert, please.

 

Lambsicles:



Gotta love food that comes with a built-in handle.

 

wow! is there mustard on the crust