Category Archives: vacuum sealing

The Price Of Cooking Modernist Cuisine, Part IV: More Gadgets, Ingredients and Resources

17 Friday May 2013

Posted by in blow shit up, cookbook, cooling, homogenization, hyrocolloids, marination, sous vide, vacuum sealing

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By far the most popular post on this site is The Price Of Cooking Modernist Cuisine, Part I: Tools And Gadgets. Along with Part II: Food Additives and Part III: Cookbooks and Other Resources, they provide a handy compendium of what’s available (and affordable) for the home cook to delve into Modernist Cuisine.  It’s been a couple of years since they were posted however, and there are other gadgets, ingredients and whatnot I’ve collected since then that can be added to the list.  Therefore, let’s take a look at other things you can use to create cool funky food in your kitchen.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Compressed Melon Terrine

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by in gels, hyrocolloids, MC at home, recipes, vacuum sealing

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Compressed Melon Terrine

It’s been absolutely beautiful in Seattle the past few weeks.  The sun has been out, the flowers are in full bloom, and generally the malaise that creeps into people’s day to day personalities after months of cloud cover has given way to smiles and laughter. And lots of exposed white, pale skin.

The food has changed as well as the smell of BBQs has been in the air while we enjoy a respite from the gray skies.  I wanted a light snack that fit the warm days, and chose melon slices.  That get glued together.  As you do.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Lamb Shank with Muslim Curry and Candied Orange and Carrot Pulao

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in hyrocolloids, MC at home, recipes, sous vide, thickeners, vacuum sealing

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Lamb Curry

A dinner party.  I haven’t had one since December, and I haven’t tackled The Work for the last few weeks, so I went back at it.  This time I chose something I could prepare beforehand, so I wouldn’t be in the kitchen for most of the meal.  Lamb Curry.  I can sous vide the lamb, have the sauce on the stove, and just some quick plating will be all that is necessary.  Well, almost.

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Sweet Meats and Cheese Infusions

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in centrifuge, infusion, sous vide, vacuum sealing

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Scott Approves

Scott approves of experimentation in the kitchen

Scott and myself have been hanging out with “Rotovap Chris” lately to do further food experiments in our kitchens.  We came up with themes for each session so we can focus a bit while having fun.  The last two were “Meat and Sweet” and “Cheese Infusions”.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Hungarian Beef Goulash

06 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in brining, centrifuge, combi oven, fermentation, foams, hyrocolloids, MC at home, recipes, sous vide, thickeners, transglutaminase, vacuum sealing

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Hungarian Beef Goulash

I haven’t tackled a big recipe in a while, so it was time to consult The Work and give it a shot.  I was having guests over and thought the Hungarian Beef Goulash from Volume Five would do the trick. And as usual, it was a lot of work and all sorts of unseen problems presented themselves.  From procuring ingredients to equipment breakdowns, timing issues and even a poorly focused camera (as you’ll see – sorry about that), this one barely made it through. But made it through it did.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Pulled Mushrooms

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in combi oven, MC at home, recipes, sous vide, vacuum sealing

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Let's Pull This Apart

I had quite a bit of BBQ sauce from the barbeque I went to last week.  I even brought it to another barbeque, but still had leftovers.  What to do?  A quick look in the book and I found a recipe that uses the sauces: pulled mushrooms.  It’s like spaghetti marinara except they’re mushroom noodles in BBQ sauce.  Why of course it’s like that.  Plus the recipe was inspired by Ideas In Food.  Since I had recently met Alex over at Scott’s a few weeks back, it seemed fortuitous.  Time to head to the Asian grocery store.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Kalbi Flank Steak

18 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in marination, MC at home, recipes, sous vide, vacuum sealing

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Kalbi Flank Steak Recipe

I had half of a flank steak left from my foray into microwaved beef jerky, so I needed to use it up.  Luckily, just 15 pages later in the The Work, there was a recipe for Kalbi Flank Steak.  This is interesting because in Korean, Kalbi means “rib”, and the marinade is applied mostly to beef and pork ribs.  But hey, we’re Modernists, right? Let’s see what a different technique applied to the same product can create.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Puffed Chicken Feet

17 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in combi oven, MC at home, recipes, sous vide, vacuum sealing

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Puffed Chicken Foot

Puffed Chicken Foot, or “Party Claw” (photo: Scott Heimendinger)

I threw a big dinner party last weekend.  Well, six people total (including our culinary teammate Scott), but seven courses.  I totally brought it.  But then I was brought down: three of the courses totally sucked.  The pea consommé?  At the last moment I overdid it with the cinnamon oil – it tasted like a bad scented candle.  The Thai beef curry broth was watery and the beef over-tender.  The sous vide vegetables were mushy and lifeless.  Man, was I embarrassed.  But one of the courses did come through: my deep fried chicken feet.  Good thing, too – they took the longest to prepare. I don’t know if I was redeemed, but at least I wasn’t damned.  In the end, fowl became friend.

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