Yeah, thats how i ended up with mine too, and didnt realise (the manual for the searzall is all over the place).

I haven't, but i was away for all of december and just haven't cooked anything recently that needed a sear. I still think its pretty awesome though.

I have used the Searzall a few times, and it is great. Seared the outside of a beef roast.

Here is a video of the Searzall action:
http://vid8.photobucket.com/albums/a...psryxqclrr.mp4






Best use so far has been putting the glaze on a slow cooked pork shoulder for David Chang's Saam (Korean pork lettuce wraps).

Speaking of both searzalls and Dave Chang, he posted this pic of double searzall action (all the way!) on his IG this morning

http://instagram.com/p/xxExRojYV1/?modal=true

When I sous vide I have some trouble keeping the bags fully underwater -especially with vegetables where there's some air in there that expands.

Suggestions?

Good racks?

Should've cut some of the fat away from the cross section, oh well.



72 hour sous-vide short rib; wasabi cream; red wine, garlic, rosemary, and shallot beef jus

I use wire Draining Grates

Very nice Fal

ya nice snack

****ing nice Faluzure as always! I was just thinking of sous videing some beef short ribs.

looks very nice Faluzure!

I've never seen those! I have been roasting chicken wings on cooling racks that have 3-inch legs, lol.

Nothing too crazy but I've wanted to try that toasted shredded brussels sprouts recipe ever since it was posted. Trying to up my plating game as it seems pretty ****ing terrible to me, any advice? not particularly looking to swirl any jus/sauce type stuff on the plate as that seems a bit pretentious for the kinda stuff I'm cooking. ****ty camera phone btw (and ****ty photo-taking skills ofc)

chicken breast w/dry rub, oven baked sweet potato chips and teh brussels sprouts



Oh and here's one from a couple of days ago, bacon-wrapped chicken tenders w/veg that was sauteed in the chicken+bacon juices/fat




this one is just a funny one from ages ago when i'd woken up with a hangover and wanted a greasy breakfast that'd also cheer me up

Jah--you have two brown things and one greenish thing on the first two plates. The first thing I would say is to add some bright color. Maybe some julienned red bell pepper, or bright red tomato slices.

So maybe you slice the chicken, then put it on a bed of your Brussels sprouts, and top it off with some red stuff. Then the chips just go on the side.

The items look like they taste good, but you could definitely take it to another level if the plate is presented a little more artistically.

Edit: the brekky face is perfect!

^what he said. Slicing things and/or stacking hard things on top of soft things would improve your plates.

Both of those first 2 would also benefit from a sauce. I don't know any chicken breast that wouldn't benefit from some sauce.

Thx for the tips guys, very well received.

yeah that's exactly what i'm trying to do. not trying to go too nuts, but I am aware there are easy improvements that would make a ton of difference, aesthetically, i just don't have the imagination for it just yet, hoping that'll come with practice and maybe watching more cooking shows

i've seen this in a lot of cooking shows where aesthetics are brought into play, i just have no experience with it and would have nfi what i'm doing but i'll certainly start trying it out as even if it's a failure i can still learn from it.

Definitely felt like it needed some more color, agree 100% with the above. I'm not much of a sauce guy mostly b/c for the past 2 yrs goal #1 has been losing weight and b/c I was a lazy pot smoking cvnt. now i'm ~bulking tho so maybe I can sneak some sauces in. what kinda sauces would you guys think would work here? first thing that came to mind for me was some sorta creamy blue cheese sauce (i'm thinking it would complement the colours already there, and if I added some 'redness' via pepper/tomato, a red sauce would make a bit less sense?

Guess I need to up my sauce game (from non-existant lol). I'm also just starting out properly cooking and trying to make stuff look good so I'm not used to adding stuff just for decoration (i.e. bell pepper/tomato), but yeah i'll play around with that.

Any cooking shows you guys can recommend that would teach me more about this sorta thing? I realise there's probably none that focus on it specifically but just a more 'classy' show I suppose?

ty always makes me smile when I come across that pic. But see, now after reading you guys' comments I'm thinking instead of lettuce nose I coulda used red bell pepper (in fairness I prob didn't have any in the house though)

Jah, it sounds like you're struggling with the basics of composition. I'd say skip the cooking shows for tips here and get a foundation in the visual arts first.

pretty sure the brussels sprouts are supposed to be sliced larger and almost caramelized

lol at third plate though - cute

Oh I have absolutely no artistic sense, nor do I know any theory. the page you linked is full of stuff I have no idea about, will definitely read it and learn a lot I'm sure. thanks.
I'll endeavor to cook more regularly will be sure to post the resulting pics in here which will also have the added benefit of making me try harder when it comes to plating.

Yeah, the sprouts recipe called for a mandolin, I don't own one (altho it's def on my shortlist as it seems very versatile) so I just went with the largest setting on my oldschool lame-ass grater. Also, as to the caramelization, pan was prob too small for how many sprouts there were (at least 5x more than what's plated), thought it'd be fine as the pan is actually huge but I'll just make much less next time

Working in batches works too, you encounter this a lot with browning meat for stews/sauces.

Jah,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000YDO2LG

I have that mandoline. Only $15 and it works great.

well in that case mozzarella is simply the wrong choice for a cheese. you could maybe get away with using some kind of smoked mozzarrela which tends to be dryer too.
the bagged up shredded "mozzarrela" and i am using the word very loosely here is simply trash and to be avoided just like pre ground pepper.

Just wanted to let anyone know that's considering buying a VacMaster that their support is fantastic! I just had a potential seize up and Gary at VacMaster spent 30 minutes on the phone with me patiently walking me through the repair process. Good support and service is so rare these days, they deserve mega kudos for how helpful they are. You should also feel real good about an investment in their sealers because you won't be left stranded if a problem occurs down the road.

FYI-change the oil every 500 bags, someone told me 3000 bags and it almost cost me several hundred bucks plus a lot of hassle to replace the pump, not to mention not having it available for daily use (and I use the hell out of it!)

here's what it sounds like when your machine seizes up (the description describes what I did to fix it)---I edited out all the F-bombs at the end.

i wonder if there is any interest from the OOT+lounge crowd in nominating one dish a week, where everyone makes it and posts pics/experience/tips etc. kinda like a book club, but for cooking. we could follow a standard recipe or find our own.

i'm sure this happens on the internet already somewhere. but it seems a decent way to get people doing more adventurous cooking, or just any cooking whatsoever! i know i personally wish i did a lot more.

Yeti,

FYI that's a website I currently have in development with a friend!

So obv I think it's a good idea - I'm all for giving it a try here.

would probably be in