It was almost as good as the steak. Highly recommended as Asparagus is in season!
Perfect! This has the hallmarks of everything I like: easy, and cheesy. :)
Apparently that sous vide function is exclusive to the Ultra. The Ultra wasn’t available until a few months after I purchased mine so I had no idea they had a sous vide version. Of course with the temp variation and no water circulation on the Ultra, I think I would prefer an Anova anyway, but it sounds like a decent set up if those two issues are not a concern for you.
Sounds like the instant pot uses an extra probe or perhaps the same one mine has at the bottom as a PID controller for maintaining the temp. I like that, as it would allow more than just sous vide, you could braise with it as well, something like a 24 hour stock would be extremely easy.
Actually, reading up on it, I am unsure exactly how it works. Like you though, my model appears to be too early to have those features.
The Ultra is an exclusive for Sur La Table. I am sure other models will be released with it later. The digital interface on this one with the complete features and a pretty good discount with an Amex bonus is what drew me to the deal. As with anything else, if I get into it enough I’ll certainly shift from a jack of all mostly good to a specialized device if I like it enough.
I work 100% remote so I don’t have to have things cook as quickly as I used to when I got home really late which means I am trying new things more often it seems.
Yeah Im a bit envious that yours has that function because as you said, it gives you a shot to try sous vide out, and then upgrade if you like the results. On the other hand, I got my Instant Pot on a Black Friday sale for $60 so I could add the Anova and be right around the cost of the Ultra anyway. Methinks that I may drop a hint or two around my upcoming birthday.
I’m jealous. I get a remote workday about 2-3 times a month and I love being able to be home to do the same thing, babysit something I’m cooking throughout the day. It’s so easy to prep before my work hours, throw something on to cook, then check on it when I hear timers going off. Seriously I’d probably try to start baking more if I were home.
That’s wierd. Anova arrived today, bigger than I expected. I looked at the Amazon page and it’s $149. $40 more than I paid. Even the link I pasted here has at $109. Not that I’m complaining.
Bigger than I expected as well. Still, much smaller than a ton of other kitchen gadgets I have.
Truedat. I wanted to keep the kitchen island uncluttered. Now it is the permanent home of my Kitchen Aid mixer, marble pastry board, crystal fruit bowl filled with everything but fruit…
The Anova will find a place.
I’ve already spotted an old cooler I want to do a conversion on for extended sous vide cooks. Similar to this one but mine is a bit smaller.
Same, though I went with an 8 gallon polycarbonate food container. It doubles as storage for the Anova unit itself, which is nice. The whole kit and kaboodle gets bunged in a closet when not in use.
So at long last, I am fully returned from my weekend travels and travails, and y’all have been busy in here! Loving the sous vide discussion. It’s one of those gadgets I’m trying to hold off on until we’ve got a bigger kitchen, but you guys are making it very hard to do. Lovely pictures from @Skipper, @Tman, @Eric_Majkut, and the rest :-D
So, as I mentioned upthread, I did food prep for about 20 friends and acquaintances this weekend. I got pictures (not very good ones, sadly) of a lot of it, and will attempt to convey the madness to you all.
These are the groceries I purchased or had and brought with me. In addition to this, the hostess bought 5.5lbs of thinly sliced beef, 3.5 lbs each of chicken breast tenderloins and chicken wings (not pre-divided, so I got to learn how to divvy up a wing really fast this weekend! hah), 6lbs of bacon, 4lbs of sausage links, 48 eggs, half a gallon of buttermilk, and 48oz of kimchi :-D
Over the course of about 4 whirlwind hours I (with the desperately appreciated help of a couple of friends) produced:
- Beef Bulgogi (with sliced onions, carrots, and scallions)
- Korean Fried Chicken Wings
- Korean Fried Chicken Tenders
- Seasoned Spicy Bean Sprouts
- Seasoned Spicy Spinach
- “Ssamjang” BBQ Dipping Sauce
- Spicy Cucumber-and-Onion Salad
- Sweet-and-Salty Glazed Baby Potatoes
- Honey-Butter-Soy Sauce for the chicken
- Spicy-Sweet Glaze for the chicken
- Zesty Asian Slaw
- White Rice (about 3lbs of worth, lol)
- Spicy Rice and Fish Cake Stew (not pictured, d’oh)
Despite some big setbacks–I was two hours delayed due to horrible traffic between Raleigh and Gatlinburg, TN, and thus had to rush the cooking; and I also managed to HORRIBLY burn the first batch of rice, necessitating a friend driving down the mountain we were cabin partying it up on top of to get more and totally wasting the extremely fancy Korean rice I bought–it all came together nearly perfectly at the end and people ate damn near all of it. We wound up throwing out about 1/4 of the sprouts and a cup or two of the stew, but the rest was either devoured or taken home by folks!
The next morning, three of us got up early and made a huge breakfast of buttermilk pancakes, omelets (with toppings like onions, bell peppers, Spam–leftover from the Korean, since I didn’t have time to make Kimchi Fried Rice–hot peppers, mushrooms, and cheese), scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. Sadly I “lost” my bag of chocolate chips, nuts, and cranberries, so the pancakes were fairly plain, apart from honey, butter, and syrup (in truth, the bag wound up stuck in my car and all the chocolate melted. fuck).
No pics of breakfast, since it was basically served ad-hoc.
Finally, the second night, my buddy prepared a huge Greek feast, which I helped out on several elements of (including the grilled kebabs and the chicken gyro).
All told, we had a big make-your-own Greek salad bar with lettuce, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, parmesan and feta, and sliced olives. He also made these amazing puff pastry-based spanakopita turnovers full of feta, spinach, and caramelized onions, plus some dolmas-from-a-can, the aforementioned grilled kebabs and chicken, pitas, roasted mixed-tubers (sweet and regular potatoes and three colors of carrots), and then yogurt sauce and minced veggies for the pitas. Later on, he made “Greek doughnuts”–yeast dough flavored with cinnamon and crushed walnuts, deep fried in balls an then drizzled with honey.
Of course, to say nothing of the enormous keg of beer and something like 40L of liquor and a dozen or so 6 packs of ciders and fancy beers. . .
It was a glorious weekend of food, friends, and fun :-D. Sadly I didn’t wind up running my RPG session as planned, but everything else was great!
Wow, I think Armando cooked all of Korea D:
Holy shit Armando.
Please tell me you got to collapse and everyone else cleaned up after that!
Lost chips, nuts and cranberries? I call Ambien walrus. Or the one that drank half a keg lol.
Nostalgia time! :)
So the wife came home. After making her dinner I did a Total Info Dump about Anova and sous vide.
She’s totally on board. Now calling her sister to tell her about it.
Boneless pork ribs ahoy! Pnotos to come.
BTW, welcome back Monsieur Penblade. Quite a Korean TID on your part as well. :)
A whole pack of the girls there descended upon the dishes with righteous fury. I did have to rescue my good knives from the washing machine twice, though! No respect…
Thanks, by the way, guys. I was super proud of the result, imperfect though it was!