Use of of these
because you feel braver because you can throw a “wider beam” of water. Done it many times (thanks arrendek for that info!) Wasps don’t perceive water as an “attack” they view it as a “insurance claim” situation. And because it’s just soapy water you can just spray the crap out of them (unlike with poison where you really don’t want to be using the stuff at all anyway).
While I genuinely appreciate the advice/thoughts/links (I really do), it’s worth noting that my balcony is all of about 3ft by 12ft (with the door opening exactly into the middle of that) and that I have not willingly stepped out onto it during warm months in like 3 years out of sheer terror :)
Now, the, “bribe a neighbor with food” suggestion, I could get behind. . .
What you’re looking for is a neighbor who will say “Hold my beer”. There’s an entire reddit dedicated to your success story.
Interested to hear positive feedback on the AeroGarden. I’ve been hovering over the buy button on an older model (Harvest) for about six months, but the mixed reviews, the unavailability of gourmet seed pods on a standalone basis in the UK, and the suspicious long-term discount (it’s going for about £70 now) have put me off.
Normally I just buy a single-pot basil plant from the supermarket and use that, but if I fail to water it for a couple of days it’s nearly dead. If I could leave the AeroGarden for a week or two while I go on holiday, that would be great. And I’d have a wider variety of herbs.
Just my humble opinion, but being afraid of flying things that sting isn’t dumb in the slightest.
@skipper this was the first time I tried making wings on the smoker, but they went on frozen and cooked at 425 for 45 minutes. At that temp, they only get a very little smoke flavor, so you could just as easily call them grilled.
The sauce was minced garlic, butter, and Cholula chili garlic sauce (which I love). It’s rather mild, but you could add Frank’s/Crystal/etc for more heat if you wanted.
So I don’t want to oversell, because it is a great device in specific circumstances. As far as pods, I’ve not gone beyond the ones I got to start with, which were the herb pack that came with, a lettuce and a blank pack that were separate. Availability hasn’t seemed to be an issue, but I’ve not looked for them.
Some specific things though? It’s grown well, fits nicely in the laundry room, stuff grows quickly, the lettuce and herbs seemed of good quality, automated reminders work nicely, you can customize cycles and it has settings for various types, the light is bright enough that I don’t need to turn on the lights in the (small) room while it is on, and I’ve been generally happy.
My experience is that for fully mature plants, especially lettuce, it is good for 5-7 days before needing a fill. The lettuce is super thirsty so after a week it would probably start to have difficulty. Now the water level alert is when it can no longer cycle the pump effectively due to low level. But depending on the plants two weeks might be pushing. For basil or something? Probably fine. Lettuce would not be, since I pulled them it has used far less water for example. Those leafy greens take a ton!
But it would definitely do the trick. I add about half a gallon of water every week, and the nutrients every two.
I’m not a huge lettuce eater, so no need to worry about that. It would be for herbs - ideally basil, rosemary, thyme, chives and parsley, but in practice whatever is in the herb pods I can get.
If you actually know where the wasp nest is, just get some wasp/hornet killer… The stuff is turbo death, and comes in a can that will spray it like 20 feet… as soon as it hits the nest they die within seconds.
If anyone is interested in Joule, they are 30 bucks off today, including the new white model (so, 169/149 vs 199/179).
Japanese week continues with Tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet); steamed rice; Japanese vegetable curry with onions, potatoes, and carrots; and miso soup with tofu, green onions, and wakame.
One of my favorite Japanese yoshoku dishes is chicken katsu curry with rice. Pretty similar, except extra curry sauce instead of the katsu sauce.
Just a part of my meal this evening. Went for a Japanese style elote this evening. Corn on the cob with kewpie mayo and nori furikake
A+++ Would do again. Only thing I’d change is a proper grilling instead of boiled corn.
So. After vacuum sealing three eye round steaks with salt, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika last night… This morning I carefully placed the three bags in a water bath with an Anova. I had it at 140 due to fear that such a tough piece of meat needed it. I had it there for about 12 hours. I only had to add a large cup of microwaved water near the end due to evaporation.
The wife came home at 6:30 ad I cut the bags open, saving the liquid for gravy. The steaks were seared in a pan on the stove that was heated on high until it was very hot. I didn’t have oil so I used a cooking spray at first. At this time the wife utilized a broom to wave at the smoke detector during browning. Eventually I turned down the heat and added non-salted butter.
It was actually damn good. The meat was not as pink as we would have hoped. More like med well. Yet it was still tasty and tender. The next time I go for 130 with a good cut. Hey it was my first time. I probably made several mistakes and it was still really tender.
No pics because I was in a hurry after removing the meat from the bath. Next time I’ll annoy you with pictures.
Patting the meat dry worked so very well. The crust was wonderful. Next time, good steaks at 130. and I want to try a ground beef/pork mix to make sous vide hamburgers.
That looks gorgeous, @nKoan! And sounds wonderful. Hmm. I have all of those ingredients except for corn laying around. . .
12 hours is way long for a steak, but ultimately ok. The texture will change a bit, but not bad.
Be advised, you could absolutely cook a cheap cut and make it more rare, and it will be more tender than that. Saturday if you are doing it for a long time, because it’s the time that breaks it down.
One final but of advice though… I believe that if you are doing it longer than 4 or 6 hours, there is some minimal temperature that you need to use for safety reasons. I want to say that tell is 130, but it may be 135. You should check this out to be sure. I think the serious eats links I posted cover it somewhere.
So, tldr version, you can absolutely cook tough cuts at around 135 and they will be more tender than you’ve had them before… But make sure you don’t use too low a temperature for really long cooks.
That looks lovely. I would eat the hell out of that.
In other news I’d say “never boil corn” because IMHO you just lose too much flavor to water. I did regular plain corn tonight (nothing as beautiful as you show here) as I said above. In a 350 oven for 30 min. Let rest wrapped in a towel for a few minutes and then shuck the corn.
If you cannot grill it, I’d say do it in the oven or microwave (which is delicious as well). I’m totally against boiling it.
-xtien
To confirm what Timex said, as long as you don’t cook below 130 F for more than two hours you are okay. For steaks/beef, Kenji recommends different time windows, but usually up to 3 hours. That does not mean over that is bad, it just means the texture of the meat changes. As you go longer, the meat holds together less and you get more of a pull apart texture versus firm and cuttable.
Though this guide is for steak, he has several others, and probably one for roasts as well:
Remember, the temperature regulates the done-ness, while the length of time (over a certain threshold) generally regulates the tenderness/mushiness. These are largely separate axes when it comes to sous vide, unlike conventional cooking.
And, if anything, more well done will be tougher, cause it will cause the proteins to bind up.
I am so tempted to grab one of these. Voice control through the Echo is a big plus.
