I came across this recipe and had to try it out. I only had one six inch springform pan. So I poured the rest of the batter into another baking dish. Note to future self: pour only half-way up the pan! This cake will expand quite a bit from the steam generated. It looked like a soufflé in the oven.

I also experimented a little bit. I used one teaspoon of Chipotle chile power instead of the recommended 3/4. And I also added one teaspoon of Ancho chile power as well. I wonder how it will turn out…

This month’s Cook’s Illustrated had a recipe for blueberry pie. And it looked good. It gave me another excuse to make another pie crust. And it provided me with some pie. Sweet, sweet, blueberry puhaaa…

Adam made Chicken Tikka Masala recently and he provided recopies here and here. This inspired me to make my own batch!

Cooking the Chicken Tikka was somewhat difficult using a gas oven. And rather wasteful during Summer. The pan underneath the burners didn’t really have a good rack. So I didn’t use one. But the heaping amount of yogurt sauce that I used made a mess as it sat under the chicken resting in the pan. Next time, I will definitely use a cookie rack to get the chicken up off the ground, so to speak. And I will also pound the chicken into an even thickness. The natural breast is just too thick at one end and too thin at the other. It doesn’t lead to even cooking.

Also, I should have use the Highlight Tone Priority feature of my Canon camera. That rice is rather hard to not lose detail in the picture. I used two large lowel lights at both ends with a white reflector at the rear. And I also used a naked flash unit on the camera for some highlights. But I probably should have diffused it somewhat.

With all of those minor nibbles aside, the food tasted good.

I went to Sam’s Club and bought the smallest PSMO (IMPS/NAMP 189A: Peeled, Side Meat On) that I could find for $40.13. The packaging that you see is exactly how the processing plant ships it. All Sam’s Club did was stick a label on it. I learned about tenderloins thanks to Alton Brown.

I cut away all of the fat and “silver skin” (connective tissue). I proportioned four rather large steaks. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach was. Next time I will make 6 or 8 servings.

I put a cast iron skillet on the grill and preheated it to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. I then seared the sides for a minute each.

I then liberally salted and peppered them and vacuumed sealed them in food saver bags. Mmmmm….

Just messing around with taking pictures. I wonder what my neighbor thinks? I’m sure a camera pointed towards her house might cause a little bit of a concern?

It been a while since I have made pizza. So sad. I was distracted by high-tech gadgets. Don’t worry though, Mr. Pizza. I would never put you in a vacuum bag and submerse you in water!

Next up with the sous vide experience was cooking Salmon. I bought a half of a pound of Atlantic Salmon and brined it in a 10% salt water solution for ten minutes (to help prevent the albumen from leaching out during the cooking). After patting the salmon dry, I then cut the it in half. I salted and peppered the fillets, poured a little bit of olive oil on them, and also put some garlic power on them. In one bag, I placed some tarragon. In the other, nothing else was added.

I cooked the fillet in 116 degree Fahrenheit water for an hour. When I removed the fish from the bag, I patted the top dry with some paper towels and then used a culinary blow torch to brown the top.

So here is my recipe for cooking steaks sous vide:

• Take a one inch thick cut of steak. T-bone, Porterhouse, strip, tenderloin, rib eye — it does not matter.
• Preheat a grill as hot as you can get it. While the grill is heating up, place the steaks in a freezer to cool down. But make sure that they do no actually freeze. We don’t want any ice crystals forming that will rupture any cell walls.
• Sear one side of the steak for 30 seconds. Flip it over, sear, flip and rotate, sear, and flip. You are not actually cooking the inside of the steak at this point. You are only forming a savory crust.
• Liberally salt the outside of the steaks and vacuum pack the steaks with a Foodsaver (in my case, a V2830). My hope here is that the salt will create a brine when the liquid comes out during cooking.
• Cook the steaks at 130 degrees Fahrenheit for at least an hour. What is great about this stage is that you can forget about the steaks. You cannot overcook the meat!
• Remove the meat from the bag and plate it. Enjoy!

Mmmm, juicy! The only problem is that I have yet to find non-gristly steaks in Texas. As you can see in the picture with the prominent connective tissue running along the steak.

Well, I broke down and bought a new toy. It is a thermal immersion circulator by Polyscience. What was once in the bailiwick of laboratory scientists, is now showing up in the kitchen of chefs. Food is vacuum sealed in plastic bags and cooked in a temperature controlled bath of water. This type of cooking is called sous vide. And you can read more about it here. So far I have used it to cook meat and salmon.

In a perfect world, I would live in the same complex as Central Market. I would buy groceries daily and shop the market for what ever mood strikes me. This time, I wound up with

• Orange Cauliflower
• Mexican Asparagus
• Minneola Oranges
• Reed’s Extra Ginger Brew
• Green Gourmet Garlic