Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines

No, I’m not talking about last weekend’s Indy 500.  I’m talking about starting your food truck’s engine!  As I mentioned in the previous post about the cool stuff I saw at the National Restaurant Association, one of the vendors was Mobi Munch, a company dedicated to providing you with everything you need (truck & other infrastructure, consulting and development service, and online marketing) to start your own mobile food truck.  You do want your own food truck, right?  I mean everyone is doing it.

OK, so unless you live in California, you’re probably not seeing a whole lot of food trucks cruising through your neighborhood.  But that may be about to change – see today’s article in the Chicago Tribune about a local chef’s efforts to change the city law that forbids them.  It’s definitely a growing niche of the foodie market, so chances are it’s coming to your city soon.  What Mobi Much aims to do is provide all the specialized know-how and infrastructure for restaurateurs looking to expand their businesses into the mobile segment, allowing them to focus on just the food.

One of the first big names to join the Mobi Munch club is Ludo Lefebvre (you may have seen him on Top Chef Masters), and he’s using the Mobi Munch platform to share his fried chicken with the world.  And the odds are good that, with an easy turnkey infrastructure like this available to them, an ambitious restaurateur in your city will also be hopping onto the Mobi Munch bandwagon soon and bringing a food truck to your curb.  Then the rest of us can finally see (and taste) what those west-coasters have been talking and tweeting about.

Curious to find out more?  Check out www.mobimunch.com

2010 National Restaurant Association Show

Last weekend was the 2010 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, and being a fan of trade shows, I decided to check it out.  It’s just as ridiculously ginormous as the Home & Housewares Show (1600 exhibitors, 50,000 attendees) but geared towards products/services for the foodservice industry instead of consumers.  And it was food sample heaven!  I think about every third booth was doling out samples.  Cookies, hot dogs, coffee, juices, burgers, you name it, someone was there with a booth for it and offering samples.  And since they toiled so hard to make the food, it seemed rude to turn their offers down.  : )  Yes, dear readers, I do this all for you.

While, predictably, much of what was on offer at the NRA show didn’t fit into our purview here at the Foodie Forkful (unless you’re looking for reviews of industrial ice makers and reservation system software – let me know) but there were a few cool finds (which I’ll tell you about in detail in a couple further postings) and some noteworthy trends you might be interested in.  Because while most of us love to cook at home, we also eat out frequently, and so can expect to see the end results of alot of the activity from the NRA show.

First, natural & organic continue to be big.  No surprise there.  Also there was a huge gluten-free section, including a delicious gluten-free beer I got to try, made with sorghum.  Good news for the gluten-intolerant who still wants a brewski.  Many other offerings highlighted the lack of a variety of allergens like wheat, soy, dairy, peanuts, eggs, etc, which is great news for the growing number of people whose dining options have been limited due to allergens.

On a random note, guacamole seemed big.  I swear there were a dozen differing booths touting their guacs.

Food trucks were also big.  One company (which I’ll highlight later), which offers turn-key food truck infrastructure for those wanting to start a food truck of their own, had a whole darn truck in their booth.  Time to take grandma’s fried chicken recipe on the road!

Gourmet foods with international pedigrees were also highly visible: New Zealand and South Korea both had huge booths highlighting their native foods and ingredients, and both South American and Canadian beef had their cheerleaders there too.

One of the most interesting trends was technological.  I talked to four different companies (of probably a dozen) that develop Apps for the iPhone and Blackberry for restaurants.  For really minimal cost to the restaurants (like 35 bucks a month), these apps will allow for online ordering, making reservations, or even putting your name on the wait list.

So what does all this mean for the average foodie?  Basically, I think you can expect to see at least one of your favorite restaurants offer an ordering app in the near future.  You’re also going to find more gluten-free options, more natural and organic choices, and the growth of food trucks outside of the west coast (rumor has it that Chicago is working to become more food truck friendly…).  And oh yeah, you’re gonna see more guacamole too.  Enjoy!

IHHS 2010 Find: Baby Your Feet

So if you were following The Foodie Forkful leading up to the holidays, you may remember that we recommended a gel floor mat as a gift ideas during our 45 Forkfuls of Christmas feature. Well, while at the International Home & Housewares Show we ran into a company, Wellness Mats, who makes them. They are a fellow husband and wife team, which we thought was very cool, and they were great enough to send us a Wellness Mat for us to test.

So before I get into the details, the verdict is – yes, they are everything you’d hope they could be. They’re super comfy to stand on, and particularly when doing an extended amount of chopping or stirring, or even washing a big load of dishes it makes it much more pleasant to be standing in the kitchen. As far as utility goes, it doesn’t slip or slide even a bit; where you place it is where it will stay (unless, of course, you pick it up and move it…). Something I was initially concerned about was clean-up – being on the floor in the kitchen is a guarantee that it’ll get dripped or spilled on at some point (in our kitchen: frequently!). The outer material of the mat wipes clean with no trouble, so no problems there.

Something they had at the show, which is still in development, is a gel mat with an insert on the top. The inserts were patterned and colorful, meaning you could add a little style to your kitchen while pampering your feet. They looked great, and should be a hit when they are completed!

IHHS 2010 Find: BRUGO Travel Mug

If you’re a coffee enthusiast, you know how much better your coffee tastes when it’s at the right temperature.  You brew it nice and hot, let it cool down a bit, then have a pretty short window to enjoy it before it gets cold.  Or maybe you have a nice double-wall insulated travel mug, which keeps it hot for longer…but maybe keeps it too hot to comfortably drink quickly.  You could add an ice cube, or keep the lid off until it hits just the right spot…or you could use the BRUGO.

This travel mug keeps the main portion of your beverage cozily insulated in the main chamber, but also has a small second chamber built into the top of the mug that cools a few sips worth of coffee to the ideal temperature.  You tip the whole thing back to fill the secondary chamber, which cools just the liquid you’re about to drink, then tip it toward you to drink.  It sounds a bit confusing to explain, but the images on their website help explain it.

We got a sample of the mug to play with, and it’s pretty neat.  There are a few design flaws – the opening in the top is kinda small and doesn’t have a good spout or lip for your mouth to rest on when you drink.  Also the smaller secondary chamber means that the pressure of the liquid coming out is a little low and it feels like it trickles out (instead of the heavier gush from a standard cup) which made me feel like I was swallowing some air.  But it does do a great job of making your coffee’s temp palatable, and it has a nice solid feel to it.  So if you find your coffee cools down too fast in your mug, the BRUGO might be a good option for you.

Check out the BRUGO ($20) and order at their website.

Two New Reality TV Food Shows Want You

From the official press release:

LOS ANGELES, CA (March 31th, 2010) –Doron Ofir Casting who has brought you the casts of: Jersey Shore, Design Star, Millionaire Matchmaker is launching a national search to find hosts for two upcoming food series.

“We are scouring the country to find the best dynamic duo and one spectacular single to star in their own food show. We are looking for all food professionals, executive-level chefs, sous chefs, cooks, grill masters, bakers, professional food bloggers, critics, competitive cooking winners, and caterers. Why be part of a competition when you can star in your own show? This is a chance of a lifetime to be the new face of the network” says Doron. Ofir, Executive Casting Director. Both series are currently casting food experts who love to travel and have a passion for FOOD!!!

Show one is looking for dynamic duos who are a cut above all the rest in personality, talent and food expertise for the ultimate buddy food tasting road trip. Duos can be cousins, friends, rivals, whatever, but above all else the two must be charismatic, have a background in the food industry and have adventures outgoing personalities.

Show two is looking for bold individuals who have all the right ingredients! We are looking for funny, adventurous, larger-than-life personalities with a passion for food, especially eating and are always up for the challenge of trying the newest, biggest, spiciest culinary curiosities on the planet.

Both shows require larger than life, outgoing personalities with a sizzling passion for all things culinary a smoking food vocabulary, and the ability to host, star and represent the network.

Everyone interested in applying must apply online.

IHHS 2010 Find: Handstand Kids Cookbooks

If you’re a foodie with kids, like us, you’re raising (or trying to raise) your kids to appreciate food as much as you do.  Maybe your kid is already a burgeoning foodie.  In which case, the Handstand Kids cookbook series could be an excellent tool for you.

Each themed cookbook (Italian, Mexican, and Chinese so far) follows 5 kids learning to cook the specific cuisine, and translates the ingredients and utensils in each recipe into the featured language, then discusses the tastes and traditions of each culture.  Plus each cookbook comes packaged in a super-cute set: ie the Mexican cookbook comes with an oven mitt, inside a tortilla bag, the Italian cookbook comes with a chef’s hat, inside a pizza box.

And the cool bonus – each cookbook has the 5 characters working to use their new-found culinary skills to help a real-life charity – helping to introduce the idea of helping others to your kids.  Now that’s everything us foodies could dream about for our kids – ability to cook, speak a foreign language, and empathy for others!

Check out all the books at the Handstand Kids website – each set is $25, and coordinating place mats / cutting mats are available for $8.

IHHS 2010 Find: Firewire Flexible Skewers

This is another new product we found at the Home and Housewares Show this year. Now, there are certainly a lot of grilling products out there – it seems like if you sell any type of outdoor or cooking products you’re practically obligated to make grilling accessories. They also seem to be another one of those ubiquitous “dad gifts” along with ties and aftershave, so odds are you’ve either given or receive “the next best” set of grilling tongs, skewers or whatever.

Even with all that, I’m an unashamed grilling junkie. I’ve been known to shovel a path to the grill in winter just because I can’t wait for Spring to get my fix. So, I tend to approach new grilling products like a pyromaniac looks at fire: I’ve been burned, but I can’t help but be excited to try again!

These flexible grilling skewers certainly looked like they might be worth the excitement: the flexible wire has a sort of mesh-like/braided texture, so the food wouldn’t just spin around the skewer when you turn it (one of my major pet peeves of skewer cooking!). They also have a loop on one end that allows you to thread the other end through to form a big loop. The cool trick is that you can leave that loose end hanging off the edge of the grill and it stays cool to the touch, so your skewers have a built in handle. The other nice thing is that since the skewer is in a loop, you can easily flip them over and they stay put (unlike straight skewers, which have the tendency to roll around all over the place.

So, we’ve had some amazingly nice weather here lately, so firing up the grill was practically mandatory (and no snow shoveling necessary)! We tried a few things that while delicious, are sometimes pretty annoying to try and grill on skewers: shrimp and mushrooms. Both have a tendency to spin around on the skewer, which makes it difficult to flip them properly. So, in comes the FireWire – first off, leaving the handle part of the skewer hanging outside of the grill totally works – I did all the grilling without tongs or a grill mitt – my bare hands were all that were needed. Second, turning the skewers is as easy as grabbing the handle end, lifting the looped skewer, and flipping it over. The bottom line: these are the best skewers I’ve ever used. As far as I can tell, the only downside to them at all is that the loop shape isn’t quite as economical a use of the grill  space (you can stack straight skewers right next to each other), but that’s pretty minor stuff. All in all, the ease of using these skewers way more than outweighs any loss of grill space in my book!

If you want to give them a go yourself (and I highly recommend that you do), you can nab them on Amazon. Happy grilling!

IHHS 2010 Find: FusionBrands tools

The clever people at FusionBrands have a whole bunch of cool items we want to tell you about.  Some are brand new, other are just cool enough to make the grade.

First is the Foodpod – a silicone food pouch that you fill with anything you want to boil, steam, or poach.  Pop the whole thing in water, and once you’re done cooking, lift it out to drain.  Easy peasy.  No steamer insert or strainer required.  Retails for about $15.

Next cool tool is the Foodloop.  It’s a heat resistant, silicone trussing tool.  Picture basically a zip tie, but for asparagus, or rolled up meats.  It can handle temps up to 675,  adjusts from anywhere between 1 and 4 inches, and is dishwasher safe.  It comes in a pack of 4 for about $10. Wanna grill the item you truss?  Then try the Foodloop Flame – a version made out of stainless steel, and flameproof up to 2012 degrees, $18 for a set of 4.

The Tenderpress is another cool item.  It’s basically a meat tenderizer that mated with a rolling pin.  It allows you to tenderize meats (or dock dough) without whacking your food to bits (I know, that can be very therapeutic, but not so good for your meat!)  And like all their other stuff, it’s dishwasher safe.  Find it for about $18.

Finally, check out the Fingertongs.  These silicone tongs have pockets for you to slip your fingers into, allowing you greater dexterity when flipping chicken, bacon, or grilled sandwiches.  Or you can pretend it’s an alligator and chase your small child with it.  Either way, it retails for about $16.

Check out the rest of their product line at www.fusionbrands.com – you can purchase their items there or at places like Amazon or Bed Bath & Beyond.

IHHS 2010 Find: Magnetic Kitchen Towels

Another example of a cool simple improvement of a tool you already use, the Magnet & Go collection by B4Market caught our eyes at the IHHS show.  The options include a magnetic potholder and oven mitt ($18) and two kitchen towels ($10), which each have a small magnet sewn into them to hang onto any magnetic surface in your kitchen.

But you’re thinking – my snazzy stainless steel fridge isn’t magnetic…. no problem – each item comes with a stick-on magnetic “hot spot” to attach to your non-metal surfaces wherever you so choose.  You can finally have a kitchen towel where it’s convenient for you.  Plus the way towels hang (instead of being folded up) allows them to dry faster.  And they’re machine washable too.  What else do you want – someone to wash your dishes too?

Check ‘em out and order them at Magnet & Go‘s website.

IHHS 2010 Find: The Bag Stand

This product is an example of a cool and cheap kitchen gadget that once you hear about, you’ll wonder why you don’t already have it in your kitchen.  It’s called the Bag Stand by Globadec, and it’s a small adhesive-lined folded piece of plastic that sticks to the bottom of your chip/cracker/candy bags in order to create a flat bottom and store your bags upright in a pantry.  And it’s reusable up to 100 times.  And they’re slated to only cost a buck apiece.

The only downside?  It’s brand new and not yet in stores.  It was unveiled for the first time at the IHHS show, so it’s availability will depend on which retailers at the show decided to order it for their stores.  We’ll keep you updated when we hear where you can buy it, but in the meantime we thought it was so innovative (and yet so simple) that we just had to tell you about it.

IHHS 2010 Find: Bodum Travel French Press

So I admit, I’m a recent convert to coffee – for the longest time I’ve been a tea person, and while the smell of coffee was appealing, I just never got into drinking it. However, last summer I resolved to develop the taste for coffee, and to my surprise it took maybe 10 days before I really started enjoying it (…and now I never leave the house in the morning without my travel mug of coffee).

A big part of that quickly developed love for coffee was brewing it in a French press… because the individual bits of coffee have room to spread out while brewing you get maximum flavor without needing a long exposure (which can cause bitterness). If you’ve used a French press you know what I mean.

If you’ve used a French press you’re also more than likely familiar with Bodum – their name is synonymous with French presses. Elise and I stopped by their booth at this year’s Home & Housewares show to see what was new, and perhaps the coolest of their new offerings is a travel French press. This is one of those “why did nobody think of this until now?” kind of products. Up until now, I have generally used a pour-over-brew method for making coffee for my travel mug in the morning, and used the French press on the weekends, so I wouldn’t need to dirty an extra piece of gear for my morning joe. With the travel French press, you can just add your grounds and hot water and hit the road. After a few minutes just press down the plunger and you’re ready to drink – simple!

You can pick one up yourself over on Amazon – just follow the link below. (I’m only linking to the stainless version here, but you can just scroll down a bit on the Amazon page to get to the acrylic version and the small size travel press)

IHHS 2010 Find: Zoku Quick Pop Maker

The first item we want to tell you about from the International Home and Housewares Show is a great update of a classic idea.  Many of you may remember, as I do, making popsicles with your mom when you were a kid.  We had a basic plastic Tupperware set, and would fill it with fruit juice and stick it in the freezer.  Hours later, you had a tasty cheap treat.

Well technology has come a long way since then, and you can now enjoy the popsicle experience in just 7 minutes.  Zoku has created a system that has a base that you store in the freezer (kind of like an ice cream maker) which you then fill with sticks and your juice of choice, and it freezes solid on your countertop in 7 minutes.  Pretty cool, huh?  And since it freezes so fast, you can easily make different layers of flavor, or even freeze the outside, suck out the still liquid interior, then add a different flavor for the core (creamsicle anyone?). And it can make up to 9 pops before it needs refreezing.

We think it’s pretty cool.  You can make a billion fun flavors for yourself, and control the ingredients in popsicles for your kids.  The Zoku Quick Pop Maker is being carried exclusively by Williams-Sonoma until the end of the year, and you can find it there for $49.95.

The Big Show

Our feet are sore,  our calves are sore, our press kit-carrying arms are sore, but we had a fantastic Sunday at the 2010 Home and Housewares Show!  We got up early,  left the baby with his grandparents, and headed down to the McCormick center in Chicago early on Sunday to see all there was to see.  And did we ever see alot!  We met a ton of cool people, some of them big company reps and some product inventors and entrepreneurs, and have several dozen items we want to tell you all about, so we’re planning on posting about one product a day until we cover all the good stuff.

Besides the hundreds of vendors showcasing their goods, the other cool thing about the Show is the presence of all the celebrity chefs.  We practically ran into Mario Batali while walking down one aisle (ps – he’s kinda short!), where he was saying his hellos to Art Smith (Oprah’s former personal chef and on Top Chef Masters) and Ingrid Hoffman (Food Network’s Simply Delicioso), while Cat Cora (Iron Chef) did her cooking demo 20 feet away.

We also happened upon Curtis Stone (TLC’s Take Home Chef) making a business deal, and Guy Fieri (Food Network) chatting and showing off his new line of knives at a booth.  And just about every other celebrity chef you’ve heard of was doing a cooking demo, including all of the Iron Chefs except Bobby Flay.  But…. we only had so many hours in the day, so we decided we needed to focus and spend our time checking out products instead of eyeballing the chefs.  Maybe next year we’ll be able to attend for more than one day and make more time for that.

A tasting for you of what we’ll be profiling – a handheld expresso maker, a flexible grilling skewer cord, a cookbook with over 300 recipes based on one short grocery list, a wine traveling bag that will absorb an entire bottle’s worth of wine if the bottle breaks in transit, and much much more.  Plus – we’re working on getting extras of some of these products for giveaways to our readers!

Cool New Product: Aladdin’s To-Go Tumbler

We think highly of the folks at Aladdin.  They make useful food and beverage containers that also showcase beautiful design.  We got to see (and sample) their goods at last year’s Housewares show.  This year, they sent out an advance sample of this cool plastic cup you see at the left.

It’s simple but brilliant.  The To-Go Tumbler is the durable, reusable, machine-washable cousin of a fast food soda cup.  The double walled design keeps your cold drink from getting all hot and your ice getting all melty.  The screw on lid keeps messy spills at bay, and a small widening at the base of the straw keeps it from pulling out.

Aladdin’s To-Go Tumbler is the cold-drink sidekick your coffee travel mug has been waiting for.  And now you can finally stop saving all those Steak and Shake cups to fill with your iced tea (yeah Mom, you heard me).  The To-Go Tumbler can keep your cold drink in your hot little hands for just $10.

Wanna see the whole Aladdin line-up or get yourself a tumbler?  Head over to http://www.aladdin-pmi.com

UPDATE: The Aladdin folks tell us that this Tumbler will be available in Target stores later this year.

International Home and Housewares Show 2010 – Preview

It’s that time of year again – time for the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago!  We went to this show last year and it was a total blast.  Approximately a bajillion vendors, buyers, and media descend upon the McCormick Center in Chicago, and take part in a three day extravaganza (starting this Sunday) of all things home and houseware related.  OK, a bajillion is a bit of an exaggeration, it’s more like 55,000.  Yeah fifty-five thousand people.  Manufacturers of every home related item from appliances, cleaning products, and cookware to gourmet food bring their wares to the show with the hopes of getting orders from buyers representing retailers across the world.

Plus, almost every celebrity chef you’ve heard of comes too – either to do a sponsored cooking demonstration and/or promote a new product line they are affiliated with.  Last year you could hear Paula Deen laughing her trademark laugh at her cookware’s booth while watching Ming Tsai film a TV interview at a booth around the corner.

Here at The Foodie Forkful, we strive to not only share tasty recipes with you, but also to tell you all about the cool new stuff coming out onto the marketplace.  And the IHH Show is the perfect venue for us to find a great assortment of new products to tell you about.  So you can look forward to a series of posts over the next week or so about some of the great things we find.

Pseudo-Vide?

We recently had the pleasure of reviewing the Sous Vide Supreme, and unfortunately for us after two weeks had to return it. Double unfortunately, our time with it ran out shortly before Valentine’s Day. We wanted to do something fun and special for our V-day dinner, and after all our testing we were kinda hooked on the results of sous vide cooking.

Our attempted solution: why not try using our slow cooker on the low setting? We had no idea what temperature the low setting would produce (vs. “keep warm” or simmer), so we filled it with water and after it got up to temp, stuck our electric thermometer in it. Turns it it hovered right at 140 degrees, which is basically just what we needed.

Next up, we needed to pick something to cook in it, and after considering beef, buffalo and goose, we settled on duck breasts. They came in vacuum-sealed packaging, so we just left them like that and slipped them into the water-filler slow cooker. A few hours later we fished them out, removed the breasts from the pouches, and gave them a sear in a hot skillet, skin side down, to crisp up that fatty skin.

The results were surprisingly good: while the skin was still a little fatty (I should have seared them longer I think), the meat itself was so tender we practically could have eaten it with a spoon. It turns out we have a makeshift sous vide in the form of our slow cooker after all!

Now, I should qualify that… the slow cooker probably has a significantly wider temperature range (i.e. it’s less accurate than the real sous vide), and you only have one real choice of temperature (the Sous Vide Supreme can be set to the tenth of a degree), so unless you get lucky and cook things for the exact right amount of time you probably won’t results as good as those from the real thing. However, if the price tag on the actual sous vide puts it outside your reach, and you are still dieing to try this method of cooking (and I hope you are!), give your slow cooker a try – you’ll probably be very pleased with the results. We certainly were!

SousVide Supreme Wrap-up: Wings, Chicken, Eggs, Oh My!

Well we had to send back the SousVide Supreme late last week, but we sure put it to good use before we returned it!  We figured the Superbowl would make a great excuse for a party and a chance to see how the SousVide handles wings.  Verdict – it handles them quite well!  We had about 10 people over, so we cooked up several pounds of wings in the SousVide for about two and a half hours, then fried them up to crisp the skins once our guests arrived.  We had each of our guests bring different sauces, so we got to enjoy Thai peanut, spicy pepper, honey garlic lime, BBQ… Everyone agreed that the SousVide made some really succulent, juicy wings.  I think we could have made the outside even crisper by dusting them in some cornstarch before frying, but they were fantastic regardless.  The other handy thing about this method is that it allowed us to get most of the cooking done during the day before everyone came over, and just spend a few minutes frying them up in batches when we were ready to eat.

The next day, we sealed up a bunch of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and dropped those in for a few hours.  Chicken breasts are really prone to getting dry and tough, so we figured these would be a great cooking method for them.  And we were right – the texture was fantastic.  Very moist, nice and soft throughout.  We cubed some up to go in a stir fry, and used the rest in a Curry Chicken Salad.  We didn’t need to sear them due to the nature of both of those applications, so they kept their texture and juiciness quite nicely.

We next wanted to try a longer cooking item, so we picked up an inexpensive hunk of pork shoulder and cooked it in there for a full 48 hours.  Once it cooled a bit, we shredded some of it and added BBQ sauce to make pulled pork sandwiches, which was really fantastic.  The texture was great, not at all dry or stringy like some pulled pork can be.  A couple days later we had one of Byron’s classmates and his family over and fried up the rest of the pork as carnitas, serving it with tortillas, guacamole, and pickled onions.  While tasty, this application didn’t showcase the moistness of the meat quite as much.

As you may know, we have a 9 month old baby here at the Foodie Forkful HQ, and I’ve been making all his baby food so far.  We’d read that chicken livers are great for him due to their high iron content, so we sealed up a bunch of them and dropped them in the SousVide for a couple of hours, then pureed them.  While I wouldn’t eat them (not a fan of chicken livers, bleh) the SousVide kept them nice and soft and our little munchkin seems to love them.

Our last hurrah with the SousVide Supreme was a simple yet delicious breakfast.  We plopped a couple of eggs in the shell right into the machine for just 45 minutes, and enjoyed the most fabulous soft boiled eggs smeared on the some bread for breakfast.  Very delish.

Sadly, this is the end of our SousVide Supreme adventure, as it has been returned to go visit other bloggers and magazine editors.  Our overall verdict?  It produces fantastic results for some things.  Eggs were amazing, chicken breasts were great, and steaks were awesome too.  But we are currently a grad student family living in a rental with a small kitchen, so a $450 machine that takes up alot of counter space just isn’t ideal.  But if we were regular working professionals with a huge kitchen, maybe.  I don’t expect the SousVide Supreme to stay at this price point forever, so it may become much more accessible with a price drop (or some competition).  Until then, we’ll be jury-rigging our crock pot to try to simulate the results on special occasion.

Livin’ La Sous Vide-a Loca

Well we’ve had the Sous Vide Supreme machine for four days now, and have had it running every single night (and even one morning for breakfast!)… we don’t want to waste a moment in testing out all sorts of goodies in this baby! Here’s a little run-down of our exploits so far:

Friday Night: Steaks
For the inaugural meal, we invited another couple over and cooked some strip steaks with cajun seasoning and shiitake mushrooms. One thing we discovered right away (upon reading the manual) is that while a 1″ thick steak will cook in an hour, a 2″ thick steak takes 4 hours to cook! Our steaks were probably closer to the 2″ thick variety, but a quick butterfly cut and presto – 1″ thick steaks! Per the instructions, we set the sous vide to a surprisingly low temperature of 134º (for medium rare), and after an hour they were ready. A quick sear in a skillet added some nice browning on the outside, and then I reduced all the liquid with the mushrooms and a splash of red wine to make a little sauce. For the side: a smokey Lima bean, corn and red pepper succotash. The end result: seriously good stuff! The steaks were as tender and juicy as a fillet in a top-tier restaurant. We are off to a good start here!

Saturday Night: Pork Chops
For night number two, some modern Americana: bone-in pork chops with apples and thyme. Sealed into the pouch, along with the chops, were slices of apple, a pat of butter, some fresh thyme sprigs (thank you, windowsill herb garden!), some smoked paprika, and some ground sage. Again, an hour of cooking (at 140º this time), then a quick sear in the skillet, which added a bit of brownness to both the pork and the apples. Although there was definitely less of a noticeable difference in texture than there was with the steaks, the pork chops remained nice and juicy and were cooked perfectly. More good marks for the Sous Vide Supreme.

Sunday Morning: Omelets
Now we’re getting into some pretty nontraditional territory… we beat some eggs, then added in cooked portobello mushrooms, crumbled bacon, thinly sliced scallions and cheddar cheese. Once that was all sealed up in a pouch, it went into the hot water bath of the sous vide, and after a little cooking time out came some bag-shaped omelets. Now, they probably wouldn’t win any beauty pageants, but where they would win is on texture and flavor; these omelets were like a delicate, soft custard. All this, and from an egg mixture that was mostly egg whites (leftover from a custard tart recipe that needed yolks), and had no milk or cream added. What in a skillet would likely have been a little dry and not very fluffy became like a savory breakfast flan. Amazing!

Sunday Night: Salmon
This was probably our least successful foray into sous vide cooking so far – salmon fillets seasoned with a Bankok curry blend and sealed up with an orange slice. This one cooked at 140º, and I think that was our mistake – after the fillets were browned the salmon ended up being a little dry. I think if we had cooked it to a lower temperature before browning it would have remained juicier in the end. Overall, not bad, but definitely room for improvement.

Monday Night: Beef Fajitas
Okay, so we know the sous vide can produce fantastic results with a decent quality strip steak, but what about a cheaper piece of meat? The booklet recommended a cook time of 8 hours for tougher cuts like flank steak, so this time we seasoned up a flat steak with some cajun/fajita seasoning and started it cooking in the morning. After 8 or so hours, I sliced it thinly and tossed it around a skillet with some peppers and onions. A quick wrap in a tortilla with some other fixin’s like cheese, salsa and yogurt (in place of sour cream) and the fajitas were all set. The end result was some of the most tender beef I’ve ever eaten in a fajita.

So, what’s the score so far? Steaks: big thumbs up! Pork chops: good stuff, though less spectacular than the steaks. Omelets: not the prettiest, but wow what a texture! Salmon: a bit overdone, definitely need to tweak the temperature for next time. Fajitas: another thumbs up!

We’ll let you know what new adventures in Sous Vide Supreme country we get into, but so far it’s been a very impressive journey.

SousVide Supreme Time!!!

Remember when we mentioned the new SousVide Supreme water oven back in our 45 Forkfuls of Christmas holiday shopping guide?  Well the fantastic  SousVide Supreme folks offered to send us a unit to test out here at the FF HQ for two weeks.  We had been eagerly anticipating it’s arrival.  And it landed on our doorstep today!  We are seriously super excited.  We already have friends planning to come over for dinner tomorrow night to help us try it out, and plans to get the rest of our local foodie friends over shortly to try a bunch of recipes.

We’re planning to use it as much as possible, and try out as many recipes as we can, in order to share our thoughts and review with the rest of you.  You can cook just about anything in it (except maybe cakes and cookies, don’t think that would work…) so we’re happy to take menu suggestions.  We’ll be taking photos and posting our notes as we go along the way.

In other exciting news, remember Nudo‘s adopt-an-olive-tree (and get the oil shipped to you) item on our 45 Forkfuls list?  Well we won a free year of it courtesy of Cool Hunting’s blog!  So we’re eagerly anticipating our shipment of awesome Italian olive oil in the spring from Nudo.  Among other things, we’re planning olive oil ice cream…

Resolutions of the Culinary Variety

So here we are in 2010 – whoohoo!  The Foodie Forkful Fam is just home from three weeks of traveling around, visiting all of our little one’s grandparents.  We had a great time, and got a bunch of cool foodie gifts (vacuum sealer, ceramic knife, cool spices, etc) that we will surely be using for posts in the near future.  And I got a light box for food photos, along with some cool plating accessories, so there will be more photos!  So excited about that one.

But back to my topic.  Resolutions.  Frankly, I’m not interested in the eat-better, lose-weight kinda resolutions.  I’m talking culinary resolutions.  Two of mine are: learning to properly season (ie salt and pepper) my cooking, and get better at cracking eggs without making a gooey mess.

So how ’bout you guys – what are your ideas for culinary resolutions?