hey! [General]

2014 Oct 6
would anyone be interested in a vegan baking/cooking day? i've got the space at my place!

2014 Oct 7
100%.

2014 Oct 8
Cool ! Take pics.

My favorite vegan foods are raw . . . (fruits, sprouts, smoothies, nuts)

Soy milk is a good substitute for cow's milk.

Can you bake without eggs ?

In solidarity I can loan you a 2200W blender for the day, especially if I get to sample some of the treats.

I know a photographer, I wonder if he has any interest in photographing food. I can ask.

I can also loan you a sous vide unit I made in a picnic cooler (large and holds temp within 2/10 of a degree). I don't know any vegan dishes for sous vide, but that vegan tuna sushi was made from tomato paste sous vide. I don't have the details on the process though.


2014 Oct 9


2014 Oct 9
I made that exact carrot recipe last year for Thanksgiving. Turned out great!

2014 Oct 10
I'm still not sure a the higher sous vide temperatures a slow cooker would not work as well. I'll have to start making some of these dishes and see.


2014 Oct 10
Most slow cookers have a low setting around 160F but the problem is heat fluctuation some are decent some are crap ... just have to try them out.

I usually plug them in and let em go for an hour then drop a temp probe in that records the high / low or max / min and let it go for an hour or two.

I use this one ... works flawless, great selection of probes for different duties.
www.thermoworks.com


2014 Oct 11
I heard on an America's Test Kitchen episode that the slow-cookers that don't have a specific temperature control (ie just have High and Low) actually go to the same temperature, but the Low setting takes longer to get there.

2014 Oct 11
When I first started playing with sous vide I tried to hack some slow cookers. Yes, they don't really have temperature control, they just have wattage, low and high. Even on the low setting, given enough time, they will get water close to boiling. They rely on thermal mass and people not leaving things in them more than 24 hours and the temperature ramps up gradually.

2014 Oct 23
That's true of Crock-Pot-branded slow cookers, but there are others that use thermostats. My Cuisinart will never come close to a boil on Simmer or Low.

2014 Oct 28
Crock pot + Raspberry Pi = Sous Vide Awesomeness

This is my next Pi project, I already made a pit controller for my smoker with one of these things, easy to make and works like a charm.

www.raspberrypi.org

2014 Oct 30
Good luck Stuart.

You may want to get more sophisticated than a crock pot, in due course.

Circulating the water for even heating is one problem you will need to solve. An airstone, aquarium pump, and some tubing that can take higher temperatures (which Rona sells) is one way to do this.

2014 Oct 30
I don't typically like to participate in thread hijacking, but seems that happened long ago :)

By the time you get your crock pot, rpi, pump, and everything else together, you're probably not that far off from the (safer) Nomiku immersion circulator at $199 (was even $149 on kickstarter.) I have the original and it works great. Building things is fun too, so whatever floats your boat!

www.nomiku.com

2014 Oct 30
I've used a PID and slow cooker for years. As long as you are doing longer cooks ie. more than 6 hours or so it is fine to not have the water circulating via a pump. Convection will do it nicely.

The next one I get will be the one from Anova

anovaculinary.com

Basically same as above but a bit more versatile, higher max min water levels adjustable outflow direction and more secure fastening system.

Won't retire my current setup will just have 2 for different temps.


2014 Nov 12
I made some vegan congee in my crock pot:

leftover cooked red cargo rice from the fridge
diced ginger
dried shiitake mushrooms soaked overnight
diced half lemon (including peel)
baby carrots
sprouted chickpeas and peas
lots of water

Best congee I have ever had and it goes down nicely in cold, damp, November.