Q and Abe

Sous vide goat rib.

We were shopping at Bi-Rite and saw that Chili, the gangsta butcher, had goat in his meat zone. We had never seen goat sold before nor had we eaten it but we were inspired by Chili’s spicy tagine recipe. He thinks sous vide is badass so he hooked us up with some pork fat to vide our ribs in (*heavenly angel chorus*). With two pounds of goat ribs in our bike bag we were psyched to get the cooking and peddled extra fast home.  We re-imagined Chili’s tagine flavor profile into a barbeque dish with greens and french fries on the side.

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We discovered an interesting coincidence: chicken eggs and thighs can be sous vide at the same temperature of 64° C. This was a fantastic revelation because we were feeling super lazy. Our neighborhood in San FranTown is lacking in the Japanese goodness that we took for granted in the East Village. So, with a little twinge of homesickness in our hearts, we decided to make chicken karaage with a slow cooked egg. Read More…

Our biocurious friends solder feverishly for food.

Our left coast inaugural class took place in Sunnyvale at the l33t (and new) hax0rspace BioCurious. Our gangstar friend, Tito Jankowski of Open PCR, started this project with a handful of other open sorcerers.

We had such a variety of people making kits! This class had the most women we’ve taught in one sitting— actually, it had the most people  we’ve ever taught in one go ever. Some were killah l33ts who only bought technology that was open source because of their morals. We also had cool and brave n00bz who never soldered before but were pros by the end of the class.

It was totally worth it to schelp our 50+ lb Modernist Cuisine to the class. Not only did it provide entertainment post-hacking, but it held up our projector to the perfect height.

We are really lifted from all of the creative energy— also, we received helpful feedback. Thank you. It was great meeting so many talented foodhackers. You guys really cement in why moving to California was a good decision.

Grill Tub trout, lemon, Romesco, and Romanesco broccoli.

One of the greatest gifts that is bestowed on people living in the Mission of San Francisco is Bi-Rite Market. The first time we walked in our jaws literally dragged on the floor from oogalin’ at all of their treats. Artisan products abound and they even carry raw milk! They are Eataly quality at often below Whole Foods prices.

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Everybody loves ribs. If this food was on an approval matrix it would be both highbrow and lowbrow at the same time like PBR. Abe’s aunt who was a vegetarian made an exception for ribs, if we were ribs we’d eat each other. We sous vide these grass fed beef ribs for 60 hours and it was the most patient we had been in our lives. Read More…

Sea bass under a warm bean and tomato salad, next to chopped salad.

It’s hard to cook anything when you’re trapped in the tar-sticking heat bubble that is the East Village in July. On one particularly hot Wednesday, a day when the nighttime did not concede substantial relief from the daytime humidity, we just couldn’t go outside. Luckily, we tons of fresh veggies, Chilean Sea Bass, and a new tool in our kitchen that doesn’t heat up our whole tiny apartment– our PID’duino (embedded electronic brain) controlled meat jacuzzi! Sidenote: we no longer use the brand name Arduino because we have created our own specialized platform based on the open source Arduino technology. Read More…

Sweet and tender lobster meets silky pasta and unctuous sauce.

Our friends from out of town visit and we decide to pull out all the stops and make drunken lobster pasta. Read More…

What is under this salad? A juicy surprise.

Cotolette di Maiale (Pork Chop with Roasted Pepper and Capers) is the inaugural food of our new meat jacuzzi. We followed a recipe by my former boss, Mario Batali, on his expensive ($9.99) but supremely useful app: Mario Batali Cooks! Read More…

As you may know from the Twitterverse, for the past four months we’ve worked tirelessly to build a DIY sous vide kit.  And here is the prototype! You can join our e-mail list to receive the first 100.

The idea was to replace the JLD-612+relay combination with something a bit more advanced and polished. We created a compact brain that is flexible enough for any type of temperature control— whether it be a sous vide, smoker, refrigerator, or even a solder reflow oven. You can easily attach the enclosure to whatever you want to hack. We attached ours to a coffee urn, which is perfect for sous viding because it is designed for convection and has a large water reserve. We relabeled it “Meat Jacuzzi” for its amazing tenderizing properties because we’re crazy. Read More…

Ahhh, Pesach food, filled with tradition and traditional flavors. And by italicizing traditional I mean old. When your guests are starving and sleepy after a Seder, serve them a dish (chicken mole with a matzah meal tamale?) with a kick to wake them up and celebrate freedom! For the next eight days, don’t let your unleavenedness be a brick wall to deliciousness— great dishes (gumbo, ramen, etc) are often made when there’s a parameter to get around. To save ourselves from bland boredom, we made a super spicy middle eastern inspired lamb with quinoa and zucchini.

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