È ora di migliorare il mio italiano

My shiny new Blast Freezer arrived as expected yesterday. After wrestling the 50kg unit through the house the next problem was to find a temporary home for it. Once it was installed and had settled for a few hours I thought it was time for a try out. I soon had it up and running so I opened the manual to see how to freeze my first items. Che catastrofe. Tutto era in Italiano. OK, I realise the home of excellent ice cream is Italy and the blast freezer is an ideal tool for creating such a product but all bar a very small section with basic ‘how to turn it on’ instructions were in Italian.

              I soldiered on and managed to get it working. Taking the temperature down to -40C I soon had a couple of chicken thighs reduced to frozen solid. My only issue was a periodic beeping and the whole freeze process on hold. A few hours later I guessed that Ld that was flashing on the display had something to do with the door. It seemed closed but on touching it the error message vanished and the freezing recommenced. I have now come to the conclusion that the sensor is not correctly positioned so as the temperature drops, the door contracts slightly and a false error is created.

I will endeavour to correct the sensor issue over the next day or two as time permits and I can then try a little experiment. We all know that putting Vodka in the freezer thickens it but at -27C or so it should freeze. This means I can make Alcohol Cubes to put in my tonic. More on this later

Back in business (at last)

I had got so bored with the same old same old and had entered something of a rut when it came to cooking and eating. What I needed was a few new toys in the kitchen. I was waiting for the delivery of a new BBQ ( https://thegadgetflow.com/portfolio/portable-outdoor-cooking-stove/ )and a new Sous Vide ( https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sousvide-supreme-touch-plus#/ ) from kickstarter type projects and was still hunting around for a blast freezer at a fair price. Finally, after over a year of waiting my internet controlled SousVide has arrived and is fully functional. The BBQ has arrived and tomorrow a nice new (if small) blast freezer arrives (https://www.sousvidetools.com/blast-chillers/sousvidetools-2-3gn-blast-chiller-and-freezer) . I can finally get back to a little creativity in my cooking again. If I really want to push the envelope then I can use my 3d printer (a gift from my wife at Christmas) and its upgraded print head to create custom shaped silicon cookware. Other additions to the arsenal are a centrifuge and an instant pot pressure cooker along with a Thermomix. OK, I still need to build a blast chamber for a vacuum distillation setup and I am no nearer the purchase of an anti-griddle but you can't have everything.

Hope to have a few more interesting posts very soon.