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Cooking with Watson: Swiss-Thai asparagus quiche
Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson is a collaboration between IBM and the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. Once a week, as part of an ongoing series, we'll be preparing one recipe from the book until we've made all of them. Wish us luck. Another week, another quiche. I can't say I went into this one with high hopes after last week's funky salmon number. But, at least there is no fish here. Instead you've got a dash of Southeast Asian flavors, some asparagus and a buttery, flaky crust. This is pretty much a variation on the formula that produced Watson's biggest success, the turmeric paella -- combine the flavors of one region, with the presentation of another, and voilà! The Swiss-Thai asparagus quiche puts the flavors of Thailand (and a hint of Greece) in an open-top custard pastry often associated with French cuisine. And once again, IBM's cognitive computing efforts succeed in pushing its human chef interpreters to make something unique.
Turn Instagram food posts into meals with recipe app Handpick
Handpick, a recipe app that helps users craft meals using ingredients they have on-hand, now scours the filtered seas of Instagram for delicious-looking dishes and their accompanying recipes. This means the next time you're searching (or drooling) through "#food" on Instagram, you might be able to actually whip up whatever catches your eye. Handpick uses a mix of algorithm and human curation to find matching food posts and recipes, CEO Payman Nejati says (via TheNextWeb): "Instagram is effectively a database of over 1 billion food posts. We started analyzing that data through the public API and using computer vision, we know whether a post is about food. We then look at the caption and use that information to match recipes to social media posts."
Cooking with Watson: Scandinavian salmon quiche
Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson is a collaboration between IBM and the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. Once a week, as part of an ongoing series, we'll be preparing one recipe from the book until we've made all of them. Wish us luck. Sometimes, the ingredient lists for these Watson recipes read like a Chopped contestant's worst nightmare. Inside the basket you will find: tart shells, gruyere, sour cream and salmon filets. Almost any time you mix cheese and fish, you know you're in trouble. (Update: I acknowledge that both tuna melts, and bagels with cream cheese and lox are rare exceptions to this rule.) But, if anyone is capable of taming the culinary cruelty of Watson it would be the brilliant minds at the Institute of Culinary Education, like Florian Pinel and Michael Laiskonis. So, even though the idea of a Scandinavian salmon quiche is a little off-putting, I put my faith in the human interpreters to steer me and my captive taste testers in the right direction.
Genie transforms food pods into meals in 30 seconds
If you've seen an episode of Star Trek, you're likely familiar with the Replicator device on board the USS Enterprise that synthesized meals and beverages on demand. Well, a company in Israel created the modern-day equivalent to that appliance with Genie. The counter-top gadget uses food pods to create the recipe you desire, and claims it's like having a personal chef around all the time. What's more, it does the cooking in under a minute. The company doesn't disclose the "patented technology" that makes this possible, but once a food pod is chosen and placed inside the Genie, 30 seconds is all the device needs to create "a freshly baked dish."
Solar-powered grill cooks your food no matter the weather
However much you may like grilling food on a warm day, you probably don't like dealing with gas tanks or other typical grill hassles... and most solar cookers won't help much if it's overcast outside. The upcoming GoSun Grill might be a smarter way to handle those backyard shindigs, however. It can bake, boil and roast meals for eight people using a sunlight-powered thermal battery that will keep cooking no matter how gloomy it gets outside. Yes, you can have some grilled chicken at the beach even if it starts raining. The reflector-based system also doesn't require you to flip your food, and it shouldn't dry out your moister meats and veggies.
Cooking with Watson: Indian turmeric paella
'Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson' is a collaboration between IBM and the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. Once a week, as part of an ongoing series, we'll be preparing one recipe from the book until we've made all of them. Wish us luck. So, here's a question: Is it still a paella if it doesn't involve olive oil or saffron, and doesn't generally represent the flavors of Spain? At what point does it become a pilaf or, since this particular recipe is brimming with spices from the Indian subcontinent, a biryani? Really the only discernible quality that this Indian turmeric paella has that screams "paella" is the presence of socarrat -- the toasty, browned rice that sits at the bottom of the pan. Oh, and the presentation. And so, here we go again, Watson and his human interpreters from the Institute for Culinary education take a seemingly familiar dish and, with a little computer-generated nudge, create something wholly unfamiliar.
Cooking with Watson: Austrian asparagus and pigs' feet croquettes
'Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson' is a collaboration between IBM and the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. Once a week, as part of an ongoing series, we'll be preparing one recipe from the book until we've made all of them. Wish us luck. "Austrian grilled asparagus." That should be simple. Let's see... Pigs' feet? Sous vide? Croquettes? Mustard "foam"? Damn it Watson! Well, if the carrot pearls from last week weren't sufficiently weird for you, fear not. This week's recipe is the sort of thing that would send most casual cooks running for the hills. And to make matters worse, the title lulls you into a false sense of security. The first two steps in this recipe, that's theoretically for grilled asparagus, are to brine two pigs' feet overnight, then to cook them in a 162-degree water bath (sous vide) for 24 hours. Yes, 24 hours. Between the eight-plus-hour brine and the 24-hour cook, this is already the most time-intensive dish I've ever made.
IKEA's future kitchen tells you how to cook
For IKEA, your future kitchen shouldn't just have the occasional smart appliance -- it should be a technology hub. The furniture store's Concept Kitchen 2025 includes tech and other helpful additions meant to save both time and resources, such as a pantry with induction cooling (to preserve food longer) and a disposal system that automatically packs your recyclables. The highlight, however, is the Table For Living. It packs a camera-equipped projector that both shows recipes on its surface and recognizes ingredients, giving you an idea of what to make with what you have on hand. There's an induction cooktop hidden in the table, too, so you wouldn't have to run between counters to get that hot stew ready. This is just a vision rather than something you can actually buy, but all of IKEA's technology is realistic enough that you could find some of it in your home within the next decade.
Cooking with Watson: Turkish Bruschetta with carrot pearls
'Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson' is a collaboration between IBM and the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. Once a week, as part of an ongoing series, we'll be preparing one recipe from the book until we've made all of them. Wish us luck. Let's get a couple of things straight: Watson, the IBM supercomputer famous for spanking Ken Jennings on Jeopardy, did not really write these recipes in the purest sense of the word. Rather, IBM trained it by feeding it a giant database of recipes, studies on what flavors and smells people find pleasant and information on the chemical compounds found inside ingredients. Using this, Watson is able to suggest dishes with surprising flavor combinations. From there the computer passes the baton to a human being, in this case James Briscione and Michael Laiskonis from the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), who use the ingredient lists and style suggestions as inspiration for new dishes.
This smart knob upgrades your stove with automatic temperature controls
From old-fashioned slow cookers to newfangled sous vide machines, there seems to be a never ending array of appliances aimed to take the guesswork out of cooking. But they're often limited in functionality -- you can't really deep fry something in a sous vide machine, for example -- and they take up valuable storage space. The Meld, which launches on Kickstarter today, aims to change that. It's a cooking solution that aims to bring precise cooking controls to a multi-purpose appliance you already have -- your stove.
GE's touch-savvy induction cooktops double as griddles and sous vides
If you want to get elaborate with your cooking and try a griddle or a sous vide, you normally need either a dedicated machine or a bulky add-on to get things right. You won't have that hassle with GE's 2015 Cafe, Monogram and Profile cooktops, though. They're already pretty high-tech between their safer induction cooking pads and touch-sensitive controls, but the real stars of the show are their abilities to switch to other cooking methods with little effort. The Cafe and Monogram models have an integrated griddle (the first for induction), and all three can use a $150 smartphone-controlled sous vide accessory (also a first) that lets you get just the right water temperature without having to watch like a hawk. Just be prepared to pony up if you're hoping for the latest in culinary tech. GE's cooktops will start at $1,500 for a 30-inch Profile, and they scale all the way to $3,100 for the 36-inch Monogram.
Hungry? Elder Scrolls Online is revamping provisioning
When The Elder Scrolls Online's Update 6 launches later this month, characters with the provisioning skill should go make us a sammich. Just kidding. But if you do decide to make us a sammich, you'll find the process much more streamlined and effective, as ZeniMax is plotting a major overhaul of the profession. In a dev blog posted last night, the studio explained that it will be reducing the overall number of ingredients in the game, adding new recipes, updating the cooking UI, and giving food additives some oomph. Roleplayers will be happy to learn that lootable food-related objects will soon yield appropriate ingredients (apples from apple baskets, for example), and food buffs will make a bit more sense, like "meat dishes [that] increase your health and fruit dishes [that] increase your magicka." If you're not actually a cook yourself, all you really need to know is that you should start skinning fish, cows, and chickens for meat and that drink buffs won't suck anymore. Hooray!
Lynx's SmartGrill tells you how to cook your meal
Grilling is often a delicate art -- it's all too easy to undercook your burgers or burn your veggies, even if you're a seasoned pro. Lynx doesn't think you should have to learn by wrecking your meals, though. Its newly launched SmartGrill takes the uncertainty out of outdoor cooking by guiding you through the entire process. The grill itself will ask you what you're making (and how you're making it), turn up the heat and give you audiovisual cues when it's time to flip or remove your food. It'll monitor the temperature on its own, and it even learns your preferred cooking times to make sure you get that medium-rare steak every time. You can also use Android and iOS apps that walk you through preparation, so you won't have to worry about stepping away for a few minutes.
The Queue: Secondary professions and more
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Happy Monday, all! Enjoy your few days at work until New Year's Eve. Assuming you have a job that gives you a day off for the New Year. I've never had such a thing. I'm pretty sure it's a myth. DavidBaldock asked: With cooking recipes again requiring a variety of ingredients, and with being able to potentially learn the recipe by tasting certain foods, has cooking become more or less interesting as a secondary profession since MoP or Wrath?
Mindlessly cook baller sea bass with a $200 smart frying pan
Are your mornings often ruined by the acrid smell of a blackened ham and cheese omelet? Do you long to sink your teeth into a succulent pan-seared ribeye, but aren't really sure what "pan-seared" even means? If you're thinking "heck yes," Pantelligent wants to educate you in the culinary arts with its smart frying pan.
Drop Kitchen Connected Scale drops just in time for your holiday baking
So, you've got to bake a few dozen Christmas cookies for your little girl's robotics club, but you have absolutely no idea how to cook ... or even how to measure ingredients. Never fear -- the Drop Kitchen Connected Scale (US$99.99) and its associated free recipe app are going to turn you into a baking pro. As you can see from the snappy video above, the idea behind Drop is to turn anyone -- with an iPad running iOS 8.0 or later and some common kitchen tools -- into an expert baker. Drop can weigh anything from 6 kg down to less than a single gram, and uses interactive recipes to help you have success in the kitchen. You just pour ingredients into a bowl on the scale until you reach the correct amount, stir or blend, pour into a cake or loaf pan, then let the app tell you when to take the masterpiece out of the oven. What if you don't have enough flour or you've run out of milk? Not a problem, as the app can help you find substitutions that will work and can also scale the other ingredients so that you can still make at least part of a batch of cookies out of that remaining flour. The recipes are designed to be mixed in a single bowl for less cleanup, and there's even a social sharing aspect to the app for bragging about your latest kitchen success. Drop uses Bluetooth LE to talk to your iPad or iPad mini, and the battery should last up to a year of normal use. Drop is available for ordering online today, but the device will be available soon at Apple Stores in the US, Canada, and the UK. You can also purchase Drop online from Apple.com, Brit+Co, Food52, and Harvey Norman stores in Ireland.
Drop's internet-savvy kitchen scale is now available
If you're already fretting over getting a holiday dinner just right, you'll be glad to hear that Drop's smart kitchen scale is at last available. Plunk down $100 (£80) and you can both weigh ingredients as well as walk through app-based recipes that tell you when you have enough of a given foodstuff to move on. The scale also includes a few thoughtful touches, such as a "next step" button (to keep dirty fingers off your device screen) and its own timer. Drop won't guarantee that guests like your choice of dessert, but it'll at least make sure that you get the meal you were expecting.
Smart microwave suggests meals based on your cooking habits
It's not hard to find microwave-friendly recipes, but it's another matter to both find the right recipes and cook them properly. However, SectorQube may just take care of all of those challenges at once if its crowdfunded MAID (Make All Incredible Dishes) smart microwave takes off. The 1.3 cubic foot oven gives you access to a crowdsourced recipe store and will automatically prepare many dishes at the right time and temperature, but its real highlight is a recommendation feature that suggests meals and activities based on your cooking habits and fitness. It may offer a dinner that complements your diet, or suggest a run if you've been indulging in a lot of calorie-rich food. There will be gesture and voice commands if you'd rather not touch the 6-inch screen with sticky fingers, and a smartphone app will let you know when the cooking is done.
In vitro cookbook helps you decide if you're into lab-grown meat
There's no denying that as the world's population continues to grow, we'll need to examine the ways we keep the masses fed. Meat for 9 billion people doesn't seem within the realm of possibility, so Next Nature is looking into sustainable ways to get that protein fix -- including lab-grown proteins. To help you decide whether or not you'd be down to eat in vitro foods on the regular, the outfit has created a cookbook full of possibilities. The In Vitro Meat Cookbook serves up 45 lab-grown recipes that range from the Dodo Nuggets pictured above to Magic Meatballs and See-Through Sashimi. Of course, these aren't real concoctions just yet, but rather food for thought about our culinary future. While the options may look (and sound) kind of gross on the surface, the book itself is quite beautiful and well-designed. For the curious, a copy can be pre-ordered for €24.00 ($30 converted) right here.
We made weed butter with a 'magical' machine
WARNING: This story contains references to the use of marijuana. Do not try this at home -- unless, of course, you're an adult living in a state or city where the use of such substances is legal or, you know, you like the way it feels.
