Super Sunday is Super Food Day across america. I’ve got a quick peek at a handful of items that’ll help you whip up world-class eats in the blink of an eye!
Barbecue Wizard
True barbecue aficionados know that the sauce is just the field goal, the touchdown is the smoking of the meat. But smoking generally takes a long time and is most often an outdoor activity. For those of us in the frigid northeast, running back and forth to the outdoor smoker through the snow is not a winning play. But smoked pulled meat, slathered with sauce on a bun is at the top of my Super Bowl Sunday wish list.
Luckily there’s a device out there that makes smoked meat (or fish or cheese ) in a jiffy. It’s an indoor, electric, pressure smoker. That’s right, the illegitimate child born of a smoker and a pressure cooker. Sounds weird I know, but it’s not the first time someone has mixed up two seemingly opposite cooking tools. The eminent Colonel Harlan Sanders, of fried chicken fame, built his empire on a pressure fryer. This primo piece of hardware is manufactured by Emson and sold by numerous vendors such as Amazon, Hammacher-Schlemmer and others. It comes in a 5 and 7 quart size. Go large. Street price for the seven quart is around $300. The 5 quart runs about $50 less.
The Perfect Blend
Frozen slushy drinks are as popular as a can or bottle of brew at Super Bowl parties these days. You want a machine that’s as fast and high performance as our competing two tight ends, all purpose performers who won’t let you down in the clutch. The top of the line in blenders is the Vitamix. A machine so powerful you can just toss the citrus in whole and it’ll turn give you the zing of the zest and pulverize the seeds so that you’ll never know that they were there. A seven-year warranty will ensure that your Super Bowl beverages will be cool and fruity for years to come. The best way to get these is direct from the manufacturer and a click on the picture will take you to the web page that displays the different bundles available. You’re looking at $450-$650 for the non commercial models. They ain’t cheap, but neither is an Escalade.
Fry Away
Onion rings, mmmmmmm. (ok, and doughnuts, and wings and…)And they’re not the only crispy fried food that rules at party time. There are a number of these on the market, but this T-Fal Ultimate EZ Clean Stainless-Steel Immersion Fryer has all the bells and whistles with a good filtration and storage system so you can reuse oil plus a top that locks down to avoid a splatter fest. Almost all the parts pop in to the dishwasher as well. You can find it pretty much everywhere in brick and mortar stores or online for between $100 and $130. T-Fal has a much higher tech unit called an Actifry that uses just a tablespoon or so of oil and a hot air convection system to raise the temp of the oil on the outside of the food without it having to go for a swim. There have however, been complaints about shoddy workmanship and lots of fan noise with earlier models and the new one’s just come out. So tempted though I was to recommend it,I can’t right now.
So, hit the stores or the websites this week and set yourself up for smoked beef brisket sliders, onion rings and Margaritas this Sunday. Party hearty and responsibly folks!
Stephen Jacobs has written on technology and entertainment for almost 25 years. His work has appeared in old school publications like Videomaker, Washington Post’s Fast Forward, Television Business International and Television 2.0 and in new tech venues like Wired and CNET. He’s currently a professor of Video Game Design and Development at RIT