Sous Vide

[bigdaddy 252]

How did you go Ande? 

Or did you do what I do sometimes and just ate the food and forgot about taking pics of the final cooked product :).

Cheers.

[ande 896]

3 hours ago, bigdaddy said:

How did you go Ande? 

Or did you do what I do sometimes and just ate the food and forgot about taking pics of the final cooked product :).

Cheers.

Coming soon, I just have my hands full with a new apprentice at my daughters houseMy soninlaw just ended his maternity leave, so I'm a full time grandpa for an 11 months old boy and his 2year brother when he gets back from kindergarden 

And my youngest son 14 demands the rest of my energy at home  taking him to soccer/boxing/........ etc I'm not adjusted to such a fast phase yet

I have the pics here, but the cooking notes are at home, so I just have to find that space in time 

cheers

[ande 896]

Hi again

So whilst the steak was in the brine, I cut a hole in the box lid, for the sousvide heater

a 15litre food safe storage box with lid, BPA free temperatur tolerance from -40 °C to +120 °C. I should have gone for a 20 or 25 litre, so I could use it to store the cooking unit in it when not in use.

 

Edited March 21 by ande (see edit history)

[ande 896]

Steak out of fridge/brine and let it drip of

Measure thicknes for setting cooking time/temp

Ad two tablespoons of home made garlic/herb butter

vacum pack

control weight for choosing cooking time/temp

put in box, I dropped in a grating, to keep the steak of the box bootom for better water circulation, also I cut the vacum bag long enoughf to lock it to the box top, with the boxlid  

Fill the box up with hotwater from the tap (at my house thats about 68-70 C )

Set the chosen temp/time I set it at 63c 30 hours based on weight/thicknes

Then I marked the water level with a pice of tape, to get a sence of any evapouration and refill if needed

end of day two

Edited March 21 by ande (see edit history)

[GaryD 1,118]

I'm keen to see if the end result justifies the effort involved.

[kellenw 864]

Sous vide is awesome. It's particularly amazing to me how you can turn a relatively low/mediocre cut of meat into something special with a little time and love. hehe. We put a half a cow in the freezer every year, so we always have a lot of cuts that you have to get creative with. I turn chuck roasts and similar into steaks that rival a nicely aged prime ribeye, seriously. It's like magic. haha

[GaryD 1,118]

OK.  I enjoy some of the tougher cuts of beef too (like beef cheeks) but the only way that I've been able to cook them is by slow cooking - to produce a casserole-style dish.

Sous vide seems to offer a new way of dealing with stewing meat.

[ande 896]

Hi again

So after 28 hours at 63c I pulled the plug

Water level maintained at the same level, no need to refill

I got the steak out of bag carefully, so to not loose any gravy, put the steak on a tray/grating and let it rest until 5 hours before serving

And pour the gravy in a separate box and put it in the fridge to use in the sauce 

The steak now goes in the oven for 4 hours at 80c, to dry the skin and ensure a perfect crackling, I then let it rest until 25 minutes before serving 

I get a nice byproduct, the lard separates perfect, before you need the gravy for the sauce

 

I then crank the oven up to 250c and give the steak 15-20 minutes to make the crackling. Keep an eye on it, for the last 5-7 minutes so you don't burn it. Once the skin start popping, it's done in a few minutes. Get the steak out and let it rest for 5+ minutes before cutting 

The end result was the best ever IMO, my wife & son shared that view so this will be the "new way" to cook "ribbe"  for Christmas at our house 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_belly#Norway

I saved some in the fridge for a few days to test if the crackling maintained the propper consistence and it did

cheers 

[ande 896]

On 3/22/2021 at 2:53 AM, GaryD said:

I'm keen to see if the end result justifies the effort involved.

To me absolutely, the actual work/time, is less than cooking this dish, the traditional way. The timing to get it done right,, at a set serving time, witch can be a demand at a Christmas dinner is also much easier

But even if it had involved more work the tase and end result would make it worthwhile 

cheers

[bigdaddy 252]

Hi Ande,

That pipe we have...Could you send some of that meat down it to me and be sure to add plenty of crackling please. That looks so, so good mate.

I agree, The actual overall work is less IMO, you might have to plan a bit more and change your mind set, but if you keep to the principles and keep it precise, It's very good.

Did you know you can sous vide veges? They taste so, so good.

Cheers.

[ande 896]

13 hours ago, bigdaddy said:

Hi Ande,

That pipe we have...Could you send some of that meat down it to me and be sure to add plenty of crackling please. That looks so, so good mate.

I agree, The actual overall work is less IMO, you might have to plan a bit more and change your mind set, but if you keep to the principles and keep it precise, It's very good.

Did you know you can sous vide veges? They taste so, so good.

Cheers.

I wouldn't dear sending anything thru the pipe during a pandemic, we could get in big trouble 😱 lets keep the pipe a secret 🤐😷

I'm reading up on sousvide veges, I will try it all  next in line is a moose Shoulder clod roast I wan't to see how tender it can become cooking it sousvide style

cheers 

[bigdaddy 252]

A few years ago I also sous vided satay chicken.

This one is so easy.... I love chicken breast so I use them, you can use thighs for a little bit more moisture.

Chicken breast cut into chuncks, the size you like, chicken satay sauce into the sous vide bag with the chuncks seal up on moist setting (This is where your skill of a "vacuum sealer operator" comes to the fore, because you have to keep an eye on the fluid contents and just before they reach the sealing strip hit the seal button) an hour or two on 62 C (not precise in the time setting) later viola you have satay chicken.

I'm going to do this one again soon just to confirm my memory.

The good thing about this is you can tweek your processes. I haven't had any bad results yet, just can improve some little things, to make it better (I call this tweeking) I have not got anywhere near throwing mistakes out yet.

[bigdaddy 252]

Bigdaddy was under pressure last night so he got the bit between his teeth and got cracking.

I left my run to late for my liking but compromised for convenience.

Coffee machine being descaled, dishwasher on, Sous Vide set on to 62 C. Breast fillets out, didn't have much time so some bought satay sauce sufficed for tonight as opposed to the much better one made from scratch.  Vacuum sealer out, I used bought pre made sous vide bags this time for convenience. I normally just wait for the water in the sous vide to heat up on it's own but I was going out and had to be there at a certain time so I did my little trick to speed up the heating up process. I have two kettles so I filled them both up with water from the water oven and when they boiled I poured the water back into the oven, stirred the water up and repeated the process, I did that 2 or 3 times and within 5 mins my water was at set temp. I also do this when I cook meat and ramp the temp up from 58 C or so to 82 C for vege cooking. Breasts diced, some satay sauce into sous vide bag first about 1/4 of the diced chicken in more sauce in and hands into the mix to thoroughly mix it in repeat until all the chicken is in. A little trick with the bags. Fold over an inch or two from the end so you get no wet ingredients on that part, which is used for sealing. Bag of ingredients into sealer and double sealed, to make sure none of your sauces escape during cooking.

Once food was cooking, a quick refill of the kettles ready for a cuppa in the morning or whever, a quick wipe, wash and sanitize of benchtop cutting board and knife. As an aside, rinsed coffee machine as descaling was finished, and refilled the water, then off for a quick shower and clean up ready to go out. After an hour and 15 mins of cooking It was just a matter of removing the bag from the water oven, like shown cutting the top and pouring the ingredients out into dish/dishes/ storage containers. adding a sprinkle of chili flakes and you're good to go. I was happy as it was but if you want the sauce to be thicker you can always use thickener to finish. All done and dusted in an hour and a half with a few other things done as an aside. You could also make steamed rice in that hour of cooking but I thought I'd watch my carb intake so didn't do it.

• Breast fillets ready for prep.
• Breast fillets chunks, 2 kettles, satay sauce sous vide stuff and the microwave photo bombing lol.
• Double sealed satay chicken ready to go into water oven.
• Cooked chicken in a bag.
• Water oven doing it's thing.
• Satay chicken ready to be eaten.

Verict : Yum yum and yum...The chicken was very tender and tasty.

Improvements to be made: I'd jack the temperature up to 63 degrees Cheers. Next time just to have a little more doneness. This dish would be nicer if you also added steamed veges to the mix, but it was just so good as it was.