Sous vide: literally “under vacuum,” referring to a fancy pants French method of cooking vacuum sealed foods in water. After seeing it in action on last season’s Top Chef (courtesy of Richard Blais, one of the many fauxhawks that season), and seeing it repeatedly referenced on Ruhlman’s blog, I was intrigued but still needed someone to walk me through the process. Did I really need to invest thousands of dollars into a recirculating bath and professional vacuum sealer, just to cook stuff in plastic bags at home without killing anyone?
Then came along Grant Achatz, to hold my hand. Five minutes into the first video and I was ready to race home, Christo-wrap everything I could get my hands on that is vaguely edible, and dunk them into boiling water. If Achatz approves of DIY sous vide in Glad Ziploc bags ™, that settles it for me.
After a seemingly interminable stretch of work / class, I did some grocery shopping and picked up some Ziploc steamer bags and a thick round-eye steak:
Yes, that is a lot of butter. Cause butter makes my heart explode, with happiness. Also, please ignore the loud turmeric stains on my rangetop. We can’t all be Martha Stewart.
Figuring that if they advertise that you can safely microwave these bags at high heat, surely they can withstand puny boiling temperatures, right? My boyfriend remains unconvinced by this argument and decided to get some Tryyaki, food from which *I* personally think is more suspect. He’s fine eating sushi prepared by teenagers in a hi-liter colored drive-thru hut, but not something that might have been cooked in evil plastic? But of course it’s okay to reheat noodles in a styrofoam container. Riiight.
Here’s the set up. Isn’t it cute?
The sous chef. A lot of sous were involved in this dinner.
My first attempt at sous vide, in spite of myself, was probably colored by my boyfriend’s suspicions. The aspect of sous vide that confuses me is, how do you know what temperature to cook things at and how long do you cook them? The first sous vide resource I looked up on the internet suggested cooking steak for 30 minutes or more, at 140. To be on the “safe side” I left it in for forty-five minutes. In retrospect, it should have been obvious that this was clearly too hot or long.
This was his best chance, while I was occupied with the camera.
Though this first trial run didn’t go as well, I remain undaunted. The butter and herbs that I had tossed into the bag did fuse nicely with the (overcooked) meat, and I imagine that had I pulled it out earlier it would have been way delicious. The cat sure seemed interested, at any rate, and I had to fight him off for every bite. And Quark is much more of a foodie than E so I trust his judgment.
Bonus shots of preparation of lamb stock for my contribution to tonight’s potluck:
This is (blurry) mirepoix: fancy frenchy pants term for “onions, carrots and celery,” and probably what I will name my first born child. Sucker.
Le Mirepoix will eventually join these: roasted lamb bones simmering with some herbs. There is probably a fancy frenchy pants name for this but I don’t know it yet. If there is I’m calling it for my second born child, double sucker! In the event that I never have children or am barren, replace “kids” with “cats”
Next episode – I try fish!
One Comment
Interesting stuff! Keep at it, for sure – I’ve been using sous-vide in the kitchen for a good while now, and I’ve actually gotten as far as buying a proper lab water bath (or will very soon) for precision control.
As far as DIY goes, you might find this webisode a useful reference, and the links from it even more so: http://www.kamikazecookery.com/films/2 (and the associated blog post, http://www.kamikazecookery.com/blogs/23 ). Full disclosure – I’m the producer on the show. But I still think you’d find it interesting!
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[...] A previous episode saw me lured into attempting sous vide by only the best chef in America, Grant Achatz, making this method of food preparation look as easy as…well, dunking plastic bags in water. The first attempt didn’t pan out so well, probably because I wasn’t really that on top of making sure the temperature was constant. I had been a little nervous about whether or not 140 degrees was hot enough to cook the beef, and with the temperature gauge obscured by steam, I’d definitely left the steak too hot for too long! [...]
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