Trying Eggs in the Circulator

America's Test Kitchen showed a different way of "poaching" eggs recently. They refer to it as Sous Vide (but that is technically incorrect because there is no vacuum involved). The link here (at around 20 minutes in) shows how it is done. I won't go into the details here, but encourage you to look at the video. I had no expectation that the method would work. But I  was wrong. Not only did it work, it was spectacuar.

This dish was intended to show off the technique, and to make the eggs an integral part of a light supper.

Ingredients (For 2 people)

4 Large eggs at refrigerator temperature.

3 oz Soba noodles.

1 lb Asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces.

1T vegetable oil

2 oz dried exotic mushrooms (reconstittued, reserve the liquid), chopped finely

1T sesame oil

4T soy sauce

1t hot sauce (Habanero vodka in our case).

Salt to taste

Method

Start the eggs in the circulator at 167F for 11 minutes. Meanwhile bring a pot of water bring to the boil and cook the soba noodles according to the directions. Drain the noodles  and leave to stay warm in the pot. 

While the noodles are cooking, heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over high heat until smoking. Cook the asparagus stalks over high heat for 1 minute. Add the asparagus tips and cook for a minute longer. 

Add the mushrooms. Mix the sesame oil, soy sauce, and hot sauce together with 2 or 3T of the reserved mushroom liquid. Add the mixed liquids to the skillet and cover to steam for 2 minutes. Toss in the soba noodles and mix thoroughly.

Divide the noodle mixture into 2 bowls. Break the eggs over the dish and serve immediately.

Sous Vide corn on the cob

I have had this perpetual search for the best way to do corn on the cob. Kenji at Serious eats turned me on to an approach that turned out fantastic. It involves the vacuum sealer and the circulator. So worth it, and so easy - at least easy once you have the vacuum sealer and circulator!

Ingredients

2 Ears of fresh corn - shucked

2 T butter ( I used home made, cultured butter), but I suspect any would do.

Method

Place water in a large container and set up the circulator. Heat the water to 83C (181.4F). Place the shucked corn into vacuum bags. Ad 2T butter. Vacuum seal the bags and triple seal them.

Place the bags in the water bath at 83C for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take the bags out of the water bath. Cut open the bags and serve the corn with a little coarse salt.

Serious Eats suggests adding some flavorings to the butter in the bag - we didn't this time, but may experiment later.

Dinner theater

Last Saturday, Chef David Gilbert and I cooked for some high powered business women at my house. Madame was of course a guest. It was fun to be able to ask her not to help - at least during the event itself, She, of course, was her usual wonderful self beforehand (setting a beautiful table) and afterwards cleaning up the 48+ glasses, 56+ plates and the various cooking utensils required for a theatrical 4 course meal with appetizers and coffee/chocolates and liqueurs.
For me it was a chance to cook again with my good friend Chef David Gilbert. For him, a chance to trial some dishes that he will use at a later occasion. For the guests, an elegant party where they could let their hair down, have great food and appropriate wines.
The main theme was "modern Thai" although we deviated a bit. Thai cooking is often difficult to pair with wines because the core elements of Thai cooking simply aren't terribly wine friendly. So we used Thai accents on some familiar ingredients and then added some extra flourish.
It's not that easy to completely silence a table of 8 people, just with the presentation of food. But we did. A stunning achievement in the service of the dessert.
Most of what we did can be found at the Beyond The Kitchen (BTK) blog - Dave's online location for his cooking, eating and travel experiences. However there are a couple things that didn't make it there.

The first is the wine pairings - I mentioned them in the BTK piece, but didn't show them, so here they are:

• The first course had the Gewurtztraminer - since the soup had the sweetness of some roasted garlic, we wanted to make sure the wine didn't fight with it.
• For the scallops, a bone dry Sancerre did the trick
• For the beef a well aged Haure Cotes de Beaune worked well. It had lost its youthfull fruit (such as it was!), and had developed into a mature long, slightly leathery wine that developed beautifully as it opened up. 
• For dessert, the Ume blanc from Japan. A low alcohol (around 7% v/v) it, again exhibited the sweetness required for the dish.

 Many of the dishes used kaffir (Thai) lime leaves. We have had a kaffir lime tree for almost 10 years - so much so it feels like a family pet now. It gets cold here in the winter, so he has to come inside. However, he is getting to be a bit tall. At over 8feet now, he is going to have to be cut back next year.

In the BTK post, I mentioned the torchon of foie gras. Here it is in the circulator getting its 20 minutes of warmth.

The parsnips were also done in the circulator, so here they are coming up to temperature.

Last but not least, the beef roulade - also in the circulator.

The temperature of 50C is the upper end of the range for ensuring that the meat tenderizes. It comes out pretty unappetizing looking on the outside, so needs to be seared. The results can be seen on the BTK blog.