Beef Chuck Sous Vide

 Our local meat market had a terrific deal on beef chuck again. This time I wanted to do something a bit different, so decided to use the circulator and cook it sous vide. Whenn cooked for long enough it becomes really tender, and because it has such good, beefy flavor, it ends up delicious. Served with a slightly sweet pan sauce, redolent with shallots and mushrooms, we had a major hit on our hands. The surprise ingredient here was creme de cassis - the French liqueur that is added to white wine to make a kir.

Ingredients

3lb beef chuck roast, trimmed of some of the external fat, and the hard internal fat removed

1T Kosher salt

1T Coarse black pepper

2T Butter

1 Large shallot, minced finely

6 Mushrooms (white or cremini) thinly sliced

1/2 Cup dry, full bodied red wine (we used the Dashe Zinfandel)

1/4 Cup creme de cassis

Method

Trim the meat, pat dry and then coat liberally with salt and pepper. My standard technique here is to put the salt and pepper onto the cutting board and then pat the meat onto it. You get a nice even coating that way.

Bring the water bath up to 115F (46C) in a lrge container with the circulator. Seal the meat in a vacuum bag, using whichever method you prefer. I use a food saver, but I imagine that the displacement method would work well. Immerse the bag into the circulating water. Cover the surface of the water to prevent evaporation - I use ping pong balls.

Leave the meat in the circulator at this temperature for 12 hours (+-). Increase the temperature to 132F (55C) and cook for another at least 12 hours. At this point the met will be medium rare - medium. Definitely evenly pink all the way through when you cut it. Heston Blumental suggests cooking meat slowly below 120F (50C) to allow some of the envymes to work on tenderization. I know that some people have had success cooking the meat at a single temperature for the whole time. I do it this way because it works for me.

When you are ready to finish the dish, you will need to make a pan sauce. Cut the bag open, taking care to preserve the juices - I poured them into a measuring jug. The juices will be quite salty, so no more seasoning will be needed. For this amount of meat, you will get about 1 cup of liquid. It is surprisingly non fatty.

Microwave the sliced mushrooms for 30 or so seconds to drive off some of their moisture. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet and add the shallots. Cook gently until softened, but not browned. Add the microwaved mushrooms and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Add 1/2 of the wine, stir well and evaporate the liquid until the pan is almost dry. Repeat with the rest of the wine. Add the cassis and bring to a simmer, add the reserved beef liquid and bring again to a simmer. The sauce will be a thick enough emulsion that it doesn't need any extra help.

Serving

Slice the meat thinly agains the grain. Plate with a little sauce. We served a salad of butter lettuce, red peppers, grape tomatoes, radishes, left over cooked potatoes that had been warmed  through, pickled jalapenos. With a dressing made from roasted candied tomatoes, olive oil, rice wine vinegar and scallions.

Oxtails

We have a rather inventive dinner coming up. It's called "a day in dinner", where each course comes from a different meal/time of day. The course corresponding to dinner is a sous-vide oxtail. On the night it will be served with celeriac puree and bitter greens. I did think it might be a good idea to try it out before actually serving it - especially as it takes 3 days to cook. Like many things sous vide, it is pretty straightforward - as long as someone gives you a clue. I wanted some 5-spice flavorings on this - they go so well with the richness of the oxtails, but how much?
Ingredients
2 t Szechuan peppercorns
1 t whole cloves
1 t pink peppercorns
4 whole star anise
1" piece of cinnamon
2 t salt
1T vegetable oil
2 lb oxtail (1 whole oxtail  of variable size)
3 leeks chopped roughly
1T vegetable oil
6 oz linguine
Method
Toast the Szechuan pepper, cloves and pink peppercorns in a hot skillet until fragrant. Allow to cool. Grind finely together with the star anise and cinnamon. Sieve the ground spices into the 1T of vegetable oil. Add the salt. Coat the oxtails in the oil/spice/salt mixture and double seal in a vacuum bag. Cook at 55C for 24hrs in the circulator, and a further 48 hrs at 70C.

Remove, chill and refrigerate.
Empty the contents of the bag into a saucier and start to reheat, melting the juices. Saute the leeks and when slightly browned, add the pan juices, stirring to combine.

Cook the pasta. About 5 minutes before the pasta is cooked, sear the oxtails on a hot skillet. Serve the oxtails over the pasta with the leek/sauce drizzled around.

The spicing was just right - cutting through the richness of the meat nicely. Of course the bottle of M. Chapoutier Chateau Neuf du Pape 2006 didn't do a lot of harm either!
And, oh yes. This does get the "we can serve this to people" accolade from Madame. Just as well really because we are going to anyway!

The Chicken Breast Search Continues

Part of the inspiration for the sous vide experiments was to see if boneless, skinless chicken breasts could be made edible. A difficult challenge - usually they are tasteless, tough dry. Brining is an option, but still they are just plain difficult to do. Browning them, hoping for some good Maillard reaction flavors is possible, but futile. So with despair in my heart I reached for the circulator. In previous posts I mentioned the various experiments. Today's was to see what happens when cooked with a sauce.
Of course, given what I put in the sauce, the fat under the chicken skin would have hardly made any difference. The reason? heavy cream! Yes, this dish had a cream sauce placed into the bag with the raw chicken, and then cooked in the circulator at 71C (160F) for 4 hours. It got the "we can serve this to people" appellation, so I guess it came out OK!
Ingredients
1T butter
8 oz White mushrooms - sliced
2 large shallots - minced
5 sprigs thyme
3/4 cup whipping cream
salt/pepper
2 whole chicken breasts patted dry
Method
Heat the butter in a large skillet until the foaming has subsided. Add the minced shallots and stir quickly. Add the mushrooms and thyme sprigs. Salt and pepper the contents, and then cook down until most of the water has cooked out of the mushrooms. Add the cream to the hot pan and bring back to nearly a boil.
Place the chicken breasts in a vacuum bag, cover with the cream sauce and pump out the air. Place in the circulator at 71C for 4 hours.
If eating immediately, serve over simply cooked rice with some colorful (peas and carrots, for example) vegetables on the side.
Otherwise plunge in an ice bath to chill the bag, and place in the freezer. Thaw in the fridge, reheat - taking care to ensure that the chicken is heated all the way through. Serve as above.

Chicken with tarragon

As part of the experimentation with sous-vide cooking, I laid out some goals and the beginning process. Here's the link to that first post.

One of the goals was to see if there was a way to make boneless, skinless chicken breasts edible. The jury is still out, but the method shows promise.

What was really strange about this dish was how much liquid there was in the bag at the end (making us worry about how dry the chicken might be), and yet how moist and juicy the meat was. I am sure a food scientist can help with this conumdrum.

The dish was not an unqualified success, the chicken was rather mealy in texture. Taste was fabulous, but it was definitely soft. I think it is worth repeating the experiment, but maybe leaving it in the circulator for less time.

In any case here is what I did.

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Grape seed oil to coat the chicken
Salt/pepper - a small amount just to season
2 bunches of fresh tarragon

Method
Set up the circulator for a temperature of 160F (71C). Rub the chicken breasts with oil and then salt/pepper lightly. Place in vacuum bag and pack in the tarragon. Seal the bag as usual. Wait for the circulator to come to temperature. Slide the sealed bag into the circulator and leave to cook for 4 hours.
Take out of the circulator, plunge in ice water (still in the bag) until cold. Then freeze in the bag.
To reheat, give it abut 2 minutes in the microwave (still in the bag if you dare - but the bag will puff up and possibly explode). It may be wise to vent the bag before microwaving.

Slice on the diagonal and serve over salad.

Future Changes
Cook in the circulator for 2 hours instead of 4. It seems as if the tenderizing effect of sous vide cooking can make it go further than one would like. Otherwise, just keep doing it!

The sous vide lamb chops

For those who have been following the bouncing ball, you will know that I am in the sous-vide stage of life. I was lent a very high quality circulator and am going through the learning cuve that everyone else has been going through for a while.
Yesterday I made some lamb chops - coated with a mint/garlic/salt/oil paste and cooked sous vide for about 6 hours at 50C. Tonight I cracked open on eof the bags, and Madame and I had them for dinner. Success!!!

Ingredients
6 lamb loin chops - weighing 4-6 oz each
1/4/ cup packed mint leaves
1 small (3 inch) rosemary sprig - leaves only
3 cloves garlic
1/2 t salt
1T vegetable oil

Method

Pound the salt, rosemary, mint leaves in a pestle and mortar, adding oil to make a thick paste. Coat the chops with the paste. Seal the chops into 2 vacuum bags (3 chops/bag). Set the circulator to 50C (122 F) and submerge the bags. Cook for 6 hours in the bags.
Remove the bags from the circulator and refrigerate still in the bags.
When you wish to eat the chops, open the bag and sear the chops until the internal temp is 55C 130F (or more according to taste). This should take around 10 minutes on a medium hot skillet.
leave the chops to rest while assembling the salad.

Tasting notes
We served these chops with a Hahn GSM and a salad made with spring mix, olives, tomatoes, peppers, apple and avocado. Dressing was a simple tarragon vinaigrette made with sherry vinegar.

Yes this did get the highest Madame accolade, "We should serve this to people".

Sous Vide Part 1 Chicken Beef Lamb and Pork

In this posting, I am laying out those items I plan to do in the first week or so of the grand sous vide experiment. Madame and I went shopping for:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Pork ribs
• Lamb chops
• Beef sirloin
• Leeks, peppers, celery

These are going to be turned into:

Chicken:

1. mushrooms, onion, cream, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper
2. onion, fennel, indian spices, salt, pepper
3. ginger, kaffir lime, coconut milk, lemon grass, salt, pepper
4. cumin, coriander, star anise, cinnamon, clove, hot pepper sauce, salt, pepper
5. tarragon, salt and pepper

Pork Ribs

1. home made bbq sauce (ketchup, fish sauce, brown sugar, paprika, molasses, cumin ++)
2. fish sauce, lime (juice and zest) shrimp paste, mirin, palm oil, szechuan peppers
3. apple, calvados, cider vinegar

Lamb chops

1. mint, garlic, salt pepper, trace of grapeseed oil

Sirloin (prime)

1. salt, pink pepper corns, trace of oil

Vegetable Medley

1. leeks, peppers, fennel, carrots, basil,

here's hoping that at least some of these will come out well. The chicken will be set to cook at 65 C. The lamb and the beef at 50C. The pork at 60C. The vegetables at 80C. Since the dishes will be finished later (sauced dishes by reheating, non sauced dishes by searing), the final temperatures should come out properly, and in line with the FDA guidelines in the USA. The vegetables should concentrate their sweetness too, by finishing in the oven.
These dishes will all be frozen, and then brought out as dinners at various times this winter/spring. If I have to travel, then I want to make sure that Madame has tasty/nutritious items.
Subsequent postings will detail the experiments.



The Sous Vide Experiment

My good friend David Gilbert has changed jobs and is gradually moving his belongings to San Antonio - to be the Executive Chef at the luxurious Eilan hotel. I managed to persuade him to loan me his water bath and circulator so I could try to do a bunch of sous vide cooking. I know he will want the equipment back as soon as he has some breathing room, so I need to work fast.

The challenges that I wish to undertake are:

1. What will it take to make chicken breasts tasty?
2. Can sous vide cooking do a good job with duck confit?
3. Fish? - A huge topic all on its own. But I can think of several fun things to try - just like any other protein.
4. If I precook a bunch of interesting stuff sous vide, can I freeze it, and then finish the cooking (sear or whatever) at a later date?
5. What happens if I sous vide cook things with a sauce around them? Do sauces "make themselves" this way?
6. What effects do various flavouring agents (especially herbs) have on the taste of the ingredients?
7. What about vegetables? - We had some excellent parsnips at this event , so it made me wonder what would happen with other root vegetables.
8. Eggs - lots of them. Eggs cooked in the circulator are fantastic. The trick is peeling the buggers afterwards. How long can a circulator cooked egg keep?
9. More normal/conventional things - like cooking nice cuts of beef and searing them.
10. What happens to cheese in the vacuum bag? - I suspect that nothing good will happen, but I have no idea! Temperature will be critical.
11. Using the circulator quite cool as a rapid defrost mechanism. The trick of defrosting in cold tapwater is fine, but wasteful of water.

I am sure that many have tried these things before, and I could look up what they have done. But it is so much more fun to experiment. That's the nice thing about working from home - I can set and forget, leaving the circulator to do its thing while I am wrestling technology alligators to the ground.

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.