sous vide: short ribs

For our last Sous Vide class we did short ribs. 48 hours at 139F! Each team prepared their short ribs a different way before they went in to cook. We did a barbecue-style dry rub, other teams did different flavored marinades. I really liked the team that used coffee and the team that used Guinness.

Anyway, while the short ribs were cooking we got to making side dishes. I had recently this recipe for Baked Ricotta, Mushrooms & Balsamic Brown Butter and I really wanted to try it so I thought this was the perfect opportunity, even though it's not a traditional barbecue side dish.

Also I made some modifications to the recipe. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

So I made the brown butter first. And then instead of sauteeing with olive oil, I reused the brown butter pan for sauteeing the garlic and red pepper flakes, to which I added onion to because I thought the onions would go really well with the mushrooms.



After the onions were almost caramelized I added mushrooms (brown and white) and white wine, sauteeing until the wine had evaporated and the mushrooms were almost dry.



I couldn't find any ricotta cheese, so I crumbled goat cheese over and broiled everything until the cheese developed toasted spots.



Lastly, I poured the balsamic brown butter over (balsamic vinegar, brown butter, salt and pepper), which really took things to the next level.



The great thing about this mushroom side dish is you can use it for so many things - to mix with pasta, to top pizza, to sautee with additional vegetables, as a side with steak, as a stuffing for veggie tacos, etc. etc. It's creamy and tangy and spicy and mushroom-meaty and just delicious.

As a plus the short ribs came out amazing as well. Sous vide made the meat so tender and juicy, like brisket cooked really well. Besides the mushrooms we also had roasted baby brussel sprouts and mashed potatoes. Can't go wrong with all that.

sous vide: fennel (and banana!)

After proteins we switched to cooking vegetables and fruits. My group did fennel, artichoke, strawberries and bananas.

For fennel, I cut the bulb into sections and vacuum packed them with some herbs/seasonings: tarragon, thyme, bay leaf, star anise, caraway seeds.



The herbs were wrapped in plastic before being vacuum-packed, otherwise they would flavor the fennel too strongly. The package was cooked at 185F for 40 minutes.



After the fennel was cooked, I seared it with some butter, salt and pepper. It still tasted bland so I squeezed some lemon juice on it and sprinkled some cayenne pepper and then it tasted amazing. I could barely get a picture before all of the fennel disappeared.



After that we did bananas, and I cooked the caramel because I want to keep getting better at pastry things such as caramel. This was sugar and glucose syrup, with the addition of lemon and orange zest after the heat was turned off.



The zests were picked out before the caramel was added to the bananas. It was funny, the zests became like candied lemon and orange, tasty but a little bitter. Also funny was that the caramel cooled and hardened after they were poured on the bananas, and I was actually able to slide the banana logs out from the caramel, resulting in the caramel being one hard mass full of banana log-shaped curves. I guess this is the beginning to making caramel sculpture pieces...?



The caramel-covered bananas were cooked at 149F for 20 minutes. When they came out they were really soft, and the caramel had liquified. I think the next step would be to soak them in alcohol and set them on fire, or to cover them in sugar and brulee them. We just ate them.

sous vide: egg

After steak and salmon, the next protein we tackled was eggs. This is where I think the sous vide machine really shines because eggs are even easier to overcook than meat and seafood. I mean, if you're trying to do a batch of soft-boiled eggs, forget about it, the sous vide machine is the way to go.



For soft-boiled eggs, 150F for 30 minutes.

While the eggs were cooking, we each got to work cooking the rest of the brunch dish that the egg was going to top. Namely, bacon (or lardo)-wrapped asparagus, frisee salad and shallot vinaigrette.

I chose bacon because of the higher meat ratio and because it was better for wrapping. The asparagus was blanched, wrapped in half-cooked bacon, then fried some more with garlic and thyme.



The frisee I tossed in shallot vinaigrette (shallot, olive oil, champagne vinegar, salt and pepper) and plated in a shallow bowl (to reflect the roundness of the soft-boiled egg).



Besides placing the bacon-wrapped asparagus on top I also added some bits of compressed cantaloupe (vacuum-sealed so less watery and more flavor-intensive). The bacon made me think of proscuitto, which goes with melon.



On top we had the option of shaved bottarga, which is cured fish roe but when shaved adds a savory/salty dimension, like what Parmesean cheese does. Of course then I added some shaved Parmesean as well. Once the soft-boiled egg went on top I sprinkled some smoked paprika on too.



Soft-boiled eggs are hard to plate. Mine slid halfway off the mound of frisee, so in retrospect I should have made a bigger hole for it to sit in. This is a very rich dish, not what I would normally eat, but delicious with an extra helping of shallot vinaigrette to cut through all the richness. Very good for brunch.

sous vide: steak and salmon

The advanced technique classes on offer this semester were Sous Vide Cooking, Modern Sauces, and Charcuterie. I tried to get into the first two, wanting more experience in those, but since I've taken advanced classes before I had to be part of a lottery, which I lost. But then somebody dropped the class and I was able to add.

So I missed one class, but the class I started on was sous vide steak and salmon! The class was divided into team of 5-6, and each team had to come up a steak dish and a salmon dish. The proteins were all cooked sous vide (in a temperature-controlled water bath) for the same amount of time. For example, all the steaks were cooked for 45 minutes in 135F water (making the meat medium rare throughout) and then seared with butter, garlic and thyme. But the seasonings, side dishes and sauces were up to us.

My team did steak, mashed potatoes and green beans. I volunteered myself for green beans, which I blanched and then sauteed (olive oil, sesame oil, garlic, shallot, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar). Then I helped up with the sauce (brown, otherwise known as beef stock with mirepoix, roux, tomato paste, and a sachet of herbs). And I did the plating. Very traditional looking, as Chef Morse commented.



This team did a take on beef pho - fried noodles, basil, chili, broth.



Another did a modern plating with baby carrots, thin-sliced potato and micro herbs.



And another did an appetizer-like plating with steak cubes, potato puree rosette, pesto sauce, horseradish foam.



For our salmon dish we did wild rice pilaf and tomato salad. The sous vide salmon was melty and soft, sashimi-like in texture.



Overall I prefer sous vide steak but not sous vide salmon. But of course any day with steak and salmon is a good day.