SOUS VIDE CENTRAL - Recipes and tips!

[Charski]

Thanks for letting me know about the grill-finishing on the steaks! I'm gonna do that!

I like mine RARE - as in, my Dad always says the vet might still be able to save that one! DH likes his medium rare to medium. Which is a far cry better than the well done he thought he liked when I married him!

[greybb1]

Didn't get the chance to make the lemon curd today, feeling a little under the weather, but for anyone who's interested here's the recipe. It comes from SV Kitchen, a really great SV resource. It's where I got the Garlic Confit « SVKitchen recipe.

See the recipe under the lemon curd for iced Lemon Curd Mousse. Yum & low carb too! (leave off the cookies)

Makes about 1¼ cups
3 large eggs
½ cup sugar (I use 1/4 cup splenda and 1/4 cup maltitol)
⅓ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, preferably from Meyer lemons
4 tablespoons (½ stick) salted butter, melted

Preheat the water bath to 180°F (82°C).
Sterilize a 1-pint glass canning jar, lid, and ring; set aside.
Place the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixer until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the lemon juice and melted butter. Do not over beat or the mixture will be frothy. Pour the curd into the prepared jar, filling to the brim. Seal the jar and immerse in the water oven.
Cook for 45 minutes, then remove the jar from the water. Open the jar lid and stir the curd with a spoon for 1 minute. The curd loses some volume as it thickens, so the cooked quantity is about 1¼ cups. Place the open jar in a bowl of ice and water and let cool. To store, reseal the jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.


Iced Lemon Curd Mousse
Makes 4
1¼ cups Lemon Curd, divided use
¾ cup heavy (whipping) cream
Grated zest of ½ lemon
3 ginger snaps or lemon shortbread cookies, crushed (leave off cookies if LC)

Place ¾ cup of the lemon curd in the bowl of a mixer and add the cream and lemon zest. Beat on high speed until the mixture holds soft peaks. Spoon a tablespoon or two of the mixture into each of 4 small glasses or cups, then add a tablespoon of lemon curd, cover with some more mousse, followed by more lemon curd to create a layered effect. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The mousse will keep, refrigerated, for up to 3 days. About an hour before serving, transfer the cups to the freezer. When the mouse is ice-cold but still soft and creamy, garnish each portion with some of the cookie crumbs and serve.

[Charski]

I've got beef ribs in the sous vide again. I had bought them on sale, seasoned, and vacuum-sealed them 2 to a pack and stuck them in the freezer. Pulled out 2 packs today and put them in the sous vide at 155* - then came back in here to re-look at how I did them last time - gee, at 155*! So I'll leave them where they're set, take them out in about 9 hours and toss them on the hot grill for a few minutes each side. YUM.

BTW if anyone else is near Smart & Final - they have bone-in pork shoulders on their ad today for .89/pound!

[Charski]

The ribs were sooooo good! (Again!)

I was going to do lamb in there today but it's supposed to be mid 80s and I really don't want that thing heating up my house all day long. It won't hurt the leg of lamb to marinate another day or two anyway.

[greybb1]

You think it heats up your kitchen? I've never noticed it heating up mine. I do keep a heavy kitchen towel over it while it's cooking, so maybe it keeps the heat in.

Oh wait! we've got different SV contraptions! Never mind. The Sous Vide Supreme doesn't heat up the kitchen.

[Charski]

This isn't BAD but when it's already 78* in the house (no AC here in Central Coastal CA - there are about 3 days per year when it would be nice though!) I don't want to do ANYTHING in here that generates ANY heat whatsoever!

So today, I took the roaster oven/sous vide into the small bathroom! Hey, it's clean in there, all tile countertops, and the meat is sealed in the sous vide bag anyway. I set the DorkFoods probe to 139* (because I missed the 140* I was going for and was too lazy to reset it) and plopped those two hunks of lamb yumminess in there. I had marinated it for 2 days in a Greek marinade of Kalamata olive oil, red wine vinegar, a little balsamic vinegar, freshly-squeezed lime juice, lots of garlic, black pepper, some salt, and oregano. The meat was a Costco boneless leg of lamb, which comes rolled and in one of those net bags - I cut that off and just cut the meat in half, making sure I cut out the gland too.

So in it went at 8:30 this morning. At 6 pm, took it out and DH heated up the grill. We put those pieces on the grill for 5 minutes each side. OH it was SOOO tender and so tasty! DH is not the world's largest fan of lamb and he was just going on and on about how tender and good it was. It'll be a repeat one day soon!

[greybb1]

That sounds wonderful! Sounds like DH is reaping the benefits of the Dork Foods SV by getting the great food and the great beer.

I'm making 2 jars of garlic confit right now. I'm giving one each to a couple of friends. I'll snap a pic when I take them out of the SV.

[greybb1]

I just took out a half pork shoulder that's been cooking at 175* for 16 hours. I put it in the bag with 2 slices of bacon, sealed then put it in the SV.

It fell off the bone & the meat is tender and juicy. I've got a half-sheet pan of pulled pork and about 2 cups of the most beautiful broth that I don't know what to do with, but I'm not throwing it away!

I put some bbq sauce on the pork and it's in the oven right now on 350 for around 30 minutes.

I love bbq pork so I won't have a problem eating it every day for a week, probably twice a day on some days. I'm going to take some tomorrow for my co-worker for lunch.

I have to say that for $1.49 a pound and almost no waste, this roast is a bargain.

Pictures:

Meat in a bag.


Pulled in a half sheet pan.


Beautiful broth.

[Charski]

Yum yum yum! I love me some pulled pork. We just finished some off last week (all those Cubano sandwiches! ) and I could already eat more.

DH just polished off the last of the goat cheese and requested MORE PLEASE! So I gotta get to Trader Joe's this week for more goat's milk, then into the sous vide it shall go.

I'd freeze that stock and just add it to something yummy some other day, like chile verde maybe!

[greybb1]

I found a recipe for chile verde on Food Network. Do you have a favorite recipe?

ETA: I know people are reading this thread - there are nearly 1300 views! Anyone else out there have a chile verde recipe?

[Charski]

Mine is so easy! Cubed pork, whatever is cheap/on sale (not tenderloin though, there's no reason to use that beautiful cut for something like this!) - throw in crockpot with 1 chopped onion, 1 diced Poblano (or other green) pepper, 1 28 oz. can La Victoria green enchilada sauce, 1 12 oz (more or less) jar green tomatillo salsa. Add 1 tablespoon crushed dried oregano and a teaspoon or more to taste, cumin. If you have some fresh cilantro, great, chop it up and throw that in too!

Stir everything together and let cook on Low all day, til pork is tender.

I'm thinking you could seal this in a bag or large jar and do it in the sous vide too although I've never tried it.

After MANY years of MANY recipes for chile verde - this is our favorite. And DH is a chile verde connoisseur!

[greybb1]

That sounds really good Charski and easy too! I've put the ingredients on my grocery list.

Here's a pic of the bacon wrapped pork fillets from Zaycon Foods. They came vacuum sealed so I just tossed them in the water bath at 155* for 2 hours. They were great, very tender. Next time I will cook them for 1.5 hours though, to see how they do.

I torched them and the picture looks almost as good as they looked before I cut them up.

[greybb1]

Ribs for dinner tomorrow! Just put some of the beautiful ribs I got from Zaycon Foods on Wednesday in the sous vide demi.

I cut 2 racks of ribs into 3 sections each and seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning. I vacuumed 2 sections in each bag. I heated the sv to 140*, put the packages in the rack and dropped it into the sv. I'll cook them for 24+ hours then finish them off on the grill.

So far my favorite things in the sous vide supreme demi are the steaks and the ribs.

[Charski]

Yum yum RIBZ!! Won't be long before we can run our smoker, filled with half-racks of baby back ribs.

[Charski]

I bought two beautiful veal rib chops (which would be rib steaks if you bought them from an animal called a STEER instead! ) and cooked them in the sous vide at 135* for about 7 hours, then finished them on the nice hot outdoor grill. They were SOOOO good! DH is still raving. I served them with a sprouted brown rice risotto and sauteed spinach with pine nuts, garlic, and hot red peppers. I tell ya - if you had to PAY for that meal at a restaurant, it would easily cost you $40 each! IF you could get that yummy stuff!

Costco hits another winner. I'll be buying those veal chops again. DH suggested I make that exact meal for my Dad for Father's Day - he may have a real good idea there!

[greybb1]

Wow that sounds good. I never cook veal because it's so expensive but I may just try these.

[Charski]

These weren't that bad, Greybb - I don't have the exact amount in front of me, but for two of us, it was a price I was willing to pay. Sometimes I compare with what I'd spend on something similar if I went out to eat. DH and I decided they were well worth it!

[greybb1]

Originally Posted by Charski

These weren't that bad, Greybb - I don't have the exact amount in front of me, but for two of us, it was a price I was willing to pay. Sometimes I compare with what I'd spend on something similar if I went out to eat. DH and I decided they were well worth it!

That's what I say about those big, thick steaks at Costco.

I'm talking a friend of mine into buying one of your SV contraptions! I told him how perfect my steaks come out. Every. Dog-gone. Time. And he's a steak lover. Told him about yours and he's got a crock pot that will work with it. Gonna send him the info tonight.

[Charski]

Oh, that's so cool! I hope he loves it as much as we do.

I'm going to do two corned beef briskets on Friday. My stepson and his girlfriend are coming to stay until Tuesday morning (oh joy, note the dripping sarcasm here) so I'm gonna do EASY as much as possible!

[greybb1]

Yesterday I was cooking too many ribs to cook in the SV, so I made them like I used to do - low and slow in the oven.

Never again.

They were tender, but dry and pretty much tasteless. Next time I will plan it out and cook the ribs in batches over a week or two.

Sous Vide has spoiled me.

[Charski]

Yep, me too - the two tri-tips were succulently juicy and tender. A quick flash on the gas grill and they were perfect!

[Barbo]

Yes Chef! I got tickled at the prospect of a Chef named Dork.

Now I'm going to look him up.


Thanks for illuminating my mind about the SV. I watch Iron Chef
and see that it is used every program.

[Charski]

Barbo, the DorkFoods boys are AWESOME! LOL!

I love that the president and co-founder signs his title as "Chief Dork"

[greybb1]

My friend that I passed on the DorkFoods info to mentioned it today. I think he's going to buy. He also mentioned it to the friends he was visiting this weekend and he's passing along the information to them!

[Charski]

I hope they ALL buy one and love it as much as I do!

[greybb1]

I made some more of the Country Style Pork "ribs" and they are succulent!

I cooked them at 179* for 48 hours (24 works just fine too), put them and all the liquid into a small baking dish with a little bbq sauce on top and baked them at 350* for about 20 minutes to give the sauce a chance to cook on them.

I have to say when it comes to pork, this cut is by far the best.

[greybb1]

look what I got! I'm going to drop a NY Strip steak in the SV tomorrow morning before I leave for work and when I get home I'm going to brown it with this Griddle/Paninni Maker! I got it just for browning sous vide steaks, pork chops and chicken. Can't wait to try it out.

[Charski]

I got one like that (not Cuisinart brand though) a couple months back - we made some KILLER Cubano sandwiches in it, and heck yeah, to finish off the sous vide stuff -

[greybb1]

Put my strip steak in this morning then cooked it in my new griller tonight.

I cooked the steak on 132*, a little more rare than I usually like, then when I finished it off on the grill it was a perfect medium/medium rare.

I think the strip steak could even go 36 or 48 hours and still have a good texture!

Love it!

[Charski]

Thanks for the review! I'm gonna try it too!