Lamb Loin Chops with Pan-roasted Grapes & Zinfandel

Lamb Loin Chops with Pan-roasted Grapes & Zinfandel

Sous Vide and Grill Methods

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Easy

Sous Vide Temp: 131- 134 degree F; Time: 2-4 hours

 

Lamb Loin Chops with Pan-roasted Grapes & Zinfandel

This is a simple recipe and a spectacular one. In the heart of the Paso Robles wine district, you will find wine and food paired in cooking as well as serving. This recipe includes actual grapes into the sauce adding an additional sweet note. One thing we know about California’s zinfandel: it is a far, far more food versatile wine than usually assumed.

But it wasn’t always like that. A couple of decades ago the country was still awash with pink colored “white zinfandel”; and focusing on the other two “fighting varietals,” chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, many of the mainstream California wineries went so far as to drop red zinfandel from their lineups. This may have been good thing, because all it did was dramatize the inevitable resurgence all the more; towards the end of the nineties, when artisanal producers began pushing their big red Zins, recalling some of mammoth Zins that came and went with the seventies. Like micro-minis, fondue, VW bugs and martinis, there are many things never really go away – they just come back with a vengeance.

OMG Dry-Aged Rib-eye Steak – Sous Vide

Dry-Aged Rib-eye Steak – Sous Vide

Serves: 3-4

Difficulty: Easy

Sous Vide Temp: 131 degree F; Time: 3 – 4 hours

OMG Dry-Aged Rib-eye Steak – Sous Vide

Dry aging is the process by which large cuts of beef (like half of a cow) are aged anywhere from several weeks to several months before being trimmed and cut into steaks. The method not only helps the steak develop flavor, but also makes it tenderer than it would be completely fresh. It involves considerable expense, as the beef must be stored near freezing temperatures. Subprimal cuts can be dry aged on racks either in specifically climate-controlled coolers or within a moisture-permeable dry bag.  Moreover, only the higher grades of meat can be dry aged, as the process requires meat with a large, evenly distributed fat content. The key effect of dry aging is the concentration and saturation of the natural flavor, as well as the tenderization of the meat texture. 

Dry aged ribeye....gotta have the marbling!

The process changes the beef by two means. Firstly, moisture is evaporated from the muscle. This creates a greater concentration of beef flavor and taste. Secondly, the beef’s natural enzymes break down the connective tissue in the muscle, leading to increased tenderness. Older isn’t necessarily better. Two or three weeks of aging is usually the minimum for any sort of tenderness to occur, while the funkier blue cheese characteristics start to pop up around 28 – 45 days.

Hoisin Pork Tenderloin with Soba Noodle Salad – Sous Vide

Hoisin Pork Tenderloin with Soba Noodle Salad – Sous Vide

Serves: 6

Difficulty: Moderate

Sous Vide Temp: 135 – 140 F; Time: 2 – 4 hrs.

Hoisin Pork Tenderloin with Soba Noodle Salad – Sous Vide 

Pork tenderloin is a perfect cut of pork for sous vide, as the window of proper “doneness” is vanishingly small when traditional methods are used. All too often the tenderloin is overcooked and dry. The sous vide tenderloin comes out incredibly moist without resorting to a prolonged brine before cooking. Today’s leaner pork can be enjoyed medium rare – 135 degree throughout will achieve that.  If you wish a little less pink…use 140 degree F. The tenderloin refers to the psoas major muscle along the central spine portion of the pic. It is the tender most part of the animal as the muscle is used for posture and not locomotion. As a result, it does not build up a lot of connective tissue and remains tender. By cooking the tenderloins sous vide-style, the marinade continues to work its magic, while the even heat of the water oven ensures perfectly cooked, moist pork. A few minutes on the barbeque or a quick stovetop sear, and you have a perfect meal.

Flat Iron Steak with Red Wine Sauce

Flat Iron Steak with Red Wine Sauce

Sous Vide and Grill methods

 

Flat Iron Steak with Red Wine Sauce

Serves: 6

Difficulty: Easy

Sous vide temp: 131 degree F; Time: 5-12 hours

Steak, cooked sous vide, is the most exciting advancement in carnivore cooking! Flat iron steak, my favorite cheap steak, is cut from the chuck blade roast – the shoulder of the cow. That’s right, this is a piece of a chuck roast. It grills well on its own, but after several hours tenderizing in the sous vide, it cuts like a filet mignon. Sous vide precision cooking offers unparalleled control over the results of your steak, letting you very precisely cook the steak to the level of doneness that you prefer. No guesswork or poking with a thermometer, no cutting and peeking, no jabbing with a finger – just perfect results each and every time. Finally, sous vide offers results that are not attainable by cooking with traditional methods. With standard high heat cooking, you develop a temperature gradient within the meat. The very center, where you shoved the thermometer, may be perfectly medium rare but the steak will be increasingly more well done as you approach the exterior. With sous vide, the steak is evenly cooked from edge to edge. I added a simple red wine sauce to accompany the steak. But, it truly can stand on its own. 

Lamb Ragu – Sous Vide Cooking

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Lamb Ragu – Sous Vide Cooking

Serves: 6

Difficulty: Gourmet & Wonderful!

Sous vide temp: 140 degree F; Time: 48 hours

 

Lamb Ragu served over polenta – Sous Vide Cooking

Some of the most impressive results of sous vide are created with tough cuts of meat. Lamb shanks would certainly fit that description! Sous vide allows you to cook these tough cuts to medium-rare and tender to the point of falling off the bone. This is accomplished because cooking tougher cuts with sous vide allows you to break down and tenderize the meat without overcooking and drying it out. The amount of flavor in meat is determined to a large extent upon the amount of work that muscle had to do, and so shanks are very flavorful. Unfortunately muscles that do a lot of work also become tough, so there is often a choice between tender meat with a light flavor (such as tenderloin) and tough meat with lots of flavor (such as shanks). 

With sous vide, you can have the best of both worlds: tough cuts can be cooked at a temperature that is just high enough to break down the toughness, but also low enough to allow the meat to stay succulent. The meat will be fork tender, succulent, and very flavorful. The only drawback of the low temperature is that it takes a long time, sometimes from 24 and 72 hours. It is not a big problem because sous vide cooking does not require any attention at all while it’s going on. So you can start up the cooking process on Sunday afternoon and serve outstanding meal on Tuesday night….easily as the shank is cooked with the sauce!

Chicken Breasts: White Wine & Herbs Sauce

Chicken Breasts with White Wine & Herbs Sauce 
Traditional and Sous Vide Methods

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Moderate

Sous Vide Temp: 140 – 147 degree F; Time: 2-5 hours

Sous Vide Chicken Breasts:

White Wine & Herbs Sauce 

This is the second of a duo of posts on chicken sous vide! Please see my “All about sous vide” post to get some background on this technique (http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2015/06/all-about-sous-vide.html#more).

This recipe features a light sauce, thickened by the use of gelatin to form a thicker, glossier, far more stable emulsion than a standard pan sauce. The soy sauce is added to provide a big umami boost.  This is the second of a duo of posts on chicken sous vide! Please see my Sun-dried Tomato Vinaigrette recipe for some background. http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2015/07/sous-vide-chicken-breasts-sun-dried.html

I also provide the traditional cooking method for the boneless skin-on chicken breasts. Preparation of the sauce is the same for both methods.

Sous Vide Chicken Breasts: Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette

Sous Vide Chicken Breasts:

Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Moderate

Sous Vide Temp: 140 – 147 degree F; Time: 2-5 hours

Sous Vide Chicken Breasts:

Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette

This is the first of a duo of posts on chicken sous vide! Coming soon...a white wine and herb sauce.

A chicken breast is often the first thing a novice sous vide cook tries. It will truly convert you because it produces a chicken breast that is opaque all the way through without any of the striations and without the dry texture of an overcooked chicken breast.  You end up with a perfectly cooked, super juicy piece of meat. I have found little difference between chicken cooked bone-in vs. bone-off. With traditional cooking, the bone helps insulate meat from high cooking temperatures. Not a problem with sous vide.  I chose boneless in this duo of recipes for presentation purposes.  Please see my “All about sous vide” post to get some background on this technique (http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2015/06/all-about-sous-vide.html#more).

Sous Vide Cooking: Swordfish with Olive Gremolata

The Art and Ease of Sous Vide Cooking:

Swordfish with Olive Gremolata

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Easy

Sous vide temp: 130 degree F; Time: 30 minutes

Traditional cooking method also included

Swordfish with Olive Gremolata 

Sous vide is a French phrase that is translated as “under vacuum.” However, the defining feature of the method is not packaging or vacuum sealing; it is accurate temperature control. A heating element can warm a water bath to any low to moderate temperature you set, and keep it there for hours – or even days. For more information on the how’s and whys of sous vide, please see post: All About Sous Vide at http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2015/06/all-about-sous-vide.html.

Sous vide is especially useful for cooking seafood, for which the window of proper doneness is often vanishingly small when traditional methods are used. When you fry a piece of fish, the flesh is most succulent and tender within a very narrow temperature range. Because the cooking temperature of the pan is considerably hotter than the ideal core temperature of the fish, the edges will inevitably be far more cooked than the center when pan-fried. Traditional cooking with a range, oven, or grill uses high and fluctuating temperatures, so you must time the cooking exactly; there is little margin for error. With just a moment’s inattention, conventional cooking can quickly overshoot perfection. This is particularly problematic with fish…especially lean fish, which can dry out quickly. Sous vide cooking is ideal for such fish, in this case swordfish, but also albacore.

Swordfish was taboo for a while, but now many varieties, especially domestic ones, are sustainable. In particular, the North Atlantic swordfish have really rebounded thanks to a 1999 international plan that rebuilt this stock several years ahead of schedule.

All About Sous Vide

All About Sous Vide

 

Modern Sous Vide is inexpensive and simple!

In the next few weeks, I will begin posting some fabulous recipes that use the "sous vide" method of cooking! But fear not....I will start now with a short primer on the technique. Trust me, it is amazingly delicious and soooo easy!

Sous vide is a French term that is literally translated as “under vacuum” and refers to a technique that is associated with more experimental chefs. In fact it is now used by chefs in all kinds of restaurants and now by the home cook. It is not complicated; it involves slowly cooking food sealed in plastic bags immersed in water at precisely controlled, steady temperatures. The defining feature of the method is not packaging or vacuum sealing; it is accurate temperature control. A computer-controlled heater can warm a water bath to any low temperature you set, and keep it there for hours – or even days, if needed. People think that cooking sous vide is only about precision, but its convenience and cost efficiency lend it beautifully to making many dishes.