An easy “one bag” sous vide meal

This was one of my earlier experiments using the Sous Vide Supreme- veal shank ala osso bucco with vegetables and a mashed potato. What I liked about this dish was that this and other similar ones could be made into quick and easy meals for those busy workdays. You could cook a batch in advance and then toss the individual portions directly into the freezer (already vacuum sealed) for easy reheat later. Since meats cook at a lower temperature than vegetables, you can toss your veggies and broth in without worrying about overcooking.

Feb 23

36H & 9H Pork Belly sous vide

This pork belly is based on the Heston Blumenthal sous vide technique for making 36 hour Pork Belly. The brine I used is a simplified version of a recipe from a cooking class at ToTT taught by Stephan Zoisl. Unfortunately, there is no online recipe for the brine, but a quick search on “pork belly sous vide” will return a number of great posts and how-tos (two of which I’ve included below).

The general cooking process for tasty sous vide pork belly is as follows: brine the belly, sous-vide, sear/boil the skin, and serve.

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Feb 22

Poached egg (sous vide) in tsuyu

Sous vide cooking makes poached eggs ridiculously simple. Set the water bath to 64.5 °C / 148 °F, add eggs, and cook for 45-60 minutes (does not have to be exact). If you prefer your egg yolks more runny, lower the temperature by 1 °C. Voila- perfect consistent poached eggs that you can make dozens at a time.

A nice Japanese twist is to serve the chilled poached egg in a tsuyu broth and garnish with tobiko, wakame, and green onions (a bit of ginger is also nice). It makes for a refreshing, slightly tangy starter.

Feb 19

Nutella Hot Chocolate

My new favorite comfort drink. Been making these a lot lately.

Mix 1 big spoon (2 tablespoons or so) of Nutella to 1 cup of milk and heat to desired drinking temperature. Don’t worry, the Nutella will dissolve as the milk is warmed.
Optionally, froth the drink with an immersion blender for that “cafe” touch.

Jan 14

A Life Less Garlicky

Two food ingredients that both of us love are pork and garlic, especially garlic. I once made a cream of garlic soup, just because we both enjoyed the smell and taste of this bulbous herb that much. But, three months into the pregnancy, G has developed an aversion to both items. The pork isn’t so bad, she’ll just remove it from the dish (but will eat bacon, nature’s miracle meat). Sadly though, she can no longer stand the smell or taste of garlic. Even a little bit will induce nausea.