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.

Continue reading »

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.

Continue reading »

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.