Experimenting with Sous Vide Supreme and Donald Russell

So now that I got hold of the latest gastronomic craze, I have been trying and testing recipes using SousVide Supreme and the meat from Donald Russell. Vacuum packing cooking aka SousVide is a modern convenient way to cook by extracting air and if necessary store food in their vacuum-sealed pouches preserving textures, flavours, nutritional value and  extremely effective way to preserve the freshness of many foods. Excluding oxygen not only preserve the appearance, it also keeps the savour of meats and seafood and smelling fresh for longer by slowing oxidation. Cooking, storing, and reheating meats and seafood in vacuum packaging will keep them fresh and delicious.

With some traditional cooking techniques, if you get distracted or forget timings (I am guilty!)  the food will either be under, or worse, overcooked. The ability to cook food for long periods of time at precisely controlled temperatures can provide various appealing textures that are impractical, or even impossible, to achieve using conventional cooking techniques.
 

There’s a very useful book and manual that accompany the whole package. It has lots of tips about timings to get everyone started and some nice recipes too.

Consistency
SousVide affords precise temperature control provide ease results over and over again. Traditional cooking techniques can be difficult to control the cooking temperature. SousVide makes it possible to be very specific about the degree of doneness that you prefer.

SousVide cooking food at the temperature selected, and waiting until the center of the food reaches balance with that temperature avoids having the food overcook after you’ve stopped the cooking process. With other cooking techniques, the surface of the food is most of the time much hotter
than the core temperature, and thus, it’s critical to time things correctly and allow for the inevitable cooling of the surface and increasing temperature at the center. Consistency comes in other forms too: portion size, product quality, wholesomeness, and food hygiene—all important whether you’re cooking in a busy restaurant or at home for your family and friends.

Convenience
Consistency comes in other forms too: portion size, wholesomeness, product quality, and food hygiene—all important wherever you’re cooking. Sous vide can help with the logistics and make life easier to prepare a meal by allowing you to cook all, or parts of the meal in advance.

Saving
The use of inexpensive cuts or some vegetable is where the
convenience of sous vide cooking shines. Plan temperature, prepare/season, seal, cook at appropriate timing, serve or refrigerate  for a few days or freeze until you’re craving something out of the ordinary and in a hurry. Creative possibilities are especially compelling aspects of sous vide cooking.Endless possibilities: cooked medium-rare or well done meats evenly; vibrant and perfect vegetables; tender, juicy chicken breasts; any on the bone cut with meat falling off the bone, eggs, even scrumbled eggs, see my experients, it has been a full on sous vide craziness in my very small kitchen. It’s been fun!

My Experiments

While waiting for the delivery of Donald Russell meats, I couldn’t wait and I started experimenting with the sous vide supreme by cooking eggs in their shells, for that reason they don’t need to be vacuum packed.

First for quick results, all pending how you like your eggs in high temperature

 

quick method: 75C for 18 mins-  hard boiled
75C for 15 mins – very runny
cooked at 74.5C for 13 minutes
cooked at 74.5C for 13 minutes –  nice running egg to my taste

Second experiment, cooking eggs sous vide in low temperature for long time

egg cooked sous vide at 63.5C for 60 mins
egg cooked sous vide at 63.5C for 60mins – firm yolk, concentrated taste – nice!
egg cooked sous vide at 63.5C for 45 mins
63.5C for 45 mins – runny yolk, again amazing taste, perfect for my taste

Sous vide cooked eggs are delicious with a concentrated savour

2 eggs, 1 tbsp semi-skimmed milk, 1tsp heavy(double) cream, 1 tsp of butter, salt and pepper cooked for 22 minutes at 75C, shaking the pouch every 3-4 minutes
result: perfectly cooked scrumbles eggs drizzled with truffle oil

I was trilled when the  Donald Russell order arrived, I tried the grass fed Lamb foreshanks from Donald Russell at 60C for medium doneness and 4 different timings.

vacuum packed
sous vide
finished result – cooked at different timings
 12 hours cooking – pink inside, flavourful, thoroughly cooked  and still a bit firm
48 hours cooking – pink, flavourful, juicy and falling off the bone – to my taste is perfect!
same cut of meat, same cooking temperature, different timings = four different textures
Vegetables/side dishes
Onions : 80C for 1&1/2 hours on sous vide, delicious and sweet result, brilliant result
plantain : first fried and then packed in the sous vide pouch ready to cook,
80C for 1&1/2 hours in the sous vide
Plantain cooked at 80C for 2 &1/2 hours on sous vide, ready to serve
Pumpkin: 80C for 2 &1/2 hours on sous vide- turned into a puree by mashing/massaging inside the pouch, no further washing up to be done. Great!

Some menu ideas based on my Brazilian heritage, all ingredients cooked using sous vide method

Ox cheeks cooked on sous vide for  48hours at 70C served with the pumpkin puree – perfect!
all sous vide : lamb foreshank shredded was cooked 60C  for 48 hours and cassava cooked 82C for 4 hours and then sautee in butter. Excellent result!
sous vide lamb ( 48hours at 70C) and artichoke (70C for 3 hours)  on wet polenta – amazing!

Disclosure : this post was sponsored by Sous Vide Supreme  and Donald Russell

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5 Comments

  1. March 13, 2014 / 10:03 pm

    Ooh some fabulous ideas here, Rosana, a great list, thanks for the inspirations!

  2. March 13, 2014 / 10:46 pm

    Cheers Kavey, I am having so much fun cooking sous vide, great kitchen equipment.

  3. Lisa Serrano Diaz
    March 15, 2014 / 2:18 pm

    looks delicious.

  4. March 16, 2014 / 9:44 pm

    Cheers Lisa, I really enjoyed the meals I cooked using sous vide.

  5. john hozy
    September 25, 2015 / 7:24 am

    It is an informative post.