Yes, I finally have arrived at the Sous Vide technique of cooking. Fish, vegies, pork, beef, chicken, all are fodder for this new method of mine. I've seen it (the method AND the delicious results) on TV on various cooking shows and it always seemed so damned time consuming that I never sought further examination until now.
So onto the good ol' internet to search out many, not trivial details, what? how? food safety, temperatures, timing. After finding several sites that seemed knowledgeable of the subject with enough pictures to limit the verbiage necessary to impart courage, I bolted forward. And about that time Kelly, dear one, gave me my B-Day present EARLY, a certain appliance necessary to hold temperatures at the same constant for hours at a time...a DORKFOODS DSV.
A Home Sous Vide Device
Nifty little gadget that plugs into your wall socket and into it's socket goes the plug from your el cheapo slow cooker (non-digital please...it won't work, go cheap). The DSV controls the cooker's heating element EXACTLY, within a couple of degrees. 130-140 degrees for medium rare beef for instance...cooked for 8 hrs or so yields a surprisingly tender, rare and delicious steak. Yes, I said 8 hrs! A time chart comes with the lil' gem to aid in your selection of timing.
You also NEED a vacuum sealer of some type to remove most of the air from the items that are going to go-a-cookin' in the hot water bath you have just made. I'm using the FoodSaver 25 buck vacuum pump...
go here: http://www.foodsaver.com/product.aspx?pid=12264
available for a few bucks less at Amazon.com.
Then buy some extra bags (gallon or quart are most useful) 'cause you're gonna need them after you discover how fabulous this makes things taste. The bags are available thru either FoodSaver or Amazon.com...be sure to get the ones with the little hole and the zip-lock style closures. Of course you can use a regular kitchen food vacuum sealer and those bags if you want, anything to remove MOST of the air and stay that way through the entire cooking process.
Info about all of this madness can be found here:
http://www.cookingsousvide.com/
http://lifehacker.com/5868685/sous+vide-101-how-to-cook-the-most-tender-and-flavorful-meat-youve-ever-tasted
http://blog.khymos.org/2007/01/21/perfect-steak-with-diy-sous-vide-cooking/
And last but NOT LEAST:
http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/blog/food-safety-with-sous-vide-cooking/
This last link is most important unless you like getting people and yourself deathly ill after eating one of your sous vide preparations.
So onto the good ol' internet to search out many, not trivial details, what? how? food safety, temperatures, timing. After finding several sites that seemed knowledgeable of the subject with enough pictures to limit the verbiage necessary to impart courage, I bolted forward. And about that time Kelly, dear one, gave me my B-Day present EARLY, a certain appliance necessary to hold temperatures at the same constant for hours at a time...a DORKFOODS DSV.
The DSV transforms an ordinary slow cooker into a sous-vide water-bath
A Home Sous Vide Device
Nifty little gadget that plugs into your wall socket and into it's socket goes the plug from your el cheapo slow cooker (non-digital please...it won't work, go cheap). The DSV controls the cooker's heating element EXACTLY, within a couple of degrees. 130-140 degrees for medium rare beef for instance...cooked for 8 hrs or so yields a surprisingly tender, rare and delicious steak. Yes, I said 8 hrs! A time chart comes with the lil' gem to aid in your selection of timing.
You also NEED a vacuum sealer of some type to remove most of the air from the items that are going to go-a-cookin' in the hot water bath you have just made. I'm using the FoodSaver 25 buck vacuum pump...
go here: http://www.foodsaver.com/product.aspx?pid=12264
available for a few bucks less at Amazon.com.
Then buy some extra bags (gallon or quart are most useful) 'cause you're gonna need them after you discover how fabulous this makes things taste. The bags are available thru either FoodSaver or Amazon.com...be sure to get the ones with the little hole and the zip-lock style closures. Of course you can use a regular kitchen food vacuum sealer and those bags if you want, anything to remove MOST of the air and stay that way through the entire cooking process.
Info about all of this madness can be found here:
http://www.cookingsousvide.com/
http://lifehacker.com/5868685/sous+vide-101-how-to-cook-the-most-tender-and-flavorful-meat-youve-ever-tasted
http://blog.khymos.org/2007/01/21/perfect-steak-with-diy-sous-vide-cooking/
And last but NOT LEAST:
http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/blog/food-safety-with-sous-vide-cooking/
This last link is most important unless you like getting people and yourself deathly ill after eating one of your sous vide preparations.
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