Friday, July 26, 2013

Sous Vide - Extreme Braising

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.
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.
 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Much Water Under The Bridge

USA Trip, the demise of Fur-Rr-Eee and the hot, hot summer of California.  We left Suisun bound for nowhere in particular and everywhere in general.  The desert of Nevada greeted us first with loads of sunshine, dust and wind.  We settled in Tonopah in a not-so-grand old hotel and sought out vittles for dinner. We ambled about the town noting the degree of roughness of the entire place.  Cars parked every which way, the lack of shopping possibilities presented by the many shuttered storefronts.  This was not an auspicious beginning we thought, but it was a beginning.  Mainly we stayed on secondary roads between stops, sometimes that was not what happened, we only took highways when few other options were available or so far out of the way as to be ridiculous.  We had LOTS of time to explore and go whatever way seemed most interesting but we sought direction most days in where we stayed for the night.  The selection of tomorrows destination was dictated by both distance (300 miles maximum/day), available of cheap-ass lodging and as we went along...the daily weather (hourly in some cases!).  Cumbersome at first as we liked to be able to plan ahead a bit, we soon became at ease with this method of scheduling our travels within only a 12 hr time.  Furry, of course we took Hurr Majesty, never complained a bit, ate, drank and did her business in the provided travel litter box.  She was Easy. 
From Tonopah we skirted some mountains down around the Arizona line and aimed at staying with spitting distance of the red rocks of Zion National Park and Bryce beyond.  Desert. desert and more desert and as we reached North Las Vegas (Spanish for "The Meadows" according to various tourist guides) to see "the meadows" covered for miles on end by houses and shopping malls.  Wow. What a scene it was, turn the corner and head northeast and flew away from this dust bowl as fast as we could.  Occasional stops for gas, not daily but every other at the pace we were going, the Prius was averaging 48mpg and has a 12 gallon tank, so over 500 miles between tankful's kept us rolling right along without excessive stops for petrol.  The car was PACKED to it's little brim.  Damned little vacant space for Hurr Majesty Fur-Rr-Ee to wander but she always found a space, sometimes the back window to gawk at the passing scenery, sometimes laid out prone on top of the ice chest.  She was VERY GOOD indeed!

To be continued...right here...soon...I promise.  (Don't take that too literally)

I'm baaaaack!  Where were we, oh yes...the Trip...next stop was Durango, Colorado.  A bit of a long day, more miles than we wished by far but then it all worked out.  Here are a few pictures of that awesome drive:

 
Above is downtown Tonapah

 
A Nevada Tower

 
Granite wall near Colorado border

 
Colorado Scenic Panorama

 
Sandstone worn by wind and time

 
Thunderbird Restaurant Home of the Ho Made Pies

 
Near Durango, Colorado