Cooking Class

Today we took part in a cooking class at a cooking store in Copley Center. This was an introduction to sous vide cooking. The method has been around for sometime, but until recently the cost of the equipment has kept it off limits to the the home chef.

Sous vide (French for under vacuum) is a method of slow cooking at a highly regulated temperature for long durations. When cooking a piece of meat on a hot surface (grill or sauté pan) you are basically overcooking the outside , and then trying to determine what time you should remove it so the inside is your desired doneness. The result is a gradient of doneness, with the outside overcooked and the inside under cooked. In contrast, the sous vide method, allows you to cook a medium rare steak to perfection. For example when you can cook sous vide at say 135 degrees, for well just about as long as you want, it won't overcook. The entire piece of meat is cooked to the same doneness.   Here is a picture from the web site of the sous vide cooker that demonstrates the difference.

Sous vide is accomplished by putting your vegetable or protein in a bag with seasoning, then removing the air from the bag, and cooking this is a bath of water at a highly regulated temperature. The result is a perfectly cooked item, but with no overcooked pieces. Of course the down side is there is no caramelization or burning of the outside. If desired, the meat can be finished off in a pan or grill to make it look pretty, and impart that crusty burned meat flavor we cavemen seem to crave.

Today during the class we tasted steaks cooked the traditional way and the sous vide method. Cindy liked the texture of the sous vide method, but preferred the taste of the traditional method. I preferred both the taste and texture of the sous vide method. We also tried asparagus, we both agreed it was the best asparagus we have ever had.

Of course the store was promoting a new sous vide for home use. The company Sansaire recently introduced a device that was funded by successfully raising >$800K in 2 days on Kickstarter. See this link for the details. For those not familiar with Kickstarter, it is one of many crowd source fundings for a starting company. Personally a big fan, as I been involved in the venture methods twice. It's generally not pretty. With Kickstarter everyone donates some amount of cash in which you in return get anything from a pat on the back to an early off the line product. You have no equity in the company, but think of it as donation to someone who will hopefully get their product out and start hiring people.

Tonight we will try sous vide salmon. Here is a video from Sansaire showing the process.
http://sansaire.com/2014/04/cook-fish-sous-vide/

If you are still interested, watch the video on the difference in temperature makes on salmon. We watched a similar demonstration on cooking eggs. There is 5 degrees difference in a hard boiled egg versus a perfect egg for egg's Benedict.

As my brother would say,"I love America!",  we take this French technique, apply some entrepreneurial spirit, and make it available to everyone.

Here is my setup. This pan is 3x as large as needs to be, but it is what I had available.

Next up we will try pears poached in apple brandy. Hmm yes, thats another project that needs attention.