Happy Sous-Vide To Me!
Well that exciting. I just ordered a Sansaire Sous Vide machine as a belated bday gift from the boy. 🙂 He was going to get me a cake airbrush, but then I figured why not get something I’ll use more often. There’s not much we don’t have for the kitchen so I opted for something I’ve been wanting.
For the readers who aren’t really sure what sous vide is, it’s french for under vacuum. You seal the food item into an airtight bag and place it in a temperature controlled water bath, low and slow. The machine maintains the temperature, which results in perfectly cooked food.
When you take it out of the bag, the food might not be a super appealing colour as you haven’t had any of the Maillard reaction (the browning of the sugars in meat), yet… Just pop it in a really hot pan and sear up some colour.
I’m so pumped for perfect steak! You’ll never get it wrong with one of these. We like our steaks rare, so we’d set the machine to 140°F and pop the bagged steaks in the water. (Add some oil, thyme, salt and pepper to the bag for flavour too.) They won’t cook more than than what you set the temp to. I can finish them in the grill pan and voila, maybe I won’t miss having a bbq as much. It’s not that I don’t want a BBQ, I can’t have one. There’s a law in Ontario that forbids BBQs on balconies in apartment buildings. And while I love to live life on the edge at times, not enough to entertain the idea of bringing the BBQ inside.
It’s not just for steak either, you can do pretty much anything in one of these. Pork, eggs, veggies, fruit… A teacher of mine made Hollandaise sauce and another made ice cream (obviously you have to freeze it after, but still, saves a lot of work…) meats either.
It’s all new to me, which I think is awesome. After this, I’m going to tackle candy making. 😀 Somehow I think super heated sugar is WAY more dangerous than my controlled water bath.
I’ll post a review on the Sansaire, bear in mind I’ve rarely used these machines, so I won’t really be able to compare it to anything. I can however tell you how a beginner can interact with the machine. Lol!
Well with a sous-vide machine and my trusty cast iron grill pan, I think I foresee a large number of steaks in my future.
MDG
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