Sometimes perfection is what you are not after...

I am a flaming fan/defender/promoter of Sous Vide. I believe a lot of things, simply cannot be cooked "properly" with traditional cooking methods. Doesn't matter if it is short cooked or long cooked.

See - a tenderloin for example - you could cook it a bit too rare - so it won't become overcooked and dry - but then it taste a bit metal'y and it is just too bloody - or you cook it medium, when the edges are a bit too well done, and it is overall a bit dry.

Long cooked cuts have even more problems - of course you could braise something, until its integrity loosens up - but it is so awesome to have e.g. shortribs which are meltingly tender but are still pink and juicy.
Anyway, the meat will end up much more tender, when you are cooking it sous vide.

Chicken - personally it is a big flavor "thing" for me. Sous vide will make the chicken taste like chicken on steroids (on the second look, this "picture" doesn't sound very appealing to me...). And the chicken is as juicy as it gets.

 A couple of days, though, I was just too lazy and too hungry to turn on the water oven, seal the chicken, throw it into the water for 45 minutes and then sear it.
So I flattened it, marinated it with olive oil, rosemary, garlic, pepper, salt and chilies and grilled it on my super hot grill plate for a couple of minutes. Besides of the 4 fire alarms I caused (just on this occasion), it tasted awesome - smoky, with a garlicky, herby character.
Yes - it wasn't at all as tender and juicy as a sous vide chicken, nor it tasted so true like chicken - but I didn't cared. The marination time was enough, to brine the chicken sufficiently and keep enough moisture inside - and after all, I was not after a elaborate and sophisticated night meal, but after a fast and rustic one.

I believe, that some could apply for flank or bavette steaks - or grilled or seared vegetables and so on.
Sometimes food can be rustic and more "blue collar".

Sous vide also has its limitation - it is not the wonder technique - recently I bought a burger, which was so overworked, that even cooked sous vide, the meat tasted like a sausage.

This having said, I have a lamb shank in my fridge, which will be cooked in the water bath for 3 or so days, and my proper minced meat will also end up in a sous vide burger...
A occasional side step of my favorite techniques doesn't necessary mean, that I am neglecting my SV rig!

Hühnerfrikassee - German Chicken Casserole - Sous Vide

Fresh in love, it is one of my adventures to expose my Kenyan girlfriend to German cuisine. Well- I rarely do this - I am just to comfortable with my very own style of cooking- but some dishes are just worth to do.

One of this dishes is Hühnerfrikassee. But I can't really do a traditional recipe traditionally. This wouldn't be me...

So let's start- what is chicken fricassee? It is a chicken stew in a white cream enriched sauce with some vegetable. And it is delicious! In short it is poached chicken, carrots, asparagus, mushrooms, peas in a white roux based on chicken stock.

Usually, it is a simple affair- poach a chicken in vegetable enriched water until done and let it chill down. Roast some wheat flour in butter. Add stock (your chicken water) to the still blonde roasted flour. Stir and whisk until smooth. Add some diced vegetable and cook them through (put the vegetable at different times into it). Add chicken add some cream, some capers and lemon juice to taste (and don't forget to season at all times). And serve with rice.

Usually the chicken is a bit on the dry and stringy side, the vegetables are too soft (except of the peas - smart cooks put frozen peas just a couple of minutes before serving into the pot)... The sauce is usually to flour heavy, or too thin.

My attempt is slightly different!

I sous vide'd the chicken breast at 62.5°C for 1.5h. Put also the chicken legs into the bath- but the chicken breast came into the ice bath, I did increased the water to 75°C and cooked for another 2h.

The vegetables were cooked separate at 85°C for 30-45 min.

 I made a pressure cooker chicken stock (with the carcass of the used chicken, plus a package of chicken wings) and clarified it with ground chicken and egg white. Then I made a roux with less flour.

I added asparagus and peas into the roux, then added the chopped chicken meat and the other vegetable (I used carrots, turnips, leek, green asparagus, baby marrow, mushrooms and peas). I took half of the roux out of the pot and added drained silken tofu to it and blended it. This gave a lovely texture and thickness, without being overly floury.

The I just put everything together and voilà!

It was simply the best chicken fricassee I ever had. The chicken was super moist and tender and flavorful... The vegetable perfectly cooked, the sauce voluminous without being heavy!

But where is light, there is also shadow:

• I didn't seasoned the vegetable and the chicken, before putting them into the bags (except of the turnips and carrots which I put together with some salt and a pinch of sugar). I salted everything afterwards, but it would have been much better, if everything was seasoned in the bag.

• the leek had a kinda stringy texture... I'll try to cook it longer the next time!

• I forgot to buy capers (dammit)!

• I was too lazy to blend up some sauce separately to have a bit more airiness...

As you can see- nothing major.

The only thing inconvenient is, that I have only one sous vide rig- and that chicken breasts, chicken legs and vegetable have to cook at different temperatures...

At least try to use silken tofu in your cream sauces... Doesn't sound very good, but the texture is amazing, the sauce is lighter and healthier!

Fails and successes

Ok... Just some updates about my some cooking experiments:

Tacos de lengua

I made homemade tacos which were a revelation. It was pretty but not very useful to incorporate a flowered chive in a spiral fashion... There most of the time the tacos broke apart. The beef tongue (cooked sous vide for 72 hours on 60°C was very good - tasted beefy , soft with an distinct ham texture. I made a Mexican sauce with dried chili (of course reconstituted in water) and fresh poblano,  dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, cumin, coriander seeds...

Tasted surprisingly authentic Mexican! Served it with sour cream, fresh tomatoes, salted onions and freshly diced avocado.

Frozen Scotch eggs

After my Mexican adventure I just wanted to do Scotch eggs - as I had still some beef chorizo in my fridge. Eggs were slightly overlooked (too small for the recipe) but I just went ahead. I put the already shaped sausage balls (already hiding the eggs) into the freezer.

But then S. asked me to come to bed - already 5 in the morning and I forgot the unfinished Scotch eggs in the ice box. 

Tried to finish them today - but as expected the egg white was oddly  layered and watery. What a waste... Into the bin...

Lamb belly / breast

I asked at Géants the butcher to debone some lamb ribs (the meaty-fatty one).

In it went into a flavorful brine with fresh rosemary, sugar, fresh garlic, coriander, chili, salt, water) for around 10 hours. From there I rinsed it and put it into vacuum bag with a frozen mixture of more rosemary, roasted garlic, olive oil, honey (I had to freeze it, as the normal foodsaver won't work with a liquid marinade- if you have a chamber cryovac- you can skip this step) and it went into my hacked rice cooker for around 24 hours at a fairly high 67°C. Took it out- into an ice bath (which I used then to rinse the meat).

First attempt - seasoning and deep frying it: nice... Not enough salt... Overall very nice.... Not too much lambiness... crisp... slightly overcooked.

Second - breading it (still had the breading station from the blœdy Scotch eggs...) and frying it... Odd... very crispy (thanks panko)... but it taste like breaded bacon... not so good... again underseasoned!

Third - just flouring a piece and pan fry it ultra hot in little oil... again with seasoned flour with added salt and pepper... very nice... slightly crispy... but again underseasoned (damn).

Fourth and last attempt - seasoning it with salt and pepper (a lot)... frying it in ultra hot pan with little oil... salting again with Maldon sea salt... Perfect! Could not be happier... meaty, fatty, without being greasy. Taste like lamb without being overpowering with hints of garlic, rosemary and honeysweetness (without being too sweet). Voila!