For those of you that don't what "sous vide" cooking is, it is placing an airtight bag containing your food you wish to cook into a container of temperature controlled circulation water. You want a mid-rare steak? set the temperature to 129 degrees and place your bags of meat in the water bath for 45 minutes up to as many hours as you like(at some point the meat will begin to break down) but the beauty is you can't overcook the meat you are preparing it in the a way that it never gets above what temperature you are shooting for. The second biggest part is that it cooks the meat evenly. instead of more done to the out side and rarer until the middle temps reach what you like, the food is even all the way through. Last clean up is a breeze, throw away the bag you used to cook and clean a pot and the cooker itself.
So, with that, here is my first adventure into a new way of home cooking:
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| One button cooking |
The simplicity of their design allows this cooker to attach to just about any sized cooking vessel. I just went with a larger stock pot. Scrolled the wheel to 56.5C (it wasn't until later that I talked to a friend on how to change the display to F, I seem to have misplaced my instruction book). Picking a temp is as easy as using a mouse wheel and pushing a start button >....a nice beep sound indicates that it is active. Quiet running, nothing more than a little hum and a bubbling brook sound. To bring the water up to temp really did not seem to take too long. I think I only had a couple of minutes left after preparing the meat in airtight bags.
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| new vacuum sealer |
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| sealed and ready for a warm bath |
The sealer is super easy to use...cut the bag to 4 inches more that you need. Poke the "sealer" button and insert the bag. Once the red light goes off the bottom of the bag is sealed. now insert your food and without poking a button insert the open end. This begins the vacuum process. Once the pump is done wait again for the light to turn off and there you have it. an airtight sealed bag ready for cooking.
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| after searing off on the grill |
Once you are happy that your meat has reached the desired temperature, if you so choose, you can sear it off to give is a little better color and make it presentable. I used my grill, but you can certainly pan sear it if you so choose. Other than making it look nice, and giving it a little bit a bark, this last step is certainly not required. But I think the results speak for themselves! I guess if you have any questions, or requests on items to try leave them in the comments below.
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| Can't ask for much better than that! |
