A week ago today, I'd just dropped a big chunk of belly pork into the bath, ready for Wednesday.
By Tuesday I was a bit scared -- how could 3 days of sitting in a plastic bag in warm water be good for a chunk of pig? And what if after 3 days it turned out to have been at the wrong temperature the whole time? I'd started off following a recipe for pork ribs on John Loydall's Food Blog -- so I set the bath at 61.5C. With the slow realization that my hunk of pork was quite different to ribs, I got a bit anxious - so I turned it up to 63C on Monday. Still couldn't resist looking up different instructions and recipes, so by Tuesday decided I'd better listen to the Modernist Cuisine bible and hiked it up again to 65C. Anyway, suffice to say that by Wednesday afternoon, I was pretty convinced the reserve pork chops would be called into action for dinner!
But as luck (definitely not judgment) would have it, after 3 days at various temperatures and a swift very hot barbecuey glaze in the oven - it turned out luvverly! Unbelievably soft but not mush, with the fat completely rendered leaving flavour but no grease. Taking a leaf out of a recent visit to Momofuku in NYC, thought I'd serve it on steamed chinese buns - and just to be sure of completely obscuring all traces of nationality, we doused the lot with chimichurri sauce!
Anyway, now I was on a roll - the machine was finally a hit! So when my sister arrived for dinner on Friday, I thought I'd better demonstrate its powers (despite her insistence that it's a harbourer of salmonella, botulism and all other killer bugs known to man!)
Not quite confident enough to make up my own recipes just yet, thought I'd try another looker from John Loydall's blog - rack of lamb with spring veg. New technique required here - the cooking of 2 different bags of food, at different temperatures -- woooo hoo! Anyway, all went to plan - my photo's not a patch on the original, but the lamb was another sous-vide hit. Nice and pink, tasty, fat mostly rendered in the bath, and then finished by searing on the hob. And the veg were colourful, and cooked nicely al dente as they say. Shame I forgot to reduce the red wine jus properly!
Looking for something for lunch today after a brisk walk to Blackheath farmers' market and back, I happened upon a duck egg! Now that I've finally worked out if you fill the bath with hot water, it doesn't take half as long to reach temperature, things've got a lot quicker. So setting the machine at 64.5C, I dropped in the egg and headed down to the gym for 30 minutes of mad pedalling -- after which right on the beep of 45 minutes, my toast popped out, all ready for its slow poached egg. The perfect post-gym lunch was had!
And finally -- having picked up a nice Fens duck breast at the market, I thought it best to have a bash at bathing that as well -- if only so I could say that in 1 week I'd tried fish, beef, lamb, pork, poultry, eggs AND veg in a bag! This time it was all my own doing -- vac-packed in a bag with salt, pepper and a few sprigs of thyme and bathed at 57.5C for about 2 hours (well, as long as it took to clean my kitchen and make dumplings!) Once done, seared in a dry pan until the skin was lovely and crispy and served with Nathan Outlaw's fabulous wild garlic dumplings and a port and red wine "reduction" ...
So, all in all a good week of food, if I say so myself. And now I've found another use for the bath -- couldn't resist buying beef ribs from The Ginger Pig, but no space in freezer -- so tomorrow they'll start their little bath, and continue sitting in it until I get back from Dusseldorf, ready for tea Thursday! However did I live without it for so long???
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