Sous Vide-a-loca

My food experiments so far have been focused mainly on items involving "Molecular Gastronomy" (MG).  Sometimes MG is rolled into the broader term of "Modernist Cuisine".

Nathan Myhrvold (former Microsoft CTO) sticks to this term, and used it to title his epic $500 cookbook set. (http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-The-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334452836&sr=8-1-spell)   Check out youtube for some great talks on the topic by Nathan, especially the lecture at Harvard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcnW49luEGQ).

Modernist Cuisine is a much broader topic, and in studying that, I came across the topic of "Sous Vide" cooking.  Wikipedia says that Sous Vide is "a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time—72 hours is not unusual—at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 60 °C or 140 °F. The intention is to cook the item evenly, not overcook the outside while still keeping the inside at the same 'doneness' and to keep the food juicier."

This cooking method has actually been around since 1799, so not sure what makes it "modern" other than it took things like the microprocessor to make this technique easy for the home cook.  (Bread machines have microprocessors, but I guess bread has been around forever, so that doesn't apply.)

My Sous Vide Supreme

After watching for a scratch and dent deal on Ebay, I pooled my spare change and bought a Sous Vide Supreme.   It basically heats a big water bath and keeps it at the temperature that you choose for hours (days) at a time.  (Check out youtube for folks who have rigged up versions using crockpots or beer coolers for a cheaper method.)

What really attracted me to this method of cooking was that it was very forgiving of time and "doneness" on most types of meat.  (Fish are the main exception).

My first attempt was to cook chicken breasts.  You throw the seasoned chicken into a plastic bag, and then vacuum seal the bag and throw it in the water at 140 degrees.  The recipe said to leave them there for "2-4 hours".    So, I planned so my 2 hours ended at 6pm.  Then, at 530, I get a call from work, and I end up dealing with an issue until 7 pm.  Any other cooking technique would have given me a ruined dinner, but because of the the time window, when I finally got back to my chicken, it was still just fine.

All the internet discussions of sous vide chicken breasts say that chicken cooked this way isn't much different than  poached chicken, and I would agree.

The netverse seems to universally agree that Sous Vide Beef Short Ribs were delightful, so that is what I did next.  Beef Ribs cooked this way require at least 48 hours of cook time (yes, 2 whole days).  I followed the "Chinn Chinn's Asian Short Rib's Recipe" (http://blog.sousvidesupreme.com/2012/01/chinn-chinns-asian-short-ribs/).

Short Ribs, ready for their bath!

Per the recipe, applied the rub, let them sit in the fridge for a while, and then bagged them up.

Put them in the SVS (Sous Vide Supreme) on Thursday night, and didn't mess with them again until Saturday night. (I love that story!)

I think all my future dinner parties are going to have a Sous Vide main course, because it is so forgiving about time.  No worrying because the guests are late, or because your side dish isn't done yet, or because you forgot you had to buy wine for the meal and have to run out and get some -- who cares!  You meat is happy if it comes out of the bag at 6pm or 9pm!
 
This particular recipe is wonderful because you can use the juices left in the bag after cooking and reduce them into a lovely sauce.

2 days later...

The other interesting thing about Sous Vide cooking is that because the temperatures are so low, you don't get browning or searing of the meat (also known as the maillard reaction).  There three different methods for "browning" seen in all the Sous Vide recipes are:

1. After the bath, brown the meat in a pan before serving.  (boring!)
2. After the bath, brown the meat on a BBQ grill.  (boring!)
3. After the bath, brown the meat using a Chef's Torch (Right on!)

Fire! Awesome!

Guess which one I chose?  (heh heh heh)

After waiting 2 days, I "de-bagged" the meat, made a sauce from the juices, and browned them with a torch, and it didn't take more than 10 minutes.  Totally doable for a party, and even fun to watch!







How did it taste?  Those ribs were perfectly-cooked nuggets of tasty goodness.  The texture was soft and wonderfully juicy.  Easily the best ribs I have ever had.  This particular recipe was good as well, but very spicy, so if you are cooking for others, make sure they are good for spicy.

I will be trying pork chops next. Yay!  And to my local friends, yes, you can borrow this wonder device.

Sources

Molecular Gastronomy is a fun cooking method, but the start-up costs for some of the "chemicals" can be a little daunting.

You can use the google to find a lot of different sources for your different ingredients, but it sure would be nice to find another source, or more importantly a local source (ie. no shipping costs) for some of these items.

My Molecular Pantry

Another interesting twist is that since so many of these recipes come from Europe (where a lot of this style of cooking originated), the recipes use different names for ingredients than us folks in the New World are used to.

So, as I find alternate places to acquire these ingredients, I will update this spot.

Agar Agar

Supposedly this is used a lot in Asian cooking and it is widely available in Asian markets (and comes in multiple "flavors").  Haven't been able to confirm this yet.

Glycerine

Available in stores that sell supplies for brewing beer / making wine at home.

Dextrose

Available in stores that sell supplies for brewing beer / making wine at home, but in those stores it is called "Corn Sugar".  Also known as Glucose (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose)

Glucose

See "Dextrose".

Glucose Syrup

In America, we call this "corn syrup" and you can get it at any grocery store. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_syrup)

Molecular Mojito

Yes, it's true, bartenders can be culinary scientists too!  Today we celebrate the Molecular Mojito.

This is a very well documented recipe http://www.molecule-r.com/en/content/38-molecular-mojito that is also accompanied by a video with a lovely soundtrack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpl29em--C4&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL6398D9ED305F39D6

In other versions of this recipe, it is sometimes called a "Mojito Ravioli", which actually pretty well describes the texture of your final product.   The process used to create this delightful item is called "spherification".  It is the culinary process of shaping a liquid into spheres of liquid held by a thin gel membrane which visually and texturally resemble caviar.  (That's what the definition is at this website http://www.molecule-r.com/en/content/7-molecular-gastronomy-definitions)

I have tried a couple of "spherification" recipes, and they are all pretty easy.  For this one, you whip up the ingredients in the "sphere's", and throw them in a mold and put them in a freezer.  This make it easy to whip them out at party time.  Ahead of party time, you need to create the sodium alginate bath, which you can do a few days ahead of time as well (as long as you keep it in the refrigerator).

And when you are ready to serve, you put the frozen sphere's in the alginate bath for 3 minutes (stir around), and then you put them in a water bath for a few minutes (stir around) and then you serve.

I learned the hard way that you should really set your alginate bath out and let it get to room temp ahead of serving, otherwise you risk serving semi-frozen "ravioli's" to your guests.

What you end up with is a "bubble" with a thin skin around it, that when you put it into your mouth, explodes into a liquid mojito, very cool.

There are a lot of molecular cocktail recipes out there, and a few bars around the country that specialize in molecular cocktails, so make some and see what you get.

Tapioca Maltodextrin, Grrrr.

Tapioca Maltodextrin is a big name for a super-light, flour-like substance.  It has magical powers in that it can convert a fat into a powder. (The scientific way of saying that it is "a modified food starch that thickens and stabilizes fatty compounds")

There are a lot of "recipes" out there for using this stuff, but really, just think of the equation that anything with fat or oil in it, plus Tapioca Maltodextrin (TM), equals flavored powder.

Bacon Fat + TM = Bacon Powder
Peanut Butter + TM = Peanut Butter Powder
Olive Oil + TM = Olive Oil Powder.
Nutella + TM = Nutella Powder

My first exploration into using TM was to make Nutella powder, which I made without any measuring, and it turned out fantastic.    I found Emily's fabulous blog and made the powder and the cake and it was de-lish.
 http://emilysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2010/12/emilys-chemistry-adventures-flourless.html 

 I threw Nutella and TM into my food processor, and a magical powder came out.

Unfortunately, every powder I have attempted after that one has been a failure.  I follow the recipe, throw measured ingredients into my food processor, and no matter how much TM I throw in there, the mixture never gets powdery.

So, this time, I decided I would follow the recipe EXACTLY and see how it came out.  Set my sights on the classic "Dry Caramel With Sea Salt" http://www.molecularrecipes.com/transformation/dry-caramel-salt/

First, made the caramel.  That turned out just fine.

The next step was: " in food processor combine caramel base with Tapioca Maltodextrin and process until caramel base is completely absorbed."  And so I did.  I measured the TM, combined it in the food processor.  I processed it and processed it and processed it.  Still a "wet" mess.  Added more TM. And more, and more, well beyond the scope of the recipe.  (and this is also what happened in my other failed "powder" attempts.

It looked like powder, but it was chewy.  Was it good?  Oh, yes.  Was it the right texture?  I didn't think so.

So, now I have failed on three different powders, time to think outside of the recipe to look for a cause.

1. Caramel wasn't cooked enough?  I think the caramel was right on, and certainly that doesn't account for the previous olive oil or bacon fat failures.

2. High humidity?  Uh, no.  This is Phoenix, in April, 17% humidity max.

So, I surrendered to the internet, and found other "powder makers" on YouTube and looked for their technique.

First, I found this inadvertently hilarious lady who had the same problem I had with bacon fat powder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLKDVHUzyqk&list=PL83FF2C3331E96CA9&index=4&feature=plpp_video   (and she is entirely too excited about her bacon fat).

But the next video was a gold mine.  The originators of the Dry Caramel with Sea Salt recipe (Alinea Restaurant, Chicago) demonstrate how to make it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTWZIDUrUzo
It's supposed to be soft and chewy in your mouth!  Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

So, mine was probably OK, but I think I had more "blobs" than powder for the most part.  After watching a lot of videos on YouTube, I think the next time I make a "powder" I will use my whisk instead of my food processor and see if it comes out better.   (Most all of the chef-types in the videos were whisking to make their powder instead of using a machine.)

I see a bacon powder attempt in my near future...