Pan Seared Sous Vide Rib-eye Steak

Sous Vide Rib-eye Steak

 

I have really been enjoying my Anova Precision Cooker's. I expected my cooking to improve, but I never expected how much sous vide would change the way I cook.  This past Sunday I went to my local farmer's market and Whole Foods and as I was plotting out what I would cook for the week, it struck me: I could cook everything that I needed to make for the week with my sous vide cooker in one day--that day--Sunday--in less than 2 hours--1.5 hours to be exact, of non active cook time!  Que the bells people, this thing is LIFE CHANGING!!!!! I don't think I can cook any other way now.  Cooking sous vide is a lazy girls best friend! I'm 4 meals in and there is no turning back for me! Every meal is fresh, restaurant quality and quick to make.  If you're in the market for a Christmas gift you might want to put an immersion circulator on your wish list--two words--LIFE CHANGING!!!  Now to this steak.  It was delish, the best steak I've eaten in some time!  It's actually the first time that I've cooked a rib-eye inside on a stove top.  I always have my husband grill them.  As great as the steak was I would have liked it a bit more rare than it was.  But my husband likes them medium well, so if you happen to like it the way I do, then set the temperature on your circulator lower than 140F,  138F would probably work better.

 

 

 

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 1 and 22 minutes hours

Ingredients:

1 pound rib-eye steak

4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 teaspoon butter

1 clove of garlic smashed

sea salt and black pepper

For pan searing

2 Tablespoons of butter

3 tablespoons of a high temperature oil like grape seed or safflower.

3-4 sprigs of thyme

Directions:  Fill a pot with enough water to come to cover the minimum level line on your circulator. Set your circulator to 140F and wait for it to bring the water to temperature.  Meanwhile season both sides of your steak with sea salt and black pepper.  Add the steak to a vacuum bag, top with butter, thyme and garlic.  Seal bag shut using your vacuum sealer or water displacement method.

Once the water has come to temperature add the sealed steak to the pot and cook for 1 hour and 22 minutes.

Once the steak has cooked for 1 and 22 minutes remove it from the water if you are ready to cook it right away, remove it from the bag and pat it dry and let it rest while you heat the oil in a skillet.  If you plan on cooking it later even if it's only a few hours later place into an ice bath (1 cup of salt dissolved in 4 cups of  warm water, then add 2lbs of ice).  Let the steak sit for 1 hour in the ice bath before refrigerating.

When you're ready to cook the steak.  Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a cast iron skillet. Remove it from the bag, discard the thyme leaves and garlic.  Season the steak with a little more sea salt.

Once the oil is hot add the steak, brown it on both sides making sure to flip it constantly.  Add the 2 tablespoons of butter and allow it to melt.  Add in 3 sprigs of thyme and baste the steak with the oil in the pan. Making sure to focus on the areas of steak that have fat--you want to brown those parts.

Once the steak is nice and golden brown--about 5-6 minutes remove it from the pan, serve and enjoy--no need to rest a sous vide steak.

Five DIY Food Gifts For Under $5

'Tis the season for giving! I am one of those people who loves to give.  It makes my heart happy to give.  One of my favorite gifts to give as well as receive is food.  Unlike most gifts food is useful, so you don't have to worry that your money will be wasted on a gift that will not get used.  If you make these you can avoid the chaos that is the mall, and spend a lovely stress free 20-30 minutes in an uncrowded grocery store.  Did I mention that you could skip going to the mall? Best of all, these gifts are delicious, but inexpensive, at about $5 per person or family they won't break the bank.

Coconut Kettle corn

This stuff is like inhaling air, it's light, salty, and sweet in all the right places!

Citrus powder

This can be sprinkled on fish, chicken, steak, veggies and rice, it will be the gift that keeps on giving months down the line.

Sour salts

Sour salts are in the pantries of some of the best chef's in the world, why not add one to your favorite chefs arsenal?

Marshmallows

'Tis the season for gifts and marshmallows.  These are way better than the high fructose laden, store bought version.  They're made with maple syrup, and lots of love!

Thai inspired Coconut Soup

Thai Coconut Soup

 

One of my favorite soups to get when we go out to eat Thai food is Tom Yum soup.  It super easy to make at home, and if you make it vegetarian it's super quick to make.  I used some of my home made chicken stock as a base for this, but if you're vegan or vegetarian, you could just as easily use a vegetable stock, and skip the fish sauce.

 

 

 

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups of crimini mushrooms sliced thinly

2 stalks of lemon grass cut in half

2 inch bulb of ginger sliced thinly

2 cups of cabbage roughly chopped

2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

1.5 cups of organic coconut milk

2 teaspoons of lime juice-- or more if you like

1/4 cup of Fresh cilantro roughly chopped

3-5 tablespoons of Fish sauce--really to taste since fish sauces vary by brand.  I used red boat, and about 5 tablespoons, but I know I couldn't add that much with other brands that are more salty.  Start with 2 and add more gradually until you're satisfied.

Chili pepper flakes to taste

Directions:

Add the stock, lemon grass, and ginger to a medium sized sauce pan, and bring to a simmer.  Let cook for  5 minutes so that the stock gets infused with the flavor of the lemon grass and ginger.

 

Add in the mushrooms, fish sauce and lime, let cook for 3-4 minutes:

 

Add in the cabbage and coconut milk.

Allow the soup to cook for another 5 minutes or just until cabbage is nice and tender. Turn off the fire, top with cilantro, and red chili flakes, and enjoy!!!

Sous Vide chicken Thighs with Thyme and Garlic

Sous Vide Chicken Thighs With Thyme and Garlic

OMG! When I tell you, that this preparation of chicken is the best that I've eaten in years, believe me! My husband ordered me the new Anova immersion circulator through a Kickstarter campaign back in May. I waited patiently, and it arrived last week. My first thought when it finally arrived was to make these chicken thighs. I had watched this you-tube video , (there are 3 parts watch them all part2, part 3), of Michael Voltaggio making these chicken thighs sometime ago.  I was just in the early stages of learning about sous vide cooking, which means under vacuum cooking.  All of the things that I had read about sous vide had seemed so complex--holding temperatures, the right temperatures for different meats, cooking times--but Michael made it seem so simple, and it was! Sous vide cooking is the ultimate in lazy girl cooking.  It involves less effort than most slow cooker recipes, and the results are amazing!  This particular recipe literally involved 8 minutes of active cooking time.  If you add in the 5 minutes it took for me to salt, and bag the chicken for cooking, then it's 13 whole minutes of your time.  So super easy! Sous vide cooking is the future of  the slow cooking movement.  After using my immersion circulator, it's not hard for me to see why.  Unlike in conventional stove top and slow cooker cooking, in which flavor and nutrients cook out into the air, with sous vide cooking all of the flavor and nutrients stay in the food.  Every single bite that I took of this chicken was infused with the flavor of thyme, the nuttiness of the butter and garlic, and the umami flavor of the truffle salt that I used.  It was like eating  the juiciest and most flavorful  piece of fried chicken that I've ever eaten, only this chicken wasn't fried. It was cooked slowly in a water bath at a low temperature.  The best thing about immersion circulators is that they can free you from weekday cooking.  You can cook these on Sunday with your immersion circulator, put them in an ice bath, and then refrigerate and "cook" or crisp the skin  3 or 4 days later.  As a side note, if you're wary about cooking foods in plastic, like I was, there are plenty of safe BPA and Phathalate free options for out there to assist you.  Most food grade vacuum bags are both BPA and Phathalate free.  Foodsaver is one brand, even ziplock bags are-yes you can even sous vide in a Ziploc , see how here--but it has to be Ziploc not an off brand.  I use Vacmaster. Here is an article all about plastics and sous vide cooking.  If you are still wary, here is a silicone option, or you can use mason jars to sous vide in--just note that cooking in a mason jar will require additional cook time.

 

 

 

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:

3 chicken thighs skin on

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 teaspoon of grassfed butter cut 3 ways

sea salt to taste -- I used a truffle salt

3 cloves of garlic smashed

3- tablespoons of a high heat oil

Directions:  Season the chicken with sea salt

Place chicken- flat- into a food saver type bag--must be food grade-and hopefully bpa free--Food Savers are.  Top each piece of chicken with one clove of garlic, and a tab of butter. Lastly add the thyme, then vacuum and seal, using a edge sealer like a food saver, or if you have a vacuum chamber sealer as I do, vacuum it for 25-30 seconds with a 1.6 second seal.

To a stock pot add enough water to fill half of your pot, or above the minimum water level of your immersion circulator.  Turn on the circulator, and adjust the temperature to 149F.

Once your circulator has reached temperature, add the sealed bag and cook for 1.5 hours.

 

 

Make sure that your chicken is fully immersed.

At the 1 hr and 20 minute mark, prepare an ice bath DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP, it's a matter of food safety when cooking foods at low temps in an air free environment!--fill a bowl with ice and a little bit of water about 4 cups of ice to 1 cup of water--I added some frozen lime cubes as a weight. When the chicken has cooked for 1.5 hours turn off your circulator, and remove the bagged chicken from the water--be careful the water is hot--immediately immerse the bagged chicken into the ice bath and let sit for 1 hour undisturbed.  After the 1 hour ice bath, place it in the refrigerator, until you're ready to cook..

 

Once you're ready to brown the skin, cut open the bag, and remove the chicken. It won't look like it has been cooked, but it is fully cooked at this point--except for the skin.  Discard the garlic and thyme.

Add the oil to a skillet/frying pan, and bring to temperature.  Once the oil is hot, add the chicken, skin side down, lower the heat to medium, and cook until skin is nice and crispy--about 6 minutes, flip the chicken over and cook on the other side for 1- 2 minutes.  Remove from the pan and enjoy!!!!! This looks as amazing as it tastes!

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Preserved Lemon Salt--How to make Sour Salts

Preserved Lemon Sour Salt

This blog has been a year in the making. Sour salts and the use of sour salts first caught my attention after reading an article in Bon Appetite Magazine about  how the chef at State Bird Provisions was using sour salts to brighten up dishes, and make use of an ingredients that would otherwise not get used.  His approach was simple, dehydrate something as simple as a preserved lemon, grind it into a powder, and boom you’ve created a flavorful salt without even trying.  After reading that article, I knew that I wanted to try making a preserved lemon salt.  I put it on my list of things to blog about, but never got around to it–it has been almost a year since I read that article! Of all the sour salts I have on my list to make, the preserved lemon sour salt has always intrigued me the most--that and a lime pickle salt--I love a good lime pickle! My first thought was to make my own preserved lemons and lime pickle.  But rather than make you all--and myself wait for me to make a preserved lemon, which would further prolong me making this sour salt, I thought  I'd just skip ahead a few steps and buy some preserved lemon's from my local Whole Foods. Christmas is just a few weeks away, and since I'm giving these salts away as gifts I cant wait to make preserved lemons from scratch.

Makes about 4 ounces of sour salt.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Drying time: 2hrs

Ingredients:

4 preserved lemons (sliced thinly)

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 150F if using an oven.  If using a dehydrator set it to 135F. Place preserved lemon slices evenly onto your dehydrator sheets, if using a stove,  spread over a wire rack set inside of a bake sheet.

Bake or dehydrate  until hard and brittle, it took about 1.5 hours in my dehydrator. Once slices are hard and crisp, transfer to a spice mill/ blender and grind until powdery,

Transfer the powder to an air tight container.

You've just created a gourmet salt.  You can sprinkle this on chicken, and fish.  Add it to my North African Lamb Stew, or to some grilled lamb chops, the possibilities are endless.

Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup--All the Thanksgiving recipes you need in one post!

 

 

Thanksgiving is just a week away. I've been preparing my household and making lists for the big day.  What would this blog be without a post with my most useful recipes to get you ready for the big day.  The below is a list of must haves for almost any Thanksgiving meal.

Chicken stock

No Thanksgiving meal is complete without a good chicken stock on hand.  Nothing beats a homemade stock, especially if you plan on making homemade gravy to go along with your Thanksgiving meal.  Using home made stock to make your gravy could mean the difference between good gravy, and fantastic not a drop left in the gravy bowl, gravy!  One of my favorite chicken stocks to make is the one from Modernist Cuisine.  It requires the use of one pound of ground chicken and one pound of chicken wings, so it's a bit more expensive to make, because the soul purpose of the meat used int he recipe is to extract flavor, so you can't eat it, but it's totally worth it!  You will not find a better chicken stock.  If you prefer not to splurge on the modernist version of chicken stock, try this one--I've made both and they both out perform the store bought stuff.

 Poultry Seasoning

What's better than a do-it-yourself seasoning for your bird?  Not much short of finding every single ingredient already in your cupboard--then nothing is better! This poultry seasoning tastes identical to the store bought stuff, only it has no fillers.

Potatoes

What's a Thanksgiving meal without potatoes?  In my family potatoes are as synonomous to Thanksgiving dinner, as turkey is to Thanksgiving.  They are a must have!  In the mean time, this recipe for smashed potatoes is one of my favorite ways to eat potatoes and is the perfect addition to any Thanksgiving meal.  My cauliflower mash is also fantastic!  I've had it with and without potatoes and either way the mash is devine!

Smashed Potaoes

Roasted Garlic Cauliflower Mash

Roasted Garlic

Let's face it, roasted garlic makes everything better--especially a Thanksgiving meal--so here's how to roast garlic

How to Roast Garlic

Creamed Corn

What is it about corn that screams Thanksgiving?  I don't know but my no cream creamed corn recipe is definitely a brillant addition to any Thanksgiving meal

 

Dessert

Finally while I don't profess to be a dessert wizard, I do have a great recipe for diy condensed milk.  My grandmother would always have a couple of cans of condensed milk out for her baking, and I'm quite sure that she would approve of my do it yourself version. It can be made with dairy and nondairy milks.

 

One of my favorite desserts is Chocolate Pots de Creme  my recipe for them is AMAZING!! If you manage to save any of these for more than 3 members of your family to enjoy, then you're doing much better than me!

 

So tell me are you ready for the big day? What are you making?

Coconut Flour--How to Make Coconut Flour

Coconut Flour- How to Make Coconut Flour

I love the taste and smell of coconut flour, but anyone who has ever cooked or baked with coconut flour knows that it can be a real pita to work with. Mainly because coconut flour is super absorbent. It soaks up every ounce of moisture that you put into it.  It's so absorbent that when I cook with it,  I add it to mixtures one  tablespoon at a time, and I wait in between tablespoons to see if I need to add more moisture back in.  I don't know of any other alternative flour that requires that much attention.  But I'm not really a baker.  The issue is not necessarily the coconut flour, it's the processing of coconut flour, which makes it so absorbent.  During processing, the coconut looses much of its fat and oil.  Making coconut flour in this way retains most of the oil, which makes it easier to bake and cook with.  If you make coconut flour this way, you will not have to add extra moisture, the moisture will already be there in the form of coconut oil. which makes it less drying.

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Ingredients:

The meat from 2 large coconuts (about 1cup)

Directions:  Pre-heat the oven to 150F. Spread the coconut meat evenly out on bake sheet or a dehydrator sheet.

Place the sheet in the oven and allow to dehydrate for 6 hours or until the coconut is dry and crisp.  Transfer dehydrated coconut flakes to a spice grinder or blender and blend until it reaches the consistency that you like.

Transfer the flour to an airtight container until ready to use.