Many of us are in lockdown–or under stay-at-home orders. Same here, but I still have my Kindle and internet access. So I gave in to my weakness for cookbooks–as usual (especially with the lower prices for e-books).
Long a fan of Christopher Kimball through Cook’s magazine, Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country, and America’s Test Kitchen, I’ve followed to Milk Street. I’ve always been successful with recipes from those sources (although sometimes finding things a little under-seasoned for my tastes).
I’m also a lover of my Instant Pot, although I’ve yet to use the slow cooker function on it. Always on the lookout for recipes (at least for inspiration if not the religious following of them), I was happy to discover this book on my “recommended” list. Awesome to see both the pressure function and the slow cooker function covered in one book. (Maybe I’ll get around to trying the slow cooker function sometime–someday.)
What better thing to do when you’re forced to stay at home than cook something. My first venture was determined by foraging in the refrigerator and the freezer, so it’s not exactly like the recipe, but enough to get a feel for the book, and to have a queue of bookmarked recipes to follow for my vicarious travels.
The “Spicy Collard Greens with Tomatoes and Peanuts” (a version of muriwo unedovi) was up for trial with the caveat that I was not going to the grocery store and that I was definitely in need of some green stuff. The freezer yielded frozen collard greens, and there were canned tomatoes in the pantry. The recipe called for chunky peanut butter, but my pantry gave up only a jar of creamy–so I had to do without the crunch. Whole habanero chilies also weren’t lurking in the fridge, so I had to sub in a serrano chile pepper lurking in the crisper. Overall very favorable result for not making a grocery run. Since I’m cooking only for me, I did halve the recipe and everything worked well–not too much in my category of “leftovers”.
In the queue for trying whilst I’m hiding at home is the German-inspired “Braised Red Cabbage with Apples” (one apple lurking in the fridge along with the cabbage), and the “Lentils and Bulgur with Caramelized Onions” which is a riff on my beloved mujaddara (only with bulgur instead of rice).
This is a first for me–I’ve eaten reheated fish. I have been known to re-purpose leftover fish–e.g. salmon into a Scandinavian potato salad, or grilled tuna steak into tuna salad; reheated leftover fish invariably (after one bite or even just a sniff) goes into the garbage.
One of the attractions of sous vide cooking for me as a single-serving cook has been the references to how well foods cooked this way can be stored (right in the cooking bag) for longer times.
reheated sous vide monkfish
My test of this was the monkfish that I cooked sous vide a few days ago: the fillet cut in half, cooked separately in two quart-sized Ziploc bags with only a little salt and some olive oil. One serving was eaten immediately. The second serving was cooled quickly and refrigerated (unopened) in the cooking bag for eating later. (Circumstances prevented me from reheating this for several days, but the monkfish remained sealed in the cooking bag until i reheated it in the water bath, to the cooking temperature.)
Results? OK, so this wasn’t a blind taste test, but I just ate every bit of that second fillet and I doubt that I could tell it from the fresh-cooked portion–it may well be the first time I’ve eaten reheated, cook fish. (That would be an interesting test.)
Although a cliche, this may be a life-changing event for me–at least in terms of cooking for one. I might not be limited to cooking things that are more usual leftovers,or limiting myself to small portions of fish that I’m going to eat at one time. Most of the references that I’ve found to keeping sous-vide cooked dishes indicate that the storage time if unopened–just cooled and store in the cooking bag–is much longer than the usual use-by times for cooked stuff. The lentils that I cooked in the mason jars kept very well–as indicated for up to ten (yes, 10) days sealed in the cooking jar (after being cooled and refrigerated). A real boon for when I’ve a busy schedule–hands–off cooking, the ability to have extra meals in the fridge, minimizing waste, and (especially) getting things cooked just the way I like them because of the temperature control. A son gôut!
Sous vide cooking has intrigued me for quite some time–so much that I had to do some trials to see if I really wanted to purchase a special appliance for it. One of my early experiments was with monkfish and then Chilean sea bass. Well I’ve finally purchased a thermal circulator–made the leap to real sous vide equipment. I’ve already cooked several things with the real equipment: short ribs, lentils, and some vegetables.
While I was skulking through my local Harris Teeter supermarket yesterday, I made my usual swing past the meat and seafood cases, and there was monkfish. It somehow seemed appropriate that I try it again with the “real” equipment. So I blew my budget on a lovely filet of monkfish. The butcher (or perhaps in this instance he should be fishmonger) removed the membranes so that I don’t even have to do that!
monkfish fillets
While searching for recipes, I found a wide range of temperatures recommended: from 113°F to 144°F (140°F was what I had used in my first trial). After reviewing the post from Stefan’s Gourmet Blog again since there were descriptions of texture for different temperatures. I love sashimi, but I wanted cooked fish here so after perusing other recipes, I decided to go with 132°F–tender and flaky. This is a lower temperature than what I used with my earlier monkfish (which was wonderful). The filet that I had was really more like two servings, so I cut it in half and I’ll see how it reheats for the second serving. (For single-serving cooking it would be wonderful to be able to reheat something like this.)
I read in several places that the tail fillets are the only edible part of this fish; however, online see that it is possible to purchase monkfish cheeks, apparently from larger fish. I’ve eaten cod tongues, and cheeks.
I dry-brined for 30 minutes, and then cooked for 37 minutes with just the salt and some extra virgin olive oil. The result was even better than my first try at the higher temperature. I didn’t try to finish by searing, just added a brown butter sauce with some lemon zest and juice. The taste and texture were wonderful! Next time, although the fish was opaque and just starting to flake, I think I’ll try just a degree or two higher for the next cook–e.g. 133 or 134°F as I’d like the fish to be just a little flakier than this was.
it is not a pretty fish, but so tasty–the poor man’s lobster
Not pretty, but certainly tasty and one of my favorite fish. This precision control of the temperature has lots of possibilities–a son gôut!
I’ll be reporting on how the other half of the filet tasted after cooling and reheating (although reheated fish usually just, despite my best intentions, is headed for the garbage despite the waste.
Obviously the decision (and selection process) of a sous vide circulation heater necessitated a good deal of research before, and perusal of cookbooks after it arrived in the kitchen.
The ChefSteps website for the selected device (the Joule) is bristling with information including recipes. I’m sure that had I chosen a different device (e.g. Anova) I would have found the same resources.
But if you have a new way of cooking you must also have a new cookbook. Thanks to my Kindle and a subscription to Kindle unlimited I was able to sample a lot of different cookbooks. I’ve found several for specialized uses of sous vide that have gone on my wish list, but the one that I bought was Sous Vide for Everybody. I like all the sciencey explanations of why recipes work. There was a delightful “freebie” with the book: recommendation to check out a particular website. Lifehacker site has a delightful collection of articles on what and how to use sous vide cooking.
As useful as the recipes from ChefSteps are, I’m in favor of having independently tested recipes. For my first “cook” I did short ribs and I did find it interesting that the temperature recommendations from that book were a bit different from the website, although overlapping. Given the results of my first batch, I do want to try the temperature recommended in that cookbook.
For right now that’s my source for recipes as I explore sous vide; however there are books from several authors that have gone onto my Kindle wish list: Jason Logsdon (several sous vide books), Dave Arnold (for Liquid Intelligence), Lisa Q Fetterman (Sous Vide at Home). Some of these for basics, others for special applications of this precision cooking technique. So much exploration to do!
Sous vide is a bit of a misnomer. It means “under vacuum”. That was how it originally started but now it would really be more appropriate to call it something like precision cooking now.
Vacuum was first used as a way to remove air from around the food so that there was good contact with the water in the bath since air is a poor conductor. Now while it’s possible to use vacuum a lot of sous vide cooking is done using Ziploc freezer bags and removing air by letting water in the bath press the plastic onto the food. You can also do this kind of cooking in–you guessed it–mason or Ball jars although you’ll need to increase times just a bit since glass is a poorer conductor of heat than with the think plastic.
Note that I specifically used the Ziploc brand name. Those are recommended as being safe and holding up to the cooking temperatures and times used. Most recipes suggest gallon bags, and not ones with the slider. You want the double seal. Since I’m mostly cooking single-serving size amounts I’ve been using quart size, and a smaller water bath than is usually recommended.
Some of you might be cringing at the temperatures and the times you see. They are safe. Even the lower temperatures essentially pasteurize the food according to USDA standards. More on that later, but pasteurization is really a pretty fascinating process.
I’ve already cooked one thing in a mason jar–lentils. Cooking right in the jar makes one of the good things about sous vide even better especially in cooking for one: that jar of lentils (about 3 really hefty servings) could go in the fridge so there was no extra washing up. Awesome. I’m envisioning some other advantages to sous vide for doing single-serving cooking!
I wasn’t surprised to find differences in how meat cooks with sous vide and pressure cooking. I want to know more about the best way to cook other things that I use frequently: beans, cabbage, rice, etc. so I decided to do another comparison. Lentils are something that I do use quite often so I thought that a pressure cooker/sous vide test was in order here too.
I got the inspiration to gr cooking lentils from the Joule app on my smartphone. There was a section on “batch cooking”. Normally since I’m always trying to do single-serving cooking and don’t do well with leftovers I’d blow right by a suggestion like that but I noticed that those batch-cooked lentils could be stored in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days. That made sense since they would essentially be pasteurized. Interesting possibility for something that I use in as many ways as I use lentils!
Lentils are so quick cooking on the stove top that you might wonder why use a pressure cooker, or why (particularly with the time required) sous vide. One reason is hands off. In the pressure cooker it’s set and forget until done. The same is true of sous vide; for me that can be an advantage when I’m engrossed in writing and index. So, a comparison of the two methods.
Another thing that made me curious about cooking lentils this way was that they were cooked in pint jars. With the brown lentils I had in the house at 185°F for the recommended 90 minutes, plus the additional recommended 30 minutes I still didn’t have cooked lentils. But I thought this deserved further investigation so I went in search of other recipes for time and temperature suggestions.
My first stop was to consider how to cook lentils in the pressure cooker other than just pushing the “beans/chili” button on the Instant Pot (IP) was to look at American’s Test Kitchen’s Pressure Cooker Perfection. Much to my surprise I didn’t find lentils listed as an ingredient. So to other reliable sources for cooking time suggestions: from Forks over Knives website 20 minutes. From Kitchn, 15 minutes. Both recipes calling for natural pressure release.
For the sous vide (precision cooking) I did find lentil as an ingredient and, thus, instructions for cooking in Sous Vide for Everybody (location 3646). The recipe called for black lentils (sometimes called beluga lentils). Most often I use French green lentils (lentilles du Puy) but I occasionally use brown lentils so I opted to use those. At least I felt I was comparing apples to apples in terms of looking at cooking times and temperature since both were for black lentils.
The experiment
I had already tried using Mason jars the water bath and in the IP so I decided to use a pint Mason for both methods of cooking.. Although I believe that Ziploc freezer bags are probably safe, I have a think about using as little plastic as possible for environmental reasons if I can use recyclable containers like the Mason jars.
As with the meat, I decided to season both batches the same so that the only difference was the cooking method so the lentils were cooked with only salt as seasoning; it’s the texture that I really wanted to know about. From reviewing recipes from several sources for both electric pressure cooker and sous vide I prepared two pint jars each with 4 3/4 ounces of brown lentils, salt and 8 3/8 ounces of water–one for the pressure cooker and one for the sous vide water bath. The pressure cooker was set for 15 minutes and normal pressure and the sous vide for 194°F and 3 hours (range 3-5 hours. Then the wait began.
The jar from the pressure cooker was cooled (it was sealed) and refrigerated until the sous vide lentils were cooked. That jar was also cooled (it was also sealed) and refrigerated. .
The results:
For the taste and texture tests, both jars were removed from the refrigerator, unsealed to look at the lentils before reheating. The cold jars were placed in a cold water bath to reheat to 145°F (1 hour and 30 minutes).
Just looking at the two, there was an obvious difference in how some of the lentils cooked in the IP were “blown out”–i.e. exploded, burst open, etc. Not great for use in a salad. No surprise here given what I’ve read about the differences in other legumes cooked in either of these ways.
the sous vide lentils
pressure cooked
Tasted before reheating (cold), lentils cooked in the IP were much softer, really almost mushy, OK in soup especially if you wanted to puree some to thicken it a bit. The sous vide lentils were firm, but tender–just what I’d like if they were for a salad or a side. After reheating, there were still the same differences.
The flavor? I’m struggling to describe the differences in flavor–there definitely was a difference. I think part of it was that the IP lentils you started tasting immediately when they hit you mouth; with the sous vide lentils you didn’t really taste them until you start chewing them. Then there was this burst of flavor which seemed to me to be more intense than with the IP lentils. I found it very difficult to separate flavor from the “mouth feel” of the two batches–I think the texture differences affected my reactions.
After this experiment I think I’ll be cooking a lot of lentils with the sous vide method. If I want lentil soup I’ll be turning to the IP. I’ll also add more salt to both.
It took me a while to join the Instant Pot (IP) cult, but I finally did and I’m glad that I did–I love my IP. Now I’ve added a new gadget to the kitchen: a sous vide immersion circulator.
I had tried some “jury rigged” sous vide (here and here) so I was sure it was a way of cooking I was interested in pursuing.
The Joule, from ChefSteps now has a place in my kitchen. We all also know that you can’t have a new kitchen toy without playing. So I had to decide what to cook first.
When I got my IP one of the first recommendations for something to cook was boneless beef short ribs. I’ve done short ribs as a braise in the oven (love them, but it’s a wintertime thing–not for summer when the A/C is working hard to fight the heat and humidity. As I was browsing amongst the cookbooks on sous vide I found a recommendation of something to try with sous vide. Yep, short ribs. There was even a recipe for them in the app on my smartphone (which you need to operate the Joule). An absolute no-brainer–short ribs by sous vide.
After reading the descriptions of sous vide meat, the scientist in me just had to do a little study of my own. I’ve really enjoyed short ribs out of my IP. Certainly they were not the same as the long oven braise that I would do in the wintertime, but for hands-off cooking and summertime, they are great. It seemed logical that I should cook something using my new sous vide that I knew so I could really get a feel for what sous vide really does. So, a little experimental design here.
I got a package of four very homogeneous-appearing boneless beef short ribs. Two of those went into the IP, and two into the sous vide according to the recipe on my smartphone. I seasoned both the same: garlic powder, onion powder, and salt then set to cooking.
The Joule app gave me a choice of cooking temperatures for ribs: 156°F, 167°F, and 176°F, with 167°F marked as the “fave”. Since I thought a good deal of experimentation had probably gone into those recommendation, I opted for the middle one for the recommended time of 24 hours. (Yes, really.) The other two went into the IP for 90 minutes that I’d previously used to get nice tender short ribs. (I’d tried less time, higher pressure but didn’t get the result I wanted. Less and there was just a bit too much chew to the meat.)
When the short ribs in the IP were cooked, I cooled them quickly, put them into a freezer bag and refrigerated them. (The freezer bag was because the sous vide ones and my IP ones would be reheated in the water bath.) At the end of the 24 hours, I chilled the sous vide ribs and refrigerated them too.
Instant Pot (left) and sous vide (right))
For the taste test, reheated both batches in the sous vide water bath at 140°F for 35 minutes and plopped them onto a plate and dug side by side and dug in. Was there a difference? Yes there was.
After all the descriptions of meat cooked sous vide I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The seasoning on them was just about the same so they were beefy, onion-y, and garlicky. The appearance was slightly different: the IP ribs were a bit darker. Both were very tender, but the “mouth feel” of the sous vide ribs was much moister than those from the IP.
I really like the sous vide ribs! Am I going to give up cooking them in the IP? Not likely since it’s also hands off, but it’s quick. Will cook more ribs using sous vide? You bet! I’ll certainly want to try some different temperatures, though. I perusing the Sous Vide for Everybody* cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen I found that their suggestion of time an temperature for braised short ribs was 160°F for 20 to 24 hours.
When thinking about sous vide you have to remember we’re talking precision cooking here–not hit or miss, or close. So it’s likely to take a bit to get the feel for just how I like things cooked using sous vide, but it should be an exciting journey.
A son gôut!
—Ô¿Ô—
*Note: If you’re skulking on Amazon for sous vide cookbooks, be sure to look carefully at the author or editors. There is another with the exact title except that it has 2019 appended.
It seems to happen in late summer, yearly: an infestation of fruit flies. It’s just a fact of life. I usually just use my homemade traps and I’ve gotten rid of them in short order.
I was (as always) glad to know that I’m not alone with this end-of-summer event, but surprised to see a test on the effectiveness of homemade traps. Even though I’m pretty satisfied with my method, curious minds must investigate the possibility that someone has built a better (mouse) trap.
From Kitchn (one of my favorites) comes a test of various do-it-yourself traps. What surprised me was which one was more effective.
Frankly, I’ve been lazy and simply put out the cider vinegar mix in any small container even without the funnel or the lid with hold punched in the top and it still works, and add to that, for only once a year I don’t want lids with holes poked around the kitchen! In my simple open-container method (yes, lazy) the dish soap seems to really help advance the mass slaughter.
Yes I love beets, and I think they are underappreciated, so I’m always looking for more things to do with beets. From Cook’s Illustrated the article on “Turn the Beet Around” has some suggestions: Charred beet salad among some others. If you search Kitchn for beets you get lots of recipes. Some look good, others, maybe not so good. I have found beet hummus in the grocery store (a reputable brand that does do good humus) and, explorer and beet lover than I am, I did try it. It’s good, and should I find it again (it’s since disappeared) I would buy it again, but make it? I don’t think so. Just as I’m unlikely to make pickled beets. However, chocolate beet bundt cake, might just be a possibility. I mean we do eat carrot cake, so why not?
However, cold beet soup is still a summer favorite, and easier now that it is possible to buy already cooked beets or frozen sliced beets. I’ve griddled beet slices and the caramelization that takes is a whole new level of flavor from them
Stahlbush Island Farms
My latest discovery of beets is poached beets. Yes, no kidding. I was reading my email from Mark Bittman’s eponymous website just a day or two ago and found an article titled “Charred Olive-Oil-Poached Beets. I don’t know why that struck me as so startling. I didn’t fire up the grill, but I did pitch some of these on my cast-iron griddle and they were really good!
While it may be controversial, I’m familiar with making vegetable confit and even vegan rillettes. After some thought this really didn’t seems so strange–maybe just that beets are underappreciated vegetables. So, beet confit! The recipes I’ve reviewed on vegetable confit suggest that if covered with oil they can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three–yes, 3 months.
This seems like a great way to handle extra veggies when you’re doing single-serving cooking. So, controversial or not, I’ll likely be trying some more vegetable confit when the summer bounty is in the farmers’ market.
Cooking pork spare ribs to that point where they are extremely luscious and tender is usually a long process, usually involving the oven (at least for me). Even in the cooler weather this didn’t seem to be an option even with windows and doors open; however it occurred to me that I had another option: the Instant Pot. So despite the rather humid (even if cool) weather and the prospect of hotter weather imminent, that package of spare ribs went home with me.
I’ve cooked other meat (e.g. beef short ribs) in my Instant Pot with wonderful results so that was my plan. Realizing that i was going to have an abundance of pork I started thinking of ways to deal with it: some for the freezer perhaps since there are lots of things to do with good cooked pork.
My favorite way of cooking many things in the Instant Pot (IP) is the pot-in-pot method*–a container with a lid inside the Instant Pot. My reason for using this method so often is that in cooking for one I’m often using rather small quantities in a six-quart IP. Often I don’t want to add as much liquid as would be necessary cooking directly in the container of the pot itself.
I like this method especially for meats. The broth that you collect is undiluted by water so you have broth that is flavorful and will gel nicely. So that is how the spare ribs were cooked. The only “disadvantage” to this method is that you may need to increase the cooking times but since I use the IP mainly because of hands-off method and flavor I don’t find that to be a problem.
It really isn’t possible to give quantities for things like the peppercorns or precisely for the salt–you’ll have to judge by your taste.
Ingredients
about 2 to 2-1/2 pounds boneless pork spare ribs
2 bay leaves
whole black peppercorns (a lot–about a generous teaspoon or more if you like pepper
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
salt (more than you would think)–about 2 or 3 teaspoons
Preparation
The day before or at least three or four hours ahead of cooking, sprinkle the spare ribs generously with kosher salt.
When ready to cook, rinse if there is still salt visible and pat the meat dry.
Cut the strips into 2- or 3-inch chunks (to fit into your bowl).
Add 1 cup of water to the IP container, place the trivet, and set the covered bowl on the trivet.
Close the IP and set to “meat”. These took about 90 minutes at high pressure.
I removed a healthy serving of the cooked spare ribs for my supper on that cool, rainy evening (with sides of cabbage and some rice) and then cooled the remaining in the broth (and the fat) for another use.
Cooks notes: *This is a rather long video but it introduces the pot-in-pot method and containers suitable for this. I almost always use a cover on the inner pot so that additional liquid doesn’t collect in it. For more on containers see this link, this link, or here.
a-single-serving.com 