How to make Vacuum Cooking a Roller-Coaster Ride

CHEFTALK

How to make vacuum cooking a roller-coaster ride

 Many of us love to be thrilled in life; I don’t mean thrilled like buying something new or getting a present. I mean the thrill of raising your stress levels to the max.

The thrill

I have never figured out why people spend money on an amusement park to get that thrill. Riding a roller-coaster that takes you up and down a hill to scare the, I do not know what out of you, just to beat death in a little cart dropping that turns your stomach inside out.

The stress

On the other hand when some stress comes into our lives, something we did not pay for, the world seems to come to a standstill. Life’s stress gets us down so easily, because we do not expect it, it comes out of the blue and therefore we cannot handle it. Stress at work because we are under pressure, financial stress because we have difficulties making ends meet.

How come we can be so brave when we pay for a scary ride and are so whimsy, whinny when we need to get the job done we get paid for?

Well, smart people have studied the subject at length and found that we love, “not me, but many of us” predictable stress (coming down a steep hill in an amusement park) but we cannot handle unpredictable stress. Meaning that when you are on top of the roller coaster ride you can predict that you stomach gets turned in-side out, but when the boss shouts we panic and get stressed out.

How to de-stress

We go home stressed, forget about important things in life, our family, health, having a healthy dinner, a good night’s sleep and start afresh the next day, life goes on after all.

So, what can we do to intercept that kind of unnecessary stress, one thing you can do to release that kind of stress is having a good dinner with loved ones. Talk about different things than issues that cause stress, divert and set focus on the moment.

Food unites, a dinner with close relatives makes you feel warm and unstressed, if you do not feel like cooking after a stressful day at work make use of pre- prepared meals you made at a quieter moment.

Once you sit around the table facing a bunch of happy faces you know that investing in a quality vacuum sealer was a good and wise decision.

All you need to do is grab one of your (and your families) favorite meals that you pre-cooked, vacuumed and stored in your freezer and heat it up, maybe with a small addition of some pasta or another staple, but you are done in a whimsy.

My story may sound a bit philosophical, but we all have issues in life, feel stressed and somewhat in limbo maybe. I truly believe that a united meal brings you happiness and releases some of the stress you may encounter.

Here are a few ideas for meals to make in advance and freeze: 

Chicken Cacciatore:

All you need is cubed chicken breast, mushrooms, onion, garlic, canned (or your own tomatoes), oregano, salt and pepper.

Heat a few tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, season the chicken cubes with salt, pepper and oregano and fry until golden brown, add the chopped onions, chopped garlic and the mushrooms (sliced or quartered) and fry for a few minutes, stirring regularly. Add the tomatoes and bring the mix to boil, check for taste and you are done.

Allow cooling, place the mix in a vacuum bag, vacuum and freeze. 

When you are ready to use this homemade delicious concoction, microwave the whole bag for 2 minutes to get the defrosting started.

Place the bag in a pot with boiling water, boil your favorite pasta and top with the Cacciatore, sprinkle some grated cheese.

Pre-preparing this meal takes around 10 minutes, making it ready to serve 15 minutes.

Crispy Pork Belly:

Ingredients:

10 oz                                                   Pork belly (cut in 1 cm pieces)

1 Tbsp                                                 Oyster sauce

2 Tbsp                                                 Light soya sauce

1 Tsp                                                    Crushed black pepper

½ Tsp                                                   Salt

Dash                                                    Chinese rice wine

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Marinate the pork slices with the rest of the ingredients and leave to marinade for 2 hours or so

Drain excessive marinade from the meat

Heat oil to 180 C and deep fry marinated meat for a minute, drain on kitchen paper

Deep fry a second time just before serving, about 2 minutes until crisp

Serve with steamed rice and braised Chinese Nappa Cabbage

Simplicity is the key to good home cooked food. The first and second recipe freeze very well, are a roller-coaster to make and delicious.

Your vacuum sealer helps, if you do not have one, find one here:

 www.vacupack.com  for USA and www.vacupack.ca for Canada. 

By: Marinus Hoogendoorn

Sous-Vide Cooking for beginners and Other Home Chefs

CHEFTALK

Sous-vide cooking for beginners and other home chefs

If you, like me, cook regularly at home and are not too afraid to try something different, sous-vide cooking is something you must lay your hands on one day.

If you believe that sous-vide is a mysterious way of cooking, exclusively reserved for well-trained chefs in Gourmet restaurants, something you need a lot of expensive equipment for, an investment you are not willing to spend your hard earned dollars on. Read on… 

Sous vide does not change or replace traditional cooking, sous-vide complements traditional cooking.  If you are a bit innovative you do not need to spend a lot on this amazing cooking method.

What it is?

Sous-vide literally means ‘under vacuum’. To explain the method in the simplest way, it means cooking vacuum packed food in a water bath under low, very precise temperatures.

What it does?

Cooking food at low temperatures is a technique known to give great results. Braising a big roast in the oven for a couple of hours is a good example.

Cooking vacuum packed food under low temperatures in a water bath ensures an even setting of protein in the product from edge to edge without over or under cooking, this creates a super tender texture of meat and fish and results in super tender vegetables. No thermometer, no guessing if the steak is medium or rare, trust your timer and you cannot go wrong.  

How do you do it?

The idea of going through a scary process of learning how to go about sous-vide puts a lot of people off, looking for a special temperature controlled water bath sounds like a hassle also.

Well here is what you need:

A good quality vacuum sealer

You can find your vacuum sealer and vacuum bags here:

 www.vacupack.com  for USA and www.vacupack.ca for Canada

A Rice cooker (one of those where you press a button and your rice is cooked automatic), as long as there is rice and water inside of course.  

A sous –vide magic, or a temperature control devise.

You can find SVM temperature controllers on-line under that name.

Most likely you can find your rice cooker in your cupboard  

What is the purpose?

The art of perfect cooking is mastering the dish, to have it perfectly right every time you make a particular dish. The problem is that contrary to a restaurant, you do not cook the same dish very often at home like chefs do in a restaurant with a fixed menu. To get rid of that annoyance sous-vide provides the perfect solution.

Every time you cook your in-laws favorite dish the amount varies, sometimes there are four people another time there are five and you cannot remember exactly how you did it the last time. 

Sous-vide cooking reduce complicated matters to a few simple steps, temperature and time. This gives you control and predictability. All your cooking stress is eliminated when you are assured of the outcome.

Why should I cook sous-vide

For one it takes away a big part of intense cooking, you can marinate and vacuum your meat or fish in advance, then just place it in your temperature controlled rice cooker with water and spend time on other important issues.

Linked to that is the idea of neatness and storage. Your marinated meat or fish is clean, safe for cross contamination and if made in advance easy to store in your refrigerator.

You can even prepare your whole meal and pan-sear or stir fry just before serving a magical dish.

The illustration

Teriyaki chicken breast

I use the example of chicken breast because chicken breast seems like an easy to cook piece of meat. You can buy it de-boned almost everywhere and most people like it.

Problem is that it tends to be dry and all your effort to produce something magic!! Well you know what I mean.  

Use this recipe per chicken breast and multiply by as many breast you intend to use.

For the chicken breast

1 bone-less chicken breast

½ tsp ginger juice

1 tsp evaporated cane sugar (you can use another liquid sugar as well, like maple syrup)

½ tsp salt

Season the chicken breast with salt, sugar and ginger juice.

Place the seasoned chicken breast in individual vacuum bags, vacuum and marinate overnight.

For the sauce

2 tbsp light soya sauce

2 tbsp evaporated cane sugar (you can use another liquid sugar as well, like maple syrup)

2 tbsp sake

Method

Set your temperature controller at 140 F, attach your rice cooker filled with water

When the water has reached 140 F, drop the bagged, marinated chicken breast in the water and cook for 1 ½ hour.

Place the sauce ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Remove the chicken breast from the bag, you will notice that there is very little juice released.

Place the chicken breast on an oven tray and brush with some of the sauce,

If you have a blow torch brown the chicken breast, if you do not have a blow torch you can place the chicken breast for one or two minutes under the heating element of your oven broiler.

Slice the chicken breast at a 45 degree angle, and place on a plate, drizzle the remaining sauce around and serve.

It is nice to serve this dish with grilled asparagus that have been sous vide cooked at 190 F for 4 minutes, prepare the asparagus earlier and grill them for 2 minutes just before serving.

Best chicken breast you have ever served and eaten.


Let me know how you fared.

By: Marinus Hoogendoorn