SOUS VIDE

Until last week I had never heard of the term "Sous-Vide" which means under pressure; let alone knew that is was a method of cooking. (unless brother Jim told us and we had forgotten) After reading reports and the glowing endorsements from folks who cook this way I thought it was time to give it a try. Rather than spend money on equipment I used what we had in the house; an old picnic cooler and resealable bags. You do need an instant read thermometer.

Sous-Vide is a method where meat is sealed and cooked in a water bath at low temperatures. For our steak we went with 132*F do give us a medium/rare steak.

This morning I bought the cheapest steak in the butcher shop, a sirloin tip. I had it cut an inch and a half thick which gave us a pound and a half steak.

That was salted, sealed in the bag and placed in the water bath with the temperature checked every half hour.

To help retain the heat I wrapped the cooler in a blanket.

After two hours we removed the steak and seared it in a pan of butter and oil.

Best steak ever; done to perfection and so tasty. It was melt in your mouth delicious; .............. so delicious we ate the whole thing. Time to go back to the butcher.

Sous-Vide is a fool proof way to get the best from your cut of meat. Using the picnic cooler does require you to keep and eye on the process and be available to adjust the temperature of the water. You can buy a sous-vide cooker which clips to the side of a pot and maintains the perfect temperature without you being present. That might be the route to take if you wanted to do a larger piece of meat such as a roast; less hassle, less work.

Will we do it again? Most definitely, we are already talking chicken in the bag.  I think we will also use this method when we camp as the meat could be cooking while out hiking or driving to the park. We will see how to perfect the system so it can be done while on the road. (don't want water spilling all over the place)

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your supper ..................... we did.