Home cooking

Sous vide pepper steak and scallops with hollandaise sauce

Posted by Gary

So, it’s another week and another non-recipe post. This post is more like a status update of what I cooked on Saturday night.

Sous vide pepper eye fillet steak with scallops and roe with broccolini and hollandaise sauce

My weight loss motivation has got a bit stagnant, so trying new things has also suffered a little.

I wanted a moderate dinner, but still something special for a Saturday night. I went with eye fillet steak again because it cooks without a lot of fuss, and if you treat it well, it will be tender and moist.

I wanted something with a little kick too so I tied up the meat and pressed in some freshly ground black whole peppercorns, iodised salt, and garlic powder. As always, I pulverise my spices and salt together in a heavy mortar with a nicely weighted pestle. 

Salt and Pepper Eye fillet steak

Because the temperature of the water bath would never exceed 55 °C, there was no chance of the pepper burning, so I was happy to coat the steak in pepper before cooking.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever burnt pepper, but it has an unpleasant, acrid odour and you never want to sear a pepper-coated steak for too long.

Salt and Pepper Eye fillet steak

While I was shopping, I saw there was scallop meat in the delicatessen display. The scallop meat with roe and the alimentary tract was $29 per kilogram while the scallop meat sans roe and the alimentary tract was $34 per kilogram. The roe adds a lovely coral colour to the dish, so I went with the cheaper option. For those readers who don’t know me, I never remove the alimentary canal from an invertebrate, and I wasn’t going to start. Life’s too short for that palaver.

I’ve described how to make hollandaise sauce elsewhere. It’s hard to go past a hollandaise sauce with steak and scallops. Rather than pour or spoon the sauce over the steak and scallops, I decided to serve it in a small bowl and use it as a dipping sauce. The dipping sauce approach was fantastic. As I loaded my fork with a little sweet broccolini, scallop, and steak, I dipped that meaty lollipop into the hollandaise sauce and got a good coating over everything the tines of my fork had penetrated.

Vacuum packed Salt and Pepper Eye fillet steak

The scallops were just seared in the skillet as I was caramelising the surface of the steak after it had finished cooking in the water bath (55 °C for 2 hours). The heat barely licked the scallops.

The broccolini was dead easy. After washing the broccolini in a large mixing bowl, I let the broccolini drain and then doused the green vegetables with some olive oil. I then added a squirt of golden syrup and ground over some iodised salt. With my hands, I massaged the sweet, salty, oiliness into the heads of the broccolini being gentle with the broccolini heads so as not to be too rough with the delicate end.

Precision cooker and water bath

I then arranged the broccolini on a lined baking sheet and put them into a hot oven for 15 minutes. 

Plating up was dead easy, after allowing the steak to rest I cut off the bindings and then with a sharp knife (I used a cooking knife my middle daughter gave me as a father’s day gift last year) I sliced into the soft tender moist flesh to reveal blushing joy. There’s nothing like a nicely cooked piece of muscle meat, red, moist but not running with its juices.

Sous vide pepper steak

Sous vide pepper eye fillet steak with scallops and roe with broccolini and hollandaise sauce

I put the steak onto a dinner plate which I had warmed on top of the water bath and then arranged the scallops. I poured the freshly made hollandaise sauce into a small bowl and put it onto the plate. The last thing to be added was the oven-cooked broccolini. The heads looked limp rather than the tumescence they once had, but I knew those flowery heads would taste sweet and salty, and when coated with the creaminess of the hollandaise, the taste would be unique and so delicious. 

Sous vide pepper eye fillet steak with scallops and roe with broccolini and hollandaise sauce
Sous vide pepper eye fillet steak with scallops and roe with broccolini and hollandaise sauce

New profile pic

Me in my Spam Hawaii shirt holding a tin of Bacon Spam
Me in my Spam Hawaii shirt holding a tin of Bacon Spam with Acacia pycnantha (Wattle) in the background.

Sous vide salmon, spicy hollandaise sauce, and kale sprouts

Posted by Gary

Look, two posts in one week.

Sous vide salmon with spicy homemade hollandaise sauce and crispy kale sprouts

The last couple of weeks I’ve been buying two pieces of salmon with the skin on from Coles. I’ve been eating salmon on Sunday and Monday evenings and I’ve been cooking them under vacuum (sous vide).

As much as I like a quick cook on a cast-iron skillet and getting a really crispy skin, the texture of sous vide salmon is sublime. The flesh just flakes with the slightest pressure. The cooking time is relatively short and the temperature is very gentle. I usually set my precision cooker for 50 °C for 40 minutes.

Brining salmon. Salmon and iodised salt.

A feature of sous vide salmon is wet brining the salmon. This is an optional step but if you don’t brine, it will mean you will have a film of coagulated albumin over the surface of the salmon when it’s cooked.

Wet brining the salmon is dead easy. A few hours before cooking, put the pieces of salmon into a container. Add a handful of iodised salt and then add the iced water. Put the lid on the container and then refrigerate it for a few hours.

Brining salmon. Salmon and iodised salt with ice water.

After removing the salmon from the refrigerator and removing the lid you’ll see a wispy slimy film over the salmon. This needs to be washed off using tap water. Once the albumin has been removed, dry the salmon gently with a towel or kitchen paper.

Put the salmon into a vacuum bag or a ziplock bag. If you have a vacuum extractor use the vacuum bag. If you prefer the water displacement method, use the ziplock bag.

Salmon post-brining

Your salmon is now ready for cooking in the water bath. I always set up my water bath fresh for each cook so I fill it with cold tap water and attach the precision cooker. If you don’t know what a precision cooker is, it’s a water heater and circulator. It keeps the water at a set temperature and I know some people who will keep it running for many hours and in some situations, days depending on what they’re trying to cook.

Salmon is delicate, so as I wrote in a preceding paragraph, I set the precision cooker for 50 °C for 40 minutes.

Salmon vacuum packed

Once the salmon is cooked, I will put one piece in the refrigerator for tomorrow night and I’ll keep the other piece warm sitting on the water bath while I go about finishing off the other elements of the meal.

At this point, I remove the salmon from the vacuum bag and carefully dry the skin. I then peel the skin off and put it on a lined baking tray. I cover the salmon flesh with aluminium foil and put the plate on top of the water bath to keep it warm. The aluminium foil is to keep the flesh moist and preventing it from drying out. No one likes dry fish flesh.

Sous vide salmon with spicy homemade hollandaise sauce and crispy kale sprouts

At about this time I toss some kale sprouts into a large mixing bowl and squirt in some Queensland nut oil plus some freshly ground iodised salt and black whole peppercorns (I do this in a mortar with a pestle). With my hands, I toss the kale sprouts in the bowl and try to get good coverage of the leaves with the oil, salt, and pepper.

I then spread the seasoned and oiled kale sprouts onto a lined baking sheet (next to the salmon skin) and put the tray into a hot oven which has been set to about 180 °C for about 15 minutes. The aim is to get the leaves of the kale sprouts crispy like chips without burning.

While the kale sprouts are in the oven I get out of the refrigerator three eggs, some butter, and some dijon mustard and hot sauce. I also get a lime and some hot sauce plus a red onion and a fennel bulb.

With a mandolin, I shred into fine pieces the red onion and fennel. These raw aromatic vegetables will give the hollandaise some added bite and kick.

Safety glove
Safety glove for mandolin use

I melt the butter, about 125 grams will do, using microwave radiation. I then separate the yolks of three eggs and out them into the bottom of a tall plastic cup. After squeezing the juice from the lime I mix it with a teaspoon of the dijon mustard plus a teaspoon of hot sauce.

It’s now a matter of getting everything together because making hollandaise sauce requires some focus and dexterity. I use a stick blender because I have spindly arms and thin wrists with poor muscle power for a whisk. Begin blending the egg yolks and then add the mixture of dijon mustard, lime juice, and hot sauce. While still blending, slowly pour in the melted heavenly goodness which is melted butter. As you pour in the butter which has been enhanced with microwave radiation, marvel at how it forms a thick unctuous sauce.

Once the hollandaise sauce is made, add in the bits of red onion and fennel. At this stage, you could wonder why you didn’t crispy up some streaky bacon bits and add them too. Stir through the red onion and fennel knowing the flavours and mouthfeel will be amazing with the salmon.

By now the kale sprouts and salmon skin should be done and it’s time to make a plate of food.

Uncover the moist and tender salmon flesh and gently transfer it to a dinner plate. You need to be careful because it will easily flake and fall apart. If it does, then one option would be to create rough flakes with a fork and mix the flakes into the hollandaise sauce you’ve made.

If you can keep the salmon altogether, put it on the dinner plate and then spoon over the hollandaise sauce with the bitey red onion and fennel in it.

If the salmon skin hasn’t burnt to a crisp, place it atop the salmon in some artistic fashion.

Place the kale sprouts next to the salmon and then with a teaspoon you might like to dribble a little hollandaise sauce on the kale sprouts.

Alternatively, put the remaining hollandaise sauce in a ramekin and use it as a dipping sauce for the crispy kale sprouts.

This meal is indulgent and decadent. You will have consumed more butter than you should. You’ll be impressed with the texture and mouthfeel of the sous vide salmon. You’ll love the crispy kale sprouts. Most of all, the tangy spicy hollandaise sauce will draw everything together.

I hope you enjoyed this. If you decide to make this for yourself, I’d love to hear from you and hear how it went.

Sous vide salmon with spicy homemade hollandaise sauce and crispy kale sprouts

Have a good week and stay safe from COVID-19. If you’re one of those conspiracy people who don’t believe SARS-COV-2 exists, then out of respect for others, please keep your views to yourself and don’t go out in public and please don’t share your nonsense on-line. That’s just as annoying as the way I’ve prattled on about this recipe.

Aubergine and sous vide chicken laksa

Posted by Gary

Tonight I cooked a relatively low carb aubergine and sous vide chicken laksa replacing the usual noodles with thin strips of eggplant.

Last week I bought a packet of five chicken thigh pieces and cooked some of them under vacuum (sous vide). I had two pieces leftover and thought I’d add them to a soup of some kind.

Sous vide chicken laksa

Aubergine chicken laksa soup
Aubergine chicken laksa soup

The perfect soup on the last weekend of winter is a laksa. Comforting and spicy and full of flavour. Now, I know what you’re thinking, the thing I cooked looks nothing like a laksa but I used laksa paste so in my mind it’s a laksa soup.

Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by anyone.

Recipe

It’s important to read the recipe before cooking because the timing of processes needs to be understood.

Safety glove
Safety glove

Aubergine and sous vide chicken laksa. Soup for the last weekend of winter.

Aubergine and sous vide chicken laksa. A low carb and comforting soup for the last weekend of winter.

  • Aubergine (Eggplant)
  • Leftover sous vide chicken thigh
  • Coconut cream
  • Laksa paste
  • Red onion (finely diced)
  • Fennel (finely diced)
  • Red cabbage (finely shredded)
  • Coriander leaves (stems and roots (chopped))
  • Fried shallots
  • Lime juice
  • Black whole peppercorns (ground in a mortar with a pestle)
  1. Combine the laksa paste, coconut cream, and the fluid from the vacuum bag into a large saucepan and bring to the boil and simmer.
  2. Cut the aubergine into thin strips and add into the simmering coconut cream.
  3. Add slices of chicken thigh and stir through until the chicken has warmed through.
  4. Add in juice from one lime and stir through.
  5. Turn off the heat and then add in the red onion, fennel, red cabbage, coriander, and pepper.

  6. Transfer everything to a bowl and then garnish with fried shallots.

Disclaimer I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate the energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.

Aubergine sous vide chicken laksa soup
Aubergine chicken laksa soup

Questions and answers

How was the aubergine and sous vide chicken laksa?

It was pretty good. It had a good amount of spice and it’s made me feel very content.

Would it have been better with traditional ingredients like tofu and sprouts?

I’m not a fan of tofu, too much œstrogen for my liking. Sprouts also run a risk of bacterial contamination and gastroenteritis. I don’t think it would have added anything to the chicken laksa.

What else would have work apart from the chicken?

I reckon sous vide salmon would be fabulous.

Final thoughts

  • Do you like laksa flavourings?
  • Would you ever replace noodles with aubergine?
  • What’s your favourite curry soup?
  • Would you try sous vide chicken laksa?

Garlic butter steak and chips

Posted by Gary

Garlic butter sous vide steak, scallops and hot chips

Last week I made steak pizzaiola and used eye fillet steak which I cooked sous vide. I was impressed with how tender the meat was. I went and bought some more. Because butter makes everything better, I thought I’d add a pat of butter when I served it. To extend the butter theme a little more, I’d seen someone added melted garlic butter to hot chips and I thought I’d give that a try too.

Dedicated to all the dairy farmers who bring joy to our lives through cream and butter.

Tonight I used Lurpak butter
Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops
Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops

I wondered what could enhance garlic butter steak and chips? Why not a little surf and turf, or should that be reef and beef? I bought some scallops and you know that scallops and butter are a match made in heaven. Well, at least I hope heaven has butter, bacon, steak, pasta, noodles, and pizza.

The garlic butter chips are not low carb I know. They do taste good though and I don’t care that I bought frozen chips and cooked them in the oven. After all, I am all about convenience eating.

Subscribe to my blog

Recipe

It’s important to read the recipe before cooking because the timing of processes needs to be understood.

Garlic butter steak and chips

Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops on a cold night in Canberra. It’s been snowing. I hate the snow.

Steak and scallops

  • Eye fillet steak
  • Iodised rock salt
  • Black whole peppercorns
  • Garlic powder
  • Butter
  • Garlic
  • Dried oregano
  • Scallops
  • Hot chips

McCain frozen chips

  • Butter
  • Garlic

Garlic butter

  1. Get the butter to room temperature.
  2. With a fork mix in the crushed garlic and dried oregano.
  3. Form a disc in the bottom of a bowl and refrigerate until it’s time to plate up.

Sous vide steak

  1. Remove the steak from the packaging.
  2. Trim the fillet and bind the muscle fibres with some cooking twine.

  3. Grind some rock salt and whole peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle. Once the salt and pepper have been coarsely ground add in some garlic powder and mix.
  4. Season the steak with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

  5. Seal the steak in a vacuum bag.
  6. Cook in a water bath at 57 °C for 2 hours.
  7. Remove the bagged steak from the water bath and then remove the steak from the bag.
  8. Dry the surface of the steak with absorbent paper.
  9. Sear the steak in a cast-iron skillet.

Scallops

  1. Dry the surface of the scallops and sear in a hot skillet.

McCain SuperFries

  1. Cook according to the instructions on the packaging.
  2. Once the chips are cooked put them into a large metal mixing bowl.
  3. Using microwave radiation melt the butter an mix in some crushed garlic.
  4. Pour the melted garlic butter over the hot chips a little bit at a time and toss the chips at the same time.

Plating up bit

  1. Place the steak on a dinner plate along with the scallops and chips.

  2. Get the cold disc of garlic and herb butter and put it on the steak so that it melts as you eat.

Disclaimer I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate the energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.

Photographs

This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and then scroll through the photographs. I’ve been told the gallery doesn’t always work on older versions of Windows Internet Explorer. I suggest Google Chrome or using a Mac.

  • Eye fillet steak
  • Eye fillet steak
  • Eye fillet steak Salt Pepper Garlic powder
  • Eye fillet steak Salt Pepper Garlic powder
  • Eye fillet steak Salt Pepper Garlic powder
  • Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops
  • Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops
    Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops
  • Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops
  • Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops
    Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops

Questions and answers

What’s with eye fillet steak two weekends in a row?

Normally I like to cook scotch fillet steak because it has the eye fillet and the cap or deckle meat. The deckle meat is the best because it has seams of fat running through it and when cut against the grain it is so tender, tasty, and juicy.

The eye fillet is more lean but it is supremely tender. With the butter the natural beef flavour is augmented.

Why not cook the scallops sous vide too?

I’d like to cook scallops by sous vide but I only have one precision cooker and the timing would be out of whack. That said, I could have cooked the steak first and then refrigerated it and after the scallops were cooked I could have reheated the steak quickly in the water bath as the scallops were finishing. Maybe next time.

Would garlic butter steak and chips have made for a nice fancy pub meal?

Yep, I mean steak and chips is classic pub fare. I expect though in a pub, gravy would replace the butter. Maybe I should have served some tomato sauce too.

Final thoughts

  • Do you like garlic butter steak and chips?
  • Are you a fan of scallops and butter?
  • How do you like your hot chips?

Steak pizzaiola

Posted by Gary

This is the first time I’ve cooked steak pizzaiola. Before this week, I had no idea what steak pizzaiola is. I first heard about it when watching Guga on Sous Vide Everything.

Dedicated to Guga from Sous Vide Everything and my dear friend GC

Two sources of impeccable information

Pronouncing steak pizzaiola

I asked GC how is pizzaiola pronounced. “It’s basically pizza-yoh-lah or pizza-your-la if you want more of an Aussie twang to it 😉

“It means steak ‘pizza-style’ pretty much. So a pizzaiolo is someone who is trained in the art of proper pizza making and I presume it’s used as an adjective here to describe the steak due to its thin flat nature and that the sauce is akin to a pizza.”

Steak Pizzaiola with sous vide eye fillet and fresh linguine
Continue reading →