Sous vide duck breast with lentils, broccolini, and potato mash

Posted 2021-02-27 by Gary

Sous vide duck breast with lentils, broccolini, and potato mash.

I was invited to dinner tonight at a friend’s place. Unfortunately, her son has developed an infection, so we’ve rescheduled it to another time.

Fortunately, I had some duck breasts in the refrigerator and frozen potato mash, so the decision for dinner was easy.

Ingredients

Duck breast
Iodised salt
Black peppercorns
Potato mash (frozen, packet for microwave radiation)
Broccolini
Lentils (tinned)
Butter (salted)

Instructions

Sous vide duck breast.

Season the duck breast with a liberal amount of iodised salt.
Put the duck breast into a plastic bag and vacuum seal the bag.
Heat a water bath to 55 °C and cook the duck breast for 1 hour.
Remove the duck breast from the vacuum bag.
Dry the duck breast with absorbent kitchen paper.
Heat a cast-iron skillet and rub a little high vapour oil on the hot surface of the skillet.
Score the skin of the duck and sear the skin until it reaches a pleasing colour. What is a pleasant shade, you may ask? As for me, I like a deep golden brown. Some people will go for lighter, and others will prefer darker.
After searing the duck breast’s skin, set aside the duck breast and let it rest for about 10 minutes.
With a freshly honed knife, slice the duck breast into slices a few millimetres thick (or thicker if you prefer your meat to be firm and thick).

Potato mash

Follow the instructions on the packet.

Broccolini and lentils

Trim the stalks of the broccolini with a paring knife.
Empty the tin of lentils, rinse under cold water, and then drain with a sieve.
Wash the broccolini under running water.
After the duck breast has finished searing in the skillet, add a nudge of salted butter to the skillet and then add the broccolini and lentils.
Cook the broccolini and lentils with a lid on the skillet.
Cook the broccolini to your preference.

Plating up

Spoon the potato mash onto a warm dinner plate.
Lay the slices of rested duck breast on the potato mash so the mash can absorb the meat juices, which will continue to ooze out of the meat. You don’t want to waste a drop of the tasty savoury juices.
Place the broccolini next to the potato mash and then spoon the lentils next to the potato mash.
Spoon the burnt butter by dribbling it over the duck breast, and it too will be soaked up by the potato mash.

Final thoughts

It’s always worth having something in the refrigerator in case of plans falling through.

I hope my friend’s son feels better soon.

Filet mignon and crunchy chickpea salad

Posted 2021-02-20 by Gary

Filet mignon and crunchy chickpea salad

Sous vide black pepper filet mignon — Ground black peppercorns Filet mignon and crunchy chickpea salad

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve cooked a steak. I picked up some eye filet steak this morning, thinking that I would cook it sous vide and have enough beef leftover for lunch meat during the week.

I wanted something crunchy like croutons for the salad, but rather than fried or toasted bread; I went with a crunchy chickpea salad. I got the idea from Bon Appétit.

Ingredients

Eye filet steak
Iodised salt
Black peppercorns
Chickpeas (tinned) for crunchy chickpeas
Olive oil
Lettuce
Fennel
Red onion
Cucumber
Cherry tomatoes
Cracker Barrell Maple-infused cheddar cheese with toffee bites

Instructions

Steak

Unwrap the steaks and tie them with cooking string to create steak rounds. Tieing the meat isn’t necessary, but it keeps the muscle bundle together and helps when searing the steak at the end.
Season the steak rounds with a liberal amount of iodised salt.
Vacuum pack the steaks and refrigerate for a few hours to permit the salt to penetrate the muscle.
Heat the water in the water bath to 55 °C and then cook the meat at that temperature for two hours.
At the end of the cooking time, remove the steak from the plastic bag and pat it dry with kitchen paper.
Grind some pepper and salt in a mortar with a pestle. Grind enough so you can make a thick coating of pepper on the steak.
Heat a cast-iron skillet to smoking hot.
Add some high vapour point oil to the skillet and allow the oil to spread across the hot surface.
Sear the steak using tongs to ensure all surfaces form a nice crust.
While searing the steak, add in some butter and spoon melted butter over the steak.
Allow the steak to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing it open with a sharp knife.

Crunchy Chickpea Salad

Heat some olive oil over low heat in a non-stick skillet.
Toss in some drained and rinsed chickpeas and sautée until the chickpeas become crunchy.
Allow the crunchy chickpeas to cool on kitchen paper which will absorb the excess oil.
Cut the vegetables for the salad and the cheese, and put them into a salad bowl.
Season with some salt.
Add in a good glug of extra virgin olive oil.
Add in the crunchy chickpeas, which are now like croutons and toss your salad. Do not look up “tossed salad” in the urban dictionary.

Plating up

Plate the salad onto the dinner plate.
Dissect the steak round by cutting it in half to create two semi-circles of meat.
Slice one half into thin slices and lay them out on the plate.
Spoon the burnt butter from the cast-iron skillet over the cut surface of the steak.

Final thoughts

This dish was a nice simple steak meal with a heap of good mouthfeel.

Do you like steak and salad?
Do you like crunchy chickpeas?

Penne pasta “mac and cheese” with pesto

Posted 2021-02-14 by Gary

Penne pasta “mac and cheese” with pesto

I was inspired to make this meal after watching the YouTube channel “Sous vide everything” which featured pork belly with mac and cheese.

Rather than using macaroni, I went with penne ziti pasta because that’s what I had in my pantry.

Penne pasta and cheesy white sauce after the oven

Ingredients for mac and cheese

Penne pasta
Water
Iodised salt
Salted butter
Plain flour
Milk
Swiss cheese
Pecorino cheese
White pepper
Pork belly
Extra virgin olive oil
Garlic
Basil
Pine nuts

Instructions

Cook the penne pasta according to the instructions on the packaging.
Allow the penne pasta to cool in the refrigerator, so it develops resistant starch.
In a food processor blend the garlic, salt, and olive oil and then slowly add the pine nuts, basil leaves, and pecorino cheese until it forms a smooth sauce.
The pesto may benefit from some red wine vinegar to prevent the basil leaves from discolouring and turning black.
The pesto will keep well in the refrigerator.
Dry a manageable length of your pork belly strip by rubbing it vigorously with both hands with some paper towel. You can then oil your hands and rub your pork. Cook your piece of pork in an oven at 200 °C for 40 minutes, so the rind is crispy.
Cut the cooked pork belly into cubes.
In a saucier pan, melt some butter on a low heat and then whisk in an equal quantity of plain flour and cook for at least 3 minutes.
Add cold milk to the roux and add enough to avoid the white sauce from clumping. You don’t want globby bits in your special white sauce.
Start adding the swiss and pecorino cheeses in small amounts and stir through to create a thickened luscious sauce.
Season the white sauce with white pepper. Your white sauce will taste better with a little spice in it. Spicy sauces are always better in your mouth.
Add in the cold penne pasta, stir through, cook until the sauce penetrates deeply, and fills the hollow tubes of goodness.
Transfer the pasta dropping in your special sauce to a baking sheet and top with a little more cheesy goodness. With a Microplane take your seed of nutmeg and generously grate it over the cheese augmented “mac and cheese”.
When the pork belly has finished cooking, remove your hot pork strip and insert your “mac and cheese” until the cheese bubbles and turns a lovely golden brown.
After the “mac and cheese” has finished in the oven, remove it and allow it to rest for a few minutes until it stops wobbling when you give it a poke. The growing tumescence of your “mac and cheese” means your cheese has started to set and it will be easier to handle rather than being a floppy mess.
With a large spoon, dissect and withdraw a good portion of “mac and cheese” and transfer to a plate. Add some pork belly and a spoonful of pesto. Garnish with the cherry tomatoes for the contrasting colour.

Penne pasta and cheesy white sauce before the oven

Final thoughts on mac and cheese

I’ve ordered some food-grade sodium citrate on-line and will see if it helps make the cheesy white sauce any better.

According to Guga, the sodium citrate makes the cheesy white sauce smoother.

Prawn roll

Posted 2021-02-06 by Gary

Prawn roll

I had my heart set on a bug roll, that is, a Moreton Bay bug (slipper lobster) roll. I got to the seafood shop this morning, and there were no bugs, no lobsters either! There were prawns though, so I bought prawns for a prawn roll.

The motivation for this was again Lorraine Elliott who is better known as Not Quite Nigella. This week, Lorraine wrote about lobster rolls.

Ingredients

Prawns (cooked and peeled)
Mayonnaise (I used Kewpie wasabi flavoured mayonnaise)
Pickled jalapeño peppers (chopped)
Red chilli (diced)
Bread roll (I bought a crusty baguette)
Butter (Lurpak spreadable)
Iodised salt
White pepper
Parsley (chopped)

Instructions

In a bowl add some mayonnaise, the chopped jalapeño peppers, and chopped chilli. Mix with a fork and then season with salt and pepper to taste.
Fold some chopped parsley into the spicy mayonnaise.
Roughly cross-section cut the prawns and fold the prawn meat to the mayonnaise.
Make a midline longitudinal incision along the baguette’s ventral surface and spread the two flaps apart with your thumbs to open the incision.
Spread a nudge of butter on the incision surfaces of the baguette.
Spread a little butter on the outside of the baguette.
Toast the lateral surfaces of the baguette in a sandwich press.
If you’ve added too much butter to the incision surfaces, some melted butter will bleed from the incision. The question I have for you though is, is there such a thing as too much butter?
Once the baguette’s outer lateral surfaces are toasted, remove it and gently open the incision and spoon the prawns coated in spicy mayonnaise into the baguette’s buttery incision.
Serve the prawn roll with a side salad of shredded lettuce, sliced cucumber, and halved cherry tomatoes.

Final thoughts

I am a little disappointed I couldn’t get a Moreton Bay bug today; however, the prawns were a reasonable substitute.

The spicy mayonnaise complemented the prawns nicely, and the warm buttery baguette provided great contrasting mouthfeel. As far as rolls go, this prawn roll was pretty good.

What would you prefer? Lobster? Bug? Prawns?

Postscript

After chopping and dicing the pickled jalapeño peppers and chilli, I had to attend the water closet.

Without going into any inappropriate detail, I will be buying disposable gloves to wear on my hands for when I chop and dice pickled jalapeño peppers and chilli. This experience took the shine off, enjoying eating the prawn roll.

Chickpea Jalapeño potato salad

Posted 2021-01-23 by Gary

Chickpea Jalapeño potato salad

Potato, Chickpeas, White onion, Chilli, Pickled jalapeño peppers, Spring onion, with wasabi mayonnaise and king prawns. I also added some **Cracker Barrell maple-infused cheddar with toffee bites!**

Lorraine Elliott, who is also known as Not Quite Nigella inspired this meal. This is her recipe with a few additions from me.

Ingredients

Potatoes
Kewpie wasabi mayonnaise
White onion
Pickled sliced jalapeño peppers
Chilli
Tinned chickpeas
Spring onion
Iodised salt
Whole black peppercorns

Instructions

Boil the spuds until you can use a long sharp tool and penetrate the skin and flesh easily with no resistance.
Remove the boiled spuds from the water and refrigerate overnight to permit the formation of resistant starch.
Smile knowing my microbiota will be grateful (if bacteria were sentient).
The next night, cut the cold boiled spuds into bite-sized pieces with a sharp knife.
Put the spuds into a large mixing bowl and then squirt in some Kewpie Wasabi mayonnaise and a small handful of pickled sliced jalapeño peppers.
Finely dice a white onion and add the chopped onion to the mixing bowl.
Finely slice the spring onion and add the spring onion to the mixing bowl.
Add in the tin of chickpeas because legumes are also useful for my microbiota.
Gently mix everything to avoid disintegrating the spuds.
Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix.
Peel the shells from the prawns and undertake a colectomy to remove the alimentary canal.
Transfer everything to a serving bowl and garnish with some peeled prawns.
Grab a fork, take the bowl, sit in front of the TV, and watch a movie while enjoying the potato salad.

What movie did I watch?

I watched one of my favourite movies, viz., Chariots of Fire. I love the story of Eric Liddell and how he put God and principles before King and country.

What’s all the microbiota talk?

Readers who know me know that I like listening to books. I’m not much of a reader of books, but I’ll happily listen to a book.

I’m a fan of the Audible app and buying audible books from Amazon. To get more users, Audible has provided some free books to get people in.

One of the recent free offerings has been a 10 episode podcast by Dr Joanna McMillan. Joanna is a nutrition scientist and a practising nutritionist. Check her out at her website.

I think some people assume that we learn everything we need to know in medical school about nutrition. Given I went through medical school from 1983 to 1989 (yes that’s seven years, I did an extra degree during the course) it’s no surprise I’m a bit behind. My interest in our microbiota has been in the context of pathology and infection. It’s only recently, as I’ve endeavoured to improve my health that I’m thinking more about my microbiota.

If you’re interested in gut health, I reckon you’ll enjoy listening to Joanna. Her Scottish accent also helps!

Resistant starch

One topic that Joanna bangs on about is resistant starch. For a good synopsis of resistant starch, you cannot only listen to Joanna, but you can read about it on the CSIRO website.

You’ll see more legumes and raw oats in my Instagram feed in the future.

Potatoes and rice are useful sources of resistant starch if you cook them and then allow them to cool before eating them. That’s why I cooked the spuds yesterday and then refrigerated the potatoes.

How was the potato salad?

It was good. It certainly had a big kick to it with the jalapeño peppers, wasabi mayonnaise, and the red chilli. I split it in half and will finish it off tomorrow night.

Sous vide duck breast with lentils, broccolini, and potato mash

Ingredients