Sous vide

Sous vide salmon, spicy hollandaise sauce, and kale sprouts

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

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

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.

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.

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?

Sous vide 63 °C egg, reverse sear steak, and roast pumpkin

This week I have taken three inspirational inputs for tonight’s dinner.

I was watching Guga on Sous Vide Everything and it’s time to do a 63 °C egg.

Sous vide 63 °C eggs with a reverse seared scotch fillet steak and roast pumpkin served with gravy.
Sous vide 63 °C eggs with a reverse seared scotch fillet steak and roast pumpkin served with gravy.

I mentioned this to a friend at work, AB, and steak with my eggs was suggested.

That night, I was chatting with my dear friend, GC about comfort food and she mentioned her Mum’s roast pumpkin.

Kent pumpkin ready for roasting after being massaged with Queensland nut oil, iodised salt, and cinnamon.
Kent pumpkin ready for roasting after being massaged with Queensland nut oil, iodised salt, and cinnamon.

Dedicated to GC, AB, and Guga

I love watching cooking videos on YouTube and I love chatting with friends about food.
Continue reading

RY0004 Sous vide cooking

The Random Yummy
The Random Yummy
RY0004 Sous vide cooking



Loading





/

Hello and welcome to the Random Yummy.

If you have suggestions please let me know. You can connect with me via

Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

If you like this podcast please let me know.

If you think others would like this please share the podcast with your friends. You can find it at the Apple Podcast App and on Android via Stitcher. If you use another podcatcher, just search for Yummy Lummy.

Tonight’s show notes are at https://yummylummy.com/RY0004

Catch you next time on the Random Yummy.

Links

Sous vide everything
Anova Culinary Precision Cooker
Scotch fillet steak
Vegemite porterhouse steak
Salmon and dill lime cream