Perfect Steak →
If, like me, you’re a fan of tender, rare steak, I’d take some time out to check out a process called “Sous-vide” – literally “under vacuum” in french – vacuum packing your meat in a bag, then placing it into a vat of temperature controlled water to break down the fats in your meat, before throwing it onto a smoking hot pan to brown the outsides (giving it that awesome taste).
Perfect.
Made famous by the likes of Heston Blumenthal, this method of cooking gives you superb results, albeit with a little more fuss that normal. I managed to recreate it in my kitchen using a pan of hot water (55°C), and by vacuum packing my seasoned meat into a cleaned out crisp packet (don’t judge – they’re food safe, and easy to seal). After an hour of sitting in my crude water bath (a thermometer is also a good idea here), I opened the packet (beware, it’ll smell like a butchers shop), and threw it into a searing hot pan to invoke the Maillard reaction (turning that meat into semi-burnt tasty goodness), and then onto my warmed plate covered in veg. With a quick red wine reduction in the pan the steak was cooked in, the meal was complete.
You can check out a more in-depth explaination of Sous-vide cooking here:
http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
Posted in food by nathan bentley |