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Monthly Archives: January 2018
Recently I had a discussion with a subscriber that asked if I could create more vegan dishes or at least add a few more side dishes to the collection of recipes. It just so happens that I also had a conversation with a co-worker about cooking carrots sous vide – so naturally this dish fits the bill for both requests! Cooking root vegetables like carrots sous vide is really simple and the results are deeply flavorful. Like cooking proteins such as steak or chicken, vegetables like carrots can also be tossed in a hot pan to glaze and create those delicious slightly caramelized edges. In researching this dish, I found many maple glazed carrot sous vide recipes, which I am sure are all very tasty. Nearly all…
Farro is an ancient grain – a variety of wheat that consists of spelt, emmer, and einkorn. As can be imagined by being ancient, there is a twisted history of ‘farro’ and what defines ‘farro’. If you wish to enjoy this confusing taxonomical mess, just jump over to Wikipedia and read on. Be sure to come back because this post will demonstrate how to cook farro sous vide and do it for a single diner. Much like the recent rice and lentil posts that relied on sous vide to cook these ingredients gently and perfectly in their small portions, farro is ripe for the same treatment. The real difference is in the method – using ice in the vacuum bag and draining the remaining…
Tonight’s cocktail is a riff on the Millionaire that I believe is aptly named since it is a step above. The key ingredient in this drink is the pomegranate syrup and while it is only a small amount, it is necessary. Of course, I did not buy any of the commercially available pomegranate syrups you can find at the store (although you can, but be aware that they may just be high fructose corn syrup with red food coloring!), I made my own. And I skipped the whole process of dealing with the actual pomegranate fruit to get the juice laden arils. How you ask? Simple, I reduced a small amount of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice which is 100% juice. The results… nothing short of…
I just had to try this dish! It is based on a recipe from Suzy’s The Mediterranean Dish blog, which always contains amazing recipes and information. In doing some research, this dish is popular in Middle Eastern cuisine and was first noted in a cookbook from 1226! It comes in various forms from a version with meat served at celebrations to this simple dish commonly associated with the poor (attributed to Wikipedia). Regardless of variation or connotation, I loved the simple ingredient list and figured this meal would be a hit like the Koshari I made last year. For my take on this dish, I decided to prepare it sous vide since I recently cooked rice and lentils successfully this way. The results? Well, this simple…
The other night I was flipping channels on the TV and stopped to watch Star Trek: Voyager. It was an interesting episode, but the part that I found funniest (yes, I know it is a space drama) was when Neelix calls out Tuvok for always having to get the last word in. The repartee between them is writing gold, in my opinion. Now we all know that person (or persons) that just have to have the last word. Heck, you may even recognize you yourself as being that type of person. Well, this cocktail is not for them because it is the Next to the Last Word, which probably suits you and me to a tee, correct? All kidding aside, this beauty is a riff on the revived…
Just in case the holidays have not exhausted your party spirit (or maybe you have finally recovered and are ready to get back to enjoying the company of others!), tonight’s post is a quick and easy appetizer perfect for either a happy hour type meet-up or a true appetizer for a more formal affair. The concept for this recipe came from Leite’s Culinaria, a wonderful resource filled with interesting dishes. And this recipe called to me on many levels. First, this appetizer is beyond easy. Second, I wanted to try it with different olives and herbs. Lastly, I wanted to try preparing this dish using sous vide. So after a little research, the results are below. I also provided a link to the…
Let’s add to the variety of side dish recipes with another sous vide prepared vegetable. I found this recipe on the All Recipes website and immediately knew I had to try it. While I was intrigued by the simple, Asian inspired sauce it was cooked in, I opted to move slightly west for my inspiration India. Wanting to keep it simple, I cleaned and cut up the cauliflower, added two heavy soup spoons to the bottom of my recloseable bag for additional weight, added the cauliflower, ghee and garam masala. Once closed, I used my pump vacuum on the bag and dropped it into the water bath. 50 minutes later, I emptied the bag into a bowl and gave it a taste. The cauliflower was perfectly…
Last week was a rare appearance of gin on the Friday cocktail post, so I decided to add another this week after I received so much fanfare for the Gin & It. Now, this cocktail is quite the conundrum because it has been published in a variety of possible concoctions. If you do not believe me, read this absolutely wonderful brief cocktail history for yourself, compliments of Jamie Boudreau’s post on Spirits and Cocktails! My thanks to Jamie for his thorough research and witty writing! This Trilby variant is the kissing cousin to last week’s Gin & It. Instead of using Italian vermouth to add the sweetness to the dry gin, this tipple relies on dry vermouth in a 1 to 1 ratio to…
Tonight’s post is another of my attempts to foolproof a single serving dish. Previously, I have made single servings of rice, mashed potato, and farro. This time I want to tackle another of those tough to cook ingredients – lentils. On the stove top, lentils have a reputation for either being under or over cooked. Under cooked lentils are crunchy and when over cooked, they blow out and become mushy. Couple that challenge with also cooking a small amount and the effort becomes frustrating. Sous vide cooking is once again coming to the rescue so we never have under or over cooked lentils. As a bonus, we can flavor them while they cook to get consistent and enhanced results instead of the unpredictable results everyone dreads…
Tonight’s dish is another demonstration on how cooking sous vide makes meal preparation easier and basically foolproof. Have you ever overcooked a fillet of fish in a pan? I bet you have and I know I have. Heck, I bet that anyone who has ever cooked fish has overcooked it at least once. Well, sous vide helps you by cooking it gently in a vacuum bag within a water bath – always done and never overcooked. After the water bath soak, the easiest and most fun part is all that is left – searing to add a little color before plating. But if you thought the mahi mahi is the star of this dish, you would be incorrect. The star of this dish is the sauce…