That is a sexy piece of meat. I purchased it at Rain Shadow Meats (click) which is in the Melrose Market on Capitol Hill in Seattle.   I have a friend that works there and he has been telling me to check it out for some time so I did! I’ll have a follow up post to it next week because I intend to go there again this weekend…..it’s an amazing place.

This is my first attempt at sous vide cooking. I have been reading about sous vide cooking for about a year now so I know all the ins and outs of it from random posts online from people that don’t know what they’re talking about to Thomas Keller’s guidance in the book “Under Pressure”.  Well, I had Scott from Seattlefoodgeek.com build me an immersion circulator and I found a screaming deal for a Foodsaver Vac. on eBay so my time is now but before I get to my experiments with sous vide cooking I promised you “and More!” in the subject line of this post.

This is a salad I put together consisting of:

• Hearts of palm
• Pickled red onion (MindyRiveraFarms)
• Cilantro Oil (MindyRiveraFarms)
• Yellow Carrot (MindyRiveraFarms)
• Cilantro Flower (MRF)
• Capers
• Pickled Rhubarb Vinaigrette
• Pickled red pepper coulis
• Lemon Cucumber
• Sel de mer
• Pressed green pepper jus

Next up was a little work with some tomatoes from MindyRiveraFarms

I did a confit of tomato with them then crushed them over some bread with a little bit of the liquid from the confit then crumbled some goat cheese over them and served them on some Essential Bakery bread.

“Eric, that’s cool and all but what about this sous vide thing you were talking about”.

Right, so sous vide cooking is pretty damn amazing and I don’t think there is a better way to illustrate the awesomeness of it than cooking a steak using this technique.   First step is to salt and pepper the steak then vacuum seal it like so.

Then you set your kick ass cooking machine for 53C which in American is 127.4F

Then you throw the bag in the water and 20 minutes later you’re ready to have a perfect medium rare steak….well, once Eric does a few more things.

Once the steak was done I took a flat cast iron skillet and set the stove to ludicrous heat.  I patted dry the steak and reserved the juices for the sauce I was about to make for it.   The steak gets seared on each side for about 1 minute. I wanted a little bit of that charred taste to a steak that we all love but not too much so that it wouldn’t start to cook my steak past my perfect medium rare.

“Eric, you cooked a steak under the recommended temperature for killing bacteria, E. Coli, and zombies….”

Well, here’s the thing…yes, I did but you need to remember what I did to start with.  The steak I used is a great quality steak from people that I know that I have built a relationship with it’s not just some off-the-rack piece of meat that I found in the weekly circular for a “great deal”.   What is a great deal?  Price? No, I think a great deal is getting amazing quality for every cent you pay then being able to cook the food to highlight each penny that you spent.  Sure, having an immersion circulator built, buying artisan meat, and spending a bunch of time researching the right way to do it isn’t for everyone but I wouldn’t cook steak any other way.   F’ing baffles me when steak houses around this city don’t do sous vide for their steaks. F’ing baffles me when people tell me they make a great steak……Can you make a perfect one? I can, every time with SCIENCE!!!!

“Eric, zombies and e.coli!!!!!”

Sous vide cooking won’t kill that scary bacteria you’re afraid of so just keep cooking your steaks to well done and keep believing the FDA and health department are on your side.  Egg recall (mass produced eggs with chickens living in horrendous conditions)?  e.Coli outbreaks (awful ground meat that was undercooked by people that shouldn’t be allowed to touch/sell food)?

If you need me, I’ll be over here talking to my purveyors directly and talking to the people that grow my food (Hi Mindy!!!).  You can keep worrying about recalls and dumb ass cooking rules….I’ll be over here eating!

(Rant over…….remember, I live in West Seattle now…..my hippie rage is awesome).

Back on track….. So while I was cooking the meat I put together a few sides.

• Green Been Trio (yellow, purple, green) with a green pepper/sherry butter sauce
• Saute of vegetables finishes with almonds, persillade, and sel de mer

Prior to being awesome.

So, the steak is seared off so I took the reserved juices then mixed them with veal demi and a chanterelle stock I had from a puree of dried chanterelle’s I had steeped……sent through 5 layers of cheese cloth then reduced further for a more concentrated flavor then finished the sauce with a little pickled mustard seed aioli.  Made some mashed potatoes then emulsified the mix to put in a pastry bag in order to create a barrier so I could flood it with sauce once I poured it over the steak.  What? Like this!

Cut into steak….medium rare the whole way through.

Science in my kitchen? It’s more likely than you think.

Eric