First sous vide meal!
Kinda neglected to take lots of pics. Not quite trained in the arts of super multitasking cooking with taking pics. Someday.
Prior to what follows in this post, I did some verfication of the ANOVA immersion heater's temperature controls. I managed to convince myself that the temperature indicator indeed reflects the temperature of the water bath, by checking the water temperature with an IR thermometer. I'm not sure if IR is the right procedure for measuring water temp, but it did say the temperature that I was shooting for, within a few tenths of a degree. I'll reverify when the probe thermometer arrives (which should be within the next week or so).
So basically I went around to look for good quality meats to make dinner. It wasn't easy. I had no confidence in Jusco, although coincidentally their meats were packed that day (well it says so on the packaging, and it looked less disgusting than the last time I bought chicken there). There was a premium pork restaurant that doubles as a raw meat vendor, but for some reason they weren't open that day. Last ditch effort went to Setiawalk's RedTick. They don't have fresh beef or chicken that day, and I'm not feeling fish. So went to their pork section and got two pieces of pork loin at 100g each. The guy that cut me the portion was fantastically accurate. Two pieces added up to 202g. I ordered 200g, and when he started to cut a second piece I was like dammit will he overshoot. Nope. Right on the money. The 200g of pork costed me a bit over RM3. Didn't know pork is this cheap... Or is the loin a cheap cut? I'd totally order by the thickness next time.
There will be a write up on the various meat vendors that I'm looking into.
At this point I'm already surrendering to the fact that Trichinosis is a real posibility. Oh well, yolo?
Seasoned the pork with salt, black pepper, garlic powder and rosmary.
No vacuum sealer yet, so I used the water displacement method to kinda shrink wrap the pork in a zipper bag. Fearing surface bacteria, I poured boiling water over both sides of the packaging. It kinda cooked the surface a bit, but that's fine by me. We have all the time to get the insides right.
Set up the cooker to 60degC. My timing was about 2 hours. The pork loin was measured at about 20mm at the thickest point. Agak agak la, sous vide timing too long no effect one (unless we're talking about pasteurisation time).
This came out in the end:
Prior to what follows in this post, I did some verfication of the ANOVA immersion heater's temperature controls. I managed to convince myself that the temperature indicator indeed reflects the temperature of the water bath, by checking the water temperature with an IR thermometer. I'm not sure if IR is the right procedure for measuring water temp, but it did say the temperature that I was shooting for, within a few tenths of a degree. I'll reverify when the probe thermometer arrives (which should be within the next week or so).
So basically I went around to look for good quality meats to make dinner. It wasn't easy. I had no confidence in Jusco, although coincidentally their meats were packed that day (well it says so on the packaging, and it looked less disgusting than the last time I bought chicken there). There was a premium pork restaurant that doubles as a raw meat vendor, but for some reason they weren't open that day. Last ditch effort went to Setiawalk's RedTick. They don't have fresh beef or chicken that day, and I'm not feeling fish. So went to their pork section and got two pieces of pork loin at 100g each. The guy that cut me the portion was fantastically accurate. Two pieces added up to 202g. I ordered 200g, and when he started to cut a second piece I was like dammit will he overshoot. Nope. Right on the money. The 200g of pork costed me a bit over RM3. Didn't know pork is this cheap... Or is the loin a cheap cut? I'd totally order by the thickness next time.
There will be a write up on the various meat vendors that I'm looking into.
At this point I'm already surrendering to the fact that Trichinosis is a real posibility. Oh well, yolo?
Seasoned the pork with salt, black pepper, garlic powder and rosmary.
No vacuum sealer yet, so I used the water displacement method to kinda shrink wrap the pork in a zipper bag. Fearing surface bacteria, I poured boiling water over both sides of the packaging. It kinda cooked the surface a bit, but that's fine by me. We have all the time to get the insides right.
Set up the cooker to 60degC. My timing was about 2 hours. The pork loin was measured at about 20mm at the thickest point. Agak agak la, sous vide timing too long no effect one (unless we're talking about pasteurisation time).
This came out in the end:
It smelled good.
If I got to do it all over again (and I will) I'd cut out a piece and try it as this stage. Because...
I kinda overseared the surface. It was moist and juicy, but texture wise it was a bit stringy for what I expected the sous vide technique to yield, especially at the edges. Maybe next time I'll add in some sauce too, though really, that piece of juicy meat was adequate.
Served it with mash potato and blanched brocoli. The brocoli was a total failure. I like them soft, but I overdid it and it sorta became a mush. Was quite digusting to eat. The mash potato though, fluffed it up with a fork and some butter. Seriously mash potato is worst when it's over mashed to the point of babyfood, and some even augment the flavour with milk. Simple really is the best. I think I boiled the potatoes (halved) for a good 30-45 mins, and the brocoli 20mins.
Being unsatisfied with the way the meat came out, I had to redeem myself with a sous vide egg. The egges were bought fresh as well, since the eggs in my house we all floating.
65degC for 1hr and this was the result:
It kinda was what I was going for, in that I aimed for the yolk to be buttery. After I ate it did I realise that I wanted the yolk to still be flowy that I can basically drink it. The buttery yolk was still fantastic though. This consistency is impossible to achieve with a conventional boiling water method. Would totally make it at 65degC if I wanted to spread egg like butter on toast or something. Next time maybe 62degC for that Zanmai Sushi onsen tamago doneness.
In the next post I'll discuss on the required reading materials before one embarks on sous vide.
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