Potato Sous Vide

My first attempt at a vegetable!

As an experiment, I tried making some red potatoes at 183F (2 hours). I did part of the potato cubed and part sliced tossed in olive oil with a hint of salt and pepper. R

Results: the potatoes are solid but have the texture somewhere between baked and mashed potatoes. The slices seem to have done better than the cubes. While there is nothing extraordinary from the SV method, I can’t complain either. Thoughts for next time – add some animal fat to the party and cook at a slightly higher temperature.

Tri Tip Failure

I guess it isn’t really a total failure as I ended up eating the trip tip anyway but I made a crucial mistake. Tri tip by itself isn’t incredibly flavorful – it seems to get its flavor from marinades or smoky flavors from the grill. I just tossed the meat in and let it sit in the sv at 133 for 24 hours (ok, so salt and pepper.)

As I had heard, the meat was a weird greenish color when it came out – a little blast from the torch fixed that. While the tri tip was perfectly mid-rare edge to edge, the meat was bland and lacked flavor. I ended up tossing it in the fridge and slicing thin pieces off as a roast beef substitute. To be honest, it was not too shabby in a quesadilla and was even good as an addition to an omlette.

Salmon Sous-Vide

Two successful attempts at salmon

1. Medium Salmon

Awesome! I had written off salmon because the traditional grilled/roasted salmon tends to be dryer. Texture was amazing although I did over brine this one because of a distraction. Should have let it brine for 10 mins and then 45 mins at 130. Added a tiny frozen piece of olive oil to the bag.

2. Medium Rare

Unreal! Brined for 10 minutes and then 45 minutes at 125 with a little pepper and a frozen chunk of olive oil. Final blast with the torch seems to have helped a tiny bit as well but to be honest it wasn’t necessary. Nice cooked appearance throughout with beautiful flavors and a texture that can rival tuna any day. The only thought in terms of improvement would be to add a bit of herbs in the bag and perhaps use less olive oil.