If you are anywhere in the world that has access to Amazon, I highly recommend shopping there for the equipment. The only thing you actually have to buy is the sous vide machine itself, which can be purchased for as little as $90. There are a wide range of machines available, with a wide range of options. Mine is a basic model, bought on Amazon Germany for less than $100. I started out using ziploc bags and a plastic bin. I eventually bought the 5 liter plastic container you see above for $15 and the vacuum sealer for $70 – again on Amazon. It was a great use of those Christmas gift cards. My point is you don’t have to have a bunch of equipment, unless you want it or feel you need it. Now that I have my vacuum sealer, I use the hell out of it – and not just for sous vide. One last tip/trick. You can sous vide in any vessel that will hold water and can withstand the heat at which you set the cooking temperature. On to the good stuff!
Anyone who knows me or my family knows that we love BBQ and we use the heck out of our smoker. Brisket is probably our all time favorite, but until this year we didn’t make it that often because to properly smoke a brisket takes about 18 hours. That is a lot of babysitting a smoker and mopping of meat. The effort is totally worth it, but honestly, we don’t have time to do it all that often. Enter the sous vide hack! I remembered to take pictures this time…. All of the steps for smoking are the same, with the addition of the sous vide time. I usually buy a brisket from the butcher – bone in and a nice fat cap – around 4kgs or 9lbs. It gets rubbed and vacuum sealed in the bag, then marinates for 24 hours in fridge. Enter the hack – 52 hours in the sous vide. Yep, you read that right, 52 hours. Because it is such a long time, we go to the effort to seal up the lid with saran wrap and then insulate it. That’s a wonder bag flipped upside down over the pot. You don’t have to do this, but it helps with conserving energy during a long cook and it keeps the water level consistent. Once the 52 hours is up, it’s on to the smoker. I smoke it for three hours and it’s done! It is decadent and delicious.
Full disclosure, all of the food in this post went on our recent trip to Lotheni in the Drakensberg mountains. That will be my next post, but I wanted to explain why I was cooking so much food all at one time. Next up are the chicken, shrimp and salmon. I make sous vide chicken by the kilo. I am forever spoiled for chicken breast and have a hard time eating it now unless it’s sous vide. This time around I made buffalo garlic, teriyaki, and lemongrass ginger chicken. The salmon was cooked with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh garlic, and rosemary. The shrimp were the same, minus the rosemary. The chicken was seared on the grill, as was the salmon. The shrimp went in a curry.
Last, but, certainly not least, is my favorite pork. If you are cooking pork, you just can’t go wrong with this recipe. I use it primarily for pork loin and pork chops on the bone.
Per pound of meat: one teaspoon each of salt, pepper, coriander, thyme, oregano, chipotle, fresh minced garlic; one tablespoon of cumin. Combine all the dry ingredients. Rub the meat with olive oil, then rub in the fresh garlic. You can always use more garlic if it doesn’t seem like enough. You can never have too much garlic! Then rub the dry mixture on the meat.
You really can’t go wrong with anything that you sous vide. Vegetables are also fantastic. One of my absolute favorite things to sous vide are eggs. The possibilities are just endless. There are some great online resources for learning about how to sous vide, along with some websites for recipes. Here are a few, but a simple google search will supply you with all of the information you need. www.seriouseats.com, www.umami.site, and www.chefsteps.com
Give sous vide a try! You never know, you may love it as much as I do!