That's what us cooks call ghetto sous vide.
By "us cooks," I mean me. No one else.
Anyway, The lamb turned out marvelous. but perhaps the plating could use a little work.
I had been reading about sous vide cooking lately, and really wanted to try it. Unfortunately, equipment for said cooking method is quite spendy and out of my current price range. However, I was reading my recently purchased cookbook, Alinea, in which the author states that although professional sous vide equipment is required for consistency, The sous-vide effect could be achieved with large pot of water and an airtight bag.
I decided to give it a shot. I had just purchased some lab sirloins from Don and Joe's Meat in Pike Place Market (We use them a lot at Cafe Campagne for things like pork fat, chicken livers, and other meats used for charcuterie) for a dinner I was cooking for some in-laws that were in town.
For the "sous-vide" water bath, I just filled A big pot full of water and turned the burner on low, which turned out to be 137 degrees fahrenheit- A perfect temperature for cooking lamb. After tightly sealing the lamb in a zip-loc bag with olive-oil, salt, pepper, and sprigs of thyme, I plopped it into the water bath and cooked it for about twenty minutes to medium-rare.
The date compote was a slightly modified version of a recipe in the Alinea cookbook. It's basically a pureed jam with a little olive oil. Simple but tasty.
For the cabbage, I rendered a little shallot and garlic in a pan of butter and olive oil and threw in the cabbage. After cooking the cabbage down a little I added red wine and put a cover on the pot. After about 20 minutes, I took it off the heat, added a good amount of butter, salt, fresh black pepper, and a little vinegar.
The mushrooms were pretty standard as well. Butter, olive oil, garlic, shallots, thyme, salt, pepper.
To garnish, I made a parsley-sage oil by blanching said herbs and blitzing them with a 50-50 olive oil-canola blend. I used a coffee filter to strain it out to get a nice clear oil. I also threw on some micro greens for good measure. The plating was pretty straightforward, just like the picture.
It was delicious: The lamb was extremely tender, and went well with the fig compote and herb oil, and the cabbage came out just right. I think that I would have done a couple of things differently though.
While I was in New York, I had a beef dish that was cooked to medium-rare, and was perfectly seared on the outside with the beautiful pink meat facing up.
I was going for the same effect but fell a little short. The way that the lamb loin was cut made cubes a little awkward to sear after being cooked in the water bath. I wanted to Have perfect cubes of meat, with two nicely seared sides. As you can see, that didn't really happen. perhaps next time, I will get a different cut of meat and cut it more carefully. I also think that next time I will leave out the mushrooms, or possibly just arrange them more carefully.
Despite my concerns, I think that the dish was a general success. I was happy with it, and I think that my guests were as well. I even got my sister-in-law to eat it (and apparently, she generally doesn't like mushrooms OR rare meat-score)!
As always, thanks for reading!
Until next time,
-Tim
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