Cooking with your eyes closed...literally

This will be a quick post to log in my experiments with Sous Vide cooking.

While I was sleeping...

Monday evenings are normally reserved for dinner with the wider family. Having chanced upon a vacuum sealed marinated Rib-eye Roast at a nearby supermart which was going for half price, it was indeed time for SV. 

I put the 1.4kg meat into the SV (rice) cooker for 6 hours at 55°C (meduim-rare). I referred to this chart to work out the time and temp.

Into the pot late in the evening and I went to sleep. By morning, it was cooked. Nearing dinner time, a few drizzles of olive oil and into the oven at 220 °C for about 12 minutes. The exterior crusted very well. Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing. I also made the sauce from the liquid in the pack and some demi-glaze in my freezer.

Nicely crusted in the oven, 220°C  for 12 minutes.

Then, the moment of truth.

I sliced and as expected, the inside was in medium rare pink consistently all the way through. Nice.

It was very moist, juicy, tender and flavorful. Being grass-fed beef, it tasted beefy. Needed some getting used to as roast beef is normally a lot dryer than this. And often, overcooked.

As most of the diners in my family prefer it to be briefly pan-seared, I did a quick 30 secs on each side. If I were to cook this roast again, I will sear it in the oven longer, maybe at about 200°C.

I see this as just another way of cooking your beef. SV works great for roasts. It is convenient as you can just leave it to cook while do something else..or sleep. In fact, I had a relaxing off-day yesterday. Caught a movie with my daughter, met with a friend who had returned from his Sabbatical and even let him tried the 45m eggs.

Some may think the SV is just boiling meat. SV is actually about cooking the meat in its own fat and juices. And then you oven-sear it. It works better for large roasts. There is a 'click and forget' convenience and precision about SV-cooking which takes the stress out of making roasts. Medium rare, medium or medium well? You just set the temperature beforehand.

SV will be a common home appliance in the future. I can imagine a user-friendly machine which seniors can use. "For medium well roast beef, press here."  And the price needs to be affordable.

That is not my business though and will stick to being a canon.

Additional note: I am just sharing some of my initial experiences with SV cooking. It is not necessary better, just different. This post highlights the point of convenience and precision for SV roasts. But you may still prefer the conventional oven way. There are also hygiene and food safety issues to observe. If you are completely new to cooking, I will not advice that you attempt SV unless you have some personal guidance.      

Sliced and briefly pan-seared - no longer photo-pretty though