The Food Canon

I am glad I am moving away from eggs and Sous Vide with this post. My mum would have found it amusing and rather beyond her, if she sees the gadget and wires in the kitchen.

She loved soft-boiled eggs. If she had tasted my home-made ones, I am sure she would have egged me on. She would have spared no effort at making a dish as delicious as possible. Some readers are confused as to the fuss: 45 mins is too long! For a millionth time, let me repeat this: I do have the plastic drip egg-maker and I do know how to perfect them the 5-7 minute way. I may still return to it from time to time, but the 45 min Onsen Tamago way is different.

This illustrates again what I have said here about an observation I have made since childhood: cheap produce, if cooked with some effort can produce spectacular result. What I like about eggs is that they are so cheap and common. You can have them soft-boiled, hard-boiled, scrambled, sunny side up, or on your salads and flavorful bowl of ramen. The humble egg can be put to great service at any meal throughout the day, home or restaurant. If you make it well, it turns into something special.

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.

In a recent post, I have mentioned the use of the tap, pot and induction cooker method to maintain the constant temperature needed to make 'perfect' half-boiled eggs. This is a "Manual Sous Vide" method or sometimes called "Ghetto Sous Vide."

Having experimented further, there are other ways of doing the 62C-45M eggs. The length of time (45m) remains, but these methods need less attention. You can "close and forget" - sort of.

Before I proceed, let me show you pics of eggs from a shop in Kota Baru which my brother sent to me. He stays in Ipoh. It looks like those on my post. It has solved a mystery for him. He has always wondered: how did they do it? He may not need to go all the way to KB for these if he can make them at home. :)

It has taken some while but as promised, here is part 2 on some home cooking tips.

But first, some thoughts on the progress of this blog.

I am encouraged by the number of folks who have been trying out the recipes. Some have feedback that it has helped them improve on a dish or cook a new one. Such feedback makes this all worthwhile. Someone, somewhere is being inspired to cook more, better or try making a new dish. Or ideas to add to their own.

And I get my Mum's recipes onto someone else table. Cool.

Are you crazy over soft-boiled eggs?

If not, you may find this post puzzling and will be wondering what the fuss is all about.

But for the rest of us, wouldn't it be great if we could this at home to look and taste better then those at our fave coffee-shops? Consistently, everytime?

When my daughters were kids, I remember bringing them out for kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs breakfast. My daughter quipped, "Why come all the way here when you can make this at home?" Hmm, why indeed. I found it difficult then to try and explain that places like these get them right - everytime. "What do you mean, dad? Eggs are eggs."