more adventures in sous vide
I'd purchased a cheap crock-pot/slow cooker to use with my sous vide temp controller device at our home here in austin. so I can leave the one in wimberley down there all the time. the problem with the slow cooker was that it had an electronic brain. and once my timer shut the power off at the desired temp, it would not turn itself back on when my controller went back to heat mode.
this 18 quart roaster oven, with its variable heat control seemed ideal. it gave me a much larger water bath and the wide range of on the dial gave more exact control. I first tried maxing the dial up to 450 and letting my controller cycle it on/off. the problem with that was, it would sail past the target temp even after power was cut off by my controller. by setting the temp dial closer to my target temp, and insulating the lid so there was less heat loss, I saw very little fluctuation in temp.
I filled with warm tap water and set the roaster temp dial to 150F, and my sous vide temp controller set for 54.5C (130F) I never saw the temp get above 55.5. I left the steaks in for 5 hours. I had seasoned them extremely lightly before putting them in their vac pouches. no additional salt was required.
I gave them a quick sear on a blazing hot iron skillet. I deglazed the pan and reduced that, stirred in some cold butter and we had this really rich sauce to drizzle of the top. the fillets turned out PERFECT! if #1 son ever does order his steak from some tex-mex chain restaurant, he'll surely find that their $25 (with a side of rice and beans) steaks are nowhere near what he can get from home.
I've also done chicken breast in the sous vide. it sure came out moist! did it at 142F for 2 hours. next time I will brine it first and have a better plan for making a crust for it once it's out of the vac pouch.
kat had some parkling grape juice for the kids. they used their polycarbonate goblets and #2 son was so excited to "CHEERS" with his own juice.
the daughter wasted no time getting good use from her white elephant gift from the quiet company party. the gifted snow flake socks matched well with her new shoes too.
it’s time for the annual pequin pepper harvest. that bag below is several years worth and was only a small portion of what we have growing just outside the back door. she's not yet decided what she will do with them.
Quiet Company fans have really good taste in beer. I found our coolers were well stocked with beers left behind. I found Old fezwig, Hoegaarden, Fireman's #4 and Blue Moon.... not a sour grape in the batch!
and we have stacks of leftover dessert. sacher torte is really good!
I took the white hotrod dodge a100 van on its first fun trip, to the store. it's a grocery getter now!
easily cruises the 65-70 mph but I don't really want to see 75 mph. it's much better at the 1/4 mile zero-sixty real quick type of enjoyment. no autobahn time for this one. it's got the aerodynamics of a vending machine and the suspension of a postal truck. but it gets up to 70 real fast and loud!