Iron Chef will be filmed in Melbourne over the next three weeks.

Looking forward to being on set in the audiance.

Polyscience Sous Vide Professional available now!

Sous Vide Australia is proud to announce that we are now your official Polyscience distributor and agent.  We have Sous Vide Professional immersion circulators in stock, and can also supply “the smoking gun” and the “Anti griddle”.  Being an agent also means that we will be handling maintenance and repair for Polyscience in Australia.

PolyScience is a leading manufacturer of heating and refrigerating laboratory equipment and has been providing innovative temperature control solutions for customers worldwide since 1963.

In recent years the culinary world has discovered the exciting opportunities with precision temperature control. PolyScience has made itself a name by utilizing its four decades of precision temperature control experience and expertise to develop products for food service applications. Many of the worlds leading chefs are now using PolyScience equipment in their kitchens.

Further information here 

Fine Food Australia 2010

Instanta sous vide bath’s, Polyscience immersion circulators, Henkelman vacuum sealing and Thermomix all on the one stand to bring you the best in modern gastronomic cooking equipment! See us at stand HC17.

This will be a dynamic display with cooking demonstrations using everything on display.  All of the equipment will be plugged in and doing their thing so you can see, touch and feel how they work.

training restaurant

Last Tuesday I was given the pleasure of guiding Swinburne Tafe’s third year chef apprentices through a five course sous vide degustation menu.  These opportunities not only provide the apprentice invaluable training on equipment that their respective employers may not have, it also provides Tafe staff and trainers the ability to work with cutting edge technology backed by industry support.

Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook for invitations to these events.  They are excellent value and always have a question and answer time at the end of the meal.

Thankyou to the staff and students at Swinburne Lilydale for hosting this event.

Pork rib eye roast

Last newsletter we looked at Michael Lambie’s 12-hour pork belly.  This time I take you through cooking the rib eye on the bone.  The loin and rib roast can be notorious for drying out during roasting.  Cooking pork sous vide reduces moisture loss and the fat that is rendered during cooking is trapped in the bag creating a confit like environment.

To cook a rib eye roast sous vide I cut a four bone piece, French the bones for appearance then remove the rind with half of the fat cap.  I leave a layer of fat cover on the roast for moisture and flavour.  The rind is scored and salted to be roasted into fine crackling in a medium hot oven on a rack.

I then make a brine of 100 gm salt and 30 gm of sugar in 1000 ml of water simmered then cooled.  Place the pork into a container just large enough for the brine to cover the pork completely and refrigerate for 6 hours.

Remove the pork from the brine and season well (I use cumin salt) then vacuum pack on medium high being careful not to pierce the bag with the bones. 

Cook the pork at 56°C for five hours in an Instanta water bath and then either cool rapidly in an ice bath, or to serve immediately cut from the bag and place on a rack in a hot oven for twenty minutes, then rest in a warm place for ten minutes before carving.

Serve with the crackling, some apple soubise and savoy cabbage 

Sous Vide Australia Blog

Do not forget that the blog has many recipes posted on it and more are added weekly.  The website has all of your sous vide needs, Henkleman vacuum machines, Instanta sous vide circulated baths, Sealed Air pouches. For orders or assistance email me directly dale@sousvideaustralia.com

In Closing

 The newsletter of Sous Vide Australia is bi-monthly bringing both recipes and information to make sous vide the new method of cookery for Australia.

A night with

Dale Prentice

of Sous Vide Australia

executive chef of Stones of the Yarra Valley

 Takes Swinburne 3^rd year apprentices on a journey of sous vide cookery and molecular gastronomy

5 courses degustation menu

 Join us on the 3^rd of August 2010

Over the last four years Dale has cooked with Greg Malouf of Momo’s, George Calombaris of The Press Club and Helenic Republic, Philippe Mouchel of The Brasserie at Crown, Riccardo Momesso of Sarti and Frank Camorra of Movida at Stones of the Yarra Valley.

Sous Vide – French for “under vacuum”, is a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period at relatively low temperatures. Food is cooked for a long time, sometimes well over 24 hours. Unlike cooking in a slow cooker, sous-vide cooking uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (usually around 60°C or 140°F)

Molecular gastronomy is a scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking.  Molecular gastronomy seeks to investigate and explain the chemical reasons behind the transformation of ingredients, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general.

Book now places are limited.

Find Mitchell’s View at:

3rd Level, TAFE Building
Melba Avenue
LILYDALE 3140
(03) 9215 7047 (bh).

For the Monkfish

160 gm             Monkfish, fillet
                            Baharat
                            Thyme 
                            EVOO

For the pickled cauliflower

100 gm             Cauliflower florets, blanched
20 gm                Pancetta, cut in to matchsticks and sautéed till crisp
5 gm                   Capers, washed
                             Parsley
2                          Slices of ginger
400 ml              Japanese rice vinegar

For the lemon and thyme pistou

1                          Lemon zest, finely grated
1                          Garlic clove, finely grated
3                          Thyme sprigs, leaves only
                            Salt
                            EVOO

Bring vinegar and ginger to the boil in a small pot, allow to cool to room temperature.  Remove the ginger then pour over cauliflower and refrigerate covered over night.

In a mortar and pestle pound lemon zest and garlic with salt, add thyme leaves and bruise lightly, add just enough EVOO to make a thick paste.

Season monkfish with baharat and salt.   Vacuum pack with a sprig of thyme and Evoo.  Place in 58°C water bath for 12 minutes.  Remove the fish from the bag and place in a hot oven for 5 minutes, rest in a warm place.

To assemble, drain cauliflower toss with parsley, pancetta a pinch of salt and a dash of EVOO.  Arrange cauliflower on plate and top with monkfish. Drizzle pistou around plate.

Taxi’s sticky pork was cooked sous vide in an Instanta water bath at 70°C for twelve hours then cooled and pressed.  The pork was then deep fried and rolled in a plam sugar and fish sauce caramel.  Sticky, tender, pink and juicy,this pork was served on a chilli sauce with warm spicy depth, a scallop seared to crisp on one side and delicate and moist on the other and a salad of cucumber with toasted coconut.

Perry Schagen removing a pouch from the Instanta water bath.  This shows how little space is required to fit a water bath in to a busy kitchen.  The clear backlit display can be easily read from accross the kitchen, showing actual temperature, set temperature, and five count up timers.

Ingredients

• 100g pork belly                            
• 100 ml olive oil
• 2 clove garlic
• 2 star anise
• 100g palm sugar
• 4 tbs fish sauce
• 2 red chili
• 20g ginger
•  1 lime juice
• 1 tbs sugar
• ½ cucumber, shredded
• Coriander, mint, viet mint
• 2 scallops

Place 100g pork belly in a CV bag with olive oil, 1 garlic clove and star anise, and poach in water bath for 12 hours @ 70 degrees. Once cooked, fry pork till golden and coat with molten palm sugar and 2 tbs fish sauce.

For the dressing, combine chili, 1 garlic clove, ginger, sugar, lime juice and 2 tbs fish sauce in a mortar and pestle, and grind to a paste.

For the salad, combine cucumber, mint, coriander, Vietnamese mint and dress with a bit of the red chili dressing. Pan fry scallops to serve with pork.

 Lightly cured salmon, cooked breifly sous vide, matched to the richness of Jamon, the crispness of pear and asparagus and finished with sweet sharp balsamic and coffee essence.

• 80g filet Atlantic salmon
• 150ml olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 slice jamon
• 2 asparagus spears, blanched in boiling water and refreshed
• 50 ml coffee oil
• 100ml Balsamic vinegar, reduced by one third
• Fresh Pear

In a Cv bag place salmon, olive oil, salt and pepper, and poach for 4 mins @65 degrees, let sit in the bag to rest for another 5 mins.

Combine coffee oil and reduced balsamic vinegar, and season with salt and pepper.

Arrange the jamon on the plate, place asparagus on top, and drizzle some of the dressing around.

Serve salmon at a warm temperature with the jamon, dressing, asparagus and fresh pear.

• 100g kingfish filet
• 1 clove garlic
• 100ml olive oil
• Small handful of pomegranate seeds
• 1 juice of lemon
• 30g fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 small daikon

Place Kingfish , garlic and olive oil in Cv bag and cook in waterbath for 5 mins @75 degrees. Let cool.

Thinly slice fish and arrange in a circle on a plate, drizzle some of the olive oil, lemon juice, and grated ginger over the top. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with finely sliced daikon and pomegranate seeds.

Unstirred baths may have their place in laboratories, but they just do not have what it takes to perform in the heat of the kitchen.

by jean-francois on Jan.23, 2010, under Equipments & Accessories, Time and Accurate Temperature

Today Polyscience made the demonstration that a non stired water bath cannot be as efficient as an immersion circulator. It is funny to see that Polyscience directly mentions Sousvidesupreme in the TAG of the article.

Polyscience video indicates clearely that a non stired water bath has a longer response time to reach the desired core temperature. Therefore, it is obvious that Douglas Baldwin cooking tables sould be used with care. Douglas Baldwin indicates in the Pratical Guide to Sous Vide “With all these digital controllers, I highly recommend setting the temperature offset (measured near the temperature at which you wish to cook) using a high quality digital thermometer. Indeed, at the default settings the thermistors used in the above controllers can easily be off 2–4°F (1–2°C)”.

Sous Vide News

This month Michael Lambie, Executive chef of Taxi dining room at Federation Square
 inspires us with a recipe and we look at the pros and cons of equipment required to sous vide.

Equipping your self for sous vide

To cook sous requires very few tools and some reading or training. Starting with the best equipment on the market will set you on the right track. Solid, well made equipment will last if well looked after and should be seen as an investment.

Vacuum Packaging

Many modern kitchens are using vacuum sealing as a hygienic way of managing food stocks and portion control. Sealed food when portioned can be easy written on tracing its movement through storage to use and is easily counted for stock control. The other advantages are longer shelf life, optimal product storage and hygiene (no contamination, hermetically sealed), no loss of product (prevents drying out, moulds and freeze burn).

Sous Vide Australia recommends Henkleman chamber vacuum machines for sous vide. They provide standard features for sealing liquids are simple to use and have a self-clean cycle.

Vacuum Bags

The correct choice of vacuum pouch is essential to maintaining vacuum in warm cooking water. Only bags greater than a thickness 80um should be considered for cooking. Sealed Air boil-in-bag at 100um by far are the best. Pouches come in many sizes with the rule being that a bag to be sealed should be no more than two thirds full.

Sous Vide

Once your item has been hermetically sealed how to cook it requires the next decision.

Convection steam ovens are often promoted for sous vide. These ovens use condensing steam as the heat transfer medium, which is not very effective at temperatures below 100°C this can result in some pouches taking up to 200% longer to heat than other pouches in the same batch. Temperature probing must be used in every item cooked in this method for safety and consistency.

Unstirred water baths are a simple device often very light in build with a controlled element either inside the bath or on some of the more expensive models a heating plate attached to the outside of the bath. Unstirred baths work on the theory that warm water heated in the bottom of the bath will rise and cooler water will fall to the element and temperature sensor. In practice this theory works extremely well at temperatures above 80°C not where most sous vide cookery is done. The chart above shows how the unstirred water bath uses over heating to compensate for the lack of natural water movement.

Stirred water baths and emersion circulators by far the only choice for professionals wishing to cook sous vide. This equipment is the only equipment that we will sell. Sous vide cookery when performed well should leave your diners with profound new experiences. To achieve this only accurate, reliable equipment should be used.

Be wary when buying online from overseas. Make sure that what you are buying is approved for the Australian market and electrically safe. Sous Vide Australia now has Instanta water baths on display at Chefs Hat South Melbourne and Advantage kitchens Brunswick . Our agent for NSW is Sydney Commercial Kitchens.

A Recipe from Taxi Dining room

For the last two months an Instanta water bath has had pride of place amongst Taxi Dining Rooms kitchen equipment. Michael has been generous enough to share some of his dishes from the menu.

Taxi 12-hour sticky pork explores the advantages of cooking traditionally tougher cuts of meat under vacuum at lower temperatures. It is possible by slow cooking pork belly at 70°C over an extended period for proteolytic enzymes to decrease mynofibrillar tensile strength enough to give a mouth wateringly tender piece of pork with minimal moisture loss.

As this method cooks the meat in such a tender way the colour of the finished product retains a bright pink hue.

The production advantages of this recipe for the restaurant kitchen are that if correctly cooled, the portion whilst sealed in its vacuum pouch is pasteurised giving it twice its normal shelf life. Pouches should represent one portion and can be frozen or refrigerated till required

Taxi 12-hour sticky pork with red chilli dressing

· 100g pork belly
· 100 ml olive oil
· 2 clove garlic
· 2 star anise
· 100g palm sugar
· 4 tbs fish sauce
· 2 red chili
· 20g ginger
· 1 lime juice
· 1 tbs sugar
· ½ cucumber, shredded
· Coriander, mint, viet mint
· 2 scallops

Place 100g pork belly in a CV bag with olive oil, 1 garlic clove and star anise, and poach in water bath for 12 hours @ 70 degrees. Once cooked, fry pork till golden and coat with molten palm sugar and 2 tbs fish sauce.
For the dressing, combine chili, 1 garlic clove, ginger, sugar, lime juice and 2 tbs fish sauce in a mortar and pestle, and grind to a paste.
For the salad, combine cucumber, mint, coriander, Vietnamese mint and dress with a bit of the red chili dressing. Pan fry scallops to serve with pork.
 

Sous Vide Australia Blog

Michael Lambie’s recipes will feature on the blog over time along with recipes from Stones of the Yarra Valley. The website has all of your sous vide needs, Henkleman vacuum machines, Instanta sous vide circulated baths, Sealed Air pouches. For orders or assistance email me directly dale@sousvideaustralia.com.

In Closing

The newsletter of Sous Vide Australia is bi-monthly, bringing both information and recipes to make sous vide the new method of cookery for Australia.

I look forward to talking with you in the near future about sous vied.

Dale Prentice
       

Sous Vide Australia Pty Ltd PO Box 99, Healesville 3777 0428 623 295 info@sousvideaustralia.com Having trouble reading this email? View it on your browser. Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe Instantly.

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Smoked and Sous Vide Duck Confit

For well over a year now, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make smoked duck confit.  Standard confit technique requires one to cook the duck in duck fat that has been seasoned with herbs and spices.  Once the duck is cooked, it is allowed to cool in the fat and can be stored for months.  It is an ancient preservation method that yields incredibly tasty meat.  Combining confit and smoke is an entirely different matter.  I’ve tried several times, and it never worked out the way I wanted.  It was only after I purchased my Sous Vide Supremethat I realized that I might be able to fix some of the problems I had run into previously.  What were those problems?  Well, the first question is do you smoke or confit first?  If you smoke first, the smokiness tends to disperse once you sink the duck into fat and confit.  The end product just is unsatisfying.  Working in reverse by first using confit and then smoke, the end product tends to be bitter.  But one recent day, it occurred to me that sous vide might be the answer.  If you can smoke the duck fully and then seal it in a bag to cook with duck fat, herbs, and spices, then you might avoid the bitterness issue while retaining all the flavor.  So, I set forth on a grand experiment to blend sous vide and smoke and see if I had found the secret. 

Perhaps the most difficult part of making duck confit for a layman like me is finding the duck legs.  I spent over two hours and visited over 6 purveyors before I threw in the towel.  Duck breast was readily available, but not duck legs. It was only after I called my best chef buddy and mentor, Stephen Herman of Haven, that I was able to score the five duck legs you see in the picture above.  I applied a simple rub of salt, pepper, rosemary, basil, and coriander and got the smoker (aka cooker) ready.

So, here’s a quick shot of the duck legs hitting the cooker.  There’s not much to mention here except that I chose to use apple wood mixed with hickory to smoke the legs.  Average smoking temperature was 200 degrees for roughly two and one half hours.

Here are the legs right before I pulled them and started the confit process.  Check out that gorgeous golden brown skin.  I was tempted to start eating them immediately.

In the previous picture, I showed you what the duck legs looked like right before I pulled them off the cooker.  In this picture, what you see is the  same duck legs sealed in with duck fat, fresh chopped garlic, caramelized onion, chopped chives, cloves, and ground juniper berry. 

Here you see five individually packaged smoked duck legs cooking away in my Sous Vide Supreme at a blissful 150 degrees in their little bags of herb infused duck fat.  Glorious.  I let the duck legs go for 2 hours in the Sous Vide Supreme and then dropped them in an ice bath to quickly cool them before putting them in the fridge.

The great thing about confit is that it keeps for months.  This is the harvest from the experiment just before I installed them in the fridge.

So, did it work? Did I solve the problems I had experienced in the past?  Unequivocally, yes.  Smokey, ducky goodness.  In fairness, it is some smelly stuff.  I had to throw open the windows and doors when I ate the first duck leg, but that’s a small price to finally climb that mountain and make it to the peak.  Mission accomplished.

The Sous vide Australia recipe is a different approach to the same desired result

I salted my duck legs for twelve hours with crushed juniper, lemon zest, thyme and salt.  Rinsed them and patted dry.  I then cold smoked them in my camp fish smoker with rosemary wood for ten minutes.

After smoking I cooled the leg before vacuuming with a tablespoon of cold duck fat.  The legs were then cooked in my Instanta sous vide bat at 70C for 15 hours, then iced down till cold.

To serve I tip the whole contents of the vacuum bag in to a roasting tray and cooked it for 12 minutes at 250C, Basting it half way.

That is 12 minutes from fridge to plate, excellent dinner party food.