BiziBB
Aug 18, 09, 1:30 am
Hi, I'm wondering if anyone here has the kitchen tech' and the inclination to cook sous vide?
I'm not much of a reader of chef cookbooks, but this is an interesting article for beginners, or anyone interested in where and how this technique has been used, by award-winning top chefs.
I can only think of one person here who might have tried it, so it would be good to know if anyone else has bought (or just tried to use) the gear required.
Cooked in plastic, flavours are fantastic (http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/good-living/tetsuyas-big-secret-revealed/2009/08/17/1250362022673.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)[SMH Good Living]
MODERN technology is dramatically changing the restaurant kitchen. Traditional stovetop cooking is no longer an indispensable tool for chefs as they embrace other methods.
The most significant and widely used is known as sous vide, which involves plastic bags and water baths. Unbeknown to most diners, it's been used in Sydney's top restaurants for some time.
The method allows ingredients to ''taste unnaturally like themselves'', according to Mark Best of the three-hatted Marque restaurant, quoting one of his French heroes, chef Pierre Gagnaire.
''It's not an easy concept to get your head around. Many chefs don't get it but once you do get it, you never go back,'' Best says.
In the process, the protein cells of the most delicate fish barely change, leaving its flesh cooked even though it looks raw. The cartilage of the toughest brisket can be melted so it reaches a state of tenderness usually associated with fillet. Even a watermelon can be prepared sous vide to hype its flavour.
Food prepared sous vide (under vacuum, in French) is sealed in plastic. The absence of air lowers its boiling point, allowing proteins to be coagulated at a much lower temperature. Often, the portion will be cooked in a bain marie, where a thermostat maintains the water temperature at levels precise to 0.1 of a degree
...Spanish chefs, led by Ferran Adria of El Bulli restaurant, have created a market for kitchen instruments that would look at home in a laboratory: blast freezers, chrome griddles, water circulators.
...Beyond the city's adventurous top chefs, cooking in a plastic bag is still regarded with suspicion, according to Robert Erskine, who sells high-tech gadgets and equipment for Spanish company International Cooking. Erskine says they are not yet snapping up the thermostat, vacuum sealer and water circulator needed to cook sous vide.
I'm not much of a reader of chef cookbooks, but this is an interesting article for beginners, or anyone interested in where and how this technique has been used, by award-winning top chefs.
I can only think of one person here who might have tried it, so it would be good to know if anyone else has bought (or just tried to use) the gear required.
Cooked in plastic, flavours are fantastic (http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/good-living/tetsuyas-big-secret-revealed/2009/08/17/1250362022673.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)[SMH Good Living]
MODERN technology is dramatically changing the restaurant kitchen. Traditional stovetop cooking is no longer an indispensable tool for chefs as they embrace other methods.
The most significant and widely used is known as sous vide, which involves plastic bags and water baths. Unbeknown to most diners, it's been used in Sydney's top restaurants for some time.
The method allows ingredients to ''taste unnaturally like themselves'', according to Mark Best of the three-hatted Marque restaurant, quoting one of his French heroes, chef Pierre Gagnaire.
''It's not an easy concept to get your head around. Many chefs don't get it but once you do get it, you never go back,'' Best says.
In the process, the protein cells of the most delicate fish barely change, leaving its flesh cooked even though it looks raw. The cartilage of the toughest brisket can be melted so it reaches a state of tenderness usually associated with fillet. Even a watermelon can be prepared sous vide to hype its flavour.
Food prepared sous vide (under vacuum, in French) is sealed in plastic. The absence of air lowers its boiling point, allowing proteins to be coagulated at a much lower temperature. Often, the portion will be cooked in a bain marie, where a thermostat maintains the water temperature at levels precise to 0.1 of a degree
...Spanish chefs, led by Ferran Adria of El Bulli restaurant, have created a market for kitchen instruments that would look at home in a laboratory: blast freezers, chrome griddles, water circulators.
...Beyond the city's adventurous top chefs, cooking in a plastic bag is still regarded with suspicion, according to Robert Erskine, who sells high-tech gadgets and equipment for Spanish company International Cooking. Erskine says they are not yet snapping up the thermostat, vacuum sealer and water circulator needed to cook sous vide.