Google: “Sous vide, also known as low temperature long time cooking, is a method of cooking in which food is placed in a plastic pouch or a glass jar and cooked in a water bath for longer than usual cooking times at a precisely regulated temperature.”
“With sous vide, the point is to cook food gently, well below the boiling point. We’re heating water precisely to a temperature that matches the food’s ideal internal temperature—never any hotter, and certainly never to boiling!”
I am taking the challenge of making sous vide using crockpot. Making fig preserve jam with the recipe my friend gave me. Then I tried making apricot relish from memory of watching cooking program a few months ago. Next needed vegetable and some colour on my plate so, added cabbage and goji berries. My dinner is hearty, comforting, healthy and delicious. Let’s taste and see that it’s working without the machine.
Ingredients
Fig preserves jam
1 kg green ripe fig
1/4 cup Lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 Tsp Lemon zest, or from 1 med-large lemon
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup sugar
Method
Wash the figs well. Trim the stems. Now add all the ingredients together in a heavy pan. Place in on a stove top on low-medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to med-high until it comes to a boil and starts thickening. Make sure to keep stirring on and off.
When the jam starts reaching the setting stage, remove the cinnamon stick. Check for doneness. I usually dip a chilled spoon into the boiling jam mixture. In the beginning, you would notice that syrup simply runs of the side of the spoon, but as the time passes it will start becoming heavier and would fall slowly as drops.
You know it’s done when two drops form together and “sheets” off together from the spoon. When ready, remove the jam from the heat and set aside. Ladle the jam into jars, let them cool and then store them in the refrigerator.
Apricot Relish
1 kg apricot
2 cups onion, diced
2 Teaspoons salt
5 cloves
1 Tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups vinegar, white
1 cup golden syrup
1 cup castor sugar
1 Tsp curry powder
1 Tbs corn flour
Method
Wash apricots and remove stones. Place all ingredients except flour in a pot, bring to the boil, stir, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes. Stir occasionally. Blend flour with a little water and stir into mixture. Bring back to the boil and simmer 5 more minutes. Ladle into hot jars and seal.
To make sauce
2 tablespoon mirin
30 g butter
300 ml red wine
3 Tbs Apricot relish
3 Tbs fig jam
5 Tbs Tabasco sauce
Method
To make the sauce, place the red wine in a saucepan and set over medium heat. Allow to boil until reduced to 100ml. Add the mirin, tabasco and allow to boil for 5 minutes. Add butter, relish and jam and whisk in until combine thicken. Season to taste.
Sous vide steak
4 beef steaks
Salt and black pepper, to taste
3 Tbs olive oil
Method
Preheat the crock pot water to hot. Place the steaks on to cling wrap, wrap tightly double. Then put in a lunch seal plastic bag. Put the meat in the hot crock pot water for 45 minutes to 1 hour, if don’t have vacuum seal bag and sous vide machine. To finish the steak, remove steaks from bag; place oil in a pan and set over high heat. Once hot, add steak and cook until brown, about 4-6 minutes each side, or to your liking. Remove from heat and set aside to rest. Meanwhile, prepare and stir fried cabbage and goji.
Stir-fried cabbage and goji
1½ Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs garlic, coarsely chopped
30 g, goji
1/4 cabbage, cored and cut into 5cm/2in thick strips
5 Tbs Shao Xing rice wine or dry sherry
100 ml chicken stock at room temperature
salt and freshly ground white pepper
Method
Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat until it is hot. Add the oil, and when it is very hot add in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Then add the cabbage and stir fry for 5 minutes.
Add the goji, and Shao Xing, stir in the stock (or water) and season to taste with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Continue to cook for 10 minutes, or until the cabbage is tender. Serve at all once.
Note: Sterilised jars ready. If you have sous vide machine, follow the instruction given. You can add any vegetables or salad to your sous vide steaks.
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