First things first, buy chunk of meat, ideally something with some thickness (bottom round and thick top round sirloin work great). Immediately throw it in the freezer and forget about it for a week. After a week, pry off the plastic and Styrofoam and vacuum seal the frozen ball of meat, then throw it back in the freezer. Promptly forget about the meat for another two weeks. After two weeks have gone by, remember you have the steak at 11pm on a weekday night. Say, “Ah, screw it, I’ll throw this in overnight and sear in the morning. Good old steak and eggs!” Set your circulator for 129F, throw it in at 11pm.
Good morning, it’s 7am, you have to leave for work in half an hour, and the last thing you want to do is sear a steak. Well the steak’s already been cooking for 8 hours, probably shouldn’t go any longer, so take it out and throw that sucker right in the fridge, bag and all (health note: ideally you should dunk this in an ice bath first to rapidly cool it down). Go to work. Have a deeply unsatisfying lunch. Get home.
Hey, there’s a steak in the fridge! Take it out, open the bag. If it’s a super thick chunk of meat, slice it up into 1.5in to 2in steaks. Here’s where things get interesting, you’ve always been bad at searing, and today, you’re going to keep up that tradition. Pay dry (or not), put a tablespoon of butter on a cast iron pan, and heat that sucker up!!!!...
…to about a 6-7/10. Why 6-7 and not 10? Because you have a super sensitive smoke alarm, your girlfriend gets mad at you for opening all the windows, and half the time you end up burning the butter and adding a thin layer of charcoal to your steaks if you go to 10. But here’s the thing, your steak right now is at about 40F, which means it has a WHILE to go to get anywhere past 129F. So throw your steaks on and sear them bad boys. Immediately remember you forgot to salt and pepper them, so quickly and frantically do that while trying not to burn yourself.
How long do you sear for? No idea! Your 6-7 and my 6-7 are almost certainly different. Eyeball it. Keep peeking under the steak to see how the sear is coming along. Try to remember if it’s better to flip once or flip a bunch of times. Choose one of those options and when it’s where you want it on both sides, sear the sides a little and throw that 22-day project right on a thick stack of paper plates because you can’t find any cutting boards.
Now, slice up the whole thing immediately because you’re tired from work and figure you may as well get it all done now. Take a few slices, prepare to experience disappointment, and...wait.
What?
The steak you seared for much longer than you would other sous-vide steaks is…great? It’s well seared on the outside, still pink and juicy on the inside, it’s not leaking like a traditionally prepared steak would right off the pan, and as an added bonus, contact with the air (I guess) is taking your pink slices and turning them a beautiful rosy red (I still don’t understand this). You chow down and think about how far this steak has come, and how surprised you are that your girlfriend is enjoying your cooking for once.
I’ve made this recipe now at least a half-dozen times, most recently with a 2 inch thick sirloin, and each time it makes me feel like I actually know how to cook. Below is the condensed, not frenetic recipe version for those that don’t feel like starting a 22 day process.
Ingredients:
Thick Steak – Bottom Round, Eye Round, Top Round/Sirloin, any other cheap, lean steak
Salt – to taste
Pepper – to taste
Butter – 1 (heaping) tablespoon
1) Vacuum seal steak in vacuum or Ziploc bag.
2) Set sous-vide immersion circulator for 129F (medium-rare).
3) Sous-vide your steak for 2-8 hours or overnight. For thicker steaks, sous-vide at least 4 hours to ensure the center gets up to temperature.
4) Remove steak from water bath, keep bag intact, (dunk in an ice bath for a few minutes), and place steak in an isolated part of your refrigerator for 6-8 hours or until (roughly) fridge temperature.
5) Remove steak from bag, pat dry (ideally), salt and pepper both sides.
6) Set cast-iron pan on stove, set burner to 6 to 7 (out of 10). Add tablespoon of butter and swish around the pan. (Tip: Don’t grab cast iron handle to swish butter without a pot holder or oven mitts.)
7) Once butter is fully melted, add steak and sear on each side to preference.
8) Remove steak, slice immediately, enjoy!
Submitted June 02, 2017 at 11:46PM by TheWindsAndTheWaves http://ift.tt/2rNKyxv sousvide
No comments:
Post a Comment