Sous Vide.

Before you go and bastardise the French language and read the whole post saying it wrong, let me tell you now; it’s pronounced ‘sue veed’ not “sue’s veeday”.

Also, my photos aren’t up to normal standard. These were taken when I was between homes and lodging back with my parents. I had Mum on a mission to find me her plainest looking plates in the house… I was having seperation anxiety from my crockery 😛

Ok, so now that all is taken care of, let’s talk about the sous vide method, vacuum sealing and the new machine from Breville.

Sous vide is essentially French for “under vacuum”. It is the method of cooking food, vacuumed sealed in plastic bags or containers, in a water bath for longer than normal cooking times. I’ve encountered recipes that can go for 72 hours! The vacuum sealed food cooks at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, around 60°C for meats, but higher for vegetables. The purpose of sous vide is to cook the food evenly, whilst not overcooking the outside.
You’ve most likely seen Heston Bluthmental use it to cook the perfect steak, or on MasterChef. Lots of the top restaurants around the world also use this method for a range of food. Whilst the average home won’t need a sous vide machine, the amateur cooks out there long for one. I, for one was one that only dreamed of owning my own sous vide machine.

Breville must have been using their crystal ball and reading my mind, and very kindly offered to send me their latest gadget, the Sous Vide Supreme, as well as the Fresh Keeper Vacuum Sealer. I was bouncing off the walls with excitement! I googled recipes all day long, and came home with a head bursting, and figuring out what I wanted to try first. Luckily we had the whole family coming over for dinner that weekend, so this was a perfect opportunity to test out lots of recipes. I just had to plan a few things, and then it was as simple as giving the food a sous vide bath treatment, and finishing the meat off on a searing hot bbq.

In fact, I did the whole menu sous vide, even the dessert.
I know I freaked a few people out when I posted a photo of Easy Cheese in the sous vide machine, but alas, it was just a recycled jar. Although I’m wondering where it appeared from as I haven’t had that stuff since I was in high school!

The lemon curd couldn’t have been any easier; about 2 minutes work, pour it into a jar, put it in the sous vide bath for 45 minutes at 82°C, then stir it over an ice bath for a minute. Far easier than the stove top method (I am not doing any Thermomix comparisons here). I transformed the luscious lemon curd into the iced lemon curd mousse I found on the Sous Vide Kitchen blog, and made them a little bit more special with mini marshmallows from Gourmet Living. I went for the hipster serving method of serving them in jars.
 
For mains I did chicken wings, steak and vegetables all in the sous vide as well.Whilst vegies are easy as to do on the stove, being able to sous vide them, you can just plonk them in the water bath and forget about it till the machine beeps at you. The vegetables were cooked to perfection and I could go out to the shops whilst they cooked.
 
The meat also was easy as. Make sure you have minimal liquid in your vacuum bags and a long length of plastic at the top before you vacuum seal it, as the juices will come out as you put it under the sealer. If there are too liquid in the bag, the bag won’t seal properly.
 
Put your meat in the sous vide, and get on with your life. Too easy! I got Dad to finish these off on the BBQ. I told him that the BBQ had to be super hot about a billion times, but when the time came to BBQ them he must have forgotten. The first few steaks were a little tough, but as the BBQ got hotter, the meat was tender and perfect. Make sure your BBQ or pan is searing hot!
How could I not try making Heston’s scrambled eggs? I’ve seen them being made on the show “Big Chef, Little Chef” and it made me wonder how they tasted.

Well, I can tell you now, they were freakin amazing, so creamy, soft and better than anything I’ve had in a cafe…. although it’s very rare I order scrambled eggs. Sure they are easy to do in a pan, but making them with a sous vide takes them to a new level. Teamed with my Thermomix bagels, smoked salmon and some avo, you could think I’d be in any cafe in inner suburbia!
  
I drew the short straw and had a faulty vacuum sealer. So they kindly exchanged it for a newer model of vacuum sealer The Fresh Keeper Duo, complete with “pen” and containers. I did an experiment with vacuum sealing coriander over 2 weeks. The one that wasn’t sealed looked pretty manky at the end of the two weeks, whilst the one under vacuum seal retained about 95% freshness! Not bad at all!
Cons would be: I’m not too sure how much electricity it uses, so over a period of 24 hours, I’m not sure the impact it would make on your electricity bill. The machine does require quite a bit of water, but you don’t need to change it every time you put something new in. It can be heavy to move the machine when full of water to empty it, so emptying it gradually with a jug is the best and safest option.

Overall I would recommend Breville’s Sous Vide Supreme to anyone that was interested. It is extremely easy to use, and opens up a whole new range of cooking possibilities. I felt totally safe leaving it on whilst I went to the shops for an extended period of time.

For more information head to: www.breville.com.au/cooking/sous-vide.html

Iron Chef Shellie was sent the Sous Vide Supreme by Breville and Write Away Communications & Events. This review has been based over weeks of testing, and my findings at the time.