Sous Vide Salmon with Crushed Potatoes

Sous Vide Salmon with Crushed Potatoes

A few good friends were coming over for dinner.  What does one cook?  Heston Blumenthal's Sous Vide Salmon with Crushed Potatoes from his book Heston Blumenthal at Home, of course!  My son has just purchased another sous vide-r, and has been cooking sous vide-d salmon.  Well, if he can cook, mary can cook too.

Ingredients:

4 salmon fillets, skin on

80 g olive oil

groundnut oil or grapeseed oil

salt

Preheat the water bath to 50 degrees Celcius.

Place the salmon fillets in individual sous-vide bags with 20 g olive oil in each bag.  Seal under full vacuum and place the bags in the water bath for 15 minutes.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat.  Remove the salmon fillets from the sous-vide bags and pat dry with kitchen paper.

Season the fillets with salt and place them, skin-side down, in the hot pan.  Cook for approximately 30 seconds until the skin turns golden and crisp.  Serve on top of crushed potatoes with 2 tablespoons of sauce per portion.

Crushed Potatoes

Potatoes are cooked until soft, then dressed with a shallot and oil mixture before being crushed with a fork.  It's a recipe with plenty of potential variations.  You can add rosemary, thyme, onions, shallots, garlic and even smoked bacon to the cooking water.

Ingredients:

750 g potatoes, washed and halved

4 cloves garlic, peeled, and bashed with the flat part of a knife or by hand

Salt

4 shallots, peeled and finely diced

150 g olive oil

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

15 g white wine vinegar

sea salt and black pepper

Put the halved potatoes and garlic in a saucepan, cover with water and add a teaspoon of salt.  Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are soft.  (Approximately 20 mins).

In a frypan, cook the shallots gently in the olive oil for 5 minutes and set aside.

When the potatoes are done, drain them, discarding the garlic.  Place the potatoes in a bowl, and pour over the shallot and olive oil mixture.  Add the grain mustard and vinegar and crush with a fork until the potatoes are roughly broken up but not fully mashed.

Generously season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Make a stock with the salmon bones together with a carrot and an onion.  Reduce and strain.  Add truffle salt to taste.

Serve salmon on top of crushed potatoes, boiled beans, with 2 tablespoons of salmon stock.

Enjoy!

Steak Tartare

 Steak Tartare

from Guillaume Brahimi's Food for Friends

 Steak Tartare is my daughter's absolute favourite meal.  Thankfully my son and his fiancee just bought me Food for Friends and there was the recipe, on page 206! 

Ingredients

320 g beef tenderloin, cut into 5 mm dice

5 cornichons, diced

3 golden shallots, diced

2 teaspoon capers, diced

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 egg yolks

sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

 Tartare dressing

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Cognac

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

dash of Tabasco

60 ml vegetable oil

 

 

Whisk together all of the ingredients for the tartare dressing until well combined.

Place the beef, cornichon, shallot, capers, parsley and egg yolks in a large bowl. add the dressing and mix with a spatula until the beef is coated.  Season with salt and pepper.  

Enjoy!

 

 

Sticky Pork Ribs in Chilli Caramel

 

Sticky Pork Ribs in Chilli Caramel similar to those from Longrain.

 

 

This recipe is from Gourmet Traveller.

 

Prep time 20 mins

Cook time 1 1/2 hrs

 

Serves 4

 

270 g caster sugar

120 ml water

80 ml (1/3 c) fish sauce

5 red shallots, thinly sliced

3 small red chillies, thinly sliced or to taste plus extra to serve

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 kg pork ribs, separated into double rib pieces

Juice of 2 limes

30 ml rice vinegar

Vietnamese mint, coriander, bean sprouts, fried shallots to serve

Steamed jasmine rice, to serve

 

Stir sugar and 60 ml water in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil and cook, swirling pan so it colours evenly, until dark caramel (4-5 mins).

Carefully add another 60 ml water, then fish sauce (Be careful, hot caramel will spit) and simmer for another minute to infuse flavours.  Add shallot, chilli and garlic, simmer until starting to soften (2-3 mins), then add ribs and cook, turning occasionally, until glazed all over (4-5 mins). 

Reduce heat to the lowest possible and simmer for 1 hour or till tender.

Stir in lime juice and rice vinegar and serve scattered with herbs, sprouts and chilli.

(I did not have the herbs, sprouts and chilli, but it still tasted fantastic!)

 

Enjoy!