Sous vide cooking at home – thanks to Breville & Pete Evans!

June 24th, 2013

Food Preparation Ovens & Cooking Recipes Small Appliances

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a sous vide cooking masterclass with Pete Evans – professional chef and celebrity judge on the popular TV show My Kitchen Rules.

Held at the Sydney Seafood School, this class showed us how to use the Breville Sous Vide Supreme™ to get that ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ quality from food, which you usually only get to experience at five-star restaurants.

To prove this wasn’t a figment of my imagination, here is a photo of Pete looking extremely happy about sous vide cookery:

Sous vide cookery

But before we proceed any further, a quick lesson:

What is sous vide?

Essentially, ‘sous vide’ refers to a style of cooking that involves placing meat or vegetables into a vacuum-sealed bag, and then placing the bag into a temperature-controlled bath of water. The water is not very hot, so the food cooks slowly and evenly – resulting in an absolutely divine soft texture.

Sous vide cookery has been a secret of professional chefs for many years, but in recent times it has started to make an appearance within the home. The Breville Sous Vide Supreme provides an easy-to-use and affordable solution for all your sous vide needs, making it possible to serve restaurant-quality food at home.

What is sous vide

What can you cook in a sous vide machine?

There’s not much you can’t cook with the sous vide method – it can be used for meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, vegetables and fruit. During Thursday’s demonstration, Pete cooked a medium-rare steak to absolute perfection by submerging the vacuum-sealed meat in a water bath that was set to 56°C. (Note: cooking times will vary depending on the thickness of the meat).

After the cooking demo, we had the opportunity to cook our own lunch using the Breville Sous Vide Supreme. And I’m here to tell you: it was easy! Seriously, if I can cook a delectable lunch of sous vide trout, anyone can.

Breville sous vide cooker

Above, you can see the product of our ‘labours’. (I use the word ‘labours’ ironically, because putting trout in a bag and then putting this bag into water for 20 minutes probably doesn’t qualify as actual work).

I think our presentation was nice, but Pete’s was arguably more sophisticated:

Buy sous vide Australia

And for dessert, we were served lemon tarts – with lemon curd that had been (you guessed it), cooked by sous vide!

Breville sous vide

It was delicious and I ate it in one big greedy gulp without even bothering to chew, like an obese duck.

Anyway. Below is Pete’s recipe for Ocean Trout with Avocado Tabouleh, which you will be able to prepare as soon as you buy your Breville Sous Vide Supreme from Appliances Online. (Note: the vacuum sealer needs to be purchased separately. Replacement sous vide bags are also available from Appliances Online).

Ocean trout with avocado tabouleh

Ingredients
4 x 180 grams of ocean trout, skin on

SauceBreville sous vide machine
4 tablespoons tahini
1 teaspoon harissa (optional)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and pepper
Filtered water

Tabouleh
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch coriander
½ bunch mint
50 grams cooked quinoa
½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped
2 vine ripened tomatoes, diced
1 diced cucumber
1 cup diced avocado
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt and cracked pepper
1 teaspoon sumac
1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses

Method

1.    Sous vide the trout at 48 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. Remove skin and crisp in pan.

2.    To make the sauce, place all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Slowly add enough water to achieve a sauce consistency.

3.    To make the tabouleh – place the herbs in a food processor or finely chop and combine with the other ingredients.

4.    Place the tabouleh on a serving plate, top with the fish and serve with the sauce and some pomegranate molasses.

Pro tip:

Buy your fish fresh from the markets, then portion it up and vacuum seal in sous vide bags. These bags can then be placed in the freezer, for future use. Whenever you need to whip up a quick yet healthy meal, simply pull one out and pop it in your sous vide machine. Pete swears by it! (Literally…)

Which brings us to the end of today’s cooking lesson! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us. Also here is a helpful video for your viewing pleasure:

Louise is a writer with a passion for appliances, especially those that involve food. She is particularly fond of ovens because they enable her to make cake. Apart from baking Louise also enjoys listening to alternative music, dying her hair various unnatural colours and writing poetry that has been described (by her Nan) as 'quite nice'. On her appliance wish list is a Hello Kitty toaster and 'Hero' the barking dog-shaped hot dog maker. She lives in Sydney. Google+

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