I am in love with food.  That is, of course, the biggest reason I have had a difficult time with maintaining a healthy body.  I love food that is good for me, and unfortunately, food that is not.  Such is the way of a food lover!  I do work hard to do the best I can… hence my journey through the winter months.

As I have confessed before, I am a geek.  I love science and technology.  I love learning.  These are many parts of the fabulous, ever growing “ME”!

I have a friend my fishing family and we call “Dances”.  Dances is one of my oldest friends in fly fishing.  His full name “Dances With Trout” was given to him due to his incredible talents on the stream.  He has great skills of balance and finesse when wading across a rocky streambed… and has had to dry out his waders after his dances have ended with him seeing the fish in close proximity.  Those of you reading who know him and have fished with him are now chuckling as you have seen these maneuvers! 

My friend Dances is also a foodie.  He shared a post on Facebook recently where he was using a cooking method unfamiliar to me.  Naturally, the geek in me was curious and started a barrage of questions.  Last week I started my own experiments in sous-vide cooking.

My first question was what in the world is “sous-vide”?  Sous-vide is a French term for “under vacuum”.  Food is placed in a vacuum-sealed plastic pouch and placed in a temperature-controlled water bath at a prescribed temperature for a prescribed amount of time to allow the food to cook.  For those of you fellow geeks out there who want more information, you can read more about sous-vide here.

I have always had a fear of cooking certain meats or fishes.  I am not a master of the grill.  I do, however, enjoy eating them.  That has created a dilemma.   I have access to some fantastic foods, but the fear of cooking them properly has created a barrier.  In reading about sous-vide I started to think this technique could be my leap across my self-imposed barrier.

Sous-vide has been used for many years in commercial cooking.  It is a way to assure foods are cooked to a certain level of “doneness”, and then the finish work is done in a searing hot skillet or the sear-station of a grill.  It allows for larger quantities of foods like steaks to be ready ahead of time without overcooking.

The tools required to cook in this manner are relatively simple.  It does require an immersion cooker.  The cooker is placed in the water and performs both heating and circulation for the cooking process.  I purchased an immersion cooker and pulled a bone-in rib eye steak from the freezer from our friends at Backfield Farm in Etlan, Virginia.

I kept asking myself, is it really that easy?

I seasoned the steak as I would for grilling.  After seasoning, I placed it in a plastic bag used for my vacuum sealer.  The vacuum sealer is not a necessary tool as two plastic bags with sliding closures can be used to properly seal the meat for cooking. 

My next dilemma was what to use as a cooking vessel?  I wanted something big enough to have the steak and immersion cooker submerged, but not so big that it would take too much time to get the water to temperature and maintain it with minimal loss through evaporation.  I could have purchased a special container just for this purpose, but I knew I had to have something that would work.  My research led me to the use of a small plastic cooler.  I found one used by Hubby for carrying his lunch to work, attached the immersion cooker to the side and filled it with water to the designated level. 

Once the vessel was filled, it was time to start the cooker.  The prescribed temperature for the rib eye steak was 129 degrees Fahrenheit.  I turned on the probe and dialed the temperature to 129 degrees F.  The circulator started and I watched the temperature rise.  Within 30 minutes it was ready for the steak!

I used a big paper clamp to hold the edge of the plastic bag to the side of the cooler.  That would keep the steak from moving too close to the circulation area of the cooker, and prevent occluding the water flow.  I placed the steak in the water bath and set a timer for one hour. 

That was it!

During this time, Hubby came home.  He looked at the cooler on the kitchen counter with a big smile and asked, “What is that?”  I replied with enthusiasm, “THAT is dinner! I am cooking a steak!”  Immediately the smile left is face and his eyes narrowed with skepticism. “Oh really?”

After about 45 minutes, I asked him to prepare the gas grill to bring it to “searing” temperature.  Despite his concerns that I was ruining a perfectly good steak, he took care of the grill.  I finished the other preparations for our meal.

When the timer chimed at the one-hour mark, I shut down the cooker and pulled the bagged steak from the water bath.  I opened the bag and carefully removed the steak, laying it on paper towels to gently remove any excess cooking juices.  I handed the steak to Mr. Skeptical and he dutifully seared the steak on the grill less than one minute per side.

When he brought the steak back into the kitchen, he stated, “Well, it LOOKS good.”  I could not wait for us to sit down, so I took fork and knife and removed a bite from the steak.  It was perfectly cooked edge to edge.  I tasted it.  Before I said anything, I cut a second bite and presented it to Hubby.  As he chewed, his eyes opened wide, a smile on his face, and he too became a believer.

It was amazing.  The meat was cooked perfectly medium rare with no area over or under cooked.  It was juicy and tender.  We both marveled at how easy it was and started brainstorming our next sous-vide experiment.  There are many recipes available on the Internet for other cuts of meat, poultry, fish, and even eggs.

With the experiment a roaring success, my foodie geek is well pleased.  I am looking forward to my future is sous-vide cooking and sharing the spoils with unsuspecting dinner guests. 

Food is good.

Good food and good friends… Priceless.