My wife is in WI to watch our niece play hockey, one daughter is at a friend's house and the other is working. A perfect night to experiment with something I like. Found a very nice steelhead steak and decided to try it sous vide. But as long as I was doing that, why stop there? So, my plan was sous vide steelhead, asparagus, egg yolks and (not sous vide) long grain / wild rice. The key would be timing.
I did the eggs first - 65* C for 45 minutes, then put them in a bowl of warm water. They would stop cooking but stay warm for at least an hour.
Next the asparagus (in a bag with butter, pepper and lemon zest) at about 190*F for 4 minutes. Pulled and dropped (in the bag) into an ice bath to stop the cooking. Hold until the fish is ready.
Finally the steelhead - brined for 30 minutes in salt & honey water, then in a bag with lemon, olive oil, and dill - at 50*C for 25 minutes. The big challenge was cooling the water after the asparagus - I added some cold water and ice.
When the fish was almost ready, I heated a cast iron skillet to high and added some grape seed oil. Pulled the fish and slipped it skin side down on the skillet along with the asparagus. Just gave them about a minute or so - got some char on the asparagus and crisped the fish skin.
Plated the fish over the rice with the asparagus on the side. Opened the eggs and slipped the whites off under warm water - placed them on the asparagus. Added some sea salt and fresh pepper to all and broke the eggs.
One of the things I have found and enjoyed with sous vide is the different texture of the egg yolk. I am a runny yolk guy. But these are different, yes they are "runny" but not loose. They are creamy or velvety. I like them so much better. They just feel like this is what a yolk is supposed to be - that what I used to make was ok - but not complete.
Now with the fish, I find something similar. I was always pretty good at making a nice flaky fish - most folks said it was darn good. But sous vide amps it up a few notches. Now, instead of flaky, it is silky. It is not mushy, not raw (although I will not turn a raw fish away...) it is just "smooth."
My brother says I am crazy to go through all of this just to make dinner. I counter by asking him what it would take to make the same meal in a traditional way. Maybe more things could happen at one time, but it would not have the same textural unctuousness as this. Sometimes faster / easier is not better. In this case, in my mind sous vide is the hands down winner.
Actually in our poached egg smack down last week - while his were ready long before mine, he had to admit the texture of the yolk of the sous vide eggs were far superior to traditional poached eggs. And his were darn good!
BTW - Roscoe loves crispy fish skin!
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