Saturday, September 22, 2012

Cookbook Adventures: Another Take on 48-Hour Short Ribs

I had such a delicious experience with her awesome zucchini dumplings, I went right back to Susan Feniger's Street Food to try another dish. 
The inspiration for trying (and modifying) Korean-Glazed Short Ribs with Sesame and Asian Pear was the abundance of Asian pears hanging from the tree in my back yard. 
Maybe it was because the marinade reminded me of the marinade for Momofuku's 48-hour short ribs, maybe it was just because after cooking short ribs sous vide I would never cook them any other way, but I ended up straying pretty far from the recipe when it came to the cooking of the ribs...  Whatever the reason, the results were totally awesome...

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Sous Vide Apple Craziness

A friend brought me a big bag of random apples (no idea what kind, just harvested from some trees he was working near), and I was trying to think of something more interesting than an apple crisp to make with them.  What I ended up making turned out pretty freaking cool...

Perfect Sous Vide Tuna

I'm always futzing with my tuna-cooking technique in our family-favorite recipe of Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shiitake Cream Sauce.  The recipe for the sauce is pretty much perfect as written (except I make a double-batch of sauce for 6 servings... because it's that good and I always want guests to get as much as they want...), but the prescribed method of cooking the tuna is kind of stupid.  After playing around with a few methods, I have finally found The One, giving me just a couple millimeters of sear on the outside with an interior that is warm and bright pink all the way through.
The key to this technique was to partially freeze the tuna steaks (for about 30-60 minutes... we just threw them in the freezer while we enjoyed a pre-dinner cocktail on the patio) before searing in a very hot pan.  (This prevents the interior from overcooking while you get a good sear.)  From here you chill again for a few minutes before vacuum sealing and throwing into a 110°F water bath for 30 minutes.  This is the only way I'll be doing my tuna steaks from now on...  Perfection!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Cookbook Adventures: Amazing Zucchini Dumplings

While pondering what to do with some extra zucchini from my mom's garden, I stumbled across a Cook the Book post over at Eatocracy with pictures of some insanely delicious-looking dumplings.  I knew the moment I saw that picture that I was going to have to make them myself as soon as possible..
 
My brother was laughing at me because I was explaining that I almost never cook vegetarian...  I told him I was planning to make these dumplings, and I said, "Ooh.  Those are vegetarian!  I'm serving them with pork..."  Subtract the pork from the equation, though, and they'd be a really impressive vegetarian appetizer...