Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage

Sous Vide Details: Cook Corned Beef at 180ºF for 10-12 hours

Ingredients, Serves 6-8:

• Corned Beef:
• 3-4 lb beef brisket
• 4 tablespoon curing salt (I got some at William and Sonoma)
• 4 tablespoon pickling spices
• 4 teaspoon brown sugar
• 4 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 head of cabbage
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup champagne vinegar

So I decided to make corned beef from a regular beef brisket.  Be for warned, it takes 7 days to pickle the brisket into corned beef!

First, take your brisket and trim off most of the fat.  Mix the curing salt, brown sugar and garlic powder in a bowl.  Using a fork, punch holes in both sides of the brisket and rub the salt mixture into both sides of the brisket.  Now take the pickling spices and rub them into the brisket on both sides.  Once fully covered, take the brisket and seal it in a vacuum bag and place it into the refrigerator for 7 days.  Flip the brisket once every day.  If it's a thick brisket (more than 2 inches), you should let it pickle for 7 more days!  Once it's done, remove it from the bag and wash all the spices off the brisket and pat dry.  You now have corned beef!

Pre-heat water bath to 180ºF.  Lightly salt and pepper the corned beef and seam in plastic bag and drop in water bath for 10-12 hours.  The higher temperature and long cook time will worked to break down the connective collagen while maintaining a reasonably high level of water retention so that the corned beef is tender and moist.

About 15 minutes before removing the corned beef, you can start the cabbage.  Cut the cabbage into 1/8 wedges.  Add the chicken stock and vinegar to a large pot or deep walled pan.  Heat on medium high until just boiling and then add the cabbage.  Cook for about 15 minutes or until the cabbage is tender.  YOu can flip the wedges once or twice.

Remove the cabbage and diagonally slice the wedges into 1" stripes.  Layer a bed of the cabbage on a serving plate.  Remove the corned beef from the water bath and bag and thinly slice across the grain.  Place the corned beef slices on top of the cabbage and garnish with parsley or you favorite green herb.  Enjoy!

You can serve this dish with this sauce to!

Horseradish Sauce:

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup horseradish
• 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoons kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, horseradish, zest, and salt. Season generously with pepper to taste. Refrigerate the horseradish sauce for at least 30 minutes before serving.

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Beef Round Roast

Sous Vide Details: Cook beef round roast at 132ºF for 8-10 hours

Ingredients, Serves 4-6:

• 5-7 lb beef round roast
• Sprigs of rosemary and thyme
• 2 tablespoons powdered garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons grape seed oil
• Crust paste:
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVO)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons thyme, chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons rosemary, chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon tarragon, chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

I was in the grocery store the other day and decided to try a round roast sous vide style with a longer cook time at a lower temperature to see if it would come out more tender than if cooked the conventional way.  I've cooked round roast in the oven and on the stove top and both times, it comes out a little dry and tough.  So I thought I'd give it a try!

First, pre-heat the water bath to 132ºF.  Sprinkle the garlic powder over the roast and salt and pepper to taste.  Put the roast in a bag and add sprigs of thyme and rosemary.  Seal the bag and drop in water bath.  Cook for 8-10 hours.  This works well when you prep in the morning for dinner that night.

When the roast is almost done, you can make the crust paste.  Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  Heat an iron skillet with the grape seed oil on high until very hot.  When the roast is done, take it out of the water bath and bag and pat dry with a towel.  Rub the crust paste all over the roast.  Add the roast to the skillet and sear on all sides, roughly 30 sec to 1 minute per side or until a golden brown crust forms on each side.

When ready to plate, slice roast to display the beautiful "edge to edge" medium  rare results!!  Enjoy.

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Prime Rib Roast

Sous Vide Details: Cook roast prime rib at 135ºF for 5 hours

Ingredients, Serves 6-8:

• 6-8 lb prime rib roast
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil (EVO)
• Several twigs of rosemary and thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Mushroom sauce:
• 1/2 cup of your favorite mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/3 cup good red wine
• 1 tablespoon EVO
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
• 1 cup beef broth
• Salt and pepper to taste

Prime rib roast is a wonderful holiday main dish and when cooked sous vide, it makes a spectacular centerpiece too!  Every bit of the roast is perfectly medium rare and ready to be gobbled up!

Pre-heat water bath to 135ºF.  In a small bowl, mix chopped rosemary, thyme, garlic, EVO and paprika together to make the roast rub.  Rub it generously all over the roast.  Place roast in plastic bag and add a few twigs of rosemary and thyme.  Seal and drop in water bath and cook for 5 hours.

To make the sauce, heat EVO on medium high heat.  Add onions and garlic and cook until onions are soft, approximately 4-5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook until soft, again, roughly 3-4 minutes.  Reduce to simmer and add the red wine and rosemary and simmer until wine is reduced.  Add the beef broth and simmer for 10-15 minutes.  Turn off heat and whisk in butter 1 tablespoon at a time.  Sauce should coat the back of a spoon.

When the roast is done, turn the oven on broil setting.  Take the roast out of the water bath and bag and pat dry.  Place on baling sheet and put in oven and broil until surface is seared brown.  Again, you are not trying to cook the roast as it is already cooked.  You are just trying to get a nice sear on the surface.  Once done, remove and place on cutting board and slice.  Add slices to serving plate and serve it up with sauce on the side!  Yummmmmm!

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Beef Sirloin with Onions and Finger Potatoes

Sous Vide Details: 131F for 3-6 hrs for the steaks and 183F for the potatoes  (1 hr) and onions (45 min)

Ingredients - Serves 2:

• 2 sirloin steaks (as big or small as you prefer)
• 4 sprigs of thyme and rosemary
• Salt and Pepper
• Onion wine sauce:
• 1 t honey
• 1 t orange or lemon zest
• 1 t sugar
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup red wine
• Salt to taste
• Fingerling potatoes:
• 1 lb fingerling potatoes or any other small potato
• 1 T chopped thyme
• 2 T minced shallots
• 3T unsalted butter
• 2 T EVO
• Salt and pepper to taste

I had to virtually eliminate meat from my diet, doctor's orders :-(.  But every once in a while, I can't resist some "red meat"!  Luckily my wife enjoys a good steak too!  So enjoy this recipe as you won't see many beef ones on this site!

One of the many benefits of sous vide is that it can take less tender, lower quality meats and turn them into mouth watering buttery pieces of "heaven"!  Really. For instance, sirloin steak is not considered in the "fillet Minion" class, but when cooked sous vide....  delectable!  And at $4/lb, it's even more delicious!

So here's the deal, if you want to do everything sous vide, this recipe really works best if you have TWO sous vide devices (luckily I have two).  Other wise, you have to do the potatoes and onion sauce FIRST and then do the steaks.  That elongates the cooking time by 1 hour.  Alternatively, if you only have one sous vide device, I recommend you simply do the potatoes and onion sauce using your favorite method (stove top or oven).  That way you can do them while the steaks are cooking.

If you DON'T have two sous vide devices, the timing is a little longer.  You need to actually do the potatoes and onions first, then keep them warm (in aluminum foil).  Lower the water bath to 131F using ice cubes then do the steaks.

So the beef prep is a snap.  Just salt and pepper the steaks and pop them into separate bags.  Add thyme and rosemary sprigs to each bag and seal.  Again, remember not to over due it on the aromatics as sous vide magnifies the flavors.  Put them in the water bath at 131F (for medium rare) and cook for at least 3 hours and as much as 8 hours.

Now for the potatoes, cut them into bite size pieces (I halved them) and put them in a bowel.  Add the EVO, chopped thyme, minced shallots and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix well and pop into a bag and seal.  Set aside.

For the onion sauce, heat a sauce pan to medium.  Add the honey, vinegar, orange zest, and sugar.  Cook for 3 minutes.  Add the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the butter and stir to mix.  Slice the onions thinly (cut thin slices and half the slices) and put into a bowl.  Pour the sauce into the bowl and mix with the onions.  Pour everything int a bag and seal.  This is where the chamber sealer comes in handy.  If you don't have a chamber sealer, you can use a zip lock freezer bag and lower the bag (with the onions and sauce) into some water slowly, which will press all the air out of the bag.  Then slowly zip the bag shut as you go.  This is using "Archimedes principle" for cooking!  While this is cool, I prefer a chamber vacuum sealer!  It's a lot easier.

If you DO HAVE a second sous vide device, you can cook the potatoes and onions together in the second water bath (at 183F) and have them finish at the same time as the steaks.  The potatoes will take about 1 hour while the onion sauce will take about 45 minutes.  So time their entry into a water bath accordingly to end at the same time as when the steaks are done.  Again, you can be off several minutes with sous vide, so don't sweat it!  That's another benefit!

Once the steak is done, fire up a grill as hot as it gets.  Pull the steaks out and pat them dry.  Sear them on the grill (30 -45 sec per side) quickly then plate them. 

Pull the potatoes and onion sauce out.  Mix some of the steak juices into the onion sauce and plate onto the steak.  Lastly, plate the potatoes, drop some herbs of your choice (rosemary or thyme) and bon apetit! 

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