Cooked my first sous vide tonight! I did mahi mahi. Quite excellent!

[Rabrrrrrr]

Unfortunately, the bag had a little hole in it so some water got in, but otherwise it was quite wonderful texture in the fish - just as fish I've had before that's been cooked sous vide.

After cooking it that way, I tossed it in the forman grill for a couple minutes to crisp up the skin.

Served it with some rice, mushrooms, and asparagus and a salad with some cottage cheese.

Washed it down with fizzy water from my cool fizzy water maker.

Oh, for the sous vide I just used a sauce pan and did it on my own stove, with a temperature probe kept in the water. Even the electric stove kept a pretty damn constant temperature over the 15 minutes I cooked the fish. I'm impressed!

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Kicking, because no one fucking responded.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear Rabrrrrrr!

I don't know the phrase "sous vide."

Can you explain it?

Your meal sounds wonderful!

:hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Sous vide is to cook in a hot water bath something in a vacuum pack

It's a way to get the food cooked through all the way through, and to get a constant temperature all the way through as well, without causing any of the physical damage and liquid loss that frying, baking, and so on do to the food.

Seal the food in a vacuum pack, then put the pack in a water bath that is the temperature you want the thing to be when it's done (for the fish, I kept the water at 140 degrees), and let it cook until it's reached the desired temperature. It works wonders for fish and can make quite interesting veggies (they end up hot and cooked, but are still snappy). Also does pretty cool things to meats, though there is a part of me that loves the outside char on a good piece of meat. Though, of course, one can still throw a meat (or a fish, as I did with the mahi mahi) on a grill after it's cooked to crisp up the skin, char the fat, or just to add a little more flavor.

[whistler162]

17. We did that Sunday.... with two Bob Evans meatloafs,,,,

Well maybe not vacumn sealed but unfreeze and drop in the water and it is reheated realllllly fast.

[TommyO]

7. Sous Vide is a cooking technique

You vacuum seal your meat or fish, then cook it low and slow in a temperature controlled warm water bath.
I found a NY Times article that, while focusing on NY City health code violations, also does a good job of describing sous vide cooking, its benefits and risks.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. what equipment did you use?

do you need a special type of plastic bag?

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Just a plain old sauce pan (2 quart size), a thermometer, and my electric stove.

The plastic bag I used is the one that the fish came in. I bought a bag of mahi mahi filets, and each filet is vacuum packed separately within it.

[TommyO]

9. Now that's a sneaky way of doing it, using the packaging it came in

No vacuum sealer needed.

[seemunkee]

6. I've never had anything prepared that way

What does it do that you can't get preparing it any other way?

[wickerwoman]

12. It was invented for the French railways

so that they could cook dependably on the trains with minimal equipment.

I don't think it makes a huge difference in the taste or texture, but the advantage is that once you know the temperature and time on your equipment, it's almost impossible to screw it up. You just pop a bag in the water for however many minutes and it's right every time. So it's popular for restaurant chefs, but not so much for home cooking (where consistency isn't as critical.)

[TommyO]

8. I've been wanting to try this at home for some time now

How did you seal the bag? How did you control your cooking temperature?

Budding home chefs need to know.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. The food came in its own sealed bag, so that was easy -

to control the temperature, I just kept the dial on my burner to "2".

Plus I had the temperature probe in the water, and set it to beep if the temperature got more than 142 (I was aiming for 140). The thing never went off, not even over fifteen minutes of cooking- the stupid stove actually managed to provide a constant heat delivery, and kept the water right at 140-141.

[TommyO]

13. I'm going to have to play with the stove tonight

to see just how consistently it can maintain a temperature. I've been wanting to try this ever since seeing a few competitors on Bravo's Top Chef do salmon and chicken.

[KamaAina]

11. When in Polynesia, be careful not to call it just "mahi".

In Tongan, "mahi" means, um, ladies' unmentionables. So always call it "mahi mahi".

[charlie and algernon]

14. you know you need to change your sign now, right?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9085081

[Madrone]

15. What is this fizzy water maker of which you speak?

mmmm ... fizzy.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. The fizzy water make is a sodastream

http://www.sodastream.com

It's wonderful!

Way, way cheaper than buying seltzer in bottles.

[LynzM]

16. That sounds like an amazing meal...

Right up my alley. :thumbsup: :)