Sous Vide Sous Who?

Some friends and I recently received kickstarter Anova V2 units and another picked up a discounted V1. With that I had a little get together and asked everyone to fix something and bring it or bring it and cook it.

The kitchen - I now have 1 each Anova - toys but fun toys.





First: 104F Salmon. I like this more every time I have it.



Some entres:

Lamb chops 129F 3 hrs, Cauli steaks 180F 1 hr. Both finished on gill.







An Asian Pork Belly. Outrageous. With buns and sauce. Fellow KKFer Mauro prepared this. (His wife restricts his access here so he doesn't post much)







Turkey Breast Porchetta (sp?), Turkey legs confit 180F 16 hrs (another outrageous) , carrots and potatoes. The friend that did the porchetta bagged it then wrapped the bag in a couple sushi mats to hold the round shape. Worked good!




Got to meet Steelcity and his lovely fiance (He's marrying up:cool2. He brought a huge piece of snapper that was grilled and eaten before the camera came out.

Desert was panna cotta with a blackberry/balsamic foam and carbonated blackberries. (No pic)

12 peeps. 4 Anovas. 2 Vitamixs. 1 Whip. And a BGE. A good time was had by all.

That sounds like a great get-together of kindred spirits. Very nice set-up with the containers. Thanks for the pics, would love to try it all, but the belly really jumps out. That said, how long do you poach the salmon?

Stefan

Thanks Stefan. For the 104 salmon I use Chef Steps recipe which involves a short brine stage, SV @ 104F for 60 min, then a 6+ hour refrigerated "rest".

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/salmon-mi-cuit

Thanks, Dave, I would have forgotten the brining but remember reading about it. I wonder what that method does to ahi (tuna), mahi mahi, opah, opakapaka etc...

Stefan

Everything was delicious. The pork belly with homemade pickles was ridiculous. That was the first time Jess and I had anything done Sous Vide. Thanks for having us Dave.

Dave: what was under the salmon? sorta looks like chimichurri? or maybe a thick basil oil?

Those cauliflower steaks looks awesome too. I love cauliflower and never considered preparing it like this. this will happen.

Tell me more about that pork belly too....i saw one at the store last weekend and the only thing that stopped me from getting it was that I had no idea what to do with it. this looks like a great product.

apicius9 said:

Thanks, Dave, I would have forgotten the brining but remember reading about it. I wonder what that method does to ahi (tuna), mahi mahi, opah, opakapaka etc...

Stefan

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I'm not sure about the other fishes, but with salmon in particular it's to cause a pelicle <sp> to form, which prevents that ugly white stuff from destroying the appearance of hte final product.

The green was a puree of arugula, quick blanch to retain color then a spin in the vmix. Was able to knock it out in the morning and call it done - always a good thing. Specifics on pork belly to come but different treatments can be found on SVish websites, egullet, serious eats, etc.

We stretched the 10 hour cook to 20 hours by lowering the temperature to 160 instead of 170. My wife Erin knocked out 2oz brioche buns from scratch. . She also made the marinade as follows : 1cup soy 1cup mirin, 1cup dark brown sugar, 1/4 cup fish sauce, 2to 3 inch stump of finger width ginger, 1.5 bunches of green onions, 10 to 15 garlic cloves. Mixed up in food processor and frozen into portions for freezing before adding to the pork belly as our vacuum sealer sucks poorly.

Dave, you think there's a big difference with the two units....do u think the first version with a little more power is worth it?.....just curious if you've used both much yet....ryan

The difference in power ratings seems inconsequential to me. I can't tell a difference in time to bring the bath to desired temp and maintaining the bath at temp should be easy for either controller. I've not broken out the stop watch, cal thermometers etc, strictly anecdotal observation.

Some minor differences are display is always illuminated on V2 - to me thats a good thing. The V1 display times out into a sleep mode. The V2 has no on/off switch. Unless unplugged there is an active temperature sensor that is always on. The V1 has an on/off switch and a power disconnect at the display - to me a good thing. I find the V1 settings much simplier than the V2. I don't like the V2 dial and have only been able to engage the timer once and that was accidentally. Do like the ability to rotate the unit and the ability to raise/lower the unit within the collar of the V2.

The bluetooth interface with the V2 could be a significant difference when it available for Android (and if it's simple enough for me to use).

I'll suggest you go for the V2 unit and get used to the PIA settings. If bluetooth works as advertised it will be sweet. Even if they were the same price I would go for the V2.

When you refer to the discontinued V1 model, is that different than the Anova One that they still sell? I got mine in early 2014 and I thought it was the "One", just wondering which one I have.

Side note, I love the thing... works great for 2 eggs or 15 lbs of short ribs with no issues keeping temps rock solid

I'm a simple guy. I think Anova's nomenclature for the first available unit is "Anova One" and the the 2nd (Bluetooth) unit is "Anova Precision Cooker". There is also a "Anova Precision Cooker Pro" out there. People of course use their own names for the units and I frequently have no idea which unit is being discussed. V1 and V2, for me avoids confusion and I don't have to type so much. I'm not aware of a discontinued model or that V1 was ever nomenclature used by Anova.

One of my favorite uses is to soft poach 6 eggs a week. Then use them on toast or in ramen or on salad or......

daveb said:

I'm a simple guy. I think Anova's nomenclature for the first available unit is "Anova One" and the the 2nd (Bluetooth) unit is "Anova Precision Cooker". There is also a "Anova Precision Cooker Pro" out there. People of course use their own names for the units and I frequently have no idea which unit is being discussed. V1 and V2, for me avoids confusion and I don't have to type so much. I'm not aware of a discontinued model or that V1 was ever nomenclature used by Anova.

One of my favorite uses is to soft poach 6 eggs a week. Then use them on toast or in ramen or on salad or......

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I mis-read discounted as discontinued in the first post... nevermind!

Home cured corned beef hash with 13 min, 167 degree eggs is my go-to breakfast on the weekends. Makes me look forward to waking up.

strumke said:

Home cured corned beef hash with 13 min, 167 degree eggs is my go-to breakfast on the weekends. Makes me look forward to waking up.

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Do you start with room temp eggs, or just take them out of the fridge and put them in?

toddnmd said:

Do you start with room temp eggs, or just take them out of the fridge and put them in?

Click to expand...

Pretty much right out of the fridge... a minute makes a big difference at that temp, so try it plus/minus a bit to get the consistency you want. Once you have it nailed down it's easy to replicate.

I'll throw them in ice water when the timer goes to cool them just enough to handle & crack. There's usually some whites that I scoop out with a spoon which you can see right above the eggs in the photo, but that's more me not wanting to waste food at the risk of presentation.

Serious Eats has a great article on sous vide eggs at various temps and times (which is where I got this process from originally)