• Sous Vide Pork Belly via www.SousVideGuy.com

    Posted by David Pietranczyk

    Looking for a super-easy, super delicious recipe for pork belly? Our friend Derek, better known as "The SousVideGuy" shared this recipe with us!

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  • Elderflower Smoked Griddled Halloumi

    Posted by PolyScience Staff

    Elderflower Smoked Griddled Halloumi – by Chef Eddie Shepherd
    300g Halloumi
    Dried Elderflower

    Heat a griddle pan to a medium high heat.

    Slice the Halloumi into centimetre thick pieces. Cook the Halloumi for about a minute on each side (giving it a half turn while cooking each side to get a criss cross pattern if you like)

    Once cooked set the Halloumi slices to one side to cool.

    Trim the cooked Halloumi to even squares and place into a glass bowl.

    Cover the bowl with cling film and smoke using the Polyscience Smoking Gun, loaded with dried elderflower, filling the covered bowl with smoke. Sit covered for around five minutes to allow the Halloumi to take on the flavour of the elderflower smoke.

    Continue reading for the recipes of the Rhubarb Relish & Rhubarb Glass on Chef Eddie’s blog

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  • Bacon Ice Cream Lollipops w/ Cacao Nibs

    Posted by PolyScience Staff

     

     

    Bacon Ice Cream Lollipops w/ Cacao Nibs

    Ingredients:

    6 Egg Yolks

    3oz Sugar

    ½ Vanilla Bean

    7oz Milk

    9oz Heavy Cream

    9oz Bacon, Chopped, Rendered (Reserve fat and bacon separately)

    Cacao Nibs (as needed)

     

    Method:

    Step 1: Preheat a waterbath to 185 degrees Fahrenheit

    Step 2: Cream the egg yolks, sugar, and bacon fat in a stand mixer.

    Step 3: Add the vanilla bean and whisk in the cream and milk. 

    Step 4: Pour the liquid into a vacuum pouch and vacuum seal it.

    Step 5: Cook the mixture for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes has elapsed, remove the pouch from the waterbath and let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before transferring it to an ice bath. 

    Step 6: Refrigerate the mixture for 1 day before pouring it into an ISI canister. 

    Step 7: Charge twice with No2, shaking the canister vigorously after each charge.

    Step 8: Freeze for 5 minutes on the Anti-Griddle. Insert a lollipop stick and garnish with reserved bacon and cacao nibs half way through freezing.

     

    Recipe courtesy of Chef Libry Darusman

    www.hospitalitycollaborative.com

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  • Smoked Baltic Punch

    Posted by PolyScience Staff

    Just in time for the holidays, we’d like to share with you Rafal Ciesielski’s recipe for a Smoked Baltic Punch. Check out more from Rafal in the Polish Barmagazyn!

    Ingredients:
    1 part vodka
    ½ part Orange Curacao
    ½ part Blue Curacao (infused with citrus peel)
    ¼ part Campari
    1 part pressed apple juice (not sweet but as sour as possible)
    ¼ part lemon shrub (see recipe below)
    4 cinnamon sticks and  vanilla pods for smoking

    Steps:
    1. Mix all ingredients and chill for 2 hours before serving and smoking
    2. Load combustion chamber of The Smoking Gun™ with crushed pieces of cinnamon stick and vanilla pod
    3. Cover Punch bowl with plastic wrap or lid
    4. Inject smoke into bowl with nozzle extension while slightly stirring the punch
    5. Repeat 1-3 times depending on your desired level of smoke

    Alternative method:
    1. Prepare punch
    2. Place punch glasses upside down and fill with vanilla and cinnamon smoke. Rest glass with smoke for 30-60 seconds. The smoke will build a fine film on the glass wall and transfer its aroma into the punch when serving.
    3. Put glass upright and serve punch in the smoked glass.

    Lemon shrub:
    Take the peel off the lemons first and roughly ribbon. Juice the lemons, and however many cups of juice are extracted match that with the same amount of sugar. Layer the sugar and zests in a Boston tin, and muddle thoroughly until all the sugar is damp. Let the zest and lemon compound rest at room temperature for at least half an hour, then give another muddle and stir. Add the lemon juice, and stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Fine strain the zests out of the mixture.

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  • Ideas in Food Sous Vide Workshop at El Ideas

    Posted by PolyScience Staff

    Our good friend Alex Talbot of Ideas in Food was recently in town doing some workshops and a collaboration dinner with Phillip Foss of El Ideas. One of the classes was focused entirely on sous vide. Alex and Phillip were kind enough to let me drop by to snap some pictures and take a few notes.

    I was fortunate enough to arrive just as some delicious gluten-free cookies and chocolate cake were emerging from the oven as part of the morning’s gluten-free baking class. After some intensive “taste testing”, it was time to get the 300 series vacuum chamber set up. This was the first one to ever have left PolyScience and we wanted to make sure that all of the settings were ready for class. The guests started to trickle in and we began.

    Alex said that when he and his wife Aki first started cooking sous vide, he refused to sear the exterior of the meat, not wanting to compromise doneness. As they pressed on, they explored numerous techniques including pre and post sears, blow torches, frying, pre and post seasoning and brining. As of late, I’ve become a big fan of cryo-frying myself. This is where meat that has been cooking sous vide takes a short dip in a bath of liquid nitrogen, followed by a slightly longer dip in a deep fryer. The result is a uniform sear with virtually no over cook. I shared my thoughts on this with the class and Alex had a great idea that produces a comparable result. He and Aki have had great success with frying chilled-sous vide meat until they’ve developed a nice crust, and then warming it through in a low temperature oven or C-Vap.

    One of the things that they’ve taken a stance on is salting prior to sous vide cooking; they’ve found that salting meat prior to cooking tends to cure the meat as it cooks which can dry the meat out and lead to unpleasant textures. In lieu of seasoning meat directly with salt prior to cooking, Aki and Alex have turned to brining. It serves as not only as an opportunity to season, but also to add flavor and moisture. A quick brine is also beneficial for fish and seafood as it rinses the exterior and denatures albumen. Personally, if I am going to cook an serve, I don’t mind seasoning before cooking. If I’m going to cook, chill, and reheat, then I won’t season in advance unless I’m brining.

    As a result of their trials, Alex and Aki have come to approach sous vide with a “low, medium, high” setup. 55°-57°C (131°-134°F) works well for meats and fish. It is also a great temperature for breaking down collagen over day-long cooks. 72°C (161.6°F) works well for eggs and 83°-84°C (181.4°-183.2°F) for most fruits and vegetables. This approach sounded incredibly strange to me at first, but after some thought it makes quite a bit of sense, especially in terms of efficiency. Also, this approach lends itself well as a benchmark to use when you aren’t exactly sure what time and temperature you want to cook at.

    I’ve always cooked my vegetables and fruit at 85°C (185°F) or higher because pectin breaks down at 85°C (185°F).  In the workshop, 84°C (183.2°F) was a revelation. To illustrate this, Pink Lady apples were cooked whole at 84°C for about an hour. The result was a smooth, supple, and purely flavored apple that all the while maintained the crispness of a fresh apple. I was floored.

    Sous vide is an empowering tool when combined with other techniques. Once you understand the fundamentals of cooking such as temperature, seasoning, tasting, and how to sear, sous vide will take your cooking to the next level. Alex and Aki take a very unique approach to sous vide cooking – definitely one worth exploring. I’ve been cooking sous vide since 2006 and I can tell you that I walked out of El Ideas brimming with new ideas…

    Make sure to follow Alex and Aki along through their website www.ideasinfood.com and pick up their books: Great Recipes and Why They Work and Maximum Flavor.

    You can visit Phillip’s Michelin starred restaurant, El Ideas, here: http://elideas.com.

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