With hours of inspiration from the Modernist Cuisine and other addictive foodie sources I was ready to confront my beloved sous vide to yet another challenge! This one includes a number of simultaneous sous vide processes and a rigorous focus on the right sequence of things….and it all came together beautifully!
We invited our good friends (the Heggelunds) and enjoyed a three course dinner and Great wines.
Started with a green salad with an arugula dressing, crunchy bacon and parmesan crisp. To this dish I served a fresh Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (Twin Islands, 2013).
Filet of catfish for the main course served with zucchini, puré of Jerusalem artichoke and tomato confit. This one was accompanied by a great white from Burgundy (Mercurey Les Ormeaux, 2012).
Ended a great meal with a fresh blueberry and cheese composition created by my lovely wife and the recipe can be found here (veientilenfriskmage.wordpress.com)
All recipes serves four.
For the starter you need to start by submerging 2 eggs into the sous vide at 68 degrees. Cook for 40 minutes, cool and refigerate.
Prepare herbs and leaves for the dressing. 40 g of arugula leaves, 15 g chives, 15 g lemon balm leaves, 5 g tarragon leaves and 5 g basil leaves.
Blanch herbs and leaves for 1 minute and move immediately into an ice bath. Drain and squeeze water by using a cloth.
Combine soft cooked eggs with the greens in a blender. Add 50 g milk, 28 g finely grated parmesan cheese and 10 g anchovy filets. Purée until smooth and add gradually 40 g of neutral oil. Season the dressing with a bit of lemon juice and salt. Refrigerate it.
Cut 3 slices of bacon in small cubes, fry and drain off fat. Set aside.
On a baking plate, distribute approximately 40 g of finely grated parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven at 175 degrees until cheese turns golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Let it cool, cut into smaller shapes.
Slice 80 g of red radishes very thinly. Set aside.
Mount the salad like this:
The main course involved preparing several ingredients in parallel. With liquids to be added to all of these I used zip lock bags instead of the standard sous vide bags. The basic technique is to fill a large bowl with water, submerge the zip lock bags slowly into the water until only a few millimeters left. That way you will press out the air from the bags:-)
Cut the catfish filet into four serving pieces. Season with some salt and set aside.
Peal 500 g of Jerusalem artichokes, cut in pieces and boil tender in 8 dl of milk. Purée with 2 tablespoons of butter, season with salt and freshly grained pepper. Set aside.
In a separate pan, heat 80 ml of fish stock and add 3 tablespoons of butter, a couple of pinches of saffron, one tablespoon of finely chopped orange zest. Stir gently for 3 minutes on medium heat.
Prepare two zip lock bags and put two pieces of fish in each. Allocate the butter sauce evenly in the bags. Submerge the bags in water to press out the air and zip them.
In a separate pan, add three tablespoons of extra virgin oil and heat at medium temperature. Add one tablespoon of finely chopped garlic and let it simmer until golden brown.
Cut 120 g of cherry tomatoes in half and put them in a zip lock bag with three tablespoons of finely chopped basil. Add the toasted garlic. Submerge and zip.
Trim the end of the zucchinis and put them into a sous vide bag. Season with a pinch of salt and a bit of olive oil. Add a tablespoon of finely chopped lemon zest. Vacuum and seal the bag.
Preheat the sous vide to 60 degrees. Let all the bags dive into the bath at the same time. Set the time for 15 minutes.
First take out the zucchinis and reset time for another 15 to let the fish and the tomato confit finish.
Use a vegetable peeler to make ribbons of the zucchini. Place them on warm plates to serve as a «bed» for the fish.
Remove the fish gently and fry them in a hot pan for a couple of minutes. Place the fish on the zucchini, drizzle some fresh parsley and mount the tomato confit on top.
Add a spoon of the Jerusalem artichoke purée to the plate and serve.
Finish the meal with this great and fresh dessert which you will find at veientilenfriskmage.wordpress.com.
Enjoy!
SVIDDÅ. 