#sous vide

[daily-deliciousness]

Best sous vide salmon

[shirozen]

Slow cooked to perfection

[trivialbob]

This afternoon I prepared chicken in my sous vide. While while the poultry cooked (90 minutes, 150 degrees) I looked for a side dish. This package of Knorr pasta has been in the cabinet for a long time. Time to try something.

I have experimented using the sous vide for things other than meat. While protein is cooking I've added added a second bag to the water. Some vegetables I tried turned out okay though they usually require a different temperature than the meat.

Some time ago I used the sous vide to infuse gin. The process takes a few hours instead of a few weeks. The results pleased me.

In another plastic bag today I added this Knorr pasta and water. I removed the air, sealed the bag and shook it vigorously to get the powder mixed into the water. First mistake -- Immediately I realized I should have used less water than the instructions called for. In the microwave or on the stove some water boils off. In the sous vide bag nothing escapes. I figured I would have to strain the pasta when it was done.

Mistake number two was leaving the mix in the hot water as long as the chicken.

The chicken turned out nicely. It always does with the sous vide. The Knorr mixture had separated into two layers. On the bottom was pasta that appeared to have been pureed so finely an infant could not have choked on it. Floating over it was a cup of chicken broth. I tasted the pasta, found it disgusting and washed it down the drain.

I will try again sometime. Less water and a shorter immersion time should help. These Knorr packets are inexpensive. There's little cost in experimenting.

Now I want to infuse some more gin.

[writing-processing]

life is an improvement game for everyone. always upgrading and achieving new levels and new capabilities for skill sets. if you're not doing that, you're stagnating. and the real problem with that is what people are doing with their time when not focused on a relationship. a lot of guys are stagnating out of anger, working on echo chamber podcasts and not listening to women, rather than learning to have love for humanity and the little hobbies and skills that come with that. meanwhile, 99/100 women have something they're working on constantly. oh she's just picked up embroidery! swing dancing! tennis lessons! gardening! writing fanfiction! interior design! car stuff! talking to people and handing out roses! book clubs! sewing! art! surfing! mountain climbing! theorizing on the plots of Netflix shows! poetry! sous vide cooking! playlist curating! traveling! going on side quests full of whimsy! and literally the more men that don't start picking up these hobbies to genuinely learn from them, the less and less they're going to meet actual women and the more they're just going to get angry and more and more unskilled comparatively. without passion, without care, without joy, all things that hobbies are evidence of, women won't want a man. and the more that this happens, the more likely it is that men will only vy for the male approval that is passive, uncaring, sad, angry, and lonely. while women will become happier and more used to not having a man. and until that starts to change? well, good luck charlie

[copperbadge]

Friiiiiied chicken! 

[ID: A plate covered in paper towel, on which are draining numerous chunks of golden-brown fried chicken, crusted with flour breading and dotted with pepper and onion seasoning.] 

I’ve been struggling with fried chicken not because it’s difficult, but because no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get the breading to stick to the chicken the way it does in recipes or in restaurants. I know some restaurants have pressure-fryers, but I’ve seen enough how-to videos to know you don’t need one of those to make it happen. 

I now have an immersion cooker, and I know that Shake Shack’s nuggets are sous-vide cooked and THEN breaded and fried, so I thought I’d try it. I reasoned that while the breading doesn’t stick all that well to Shake Shack’s either, their chicken is juicier and more flavorful, so I might as well give it a shot.

So I deboned and skinned a couple of chicken thighs, sous-vide cooked them at 155 for two hours, then took them out of the cooking bags, let them cool on a plate for a bit, and chucked them in the fridge. This morning I got them out, chopped the bigger bits into smaller bits, rolled them in an egg wash and then seasoned flour while I heated the oil, then fried ‘em. 

They came out WILDLY better than anticipated; the breading did stick, because the chicken was cooked so no moisture was leaving it and steaming the breading off the surface from the inside, which is the usual reason this happens. The sous-vide thighs were extremely juicy and because the chicken only fried for long enough to brown the breading, the exterior wasn’t super greasy. The cold chicken heated in the time it took the breading to brown, and there was less spatter because see: less moisture. 

Proof of concept! So now I’m going to try a few variations -- I’d like to brine the chicken first for that “pickley” flavor, and I’m going to try it with breast meat (my preferred meat), and also try some wings. I think sous-vide, deep-fry, and then toss with sauce could make the ballingest chicken wings ever. 

[whatthekale]

Steak tacos & caprese salad 👌🏼

[zerofuckingwaste]

The very first step towards zero waste is not, in fact, completely eliminating trash.

Instead, it's just being mindful of what the fuck you're actually throwing away every day. I'm keeping a piece of paper taped above my trash bin, and every time I throw something away, I write down what it is.

Then, I take one item- just one!- and figure out a concrete way to eliminate that waste. For example, I do a lot of sous vide cooking, and previously used a vacuum sealer and a plastic roll to seal all of my foods for processing, and before that, the water immersion method with plastic bags. I did my research into using silicone bags for sous vide, and found these guys:

They're these huge goddamn silicone bags with no top that can fit a whole fucking brisket. I shit you not. Since sous vide requires water to cook, they leave the top of the bag open, and water displacement naturally pushes all of the air out of the bag, leading to a perfectly sealed, perfectly cooked meat at the end of the day. Fucking fabulous.

Instead of tossing my vacuum sealer, though, I donated it to my local Buy Nothing group, along with my remaining plastic rolls. I have no other use for it, but I'm sure someone else can find a good use out of it, without me contributing to further waste.

Now, every time I cook sous vide, I produce no extra plastic waste, both my setup and cleanup are expedited, and I feel good about it. It's one win, but they add up.

Find the first, easiest thing you can change, and change it. Follow to hear more ways that you can adapt to create less waste.

[aurelius-food-inspiration]

This recipe is a bit of a two-fer...it's one of my favorite sous vide proteins, picanha, and my favorite compound butter in the world. The b