Want to try a new way of cooking meals that are tasty, healthy, and full of nutrients? Try the Sous-vide method, French for “under vacuum” cooking. Food is sealed inside an airtight plastic bag and placed into a water bath. Your meal is now being cooked at a low, even temperature versus an open flame. This helps retain all the health benefits of your food. In addition, your meat, chicken, or fish will come out juicy, moist, and full of flavor. Now you can bite into your carrots, and have them crunch in your mouth.
Have you noticed the green water after you boil your veggies? It’s where the vitamins and minerals from your veggies now live, instead of you biting into them. Fans of the raw food movement have been sharing this fact for a while. Cooking is a science. Heat changes the molecular structure of dishes. Some foods, unfortunately, loose their health benefits in the process.
This can also result in plates slathered in fats and oils in order to flavor them up, or hide their dryness after they’ve been near a flame for too long.
Foods cooked “a la sous-vide” come out succulent in the case of meats or crunchy when you prepare veggies. This is because cell walls of the food do not burst. Cooking dishes at a low, even heat keeps foods close to their raw state.
Besides keeping foods close to their natural state, Sous-vide method packs an intense flavor infusion. Instead of your foods sitting on top of a marinade, they are actually surrounded or immersed in seasoning the entire time they’re cooking. Also, because there is no air, spices and flavoring are more easily absorbed by foods.
Ready to try some Sous-vide cooking at home. You could get a all-in-one machine like the Caso Sous Vide Center from Williams-Sonoma. It’s an enclosed-chamber system, with circulating water. You set the temperature, and forget it, like a crock pot. It also has a built-in vacuum bag sealer with bags. Retail price $499.95
Not looking for a machine to take up counter space or a hefty price tag? You could also try an immersion circulator like the Nomiku Sous Vide Immersion Circulator. It retails for $299.95, and looks like a hand held blender. Simply fill a pot with water, clip on the Nomiku to the side, and plug it in. Set the temp of the water bath by turning the knob and you’re done. Water quickly heats and circulates to temp. You can use the ‘displacement' method to vacuum seal your bags with this machine. Just put the food in a quart or gallon zip lock, seal up most of the zip, leaving just a bit at the end. Then, submerge the bag slowly in a pot of water. This will push all the air out. Just as the zip lock is getting to the water line, seal it and done.
If want to experiment without purchasing anything first, try this hack for Sous-Vide cooking from chef Christina Tosi, of New York’s Milk Bar. This is her recipe for “Bird in a Bag.” Put a butterflied chicken breast in a plastic freezer bag with your marinade. Seal the bag except for one corner. Insert a straw into the remaining hole and slowly suck out the air with your mouth. Be careful not to suck the sauce into your mouth! Seal the bag to get it as air-free as possible. Bring a pot of water nearly to a boil. Set a piece of tin foil in the pot like a hammock (with the ends crimped over the edge). Plop the bag into the pot of hot — but not boiling — water. The foil will suspend the bag above the bottom of the pot so the bag doesn't burn. If the chicken is thin, it will cook (poach, essentially), in five or 10 minutes. An intact chicken breast may take 20 minutes. You can test the chicken by looking and feeling to make sure it isn't pink inside. Final step? Sear the chicken in a pan briefly to brown it for better presentation.
Go ahead experiment.You’ve got nothing to lose, if anything you might find a new favorite method of cooking. The Sous-vide method started in the mid 70’s by top rated Michelin chefs, because they discovered food kept it’s flavor, moisture, and texture. Why not be your own 4 star celebrity chef at home.
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