Sweet Potato

Today I sent my SousVide Supreme demo unit back. I had it for almost two weeks. While this gave me a chance to get a feel for the machine, it didn't really give me enough time to really see all of what sous vide - as a technique - has to offer.

Here's what I cooked:

• Fish: Just tilapia, unfortunately. Since I moved to Maryland from Illinois, I just haven't been taking advantage of the (significantly) greater availability of good seafood. I'm not sure why. Still, given how tender, moist, and flavorful the tilapia turned out, I'd definitely like to try more fish sous vide.
• Eggs: Some people don't really like the "perfect egg" that you can get with sous vide. They find the white too loose for their taste. This means there are more for me. (If only it worked that way...)
• Root Vegetables: I cooked some celeriac and sweet potatoes for purees. The celeriac, unfortunately, was my biggest failure with the machine. I tried using a regular zipper bag. It opened at some point in the cooking process, and my celeriac escaped into the water. It still tasted OK, but it was nothing special. The sweet potato, on the other hand, turned out incredibly well: smooth and deeply flavored. I added a bit of cumin and turmeric and tossed it in the blender.
• Beef: Despite some reservations voiced by others on this site, beef was the real standout here. Chuck roasts are amazingly flavorful cuts of beef, but they are also fairly tough. Chuck cooked for over 24 hours at about 132 degrees (medium-rare) turns out amazing. Image by ArnoldDue to the fact that the water bath never rises above your ideal core temperature, you can't overcook it. Given a long cooking time, though, the collagen dissolves. You are left with a steak that is perfectly cooked from edge to edge... and is just about as tender as any steak you've ever had. The fact that sous vide techniques allow you to make (cheap) chuck steaks that compare favorably with much more expensive cuts of beef is exciting. Apparently, short ribs turn out really well, too. The chuck was good enough, though, that I made it a couple of times in the short time I had the machine (despite the long cooking time).
• Lamb: The lamb was good. It didn't benefit quite as much from the low temperature cooking as the beef did, but I also didn't cook it nearly as long.
• Squid: I followed someone's notes on the Internet. They were wrong. My squid ended up a bit too tough, though it tasted good. I usually find squid to be very neutral tasting. This actually had a very nice flavor to it. Next time, I'd try squid a bit above 140 degrees for at least two hours.
• Chicken Breast: Tender. Moist. Too often, chicken (particularly white meat) doesn't taste like much. This didn't have that problem. It tasted like chicken... in a good way.

Things I didn't get a chance to experiment with: Too many to list.

I'd have loved, though, to have been able to experiment more with fruit, other vegetables, poultry (sous vide turkey, definitely. sous vide duck? It would be nice to try...), and more seafood (I think it would be really good for squid, if I knew the right temp to cook it at). I have no idea what sous vide could do (if anything) for nuts or cheeses. Can you bake in it? What would that do?

I don't think that I've extolled the virtues of my vegetable peeler to you all. I should. It is awesome. I know a lot of people swear by those Y-shaped peelers. I admit, those are better than those all-metal swivel peelers. My peeler, though? I bought it because I hated my old potato peeler. I saw this one. It is a Kitchenaid Euro Peeler. It isn't the fancy one, either. It is the cheap, $6 or so version. (There's another version that sells for about three or four dollars more.) I am thankful that I have it going in to Thanksgiving - when I'm going to be peeling some root vegetables: potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and celeriac. Celeriac (celery root) is particularly obnoxious to peel, but this cuts the pain a quite a bit.

A few weeks ago, my brother came by and we cooked dinner together. He was using my peeler on some carrots, and he expressed his admiration for it. What makes it awesome? I really don't know. It just works. The handle is comfortable without being offensively ergonomic. You have fairly fine control while using it. The blade has just enough swivel to it to respond to the contours of what you're peeling. The blade is fairly hefty. You aren't going to bend this thing on a potato.

I feel a little silly singing its praises, but I will be doing some of the Thanksgiving cooking over at my parents' house, and I made a mental list of the kitchen tools I needed to take with me. My Kitchenaid Euro Peeler was at the top of it.

Seriously, does anyone know why this is called a Euro Peeler?

I love grilling. There's something magical about the communal nature of cooking outside along with friends and family. Of course, grilling usually involves large slabs of meat, and those you'd want to spend time with can include people who don't eat meat. While it is easy enough to throw in some cold vegetarian side dishes for them, that doesn't really allow them to share in the communal experience.

The solution? Grill up some vegetables.

Some people like to grill big portobellos. I'm not a huge mushroom fan. Instead, my personal favorite vegetables for grilling are broccoli and sweet potatoes (zucchini work well, too). The broccoli I cut into long spears, while the sweet potatoes (or summer squash) get sliced lengthwise into large slabs a bit less than 1/4 inch thick. These get marinated for a bit in a mixture that varies but is roughly 1 part sesame oil, 1 part lime juice, 2 parts honey, 2 parts rice vinegar, and 3 parts soy sauce. Sometimes it gets a dash of fish sauce or sriracha sauce. Other times the lime juice and honey might be replaced with orange juice... or the honey might be replaced with maple syrup. There are many possibilities.

Regardless, they get marinated for a bit and then tossed on the grill until they are cooked through and just start to char. The results are substantial, delicious, and far better for you than coleslaw and potato salad.

My other favorite is to grill up some green onions Mexican-style. Salt them with kosher or sea salt, grill them until they are beginning to char, and squeeze some lime juice over them. Eat them whole. The experience is transcendental.