2 portions:

500g of rump steak

1 larger celeriac

100g oyster mushrooms

1.5 tbsp of honey

2 tbsp of soy sauce Kikkoman

a few pak choi leaves

30ml dry sherry

100ml chicken stock

a couple of brussel sprouts

30g butter

salt and pepper

Portion the meat to a steaks around 200-300g a piece. Our beef has been matured for 30 days. I tried different temperatures of cooking and the best worked 54 degrees for 3 hours. I am using ziplock bags because I am tired of pulling out the vacuum machine all the time and spending money for vacuum bags. Season the meat with pepper, place it in a bag and add little bit of oil. Cook it for the time instructed and when the meat is ready, cool it in an ice bath. If you want to eat it right away, watch out for the temperature: the meat is already warm so it does not overcook when you seared it. With this method we achieve a beautifully soft result even in meat, which is rather tough and does not have an ideal structure such as fillet.

Clean the celeriac, saving the clean skins for a stock. Cut a few 1 cm cubes, which we will prepare differently later on. Cut the rest of the celery into larger cubes and simmer in butter until soft. This process is needed, the taste is much better than just throwing celeriac into milk. After softening it changes color, turns yellow, then season it with salt pour inside half of the milk. Allow to cook for another 10-12 minutes simmering until tender. Transfer to the blender and mix smoothly. Season with salt, add milk if needed and butter.

Fry the remaining cubes of celeriac in oil, reduce the temperature and add honey, leaving to caramelize and add butter to finish. Season with salt and put aside. Divide the sprouts into leaves and cook in water for a few seconds. Dry the meat on a cloth, season with salt and fry in hot oil in all sides. Cook big pieces of oyster mushroom and pak choi in the pan with little oil. Pour the alcohol in a new pan and let it boil off. Add the broth and the remainings from the zip lock, reduce in half, then add the butter and serve. Enjoy your meal!!

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For 4 portions:

4 chicken legs
4 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp oil
4 tbsp ghee (butter)
salt and pepper
500g jerusalem artichokes
150g fresh shiitake mushrooms
50ml dry sherry
300ml chicken stock
100g butter
200ml whole milk
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tsp truffle oil
a few drops of lemon juice

Divide the artichokes into 2 and 3 fifths. Separate the smaller part in half. Slice one half thinly on mandolin. Fry in hot oil 170 degrees to golden brown, dry immediately and season with salt. Cut the rest of the artichokes into small cubes and fry with shiitake mushrooms together in a little oil until soft. Season with salt.

Melt half of the butter with the olive oil and add 3/5 of coarsely chopped Jerusalem artichokes and slowly cook for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and add the sherry, let the alcohol evaporate and add the chicken stock. Cook until soft, then add milk and cook again. Put in a blender, mix and add the rest of the butter. Blend until smooth. Check consistency and taste. Add a little lemon juice. Finally, drizzle with truffle oil and lightly decorate with something green.

Dry the chicken legs with paper towel, season and sprinkle the skin with flour. Fry in a pan with oil and melted butter on the skin side down to golden brown. Place in a vacuum bag with the fat and vacuum. The ideal temperature is 63 degrees for 2 hours, depending on the size of the thigh. These are quite large, normal thighs should be ready in an hour and half. The temperature is up to you (ideal range is 60-65). For professional cooking, the sous vide technique is great, but due to the structure of the meat, I’d rather bake it (25 minutes at 180 degrees) in home conditions. The result is not exactly the same, but the skin is brilliantly crispy.

Cooking under vacuum will cause the skin to become wet, so it needs to be fried again. Anyway, if you love fried chicken, it’s a great way to avoid undercooking. Let it rest for at least ten minutes. Then pour all the juice into the pan and add a little water, cook and have a simple sauce. Served with the rest of the ingredients. Enjoy your meal!

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For 4 portions

Pork tenderloin

4 pcs cleaned pork tenderloin (about 250g each)
salt and pepper
roasting oil
a pot (2l) filled to half with salted vegetable stock and few twigs of fresh thyme

Potato purée

500g potatoes with skin
250ml cream
50g butter
salt

Smoked bones sauce

0,8kg pork ribs
0,2kg smoked pork ribs
50g peeled shallots
salt, pepper, caraway seeds
2 cloves of garlic
water

Pickled shallots

500g peeled and sliced shallots
400ml red wine vinegar
360ml water
120g sugar
1 tsp whole black pepper
1 tsp whole allspice
3 bay leaves

Dry the meat and season with salt and pepper (freshly ground). Sear it in a hot pan from all sides, to have a great golden colour all around.

Take the meat off the pan and put it into a prepared pot with hot stock that has about 80-85 °C (the cooker should be turned on the lowest degree possible). The liquid shouldn’t be boiling (bubbling). After 13-14 minutes, take out the meat, let it drain and cut into 3 cm thick slices. Serve immediately. If you want to prepare the meat sous vide, the ideal temperature would be 56 °C for 3 hours.

Cook the potatoes in salted water until soft and strain. Peel immediately and pass them through a fine sieve.

Start to heat up the cream while you’re cooking the potatoes, so that it’s hot and ready, once the potatoes are passed through a sieve.

Add the butter to the potatoes and work it with a silicone spatula until you reach a smooth consistency. Whip in the cream little by little, until it’s fine and fluffy. Taste and season to taste (when you’re making a purée, cook the potatoes with skin on, the final purée won’t be that watery).

Divide the ribs into small pieces, season with salt and pepper, add whole caraway seeds and rub with crushed garlic. Put them into small baking tray or pot, so that the bones touch one another. Add some water (to one third) and roast in a preheated oven at 160°C for 90 minutes. During the process, don’t forget to glaze the bones with the liquid. Pass through a sieve at the end and if needed, adjust the seasoning.

Mix the water, sugar and seasoning in a pot (2 l), bring to boil and let it simmer for about 2 or 3 minutes. Put in the shallots, stir and let it reach the boiling point for a few seconds. Take it off the stove and let it cool down (altogether). Store in fridge in a glass jar, it lasts for several months. Serve cold as a part of a hot dish or in a salad.

And one more tip at the end: if you like pancetta, and I would guess that you do, you can add some crunchy seared bits at the end. NOM!

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But don’t worry, Heston Blumenthal saved us, because he found an easy way to do it. It takes a longer time, but it’s totally worth it. You just need to freeze the stock and then strain it through some cloth or fine towel. One thing to remember: don’t use any softeners to wash these, you probably wouldn’t be happy if you consommé smelled like jasmine spring or tropical night, right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well with thicker stocks, there is too much gelatine. Give it a shot with fish or poultry.

For 2 portions

2 mackerels
500 ml fish stock
1 green pepper
1 chilli
2 shiitake mushrooms
10 peas sprouts
30 g frozen peas
1 fennel
1 celery
1 spring onion
some watercress
1 lemon
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tbs soy sauce

Make the consommé by straining a frozen fish stock through a cloth. The result will be nice and clean liquid. Balance the taste with soy sauce and lemon juice. Cut all the veggies into small dices and reheat a little bit in the stock.

It’s quite easy to fillet a mackerel, but keep in mind that it’s a very delicate fish. It doesn’t have scales and you can cut out the bones without much effort. The only problem is taking out the insides and cutting off the head: that’s a dirty business. Vacuum seal the filleted fish with some olive oil and cook sous vide at 43 °C for 12 to 20 minutes depending how thick it is. The bigger, the longer. This temperature is unfortunately not high enough to cook the skin, so you have two possibilities, either take it off or burn it with a torch gun. The meat is flawless, so it’s worth it. Enjoy!

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For 2 portions

1 French duck (Henry IV)
300 g root vegetables
1 onion
30 g tomato purée
200 ml red wine
4 peppercorns
2 all spice
2 bay leaves
a little five spice
1 l chicken stock
1 espresso
20 g butter
50 g green beans
50 g fresh baby spinach
50 g radicchio di Treviso
salt and pepper

Honey vinaigrette

20 g honey
30 g olive oil
10 ml rice vinegar
salt

Let’s start with the sauce. Portion the duck and divide into breasts and legs. Cut the bones into smaller pieces (I cooked it together with the legs, as I used these in another recipe that is coming up!).

First, take all the fat parts of the duck and sear them in a dry pan until they start to turn golden and release a lot of fat. Add the root vegetables cut into big chunks and sear until golden, then put in finely chopped onion. Add the tomato purée and sear again, pour in the wine, add the bay leaves, all spice, peppercorns, the rest of the bones and salted legs. Let the alcohol cook out and pour in the stock. Cover with a lid (I used a pressure cooker) and let it cook for about 90 minutes. Strain and reduce to desired thickness. Pick the meat from the bones and put it aside. Season the sauce, add fresh espresso and don’t cook anymore. Thicken with butter.

Put the breasts into a freezer, 20 minutes is enough, we just want the skin to get hard. Cut a grid in the skin, but try not to cut into the meat. Season with five spice, pepper and salt. Put them skin side down in a medium hot pan and let the fat render out, it takes about 8 minutes. Vacuum seal the meat and cook sous vide at 57,2 °C for 60 minutes. Depends on how big the duck is and also on its quality. It happens pretty often that people complain that the meat is tough…there is a tendon going through the middle of the breast that is pretty hard, so you have to cut it properly: if you just cut them in half alongside, you won’t get rid of it).

Let the meat rest for 10 minutes and pan-sear again. You can keep the fat from the pan, it’s amazing for potatoes or as a base of sauces.

Cut the radicchio di Treviso and leave it in cold water. Compared to other chicories, it’s extremely sweet and tasty. Blanch the beans in salted water and cool down in water with ice. Reheat with some butter and quickly steam the spinach on the duck fat.

At the end, prepare the duck vinaigrette. Put everything in a bottle, add salt and shake – duck really needs some sweetness.

Turn the duck breast skin side down and cut about 7 pieces from one. Always try to cut against the fibres. Pour over the sauce, add the veggies and drizzle with vinaigrette. Enjoy!

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How to achieve that? The easy way is sous vide. Just put one egg or thirty inside a water bath and you will have a perfect egg in less than in one hour.

For 2 portions

2 organic eggs
1/4 fennel
100 g kale
100 g daikon
20 g black olives
50 ml olive oil
10 ml rice vinegar (plus 5 ml)
1 tsp honey
1 shallot
1 avocado
1 mustard cress
50 g smoked salmon
10 g butter
salt, pepper

Start with cooking the egg. I chose 62,8 °C for about 45 minutes. It’s going to work at a different temperature: 63, 64, 65 or even 59.  It’s just matter of the time. After cooking, break the shell, it will slip out. Season and serve.

Blanch the kale in boiling water, cool it down in some water with ice and just reheat it with clarified butter before serving. Season to taste.

The dressing is pretty simple. Blend the pitted olives with 10 ml of vinegar and oil. There should be still pieces of olives inside. Season with salt, but pay attention, it really depends on taste of the olives.

Cut the shallot in half and put it in a plastic container. Drizzle with olive oil, add vinegar (5 ml), honey and salt. Put it in a microwave and cook for about 1 to 2 minutes. Let it cool down and divide into separate layers.

Slice the fennel thinly and put it in cold water. Grate the daikon finely and cut the avocado: we had a really hard one, so we used a peeler. A soft one would be definitely better.

Put everything on a plate and add a few slices of smoked salmon. Drizzle with the dressing and you are ready to go! Enjoy!

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The New Year has arrived and here comes the first recipe! Jan got a sous vide device by Anova as a present, so he just couldn’t wait to give it a try. He had a really great time, so you can look forward to a whole series of sous vide recipes this year.

This recipe surprised me a lot and I have to admit that orange chickpeas with fennel works very well. If you like, you can always use fish instead of chicken: it works great, too.

For 2 portions

2 chicken breasts
100 g dried chickpeas (soaked in water for at least 2 hours or overnight)
½ fennel
½ onion
2 cloves of garlic
skin of one orange
200 ml orange juice
20 ml red wine vinegar
1 tsp cumin
500 ml chicken stock
50 g butter
20 ml olive oil
lemon salt
pepper

First, let’s prepare the chickpeas. Dice the fennel and put the green part aside, you’ll need it later. Cut the onion the same way and sauté together with fennel and chopped garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the chickpeas and stock. Add finely grated orange skin and bring to boil. Cook for about 1-2 hours, depends how  hard the chickpeas is.

When it’s ready, add the orange juice, roasted cumin and vinegar. Cook for another 20 minutes. At the end just add 30 g of butter, mix it in and season with salt and pepper. You can also strain the chickpeas, reduce the stock and pour it back in.

Season the chicken and sear it skin side down until golden. Vacuum seal the meat (or you can put it in a thicken Ziplock bag). If you want to cook sous vide more often, it’s ideal to have a vacuum sealer, it’s not that expensive and it saves you a lot of trouble. Add the rest of the butter and cook at 63,5 °C for 30 minutes. Of course, it depends on the meat: for two 200 g breasts 30 minutes is enough, if it’s a larger chicken it can take up to 90 minutes. Once it’s finished, just give it a quick sear on the pan and you are ready to serve.

Cut the chicken and season with lemon salt (or any salt you prefer). Cut the green top parts of the fennel into slices and decorate the plate with the leaves (they look a bit like dill). Drizzle with olive oil and you are ready to go! Enjoy!

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