Cooking in a plastic bag doesn’t exactly come across as romantic. Those who like a little drama in the kitchen might miss the pop and sizzle of the stovetop, or those tense moments when you’re not sure if something’s been in the oven for a little too long.
Not your deal? Then there’s a great, stress-free way to make food: sous-vide. The French makes it sound fancier than it is, which is essentially vacuum-sealing something and cooking it in a water bath.
Meat, fish, vegetables — it all can be put in the water bath.
“This method ensures a highly flavoured dish ends up on the table,” says cook, cookbook author and food stylist Susann Kreihe. That’s because the sous-vide method helps to concentrate the flavours: “You experience a kind of flavour explosion,” says Kreihe, who recommends being careful with how you season the dish. It’s also a fairly technical method, though “it practically cooks on its own.”
Once the food is in the water bath, there’s not much else to do; you can even leave the apartment to run errands, says cook Michael Koch. “The only mistake you can make is not to cook it long enough.”
Sous-vide was developed in France in the 1870s. It began at first as a way of cooking large amounts of food in a way that made them taste good. “I worked with these devices more than 20 years ago as a cook, when they were bigger and more expensive,” recalls Koch.
What earlier was reserved only for fancy kitchens has now reached the mainstream.
Interested amateur chefs can either buy a thermaliser — a water bath, like those used in professional kitchens — or as cheaper alternative, the sous-vide stick. These devices are clamped to the side of a pot, warm the water inside and control the temperature.
A vacuum-sealer is also required for sous-vide. While professional devices often carry price tags of four figures, you can find ones meant for the home for less than US$100, says Kreihe. For beginners, you can also just use a resealable Ziplock bag, she adds.
“It’s a good idea to start with something simple,” says Kreihe. For example, chicken breast isn’t so sensitive to temperature that 2 or 3 degrees difference equals big changes in flavour. “It does well with many flavours and can cook in a basic water bath at 65 degrees”.
Sous-vide also makes meat look good: “Through the sous-vide method, you can cook a steak perfectly,” promises expert Heiko Antoniewicz.
What’s important is that the meat is then once again quickly seared in a pan. “That must also happen pretty quickly afterwards in order to end the cooking process,” adds the expert in sous-vide cooking. – dpa
