Pollocks it's Monday

Plenty to post this week so sorry this is a day or two late. After all my shopping and cooking over the weekend I knew I had a fair selection of meals in the bank for the week. I wanted something quick and easy for a Monday night. On Sunday I took a couple of pieces of the basil and garlic butter left over from an earlier blog (I packed the extra up into portions and popped them into the freezer). These were popped into a vac pac pack bag and sealed up. Monday night came. I popped the sous vide on to heat up and popped up to my club for a swift pint. On my return, the sous vide had reached 56 C. In went the pollock for a 20 minute bath. Meanwhile I heated my wok and prepared pepper, pak choi, broccoli, ginger, galengal and spring onion. A thinly sliced garlic clove, soy sauce and a pinch of sugar joined the other ingredients for a 4 minute stir fry. I opened the bag and removed the pollock to sear in a hot pan. The butter and juices were added to the stir fry. Once plated up we had a very tasty and fulfilling Monday night meal with minimal work.

Sous Vide Skate

After my Saturday trip to the market I wanted some fish so it was off to Morrisons as they have the best fish in our area in my opinion. It was not a great day for fish as I discovered. No octopus or monk fish let alone turbot so I had to select from what was available. I managed to get a couple of nice skate wings. Pink and shinny with no smell of ammonia. Back home, a trawl of the internet brought up this rather interesting recipe ( http://www.911cheferic.com/component/yoorecipe/recipe/948-sous-vide-skate-lemongrass-court-bouillon).

After watching the rugby, preparing the oranges to make marmalade tomorrow and putting the shopping away I got ready to cook. That was when I read the recipe through properly and discovered I should have made a court bouillon some hours ago. If we were to eat this tonight I had to change the recipe. While I love to make a stock from scratch sometimes it just has to be a Knorr Stock Pot. 250 ml of white wine, 250 ml water, fish stock pot, 2 star anise, a few all spice berries and a teaspoon of fennel seed later and I had something resembling a court bouillon. A quick cool in an ice bath and we were ready to roll. The stock, a little fresh ginger, some lemongrass and the skate joined each other in the sous vide for an hour at 60 C while the fennel chose a hotter bath in my second sous vide at 85 C.

An hour later I took the bags out of the water baths. Seared some of the fennel in a hot skillet. Prepared the fish sauce, pureed the remaining fennel with the coriander leaves, bread crumbed and fried the skate and we finally sat down to a nice supper. After a pizza for lunch we decided one skate wing between too was sufficient for the supper so I still have one wing left to have a little fun with later in the week along with a slab of pollock.

Two Way Chicken with Fennel

Time for a Sunday roast but I wanted to use the sous vide. After a little hunt around I found this rather interesting recipe that I could bend a little.

I took a small chicken and removed the legs and wings and took out the wishbone. I now pressed the crown flatter and placed it in a vac pac bag with a clementine .I still have a few, slightly dry examples kicking around after Christmas. No good for eating but perfect for adding a little flavour. I added some thyme, rosemary and a star anise prior to sealing the bag an popping it in to the sous vide at 70C for 2 hours.

The legs and wings went into an oiled tray with a little sea salt. Covered in foil it went into the fan oven at 120C for 2 hours. The recipe called for a second oven to cook off potatoes and garlic at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes at the end. Knowing the meat would need resting, I popped the potatoes, thyme and a bulb of garlic, broken into cloves (don't peel the cloves.) in about 10 minutes before the end of the chicken roasting, removed the foil from the chicken and knocked the temperature up to 180C. This crisped off the skin on the legs and the wings before I took them out to rest, back under foil for 20 minutes.

Just prior to this I thinly sliced the fennel (a mandolin is best for this) into a non-metallic bowl. A good pinch of sea salt, the zest and juice of a lemon were then added. This was left for around 20 minutes. Once the chicken was resting I placed a frying pan on the heat with some oil and butter. I removed the crown from the sous vide. Dried it and placed it in the now browning butter and oil mix. Once it was fried off on all sides and had taken on a good colour I placed it in foil to rest.

Next step was to wash the fennel in a bowl of cold water and then leave it to drain in a sieve. Once drained I placed it back in a bowl.  I removed the garlic cloves from the oven and popped the potatoes back in for a few more minutes while I finished off the dish. I squeezed the garlic out of the cloves into the fennel and mixed the two together.

Finally, to the plating up. I carved thick slices of the breast from the crown and served these with the leg and wing, some roasted potato and the fennel salad for a simple but very tasty alternative to the traditional roast.

The wine? A Cold Harbour Sauvignon Blanc 2012. A great light wine (10.5%) that means you can enjoy an extra glass or two on a Sunday without worrying about the effect on Monday morning. School night wine :)

Torch it.

I know I bang on about sous vides but they are to cooking in the 21st century what microwaves were to the 20th. Time and money saving devices that, when used correctly, can be a boon to both budget and taste. How many of us have used our microwave to soften butter ready for a sponge rather than killing ourselves trying to soften fridge bricks of butter and creaming it into sugar?

Sure, the sous vide is not cheap. You can pick up a basic model from Robert Dyas for £99 but, if you want a comfortable new machine for the kitchen then you need to invest around £250 on something like a sous vide supreme home machine. Trust me, used properly, it will pay for itself.

This weekend I happened to spot a rolled and boned half lamb shoulder at the supermarket at a greatly reduced price of £2.84. Purchased and brought home it went into a vac pac bag (these machines are around £50 but, again, save a fortune as you vac pack cooked meats etc.). Along with the lamb I put a sprig of rosemary, thyme, some basil and the peel of a clementine. I added two star anise pods and a touch of olive oil (just a teaspoon). The sous vide was set at 54C and in went the bag for 24 hours or so. Tonight, I took out this raw looking package.

Once cut open, the kitchen was flooded with a rich aroma of orange and herbs. I removed the herbs and peel and was left with this unappetising lump.

Now, the secret of sous vide, browning. You can either brown the meat by searing in a very hot pan before cooking or, as I am getting to prefer, searing the meat post sous vide with either a very hot skillet or, as in this case, by using a good blowtorch. After just a minute or two under a flame that can melt silver the slightly more appetising result:

Perfectly cooked lamb that was tasty, tender and pink. After the addition of a vegetables cooked off in the 20th century cooking revolution you have a hot and tasty meal in minutes (I don't count the long and hot bath in the sous vide as cooking time) .

Tuna with basil butter - Perfect supper

I woke up this morning with a need to create something a bit tasty for supper tonight. I was fed up with the constant rain and wanted something to lift the gloom. Tuna was my first choice. Lighter than a meat based meal and I can almost always pick up a great cut of it in town. After a quick scan on the net I found a recipe to fuel the imagination and set off for the shops to see what ingredients I could find. A short while later I returned with tuna, basil, fennel and some extra virgin olive oil.

A few hours later, after the chores were out of the way and we had enjoyed a couple of good 'afternoon' films to help occupy our time as the rain returned, I set about cooking supper. I seasoned two half inch thick tuna steaks and put them in individual ziplock bags with a cup of olive oil and some fresh basil leaves. These went into the sous vide at 43C for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, I dug out my food processor and popped a good handful of basil, a couple of garlic cloves and about 50 grams of unsalted butter in.Once blended, I pitched the resulting mix into some grease proof paper and formed it into a cylinder and popped it into the freezer for a while to set a little. I now prepared the fennel bulb. I cut it into quarters and popped it into a pan of salted boiling water to soften. Once it was tender (after about 10 minutes) I drained it. Put the fennel core quarters to one side on some kitchen paper to dry a little. At this point I put a couple of cast iron skillets on the gas to heat to a good searing temperature. The remaining fennel was pureed using the Bamix.

I put a little groundnut oil in one skillet and caramelized the fennel cores. While this cooked I removed the tuna from the sous vide and opened the bags. The Tuna was placed in the very hot skillet to sear. I turned the tuna after a minute or so and then, once the other side was seared, I placed a good knob of the basil butter on each steak and served up.

The result was fantastic. A succulent tuna steak wit h the peppery basil butter with some fresh lemon rind to cut the butter was well balanced with the pureed fennel and the caramelized fennel heart. A little fresh lemon juice helped to cut the richness of the dish but it is a simple and filling recipe I will be repeating in the future.

Salve, Salve, Salve Fallernum

Sorry for the long break. Trips to Wales and a damned head cold have left me more than a little un-creative but today, full of cold, I decided to fix myself. A little research and a bracing walk in a storm force wind to the supermarket for some ingredients.

1 litre white Bacardi rum
2 oz fresh ginger ( julienned )
15 cloves
10 allspice berries
2 star anise
zest of 5 limes

This all went into a ziplock bag then into the sous vide for 2 hours at 60C

I made a simple syrup with 2 cups of caster sugar to one cup of water. You can spend an age with a jar shaking the mixture until all the sugar dissolves or put the whole lot in a pan and bring it to the boil. Simmer until all the crystals are dissolved then cool.

I juiced the limes and, once the cooking was complete and cooled, I mixed the simple syrup, lime juice and sous vide flavoured rum together and bottled it. 1.5 litres or so of comforting, warming Fallernum cordial. A perfect salve for a cold and a great addition to a cocktail.

There are a lot of old recipes for cocktails with Fallernum cordial and a lot of recipes for the same cordial. This is mine. A friend who owns a cocktail bar got a taste and proclaimed it needed nothing more for a perfect drink. I think it would be great with crushed ice and soda water. Another taster reckoned on tonic water. All I say is try it. Perfect right from the bottle for a cold or mixed for an old style cocktail.

Making the most of what you have

We had guests due round for a meal on Friday. The main course was already sorted out. I was going to serve the Tuna with fennel and coriander rub I mentioned a few blogs back (http://creative-eating.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/a-hard-day-needs-quick-but-special-meal.html) . I was a little stuck for a first course.

Every Friday my vegetable box turns up from Able and Cole (http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/) . It always adds to the weekend fun not knowing what I am going to have to work with. In this weeks box were some beetroot. I knew I had a small piece of pork belly in the fridge so a simple starter of pork and beetroot came to mind. In order to spice things up a little I grabbed some mixed pepper corns, fresh ginger, garlic, some sugar and some balsamic vinegar.

Once the spices had met with the Bamix they formed a good looking paste to marinade the pork in for an hour or two prior to a long hot bath in the sous vide at 85C for 5 hours.

Now to deal with the beetroot. It could also be cooked for about 3 hours at the same temperature as the pork. First I had to spruce them up a bit. I managed to pick up a great pair of scrubbing gloves that are perfect for root or potatoes if you want to leave the skin intact.

Scrubbed up. Topped and tailed. Skin scored with a sharp knife to let the flavour in. They were ready to take a hot bath with some ginger and balsamic vinegar too.

Just in time for dinner I took the pork out of the sous vide and cut off small portions for the starter. I crisped the skin in a very hot skillet. While this took form, I toasted some sesame seeds off. Sliced the beetroot and got ready to plate up. I glazed the pork with a little crab apple jelly. A few fresh baby beetroot leaves for garnish and the dish looked sufficiently impressive.

I followed this dish with the tuna served with some sweet potato chips and asparagus. They were sufficiently photogenic.

The same cannot be said for the Æbleskiver. This time I used buttermilk and placed a kirsch pickled black cherry at the centre of each. Served with some cassis and a good vanilla ice cream they tasted great but more practice is needed to get an even colour fit for the camera.

A hard day needs a quick (but special) meal

Weekends seem to have become a period of toil lately. A few weeks of hard slog removing the old summer house and turning it into bite sized fire wood. Last weekend erecting the new summer house and then this weekend arrives with a damp patch on the ceiling. The shower pump has sprung a leak so I need to spend tomorrow clearing the attic so the plumber can fit a new one. Today we cleared up the back bedroom so the attic treasure horde can be moved there and found time to put another coat of preservative on the new summer house.

Now that the sun has set we are salving our aches and pains with a glass of bubbly while I plan the evening meal. We want something quick, easy but a little special as it is the weekend. In preparation I picked up a nice chunk of tuna.

 I have cut it into two thick steaks and have prepared a great rub I found on the web. I make it up in bulk as it is great on lamb, tuna and pork. The rub tub is empty so time for a new batch tonight. The recipe:

1/2 cup Fennel seeds

6 tbsp Coriander seed

2 tbsp White Pepper. 

Blitz for 30 seconds in the Bamix (you want it coarse ground)

The rub looks great and smells fantastic and will keep for a week or three in the fridge in a tightly sealed jar or container.

Next I add plenty of the rub to the tuna. Make sure you use plenty of rub. The natural moisture and protein on the tuna will grip it.

Now place it in a vacpac bag with a dash of olive oil before vacuuming, sealing and popping into a pre heated sous vide at 54C for 15 minutes.

While this cooks through I heat a cast iron skillet to a searing temperature. A steamer is loaded with some spinach, french beans and broccoli about 5 minutes before the tuna is ready for the next stage.



5 minutes have passed. The bag is quickly opened. A dash of groundnut oil into the very hot skillet (don't use olive oil or it will burn). In goes the tuna for about a minute each side just to sear the surface and toast the rub. Serve the vegetables. Take the tuna from the pan and slice into thick slices. Present and serve with a quick pinch of sea salt and black pepper and a dash of basil infused olive oil over the tune. 20 minutes and you have a great meal.

Service :)

Blackberry days are over

October 11th. The day that the devil urinates (or spits) on blackberries and we have to leave this wonderful free wild food to the birds. Old British folklore says that on this day, Lucifer was thrown from Heaven and landed in a bramble bush. Every year, on this anniversary, he spits or urinates on the brambles turning the fruit sour and unfit for human consumption.

We have had a good year for blackberries. We have a thornless variety (with plenty of thorns ??) growing against the fence in our front garden which provides us with a plentiful supply of large blackberries from late August until now. These are best eaten fresh from the bush as you walk past or with a little ice cream. This year we also grew a plant called a fourberry (http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Fruit/Soft+Fruit/Other+Soft+Fruit/Fourberry+Black+Gem_274655.htm)  which produces a large blackcurrant like fruit that is sweeter and juicer than a blackcurrant. This new, tart berry ripens around the same time and compliments the blackberry well,

Although the home grown blackberries get eaten fresh we love to pick wild blackberries from time to time as there are two favourite preserves I make to keep the memory of late summer days and the flavour of blackberries going through the rest of the year. You will need to pick a fair few but it is worth it.

Blackberry Brandy

This is so simple and simply delicious in a hip flask on a cold winters day watching rugby. Take enough washed blackberries to half fill a 2 litre Kilner jar. Add a litre of brandy (don't go using the best, a reasonably priced supermarket brand is ideal). Shake and place in an easy to reach cupboard as you will need to take it out every few days for a week or two to shake it. After two or three weeks, place it in a dark cupboard and leave it for about three months. You now need to strain it through a couple of layers of muslin. I normally strain it into another clean Kilner jar and leave it for a few more weeks (months is better as time improves the flavour) so that any remaining fruit sediment sinks to the bottom. Carefully pour off the blackberry brandy and sweeten with stock syrup to taste (I prefer mine without sweetening). Bottle and store in a dark place until you need a reminder of summer.

For the impatient, get yourself a sous vide. Place enought  blackberries to fill a 1 litre ziplok cooking bag. Add as much brandy as you can get in to the bag and place in the sous vide at 60C for at least 2 hours. Strain, sweeten and bottle. Not as good as the one made in the traditional way but it might satisfy your taste until the three or 4 months of waiting for the good stuff are over.

Blackberry Jelly

First place a saucer in the fridge. Take at least two kilograms of washed blackberries and juice them. Weigh the juice and for every kilogram of juice add a kilogram of jam sugar (with pectin added) and the juice of 2  lemons. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer for 1 hour. Increase the heat to just under 220C. Check the set of the jelly on the saucer. It will be a very soft set but should crease when pushed. Bottle and store. I find this keeps really well until opened when it needs to be kept in the fridge.

This soft jelly is a perfect accompaniment for lamb or a good steak, seasoned with pepper and salt, seared in a very hot pan, rested and then drizzled with a teaspoon or two of this velvet sauce. It is also an easy way to lift a sauce or jus destined for a red meat course. Just add a teaspoon to the sauce to develop a rich and subtle fruit edge.

One final comment on this great free fruit. In Shakespear's day Lawyers were known as brambles. They catch you and hold on to you until they draw blood :)

Summer memories

Having found my compact camera (I have a nice SLR but it is a pain to carry at times) I uploaded it's memory onto my laptop. As I scanned through the collected photographs I got to a point where I was transported back to a very warm walk at the port in Dubrovnik back in August this year. It was my wife's birthday and we were on a nice long cruise to Venice and back. On her birthday we were going to be in Dubrovnik, a port we have been  to before. Great for a simple lunch but this had to be something special.
A little research on-line revealed that good food was easy to find but great food....

I eventually found recommendations for a little place a stones throw from the cruise port. Good reviews on TripAdvisor but best of all was a recommendation from the Turkey Twizzlers arch nemesis, Mr Jamie Oliver. A little place called Amfora. A restaurant, bar and hotel on the cruise terminal.I contacted them on Facebook and requested a lunchtime booking. A day or so later I received a reply. Having confirmed the booking and informed them it was my wife's birthday the level of service became evident when they asked if a cake might be appropriate.

The big day approached. The previous day I had ordered a romantic breakfast on out balcony as we sailed in to Venice. This would have been the perfect start to a few days of celebration if P&O had not managed to screw up and deliver champagne breakfast very late just as we were ready to go ashore rather than as we pulled in to the centre of Venice. No pressure now, romantic breakfast a farce, the big day had to go like clockwork.

I was a little worried that we might end up being the 'lucky ship' and get to enter Dubrovnik by launch. That would involve a complication of a taxi to the restaurant. Fortunately, we steamed right into port and moored just around the corner from the Amfora. We strolled ashore in a cool 40C and pottered up the road to the restaurant. Having eventually found it (never trust GPS on walking mode) we were very warm and in need of a cold beer.

We entered the restaurant and I approached the barman to explain we had a reservation praying he spoke English. Within a second our future waitress stepped in, confirmed we had a table and provided us with two ice cold beers in the bar area so we could cool down before going through to the restaurant.

Once we had returned to normal temperature, we were led through to our table. The menu arrived along with the wine list and I knew we had struck gold. The restaurant is right next to the kitchen, you can watch as your fare is prepared and presented to your table. The menu is exciting, as is the wine list. Local produce and wine served to perfection without the empty feeling in the wallet. As we discovered later, this is a bar, restaurant and hotel so I guess longer stays and deeper dives into the menu are on the cards.

As to the day, I started with a local cheese, not dissimilar to mozzarella but far creamier served in a beautiful basil and olive oil dressing. Simple but stunning. Their use of local produce really tells.

Next was caramelized octopus served with fennel in a Dalmatian Parsley and Garlic sauce. The Octopus had been cooked in a sous vide and then caramelized in honey and sesame seed. This was a stunning way to serve what can be a bland sea food.

We were offered dessert but reminded that a cake was on its way. I was expecting the usual excuse for a celebration cake I have seen at a number of establishments. Our local Indian has come out tops with a well made Victoria sponge with a candle in the top compared to the worst unmemorable splurge of cream on a pastry something with a candle and 'Happy Birthday' scrawled in chocolate sauce. That was until now. we decided to forego the dessert and went for the cake. Were we disappointed ? you decide..

This stunning chocolate mousse cake was light and absolute heaven for chocolate lovers. My wife was delighted and so was I. Fantastic service. Great food. Exciting local wine. Great cocktails. We must go back

In case you were wondering where to find this hidden gem if you happen to be passing near Dubrovnik, here is their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amfora-Mediterranean-Grill-Pasta/137977956245703?fref=ts  .Seek them down and contact them on Facebook and I am sure they will go out of their way to look after you.

Two Sheds Brown

Sorry guys. No real post today. Dead on my feet having spent the last three days clearing the end of the garden. removing the old summer house. Carrying out a war of attrition against the colony of false widow spiders that appreciated my last build (some fourteen years ago) and proofing the new build against easy colonisation of the new building.

Thanks to http://www.tigersheds.com for providing such a perfect DIY build. Apart from the odd 'what the hell does this mean' with regards to the door construction and a remembrance of the pine helter skelltersI enjoyed as a kid  (I got up onto the new pine roof and found it was rather slippery. Managed to hang on to the ridge by my fingertips until my wife had footed the ladder again)  it went up in no time. Joints slotting together like a well made puzzle. We will spend the next few weeks preserving and painting the wood but at around 17:00 BST today I threw the hammer off the roof having fastened the last shingle to the roof and descended the ladder. Once it was secure, I made my way to the front of our new summer house to be met with a glass of Piper Heidsieck and a packet of Wotsit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wotsits). We know how to live.

Knowing that today would be the culmination of a three day trial to clear the area, construct the log cabin and make it weatherproof ready for the British Autumn, I had put some nice lamb shoulder shanks in the sous vide on Friday. 48 Hours plus at 62.5 C that turned the shanks into a buttery treat infused with the fresh thyme sprigs and olive oil they had been cooked in.

With my last ounces of strength I hoisted a good sized cast iron skillet onto the stove. Heated it to a searing temperature and popped the lamb shanks onto it. The meat was too tender to brown the shank but sufficient was caught on the pan to crust the bottom with a promise of a fine sauce. I threw in some very finely sliced onion and a clove of garlic before de-glazing the pan with a little Rioja and a touch of balsamic vinegar. I added the jus from the sous vide bag and reduced it whilst removing the jacket potatoes that my wife had put in the oven at 200C an hour earlier from the oven, serving with butter and a good measure of peas I had just steamed.

I plated this simple supper up and transported it to the new summer house where my wife had located a small Paris table and chairs and served a good Languedoc white from Sainsburys (Yes I know red is nice with lamb but not when you are up at 6:30 tomorrow).

Sorry, no photos but after all the toil and nothing to eat since the boiled egg and soldiers to gird the loins ready for the task at hand at 9:15 am the last thing on my mind was a camera. I did prepare a second batch of shanks for later in the week so watch this space.

We sat and enjoyed our hard work. Ate our well planned supper, and planned the rest of our week around wood preserving, lighting and networks. Now I am enjoying a good Armagnac (for medicinal purposes) and am looking forwards to an early night to enjoy my aches and pains in the certain knowledge of a job well done both on the future location of meals and the meal to christen our hideaway at the end of the garden.

A Prize Beef Joint

Last Friday I pottered up to my local social club with my wife for a well deserved beer to end a busy week. Having delivered me a good pint of London Pride, the landlord asked if we wanted to enter the weekly meat raffle so we handed over £3 and were presented with 3 tickets. Thirst sated and reminded that we were to be at the club the following day for an end of season drunkards v the pro's bowling match. 

The following morning we strolled up to the club to find we had won the top prize, a good piece of beef. After the bowling where we demonstrated our skills and came joint last, we picked up this rather fine joint of beef which, I am sure you will all agree, was a bargain at £3

 There is only the two of us and we were not in the mood for guests having spent the rest of the weekend pulling down the old summer house in preparation for the delivery of a new one later this week. This in mind, I decided to cut the joint into three.

We don't have beef very often as it is not my wife's favourite meat so, to date , I had not tried cooking a joint in the sous vide. Since this had cost us so little I thought I would give it a try. All three pieces were vacuum packed. Two for the freezer and one for supper.

Though I like my beef blue, my wife prefers her meet slightly cooked so I set the sous vide to 56.5C to cook the beef to medium rare and once it had reached temperature I submerged the meat in the sous vide for five hours. On removing it, it looked like this.

After removing the vacuum bag the meat looked cooked but very uninteresting as you can see.

I was not worried at this point. Anyone who uses a sous vide knows that you need to brown meat  before or after cooking to caramelize the outside and add that necessary something to the flavour. To this end I had a very hot cast iron skillet ready. I seasoned the beef and treated it to a short but very hot sear in the pan. This made the beef much more interesting. Once rested, I carved it and served it with roast potato cooked in goose fat, broccoli, peas and a jus made by de-glazing the pan with red wine and adding from the juices from the vacuum bag. 

As you can see, cooking meat in the sous vide enables you to get a constant level of cooking through the joint, A sear in a very hot oven, or my preference, a very hot pan or barbecue and you have a perfectly cooked joint that looks great when carved and served. I had confidence that this meat would be tender but I could have left the beef in the sous vide for 10 hours. This would have broken down the collagen in the meat and made it even more tender without cooking it any more than medium rare.

Holidays are coming

I guess I have to admit that another summer has bitten the dust. I have just a few weeks to put together a few treats for friends and family. I know a lot of people feel like a cheapskate if they give a home made item as a gift but, trust me, I find that people just love a home made preserve or liqueur.

A few weeks ago, I dragged my sous vide up to a local restaurant at the request of the owner to demonstrate it's abilities. That afternoon I knocked up a batch of quick limoncello for them. I took some tuna and some sea bass and wowed them with three simple recipes that I will share with you at some point.

     While I cocked the tuna (in a fennel seed, coriander and white pepper rub) in the sous vide, we sampled the limoncello and I explained the ease with which this great after dinner drink could be made. A new chef had joined the team fresh from Italy and seemed suitably impressed with both the taste and the speed that this could be produced. He mused over other potential treats and suggested an orange version. That stuck away in a little dark corner of my mind until last weekend when I found oranges on offer at my local supermarket.

    The oranges lodged in my basket, I set off to find some white caster sugar and a bottle of the stores own vodka. There is little point in using the best vodka for this (far better to buy a bottle of the good stuff along with the cheap stuff and store it in the freezer with a couple of thick shot glasses to warm you up on a cold night)

    Ingredients obtained, I headed off home. Next, I kick started the sous vide and loaded it with water from the hot tap to speed up the heating process. In case you are not familiar with sous vide cooking then take a look here  http://www.sousvidesupreme.com . In essence a hot water bath with a thermostat accurate to 0.5C. These used to be stupidly expensive but in the last few years companies like http://www.lakeland.co.uk hve started to knock them out at sub £300 prices. To make best use you will also need a vaccum sealing machine but it can save you a fortune.

   

    Back to the recipe. I set the sous vide to 60C and left it to warm through. I used a good potato peeler to remove the orange skin, taking care to avoid the pith (if you to peel to deep then you can use a sharp knife to remove it from the peel).

I placed all the peel in a 1 Litre cooking quality ziploc bag and added a litre of vodka. Unless you want to spend at least £800 on a chamber vacuum sealer then this is the best solution for cooking liquids in a sous vide. You can use the Archimedes method (http://blog.sousvidesupreme.com/2011/06/sealing-liquids-archimedes-principle/) to remove the air from the bag or zip around 90% of the seal and gently squeeze until the liquid is just above the seal (and there is no visible air at the seal) and then close the bag. I then popped this into the sous vide for about 4 hours (2 will do but the longer the better until the peel is pale)

While this cooked out I mad a simple stock syrup. I measured 1 litre of water into a pan and added 1Kg of white caster sugar. I placed this on the stove and heated it until it started to bubble and the liquid was clear. This disolves all of the sugar into the water creating the syrup. this can now be cooled and stored.

Once the orange and vodka had cooked out I removed the bag from the sous vide and left it to cool while still sealed. The beauty of the sealed bag is that non of the alcohol vapour escapes.

As you can see, the vodka has taken on the colour, and trust me, the flavour of the orange peel. Once the vodka was cool I strained it into a large jug and added 600ml of the stock syrup to the vodka (if you try this then alter the amount according to your own taste but remember it will not taste as sweet the warmer it is). I then bottled this ready for Christmas gifts (and the chefs perks too :) )

No, I did not waste the oranges. They were juiced and ready for breakfast. An alternative would be to replace some of the water in the stock syrup with filtered juice add a sweet orange taste.