Roast Potatoes

For roast potatoes you need 2 ingredients;
1, Good, tasty potatoes - I use spuds from the local farm shop, Bradshaws. They grow and sell Wilja and another type of spud that escapes me now, but they're both very nice spuds.
2, Fat - animal fat is best, mostly because it has a high smoke/burn point. Other oils are fine for purpose but obviously there's less flavour with processed oils. If you don't know what a high smoke point is have a look here. I also like to use butter coz it's nice.
Peel the spuds.
Cut them into roast potato size pieces (this is up to you but the smaller you cut them, the less fluffy potato you'll have) and put in a pan with water and put on the heat. 
You'll want to simmer until tender, around 30 mins. 
Put the oven on and put a suitable tray in there with the high smoke point fat in it.
Drain the spuds in a colander and toss them to fluff them up a bit. 
Carefully put them in the hot fat and make sure they get turned in the fat. Take a few slices of butter and put it on top of the potatoes. Put them in the oven at 180c for around 45mins. After 45mins take them out and turn them and stick em back in for 30mins. 
They will then be tastetastically crispy and lovely.

Sous Vide Eggs

Ironic that eggs are apparently the 'entry' dish into sous vide cooking! I think that cheap beef should take that title as it's such a successful dish for me!
Anyway, I say ironic because eggs are not a good sous vide ingredient. Also, eggs come in their own perfect cooking vessel, but you need to vac pack these in case they crack in the Sous Vide bath. Worse if you have a circulator!
I always thought that egg whites cooked at a lower temp than the yolks, but the opposite is true. 
So if you cook the eggs at around 64c, the yolk will be soft and lovely. The whites however, will be like snot, as the 2 proteins in the whites don't solidify until around 80c, at which point the yolk is grey and ruined! That's why eggs are perfect for traditional boiling.

Sous Vide Confit Duck Leg 12 hours @ 75c

Bought a couple of cheap ducks from Co-op so had to do something with them!
Skinned, took the breasts off, took the legs off but left the skin on, took the wings off and cut the carcass in half.
I roasted the carcass with some onions and made a stock with it.
Put the skin in a pan and rendered the fat on a medium heat. After it had rendered I took the scissors to the skin and chopped it into scratchings. Continue cooking in the fat until crispy.
I bagged up the breasts and saved them.
I made a rub for the legs and wings with salt, fresh oregano and bay leaves. Coated the legs with the mix and put them in the fridge overnight. The fat was also setting during this time.
Next day, wash the legs, pat them dry on kitchen towel, bag up with a spoonful of fat for each leg. Do the same for the wings. Cook at 75c for 12 hours.
Never had better confit du cannard! Absolutely melt in the mouth fantastic! Even the wings were awesome.
One negative was that I spilt a glass of red over the vacuum sealer, and broke it! Bugger!

Sous Vide Pheasant

Bought a whole Pheasant from the butchers. De-boned it. 
Bagged the legs and cooked at 75c for 8hrs.
Bagged the breast and cooked at 64c for 60mins. The reason I cooked it at this temp was that I was also cooking a Rabbit saddle that I thought needed this a higher temp. 
It was good but would be better at a lower temp. 
Next time I'd cook the Rabbit at 60c for 45mins.
The Pheasant probably only needs 55c. 
I'll keep an eye out online for others ideas.
Afterwards I realised that I'd got the bags of leg and breast mixed up! The breast was dry and over cooked but the leg was very good!  

Sous Vide Rabbit

Bought a whole Rabbit from the butchers. De-boned it with the help of youtube.
Bagged the legs and cooked at 75c for 12hrs.
Bagged the saddle and cooked at 64c for 60mins. The rabbit was good but maybe the temp was a little high? It seemed a little grainy, which I guess Rabbit is. Next time maybe 60c for 45mins.
The legs were lovely. The best rabbit I've ever had. I'm thinking that the saddle is the same as game breast and therefore should be no higher than 57c. 
The rabbit legs would make an amazing pate or terrine. It's definitely going to be a Christmas dish!

Sous Vide Lamb Half Shoulder

Bought a Half Shoulder of lamb from the butchers. 
It looked very good and I was looking forward to eating it. I vac packed it on the day I bought it, think it was Saturday, then started cooking it on the Wednesday @ 57°c for 72hrs. I took it out and chilled it in ice water then it was in the fridge for 24hrs. I took it round to a friends house to have with some Greek salads and dips. I put the oven on at 200°c, cut the bag open and was hit with a really strong smell of parmesan cheese! I told everyone that it was smelly but they didn't seem to be concerned so I carried on. 30 mins in the oven later and out came the lamb. The smell had dissipated but not gone. I tasted the meat and it was obviously ok but it was tainted with that smell! I was gutted as the texture was awesome. Another few lessons learned here. 
1, don't leave meat too long in the fridge before cooking. 
2, trim fat where possible
3, Roast in the oven for longer, min 40mins
4, 12-24hrs is enough. Lamb benefits from long cooking but 72hrs is overkill. 
The wife commented that the meat needed a bit of flavour going through it. I think this is due to the length of time it was cooked as the fat has pretty much gone after this length of time.


Did a second half shoulder today (17/12/2011). This time I did it for 12hrs @ 56c. Took it round to the in-laws with the Beef Topside! This time the lamb was a triumph! No cheese smell! It was quite rare around the bone. I think some were suspicious of the rareness, maybe thinking it wasn't cooked. Maybe crank the heat up to 62-64c next time? 

Sous Vide Venison joint

I bought a Venison joint from the butchers. I've found an instructable that says cook @ 54°c for around 12 hrs. This sounds perfect, I'm looking forward to it already!  
I took this around to the in-laws for sunday dinner.
After the rest of the meal was prepared and the roast potatoes were 30mins away, I put the venison in a hot roasting tray and roasted it for around 20mins.
The texture and taste of the meat was close to liver! It was better than if I'd just roasted it, but if I did it again I think it only needs an hour or 3 in the bath at around 57c, then 30-40mins in a 200c oven. That would be enough cooking for it. A haunch might be different?

Sous Vide brasing steak @ 57°c for 48hrs

I thought that maybe, by sous viding a brasing steak I might get fillet steak results. I was wrong, but it was a good steak, good enough to serve at a diner party as long as you have the posh steak trimmings! I went for a classic mushroom & green peppercorn sauce, broccoli and of course, chips.

I bagged the steak with seasoning, vacced it and put it in the bath @ 57°c for 48hrs. After the 48hrs I opened the bag, poured the juice into the sauce, and seared the steak in a hot pan for around 30 secs to a minute each side.

For the sauce I put a pan on a medium heat and dry fried a tablespoon of green peppercorns. Then chuck them in a grinder. You just want to break them into a few pieces each, so don't over grind them. Next, add little olive oil to the pan. Add the finely diced shallot and gently fry. After a minute add the sliced mushrooms and a bit of butter. Fry for another min then add shot of brandy and reduce on a high heat. Add the meat juices and pepper and reduce for another few mins. Put in a few spoons of reduced beef stock for a boost, then add the cream. As the cream heats and the sauce reduces it'll thicken quite a bit so don't over-do the boiling at this stage. If you've got a lemon knocking about you can finish this sauce with a sqeeze, but not too much.

The broccoli doesn't need explaining does it?

The chips were just oven chips which went in the oven for half an hour, but I'll be sure to post a fantastic chip recipe!