The Food Canon

I have been making roast pork Cantonese style from time to time (check the posts here) and I have settled into a method which I have found to be easy and consistent. My aim is to have the meat cook just right and juicy while the skin is crisped. There are various ways of roasting pork belly and of course, a regular oven can be used. 

As I predicted, Sous Vide cooking will get increasingly popular in homes.

My favourite SV gadgets, still, are the SV enabler ones, like Codlo. I have waxed lyrical about it in 2014. I do have other types of SV appliances including the water bath and the stick ones, but by far, the one I use the most is Codlo. Four years later, my mind has not changed.

It is versatile. It can be employed to cook a pair of eggs or a 6 kg of vacuum-packed beef. It can be used to cook soups and braises, using the food-safe temperature sensor. The simple rice cooker is very efficient as a cooker, with heat rising from the bottom. This means a noisy water circulator is not necessary. As Codlo has not heating element, this means it is reliable and can be counted on for long hours of SV cooking. And it is small, compact and very mobile.

I can go on and on but I cannot imagine doing my SV cooking without it. it is simple the best soft-boiled maker there is and then some.

But, sigh, Codlo has gone from Uno to zero.

That's right. It was sold to Grant Cuisine where it was renamed Uno. Quite predictably, they have discontinued Uno.

Why did Codlo disappear? For one thing, most Western homes do not use a rice cooker. Secondly, Codlo never had the financial muscle to market her product globally.

What it means is that the Sous Vide enabler may no longer be manufactured anymore.

However, an Asian manufacturer who understand how to market it to one fifth of the world population which is eating rice may succeed. This is my hope. And I am sure, the hope of many Asian home cooks as well.

Meanwhile, I am laying hold of as many of this as I can get and they are serving me very well at home and in church.

Hopefully, someone out there can see a business opportunity in this and keep this fantastic gadget humming into the future.

If you agree wth me, drop a note on Facebook or on this blog :).

I should add that I like Joule (by Chef Steps) too and hope they will make one for UK and other markets which uses 230-240V AC.

I have been asked if Beef rendang can be made using the Sous Vide method and the answer is absolutely yes.

For braising recipes with long cooking hours, I often use the SVmethod. I find it convenient to cook the meat beforehand as it frees up stove space and time for me to cook other dishes.

Beef rendang is one good recipe for this. I have already blogged the recipe here and it is also found in page 87 of my cookbook. Beef Rendang is a wonderful dish to serve for dinner parties and the SV way can make a delicious version. .

The traditional way of cooking beef rendang will end up with the meat picking up a lot of flavours from the rempah. For this reason, I use the cheeper and leaner cuts like chuck, top-side or shin beef.

If I am using Sous Vide, I will have better control over the meat and work at a balance where the meat almost taste like steak and yet you have  delicious rempah. I will go for higher marbled cuts like brisket or Short rib. After long SV cooking, it will have a "melt in your mouth" effect.

Sous Vide Rendang beef is not necessary better. It is just a different kind of rendang.

It involves three steps:

1. Sous Vide cook the beef for 24 to 48 hours
2. Cook the "rempah"
3. Add the beef and braise for 20-30 minutes.

In the recipe here, I am going for a green looking rendang through using green chillies. As I am not braising the rempah for a long time, it will result in a fresher looking rempah with some of the colours retained.  (??)

As for kerisik, you can now easily buy from local stores. However, there is nothing like making your own.

Ingredients

2 kg of boneless Short rib beef

For the Rempah (Paste)

To blend:
20 pieces of green chillies or 10 pieces of green chilli padi
15 Shallots
1 inch turmeric (kunyit)
1 inches of galangal (blue ginger or lengkuas)
1 inches of ginger

2 stalks of lemon grass – bruised
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
100 ml fresh coconut milk (optional)
2 dried tamarind slices (asam gelugur or asam keping)
2 tbsp of kerisik
3 Kaffir lime leafs, diced finely (to garnish)
1 cinnamon stick

Steps

Preparing the Kerisik

1. Use 1 grated coconut (clean, without any husks). 
2. In a wok on low fire, toast the coconut till it is brown in colour, but not burnt. Stir from time to time to prevent burning. It will take about 30 minutes.
3. Using a strong blender, blend it till it is only. You can also use mortar - will be a lot of hard work!
4. Reserve the kerisik for other use i..e Nasi Ulam. It stores well for weeks in the fridge. 

Preparing the meat

Making the rempah

L-R: Sous Vide Magic, Demi-Supreme, Anova Top: Codlo

If you do a lot of Sous Vide cooking, and assuming you can afford it, it is useful to have more than one type of appliance.

I have been using Anova, Codlo, Sous Vide Supreme and Sous Vide Magic.
I know this may sound like over-indulging a cook's fascination with kitchen appliances but I don't own all of them. Some are shared with my Mum-in-law and they are also used in my church food ministry. They fulfil a wide range of sous vide cooking needs.

I will let you know what I think of them.

"A very important thing to realize is that tougher or fattier meats always have better flavor; this is why osso buco and the short rib are so delicious and filet mignon will never be found on a menu where I am chef.” - Mario Batali

I will be cooking a few lots of Short-rib beef this Christmas. When cooked the Sous Vide way, it turns into a stunning piece of beef which belies its price and is a great party-pleaser.

So, what is your idea of a good steak? This will work for me:

• Good flavour
• Good marbling
• Succulent & Meltingly tender
• Firm texture (as your knife cuts though it, the steak - though pink - stays firm)

And best of all, if I can have this in the confines of my home, budget and cooking equipment.

This batch of Char Siew turns our flavourful using Sous Vide

The classy sounding French term "Sous Vide" may give the impression that this is a modern and difficult way of cooking. Google the net and you will find complicated temperature charts and fanciful equipment. One reason may well be the fact that SV has been used in many restaurants and chefs who teach this technique tend towards detailed elaborations.

As with most dishes, a combination of techniques are often used to cook them: steaming, deep-frying, pan-searing, grilling in the oven and so on. Having another kitchen gadget or adding another technique simply gives you more options.

If you have been following my blog, you will know that for Sous Vide cooking (SV), I like to use those appliances which can be paired with rice cookers. They are often called PID controllers or an enabler device.

I prefer to use SV-enablers because they are compact, mobile and flexible when it comes to different types and sizes of pots. They can work on any analogue appliance with a mechanical switch. As I already have rice cookers in my  kitchen, I now have added use for them.

I am currently on Sabbatical leave and will be in Toronto for the next few months.

I wasn't sure I would be blogging about anything as I will be staying in a student hostel. Since arriving, I have found out that they do have a decent pantry which can pretty much do everything.

I am glad I brought my Sous Vide device with me. In the cold of Toronto, a warm set of perfect soft-boiled eggs garnished with some soy sauce will make a good start for the day. The eggs here are fresh and I bought some free-range ones.

(I have since got my hand on Codlo and did a little review here. Get your Codlo here.)

If you are still unsure about picking up Sous-vide cooking, Codlo may just help to get you going.

As followers of this blog will know by now, I am a huge believer in Sous-vide cooking for the home. You can check up on related posts and the devices I am using.

I have always been hoping that someone would design a Sous-vide device which is attractive and user-friendly. Currently, most SV appliances look like lab machines, more suited for geeks than home cooks.

So when Grace Lee from Codlo.com wrote in recently to inform me about their new Sous Vide project, it caught my attention immediately. Codlo is every bit how I imagined a Sous-vide device should be - and more.

I have written a few posts on making Char Siew the wok way.

It's helpful to note that there are many ways to cook your CS and if you experiment enough and know where you want to go, you can use the technique that works for you.

A good slice of Char Siew basically has these qualities:

1. Good Flavours: This comes from the marinade/brine, the meat itself (including fat content) caramelization & charring from the cooking process. 
2. Good bite: Properly cooked, the meat should have a good bite (Cantonese: "Song hou") and you are not looking for "pulled meat" or a "melt in your mouth" experience
3. Succulent: The meat should not be dry but moist and juicy 

My girls love Japanese rice and meals.

This is one reason why I have made some effort to learn to cook it at home. I have posted a recipe for Chirashi rice. I like these one-bowl meals as they are convenient to make.

In this post, I will list out some details on how to make "Gyudon" or Japanese Rice Beef Bowl, using Short-rib Beef. What motivated me to cook this is the $60 bowl of rice with some beef which I had at a Japanese restaurant recently. I absolutely loved it but I found it too pricey. After making this, I really don't think I will pay for it again.

Japonica rice is widely available in our local markets and you should be able to spot it easily as the grain is shorter compared to Thai long grain rice. They come in various qualities. If you are new to cooking it, I will advise you just pick up any for a start. As you begin to cook it more often, you can try some better varieties. Go here to learn how to cook this rice and what type to buy.

How do you feed more than a hundred hungry men with BBQ beef efficiently? Most of them were from Half-way Houses, and obviously, do not get to enjoy good steaks often.

Good beef is expensive. So, how do you give them an unforgettable experience of great beef without breaking the budget?   

Sous Vide came in very handy again. I bought grain-fed short rib beef, a relatively inexpensive cut ($20+ per kilo). It was SV-ed at 55°C for 36 hours. Then left in the fridge till it was about time to serve. The beef was sliced into strips (fish finger size). It went on the BBQ for about 1-2 minutes, turning to brown all sides for the Maillard browning effect.

When my Malaysian relatives visit me here, they are a very difficult lot to please when it comes to our street food.

However, there is one dish which leaves them stumped in silence and reluctant, quiet praise: Singapore's famous Hainanese Chicken Rice (HCR).

Poached to perfection, the best versions in the world are found here on this little island.

I love Bak Kut Teh. And the version I like most is the one I grew up eating - my Mum's.

Eaten with a bowl of steaming and fluffy white rice, the BKT meal is always a special occasion. Occasionally there will be an additional green veg dish but most times, it is a BKT-only dinner. Auntie Ruby would use pork ribs, pork belly, fried tofu pok (bean curd), button mushrooms (canned ones) and occasionally, she may add intestines.

And the first thing you do when the meals starts is to slurp a few spoonfuls of soup. The pork rib meat is tender enough but not falling off the bone. Dip the rib into dark soy sauce with sliced red chilis and enjoy.

I have earlier memories of my Mum's visit to the Chinese medicine shop to gather the herbs ("chup yok"). Just say you need the herbs to make BKT and the medicine seller would know what to do. I doubt the ones today will know how to do so. As commercially packed BKT herbs are widely available these days, few venture into these medicine halls to assemble them "from scratch."

36-hours 55°C Sous Vide Short Rib

I have received a few requests to explain how the Sous Vide Magic (SVM) can be set up for home use.

I will gather all the essential info on SVM in this post.

The picture below illustrates how the set up is done. As you can see, the rice cooker, working as a water bath, is doing the cooking and the SVM is basically functioning as a temperature controller, switching the rice cooker on and off to do so.

This is a seriously good burger. No kidding.
Since I started cooking Sous Vide Short Rib Beef in earnest, I have always thought that it would go very well in a burger.

• It is firm and yet tender.
• Succulent and moist.
• The flavour is, of course, amazing. 

I finally got down to making a burger with it  it and it has wowed everyone who has tried it.

Slicing it this way to insert into the Mantou Bun

I have blogged recently on using the Sous Vide method to make Chinese style Roast Pork Belly (Sio Bak).

Is there a way to do it all in a day? I also wanted to lower the SV temperature to achieve a firmer bite.

Here is how this recipe works:

(I have since improved on the recipe further. Read it here.)

I continue with my diary on my experiments with Sous Vide cooking.

It has become an indispensable tool in my kitchen and it will be used for this coming CNY dinner. I have said more about it here.

As I have mentioned before, we are getting a glimpse of the modern home kitchen in Sous Vide. But you should not be pressured into jumping on the bandwagon unless you think it will work for you.

Don't expect SV gadgets to be featured by all those lovely elderly housewives pushing the latest woks and pots at the super stores. It will still take some time for the pool of home cooks out there to understand this cooking method.  

After all, cooking appliances like the microwave, oven steamers and pressure cooker have been here for many years now. These are not like communication IT gadgets, where you may feel left out if you ignore it for too long. Till today, these appliances are still catching on for many.

Good morning.

It is Ipoh time again as my brother drove down south this week.

And he brought along some fresh "Kampung" eggs.

I suppose you can call them free range eggs as this "village" chicken roams about and eats off the ground.

This is a simple cheap grain-fed sirloin steak bought from a nearby supermart

Should you try Sous Vide cooking at home?

If you, like me, cook regularly, my answer is most definitely yes.

For those who are new to this rather mysterious-sounding cooking technique, I will give an overview here.

Sous Vide is basically about placing food in a vacuumed pack and then cooking it in a water bath at a precisely controlled constant and gentle temperature. 

This way of cooking is not new. For centuries, Chinese cooks have wrapped glutinous dumplings (rice with mushroom and meat) in lotus leafs to retain moisture, add and mix flavours, and steam it. Malays have long known that one of the best ways to eat fish is to "pangang" it: wrap the fish in a banana leaf and cook it slowly on charcoal fire.

Some think that SV is boiling food. On the contrary, it is about controlling the temperature; this technique hardly needs heat near the boiling point. It is more akin to poaching and slow cooking at low temperatures. Cooks have have long known that slow-cooking produces great results.