Two Meals: Grassfed Brisket & Twice Cooked Scallops Sous Vide
Well one post I’ve been drafting just won’t die, in terms of getting the thing finished and just this morning new info from a favorite source to incorporate. In the meantime, some meals. First, after Sunday’s take at the Farmer’s Market I got right to work on a brisket in the crock pot, along with two bulbs of fennel, a half onion, 1/2 cup of beef stock & some salt & pepper. On high for about six hours. Then I just stirred it and it broke all apart. Notably, it took up all of the liquid from the veggies, the stock and it’s own layer of fat on top. It was phenomenal. As always, click for the higher quality images.
Brisket & Sweet Potato
In the background is sweet potato mash. I just backed the potatoes and then scooped them out into a pan of melted butter, heavy cream (coconut milk might be good), lots of cinnamon and about 1/2 tsp of thyme. I must say that the fennel was a welcome addition to the brisket. A couple of weeks ago we had dinner with some friends who did a similar dish (no onions, the core reason for the fennel instead), so thanks to Kevin & Joseph. The smell in the house as that crock is going is quite special.
I emailed my friend Diana yesterday about doing scallops sous vide and she’d been doing them at 135F for 40 minutes. Then I came across a number of Google hits with Europeans — French mostly — doing them at 49-50C. So, being adventurous, I decided on 50 (122F) for 40 minutes. Also, there was this idea about giving them an ice bath immediately after the cooking, then toast them up in hot butter. That’s what I did. Beatrice loved them so much she ate more than I did, and took the three leftovers to work. I like scallops a lot, but they are far from my favorite seafood. Nonetheless, very good and the texture was quite different, sort of a firm gelatin or custard inside.
Scallops Sous Vide
Then, with a simple leafy green salad with EVOO, lemon, some salt & pepper.
Twice Cooked Scallops
Bon Appetit!
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Words of advice to all of Free the Animal’s followers: Don’t go to his website when you are hungry. Big mistake! However, both meals look delicious and will have to try the brisket recipe in my crock pot.
Richard, was the brisket from Prather Ranch fresh or frozen and how much was it per pound? Thanks.
Ben, all the Prather Ranch meat is fresh (it’s frozen now, though). As I recall, the brisket was around $8-9 lb.
This looks freakin’ fantastic. I’ve been wanting a crockpot for awhile now, I’m not sure whats holding me back. I’m fairly certain I could get one for next to nothing and if all it did was produce Brisket like this, then it would pay for itself in no time.
The food always looks great, but those portions sizes are puny!
It seems like I could eat 5 plates!
Hi,
I made some tries with different temperatures and 50°C is definitely my favorite one. I just don’t understand why you cooled the scallops down in an iced bath?
Jean-François
Jean-Francois:
Always willing to try new things, and I saw this:
instructables.com/id/Twice-Cooked-Sous-Vide-Sea-Scallops/
Best sweet potato side dish ever: Mash with wasabi powder. You want just enough wasabi to taste it and maybe feel a tickle in your throat, but not enough to make it hot (the wasabi flavor gets overpowering at that stage).
Ha, well Soni, for years and years I have done exactly that with white russet mashed potatoes (I lived in Japan for 5 years, and a sushi/sashimi PIG, and I love wasabi). Just enough wasabi so that people go “what’s that?”
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