sous vide at home

Just a little taste of molecular gastronomy at home :) My husband recently got one of these sous vide (French term for "under vacuum") gadgets for us to try at home. Anova is just one of the many sous vide immersion circulators in the market now. Shown below is our set-up.

On my first attempt, I chose a recipe from the Codlo Sous Vide Guide cookbook. Codlo is another brand of immersion circulator in the market. I found the illustrations in the cookbook as well as the easy-to-follow recipes very helpful for a sous vide novice like me. As suggested in the recipe, I used rump roast cut of beef which I sliced into 1" thick steaks. First step was to set the time and temperature on the Anova. As soon as the desired temperature was reached, I placed the steaks in vacuum-sealed plastic bags and submerged them into the pot of water. It was as easy that. A quick sear on a hot cast iron pan was all that was needed and the steaks were ready to serve.

seared steaks ready to be sliced and served

The sous vide steaks, shown above, were evenly cooked medium rare. It will definitely take a few more tries to learn more about this method of cooking but it's good to know that it's much easier to do this at home now, thanks to these smaller and more affordable sous vide gadgets.