Fusilli with Morel Mushrooms, Asparagus, English Peas, and Corn

I love spring.

OK, in all honesty, I typically don't love spring here in Boston. Though this year has been freakishly nice, a typical Boston spring is full of rain rain rain. I finally understood the term "April Showers bring May Flowers" when I moved to Boston. These terms must have been born in early colonial America here on the East Coast.

Anyway, this spring we have been blessed with FANTASTIC weather, and I am totally taking advantage of it, spending every moment I can walking around the city, biking along the Esplanade, or jogging the Charles River trail.

Another thing I've enjoyed is cooking clean, healthy, and flavorful dishes using fresh, seasonal ingredients. Here is a simple, healthy, and tasty dish that comes together pretty easily on a weeknight. If you prep certain parts of it, you can actually whip this dish up in 15 minutes!

The ingredients are not set in stone. I happened to have some of these on hand, but you can definitely substitute if needed. I think it is important to at least have one aromatic (I used shallots, but you could use onions or ramps) and at lease one earthy mushroom. It's nice to have something slightly sweet, like peas or corn, but it's pretty flexible.

Whenever I only need a small amount of corn, I like to pre-cook it in the microwave. It's so much easier, cleaner, and nutritious. Click here for a short tutorial!

I recently fell in love with morel mushrooms after tasting some incredibly flavorful morels at Mare. I couldn't get enough while I was there, and at that moment I decided I had to try cooking some myself! Here, you start by stir frying the aromatics and the earthy mushrooms together in butter and oil!

Next, mix in your spring vegetables, toss with some cheese, pasta, pasta water, and seasoning, and you're all set to go!

A Taste of Spring
Fusilli with Morel Mushrooms, Asparagus, Fresh English Peas, and Corn
Serves 2

1/2 lb pasta (dried)
1 T shallots, minced
10-15 morel mushrooms, washed and dried
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
2-3 asparagus spears, sliced at an angle into 1-inch pieces
3/4 cup fresh English peas, shelled
2 ears of corn, microwaved with kernels cut off
Parmesan-Reggiano Cheese, grated
salt and pepper
truffle oil (optional)

Heat up a pot of water and begin cooking pasta, keeping an eye on the time and taking it out when it's done.

Saute shallots and morel mushrooms over medium heat in butter and olive oil until the shallots are browned and the ingredients are fragrant (about 2-3 minutes). Add the asparagus, peas, and corn and saute for about 2-3 minutes until lightly cooked. Season with grated Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.  Toss in the pasta and add pasta water as needed to get the desired consistency of sauce. Serve drizzled with truffle oil and sea salt on top.

Corn in the Microwave

I often find it a pain to boil an entire pot of water for just a few ears of corn. It takes forever to boil the water and then you have to wash the pot afterwards. Moreover, boiling vegetables in large pots of water washes away valuable nutrients. Prolonged exposure to heat also results in the break down of vitamins and minerals.

Alas, I introduce a quick, easy, and totally healthy way of making just a few ears of corn.

Step 1: Remove the silk and most of the husk, leaving just one or two layers - enough to keep the steam inside the corn when it cooks. I like to use scissors to snip off the ends just to clean everything up.


Step 2: Put corn in the microwave


Step 3: Cook on HIGH for about 3 minutes. Voila, the corn is done! Be careful when removing the husk from the cob - the corn is VERY HOT! I often run it under cold water in the sink while I remove the husk. You could also wear gloves or use tongs and scissors to cut off the husk.

Now wasn't that so much easier than boiling a pot of water? And nothing to clean afterward either!

Note: 3 minutes works well for 1 ear of corn. Sometimes when I am cooking two ears (like above) I might cook for 2 minutes, roll the ear a half turn, and then cook for another minute and a half. I find that the bottom half of the corn tends to cook faster, so I like to rotate it sometimes.

Originally published Sunday, August 19, 2007. Updated with new photos May 28, 2010

Tiny Urban Tidbits #6

Tiny Urban Tidbits is where I share with you some insights, "tidbits", or just random encounters from the week. I carry my camera with me everywhere I go, and I love capturing photos of interesting things that I discover. These may include new dishes from a restaurant that I've already reviewed, updates on what's going on locally, or encounters I've had in the kitchen. It could even include a beautiful sunset, a funny sign, or just stuff I find amusing. Think of it as snapshots (literally!) of my weekly experiences with food - intertwined with stories, of course.
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This past Monday I was invited to join a round table discussion with Gary Hirshberg, CE-Yo of Stonyfield about food. More specifically, he shared his thoughts on how our choices regarding the food we eat affect both the health of the planet and ourselves.

Green, Sustainable, Organic Businesses
The talk was quite interesting. One of his main points was that it's possible to operate a business in green, sustainable ways and make profits at the same time. He even implied that, in the long run, it's more profitable to run a business this way. Of course, Stonyfield is the poster child for this vision, as he shared how Stonyfield has held high standards in these areas yet has been growing faster than almost all of its main competitors. He really believes that businesses (as opposed to governments) are the ones with the real power to truly change the way we farm, sell, and produce food. He also told us that the consumer is very powerful, and could definitely send messages by "voting" with our wallets.

Why Organic?
Aside from the damage that conventional farming does to the environment, he also touched upon the health effects of pesticides on human bodies, citing both previous and recent studies correlating pesticides in food with various ailments such as cancer and ADHD in children.

There was a Q&A afterwards, where many people posed all sorts of questions. I asked him about the high cost of organic goods, and whether moving to a completely organic food system could still feed everyone, most notably the poor. He acknowledged that organic food is prohibitively expensive for many right now, but he still thinks there are ways to get closer to his goal. As a side note, he pointed out that all food was organic 100 years ago, and it really was not until post-WWII that pesticides and other chemicals started becoming a regular part of conventional "monocultural" farming (meaning that the same soil is repeatedly used over and over for the same types of crops, thus depleting the soil of nutrients, forcing the need to use heavy, chemical fertilizers).

He ended by saying that the way to bring down the price was to 1) increase volume (currently only 3% of produce sold in the US is organic) and 2) remove government subsidies so that organics can compete more fairly with conventional. He praised places like Walmart, which sells organic foods at competitive prices, for moving us towards the "volume" side of this solution.

What do you all think? Do you ever buy organic? If so, how much? How often do you think about sustainability? 

I met some great food bloggers while I was there, including Tina from Carrots and Cake, Athena from Forays of a Finance Foodie, Erin from Erin Cooks, Elina from Healthy and Sane, Jennifer from Savor the Thyme, Ali from Food, Fitness, and Fun, Meghan from Travel Eat Love, and Jules from Daily Grommet.

We also met at EVOO in their new Cambridge location and enjoyed a wonderful local, sustainable, and organic meal there. To see all the food we had, click here.

Speaking of Local Foods . . .
I was recently contacted by Effie's for a chance to try their oatcakes and corncakes, dense, biscuit-like cookies made out of either oats or corn. Effie's was founded in 2008 by Joan MacIsaac and Irene Costello, two friends who decided to sell these cakes that Joan's mom, Effie, used to make back in Nova Scotia. I happen to LOVE both oats and corn, so of course agreed to try out the oatcakes and corncakes.

I loved these biscuits! They are dense, buttery, and slightly nobby, a bit reminiscent of Hob Nobs but not that nobby and much more buttery. I liked the corncakes too, although they are subtly flavored with anise, which I don't really like as much. They suggested pairing the corn cakes with a sharp cheddar, which I tried. Although it's pretty good, I think I most prefer them plain with a nice cup of tea or coffee.

A bag of 12 costs $6 and you can get them locally in a lot of places such as Formaggio Kitchen, Whole Foods, Russo's, Dave's Fresh Pasta, or online. They actually sell all over the US, and I was tickled to find out they actually are sold at Churchill Market in Toledo, Ohio, which is the supermarket that my family went to while I was growing up.

Million Miler Part II
Remember when I said that Bryan didn't get to meet the pilot or receive a black card when he hit a million miles on AA?

Well, guess what? I was only half right! This came in the mail today . . .

Yay! New a black card that says "1 Million" on the upper right corner!  Hee hee hee . . .

Have a great looong weekend everyone!

EVOO

extra virgin olive oil with bread at EVOO

Isn't it funny how just a difference of a mile or two strongly affects how often you visit a restaurant? Even though Bryan and I live only about a mile from all the amazing restaurants in Somerville and Boston, we probably eat more than 75% of our restaurant meals in Cambridge.

I guess it makes sense in the Boston area, where weirdly shaped roads and pedestrian-filled squares can hamper efforts to quickly drive a few miles to the town next door.

Which is why it's been over a decade since I last visited EVOO in Somerville (next town over). Not only that, I totally forgot about the restaurant soon after that one time (out of sight, out of mind?)

Not too long ago, I was reminded of EVOO when I saw EVOO's executive chef Peter McCarthy compete at Eat Drink Be Fair, a Top Chef style cook-off between four prominent Boston chefs where they had to cook something with the secret ingredient of coffee. In fact, Peter was crowned the winner of the contest that night with his Dark Roasted Coffee Marinated Hudson Valley Mouillard Duck Breast with Verrill Farm's Parsnip Purre, Pete's Pickled Pumpkin, Gala Apple, and Espresso-Vanilla Chimichurri.

EVOO moved to Kendall Square earlier this year (Woo-hoo!) and I finally found myself sub-consciously putting it back on my radar as "a place to try."  Isn't it funny how much of a difference a mile makes?

Coincidentally, I recently had a chance to finally try Peter's food at EVOO during a round table discussion with Gary Hirshberg, CE-Yo of Stonyfield and several other local food bloggers. EVOO tries to source as many local ingredients as possible. It was very evident that the menu was very locally inspired, filled with seasonal vegetables such as asparagus, ramps, fiddleheads, English peas, and parsnips.

Here's a peek into the meal that the food bloggers enjoyed.


New Jersey Asparagus Soup with Parmigiano Reggiano, Red Chili Flakes, and EVOO
Rustic, slightly fibrous, but very flavorful. I enjoyed this soup a lot, although I would not have minded if it were blended to be just a bit finer.

Asparagus, Peas, Fiddleheads, Radish, and Arugula with Great Hill Blue Cheese, Herbed Yogurt Dressing and Course Crumb Crunch
I bet this salad tastes just like spring, as it's filled with so many local seasonal vegetables. I ordered the soup (not the salad), so I was not able to try this one!

Chinese Box Full of Mustard Glazed Tofu, Asparagus, Gingered Vegetable - Cashew Salad and Organic Brown Rice from EVOO
Several food bloggers said that they really liked this dish. A few commented on how the deep fried tofu was perfectly cooked, and how they could never achieve something like this at home.

Seared Atlantic Tilefish Fillet with Organic Potatoes, Wild Ramps, Cilantro, Curried Potato Broth, Fiddlehead Ferns, minted Carrot Salad
Many of the food bloggers commented that this dish was delicious, although I personally did not love it. I think this is mostly personal, as I don't like carrot raisin salad, nor am I that crazy about curry. You can see why I might not love this dish!

Seared Misty Knoll Farm's Chicken Breast with Red Fire Farm's Spring Dug Parsnip Manicotti, Orange Segments, Parmigiano Reggiano, Shaved Fennel, Arugula, Garlicky Chicken Jus and Hazelnut Crunch
The girl next to me, Athena from Forays of a Finance Foodie =, actually ordered this. It looked great, although I did not try any!

Stonyfield Organic Yogurt Tart with Balsamic-Basil Glazed Strawberries
I loved this tart! The lemon-y yogurt tart was fantastic, and the strawberries and cream on top were a perfect complement. This was probably one of my favorite dishes.

Initial Thoughts
I can hardly call this a real "review" for several obvious reasons. One, I only tried one appetizer and one entree, so it's not really a good look at the restaurant as a whole. Second, we had a special menu which included dishes that may not be standard menu items. For example, some of the dishes were specifically made with Stonyfield yogurt. Although EVOO does use Stonyfield yogurt in its dishes, I'm not sure if these are all regular menu items. Finally, most of the dishes pictured are dishes I did not try!

So, see this as a "first look" (literally!). I definitely plan on going back. The new space is bright, airy, and beautiful. The adjoining pizza place next door, Za, also looks like a fun place to visit. Can't wait to report back!

EVOO
350 3rd St
Cambridge, MA 02142


Disclaimer: I did not pay for this meal

Victoria Seafood

Ginger Scallion Twin Lobsters

I don't get it. I'm not Cantonese. I never grew up eating Cantonese food. Yet, for some odd reason, this Cantonese restaurant outside of Chinatown makes me feel right at home.

You know what I'm talking about, right? The type of restaurant where you walk in and you feel like you can just relax? Usually these places are far from fancy. Instead, more often than not, the food, ambiance, and menu are typically simple and straightforward.

For some reason I can't pinpoint, Victoria Seafood is that type of restaurant for me. Maybe it's the reasonably private and cushy booth seats Bryan and I always score whenever it's just the two of us. Maybe it's the prospect of ordering familiar favorites, such as the Deep Fried Tofu with Crab Sauce or the Fish Maw Soup. Or maybe the cheap prices of the food relieve any stress related to the cost of the meal.

Whatever the reason, whenever I begin poring over the menu at Victoria Seafood, I get excited at the idea of sitting back in a wide cushy booth while chewing, crunching, or slurping some of my favorite dishes.

After a reasonably long hiatus, we recently visited Victoria Seafood in Allston with medium sized group of friends. It was great - we had enough people to order several dishes, including the awesome ginger and scallions twin lobster deal (pictured above), which you can get for $15.99 if you spend enough money there. I can't remember the exact details, but it's something like you have to order at least 1-2 additional dishes or maybe spend at least another $15. In any event, it was not a problem for a group of 6 to fit the minimum requirement for the twin lobster deal.

The twin lobsters are good, and this is probably one of the lowest priced twin lobster deals in Boston.

Salt and Pepper Squid ($9.75)
I still have not found a really good salt and pepper squid in Boston, and this one was similarly mediocre. Most people at my table liked it, but I personally thought it was over-battered. The flavor was pretty good, but I was disappointed with the texture.

Fish Maw Soup ($9.25)
What is fish maw? The "maw" is actually the air bladder of the fish. It's got an interesting texture - sort of spongy, light, with a bit of bounce. The soup is generously filled with this stuff, making it a bit chowder-like, even though the soup itself is still quite light. As I mentioned before, this one of our favorite soups to order as a starter. Bryan loves pouring tons of white pepper on top.

Seafood In Nest ($13.95)
Bryan and I never order this when we are alone, but it presents nicely for a larger group. The "nest" is actually made of deep fried taro root. I actually did not like this dish. The seafood did not taste particularly fresh, and the flavors were uninspiring.

Braised Beef Hot Pot ($9.95)
However, I really liked the braised beef hot pot (which I had also never had until this dinner). The beef was nice and tender, made soft by being cooked for a long period of time in an aromatic soy-based broth. The meat was deep, rich, and flavorful. Everyone at the table really liked this.

Deep Fried Tofu with Crab Sauce ($9.95)
I love this dish. My Cantonese friend just told me she doesn't think it's Cantonese. I have no clue what it is, but frankly I don't really care as long as it's delicious. I love the rich, crab-flavored sauce (made up of real crab meat) that just douses the freshly fried tofu squares. It's delicious.

Pea Pod Stems ($13.95)
Pea Pod stems are one of my favorite greens to order in a Chinese restaurant. We like ordering it simply stir fried with garlic. I like the way they cook it here because it's not too greasy yet it's still very flavorful.

Overall Thoughts
This is probably one of the best authentic Cantonese restaurants outside of Chinatown. In fact, once it opened, we visited Chinatown much less frequently because it was so easy to come here instead for a pretty good Cantonese food. The menu is quite authentic, and on any given night, the place will be teeming with Asians - a good sign! The prices are fantastic here, and you can have a feast without spending too much money. It's not the cleanest place in the world (definitely inspect your plates and silverware!), but the service is fast, the food is pretty good, and the environment is comforting.

Victoria Seafood
1029 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA 02215

Toscanini's

I believe Boston is the ice cream capital of the world. OK, admittedly, a bit of a bold statement, but do you know that our ice cream shops stay open all winter long? And it snows like 3-feet here and temperatures fall down way below freezing. And yet we Bostonians love our ice cream. We love it enough to keep 5? 6? ice cream/frozen yogurt shops in business in Harvard Square alone.

When you've got that many amazing ice cream shops around you, it's pretty tough to pick one favorite shop.

Well, guess what? Hands down this is my favorite ice cream shop in Boston. And since I think Boston has the best ice cream in the world, does that make this my favorite ice cream shop in the world??

Last fall there was one of those "buy $20 worth of Toscanini's ice cream for $10" group coupons for sale. I bought $100 worth of coupons without hesitation, and I've already used up $83 of it throughout the winter! Sigh, maybe it's an addiction.

So why do I love Tosci's so much?

OK, I admit a tiny bit of it might be for sentimental reasons. Tosci's used to have a shop right on campus at MIT, where I went to school. I spent many happy days inside that shop digging into Tosci's unique flavors. Whether it be celebrating the end of finals, sharing a cone on a date, or just having a snack on a hot summer day, I loved going to Tosci's. I was extremely bummed when they closed the on-campus shop, although the replacement is not such a bad place either.

I also love Tosci's because their ice cream has such unique texture. I really don't know what they put in it to give it that texture. I would almost call it "dough-y." It's reminiscent of raw cookie dough, but cold and maybe even a bit thicker. It's dense, full of that rich cream flavor, and just all around incredible.

I also love Tosci's because they make such interesting flavors. Their mango sorbet is awesome, and really tastes like you're eating a mango. I actually recommend the mango sorbet over the mango ice cream, which has a less intense mango flavor. I also like the Vienna Finger Cookie, which is one of their classics that they have had around forever. The Burnt Sugar or Burnt Caramel is addictively deep, dark, and rich. I can't get enough of it! I even tried cucumber sorbet once (surprisingly refreshing and delicious!) and jalapeno ice cream, which actually had a hard time staying solid - I wonder if the hot peppers somehow encourage melting.

Their flavors are never quite the same, and they experiment quite a lot. In fact, the last time I was there they were paying homage to MIT and had made an ice cream full of .  . . you guessed it! NERDS! So funny and so cute (though it doesn't sound all that yummy, so I ended up ordering something else). You can always taste something before you order it, so it's fun to sometimes taste their weird things but then order your  favorite. Interesting flavors I've seen include Earl Gray Tea, various beer flavored ice creams, Fluffer Nutter, and Basil.

My all time favorite ice cream flavor is Grape Nut. It's actually not most people's favorite, so I hesitate to recommend it to everyone here. You have to really like the sweet, nutty taste of grape nuts cereal to appreciate this ice cream. The cream somehow softens the grape nuts so they aren't rock hard crunchy once mixed into the ice cream. I love this ice cream, and I am always extremely satisfied and happy after eating it.

What more can I say about this place? Go check it out if you haven't yet, the ice cream is fantastic. You can also get hand-packed pints to take home, and they also sell ice cream cakes. On weekends, they actually have brunch, which I have not tried.

OK, before I end what probably looks like the happiest and most gushy post I've ever written, there is one thing I don't love about the place. It has a bit of a "checkered" past. Back in 2008, Tosci's got shut down by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue for not paying an accumulated $167,000 (!!!) in taxes that went as far back as 2000. They eventually solicited donations from loyal fans and raised over $30,000 to begin a new payment plan with the state, thus allowing the shop to re-open.

I guess this bizarre situation says two things. 1) There's definitely some sketchy tax behavior going on.  2) The ice cream is so good that fans are quite willing to do almost anything to keep the place open.

That must say something about the ice cream, right?

Related posts
Rancatore's (opened by his brother)
Toasted Black Sesame Ice Cream (recipe)
Simple Lemon Ice Cream (recipe)

Toscanini's
899 Main St
Cambridge, MA 02139

Sous-Vide Salmon in a Magic Cooker

I have a bad habit of overcooking salmon. Ever since I started buying wild-caught salmon (instead of the fatty farm-raised salmon), I've had a harder time baking it in a way that does not dry it out. Farm-raised salmon typically has more fat (I guess they don't have as much room to swim around?) and therefore their meat is more forgiving. Wild-caught salmon, on the other hand, is much leaner, and therefore can easily become tough when overcooked.

I've had some success using Bryan's mom's awesome microwave method to make salmon. But what about those times I don't want steamed fish? What if I want a nice pan-seared salmon?

I recently spotted this cool post on how to make sous-vide salmon at home with just a few Ziploc bags and a cast iron pot. Perfect! I would try sous-vide at home! Problem is, I don't have any fancy Le Creuset or Staub cast iron cookware. In fact, I don't think I have any heavy, high quality pots that retain heat well.

I started to brainstorm . . . what could I use instead? Serious Eats posted a cool hack using a beer cooler, but part of me didn't feel like lugging that huge cooler and dealing with all that water in my tiny kitchen.

Then I remembered the magic cooker that my mom had given me. What is a magic cooker? These are really popular in Asia. Essentially, it's a thermally insulated container that can keep a pot warm for hours without electricity. It's similar to a Crock Pot, except that it relies completely on insulation to keep the food warm. It's much safer, uses no electricity, and is easy to bring to potlucks and such.

My mom had given me one years ago, but I had only used it to make red bean soup. I had no idea if you could even get one in the US, as I almost never read about it. A quick search on Amazon showed that they seem to be pretty available. You even have your choice of brands, from Asian brands like Tiger and  Sunpentown to the classic American brand Thermos and the interesting sounding Thermos Nissan Cook N' Carry. Prices range anywhere from $60 (the Sunpentown) to around $250 (this crazy two layer one), though definitely read the reviews before buying one - looks like they vary in quality!

So, I thought I would try sous-vide for the first time by attempting to make salmon in my magic cooker.

There's really no recipe, although I did loosely base my dish on this Wall Street Journal article. I cut up a pound of wild caught Alaskan King Salmon into two 8-oz pieces, removed the skin (but only on one fillet - more on that later), and generously added salt and pepper on both sides of the fillets. You want to remove the skin because, honestly, sous vide skin tastes pretty awful. It's rubbery, hard to chew, etc. Maybe if I had seared the skin side it would not have been so bad, but I learned the hard way with my side-by-side controlled experiment (sorry Bryan!), that the salmon fillet with the skin tastes worse than the one without!

Note: I did fry up the removed skin into a nice crispy side dish. Yum  - tastes good just with some salt and pepper.

The olive oil bit is tricky. See, you can't pour olive oil directly into a FoodSaver bag because it will get stuck on the sides and trick the machine into thinking that the bag is already sealed when it isn't. To get around this, you need to freeze the oil.  Measure out about 1 tablespoon of olive oil per 8-oz serving, put it in a little plastic bag, and freeze it until it has a gel-like consistency. At that point, you can easily put it into the FoodSaver bag without it getting stuck on the sides of the bag.

I actually was in too much of a hurry to do this, so I took a short cut. Slather the oil onto the fish first and very carefully place it into the bag without touching the sides. It's tricky, but do-able.  I accidentally got a bit of oil on the side, but then I used a paper towel to clean it up before subjecting it to the FoodSaver machine.
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Seal the bags. You can use zipper lock bags as well for this if you don't have a vacuum sealer at home. Check out Wade's post for how to do that.

I boiled some water in my electric kettle and then filled the inner pot of my magic cooker with the water. I continued to slowly add cold tap water until the temperature reached around 125° F (52° C). I was shooting for anything between 113° F (45 °C) and 120° F (49 °C), since various recipes seemed to have different temperatures.

I then dunked my salmon in, sealed up the magic cooker, and waited for 13 minutes. After about 6 minutes, I noticed the temperature had dropped to around 119°F (48°C), which is to be expected since the cold salmon probably brought down the temperature several degrees. The temperature stayed pretty steady after that. In fact, I came back after dinner (at least an hour later), and the water bath was still holding steady at around 116°F (47 °C).

When the 13 minute mark came (I had set my trusty thermometer alarm to go off), I took the salmon pieces out, quickly seared them on a pan for about 2 minutes (just enough to brown the edge), and then served!

It came out beautifully! Like a beautiful oil-poached salmon, but made with much less oil.

The inside was moist, tender, buttery, and all around fantastic! Finally, I can cook wild-caught salmon and it will be predictably soft, tender, and never overcooked. Check out the texture inside. Doesn't that just look so good?

I'm really excited to try other methods next. I plan on investing in a cast-iron Dutch oven at some point. I'm curious how it compares. I have to say, it's going to be hard for me to go back to cooking salmon any other way, as I think I've fallen in love with this sous-vide salmon texture!

I think I'm going to try steak next!!

Sous Vide Olive "Poached" Salmon

inspired by Nathan Myhrvold via the Wall Street Journal

1 lb of skinless salmon fillet, cut into 2 8 oz portions

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Freeze 1 T of olive oil (for each fillet) by placing the olive oil in the corner of a small zipper lock bag until the oil has a gel-like consistency.  Place 1 T of olive oil "gel" and 1 8 oz salmon fillet in a Food Saver bag. Alternatively, slather olive oil generously on both sides of the fillets. Add salt and pepper. Taking care not to get the sides of the bag wet, gently drop the salmon fillet into the bottom of a Food Saver bag. Vacuum pack each fillet separately.

Add hot water to the Magic Cooker and slowly add room temperature water until the temperature is around 125 °C.  Submerge the vacuum-packed salmon pieces and cook for 12-13 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare a hot pan with vegetable oil for searing. When 12-13 minutes have passed, remove the vacuum packed salmon and sear briefly for 1-2 minutes.

Serve!