48 hour Sous Vide Short Ribs (Momofuku)

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. These short ribs were the "Korean" portion of that meal.


I decided to pick this dish for my third entree in my crazy sous vide filled dinner for a few reasons. First, I wanted to challenge myself by trying to make dishes that come from well-known, well-respected chefs. Second, I wanted to choose dishes that spanned several different cultures.

Thus, I was thrilled to find a sous vide recipe in David Chang's new book, Momofuku.  Perfect! Not only is David Chang;s Momofuku empire one of the hottest out there right now, his food is Asian, which is different from most of the French things you see in the sous vide world.

This interesting dish is David Chang's modern take on kalbi, a traditional Korean marinated shortribs dish.

This recipe is not really horribly hard except for the fact that you have to plan well in advance. The cooking alone takes 48 hours, and then you still need a few days to prepare the other components.


48 hour Sous Vide Short Ribs (Momofuku)
adapted from David Chang's recipe in Momofuku

2 2/3 cups (600g) water
1/2 cup plus 2 T (150 g) light soy sauce (usukuchi)
3 T plus 1 t (42 g) pear juice
3 T plus 1 t (42 g) apple juice
2 1/2 T (23g) mirin
1 T (13g) Asian sesame oil
1 1/4 cup (250g) sugar
10 grinds black pepper
1/2 small onion
1 small carrot
3 scallions (whites only)
2 garlic cloves
8 pieces bone-in short ribs (5-6 ounces each; 140-170g) trimmed of any silverskin and cut into individual ribs
Grapeseed or other neutral oil for frying

Scallions, daikon, pickled mustard seeds, maldon salt, pickled carrots

Step 1: (upper left) Make marinade: combine water, soy sauce, pear and apple juices, mirin, sesame oil, sugar, pepper, onion, carrot, scallions, and garlic in a large pot and bring to a boil over high eat. Reduce heat so liquid simmers gently adn cook for 10 min.

Step 2: (upper right) Strain solids out of the marinade and cool in refrigerator. (can be stored, covered, for a few days.

Step 3: (lower left) Cut short ribs into similarly sized 3-4 inch long pieces

Step 4: (lower right) Combine each shortribe with 1/2 cup marinade in vacuum sealed bag. Double bag!! You are cooking this thing for 48 hours. You don't want to risk the bag breaking and ruining everything.

A Note on Vacuum Packing Liquids
Traditional home vacuum sealers typically are not able to vacuum pack liquid. In commercial kitchens, they use chamber vacuum sealers. There are a couple ways around this. You can freeze the liquid and then vacuum seal the solid liquid chunks along with the meat.

Or, you can try to seal the liquid-filled bag by hanging the bag down as far as possible (see photo above). This allows most of the air to be removed before the machine starts trying to suck up the liquid, at which point you manually turn the machine off.

Step 5: Cook in sous vide supreme at 60 °C (140.2 °F) for 48 hours.

Step 6: Remove from Sous Vide Supreme and plunge in ice water - store. (or use right away)

Step 7: Cut ribs out of the bags, making sure you save the braising liquid.

Step 8: Strain liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a small sauce pan. Boil over high heat and reduce until you have about 2 cups (10 min max). Set aside until plating.

Step 9: Slide bones out of the ribs. Trim off obvious pieces of fat and trim ribs into neat cube/rectangles about 3oz each

Step 10: Blanch scallions (10 seconds) in salted water. Immediately cook in ice bath. Set aside

Step 11: Heat 1-2 quarts of oil to 365 °C in high sided pan over medium-high heat. Line plate with double paper towels. Fry short rib chunks in batches (don’t crowd the pan!) 3-4 minutes. “They should be mahogany brown outside and warm all the way through.”

Presentation
Put reserved braising liquid in the center of each white plate. Lay pickled carrot across pool of liquid & nestle braised daikon disc up against it.Lay green part of scallion across carrot. Shingle the sliced chuck of short rib (3-4 3/8 inch slices) over scallion green (I forgot to slice mine!). Wrap scallion back around the meat, put a dollop of mustard (I used Grey Poupon, David Chang makes his own from mustard seeds) on top of daikon, and sprinkle with sea salt.

I would definitely recommend slicing it (against the grain) before serving. It looks much better and actually is easier to eat.

Enjoy!

(Deconstructed) Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This carbonara was the "Italian" portion of that meal.

There's something really magical about the sous vide egg. It's creamy, soft, and has the most unique custardy texture. You could seriously just enjoy it with a touch of sea salt and truffle oil and call it a day.

Or you can add it to any dish that is based on an egg sauce.

In this twist on the traditional spaghetti carbonara, you toss pasta with bacon fat, cheese, white wine, and parsley and then drop a sous vide egg on top - especially fun for those who love to break up runny yolks and mix it with everything.


thinly sliced pancetta

Guanciale

People in Rome tend to use guanciale (cured pork jowls) or pancetta for this recipe. Since these are harder to find, bacon works fine as well.

It's best to get thick cut bacon if you can. I accidentally asked the butcher to slice my pancetta (oops) and thus I had to use very thinly sliced pieces, which still works OK.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan


1/3 pound pancetta
3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 large eggs
1/4 cup romano cheese (grated)
1/2 cup Parmesan-Reggiano cheese (grated)
Black pepper, ground
2 T chopped parsley
1 lb pasta

Sous Vide Egg
Set sous vide machine at 146 °F and cook eggs (in their shells) for 45 minutes.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta. Meanwhile, cut pancetta into 1/4 inch wide strips. Saute garlic and olive oil over medium heat in a skillet until the garlic is golden brown. Remove garlic. Add pancetta and cook until the edges begin to crisp. Add wine to deglaze the pan (1-2 minutes). Add cheese, chopped parsley, and ground pepper to the pancetta/wine/oil mixture and mix well. Add the cooked pasta and toss to combine.

At presentation, make a little well in the center of the pasta and drop in the sous vide egg.

Enjoy!

Duck leg confit, Pomme Sarladaise, Fried Hen Egg, and Frisee Salad

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This duck confit salad was the "French" portion of that meal.

The problem with only having professional cookbooks at your disposal when you are exploring a new, relatively unused home cooking technique is that the recipes you encounter will inevitably be geared towards a restaurant kitchen.

I'm not sure WHAT I was thinking when I decided to propose making a complete meal using sous vide. Not only that, but a complete meal using recipes from the likes of Michelin starred chefs, like Thomas Keller and  David Chang.

I should have known it would be challenging.

I tried picking the easiest recipe out of Thomas Keller's book, Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide, and still this recipe was by far the most complicated, step-intensive, and messy recipe.

Thomas Keller mentions how the sous vide method is invaluable in a commercial kitchen where a million things are going on at the same time and everything has to be cooked to perfection at a moment's notice. Not surprisingly, multiple elements of this salad are made using sous vide.

I will provide brief descriptions for each element below. For detailed instructionals, click through to the appropriate links.

Sous Vide Duck Confit (instructional)
Sous vide Duck Fat Fried Potatoes (instructional)
Deep Fried Hen Egg (instructional)
Frisee Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette (instructional)


First, you want to cure the duck legs with salt with a bunch of herbs for at least 6 hours.

Second, seal the rinsed and dried duck legs with duck fat and herbs. Cook sous vide for 8 hours at 180° F. Cool, dry, and pan sear the duck legs until the skin is browned and crisp. Serve skin side up.

Similarly, cook the potatoes sous vide in duck fat with an herb sachet filled with herbs.

Finally, to make the egg "tempura," bring a pot of water to boiling and cook a very fresh egg for 5 minutes. After carefully peeling the egg, cover it in flour, beaten eggs, and potato starch, and then deep fry for about 3 minutes.

Make salad dressing by reducing down a mixture of red wine vinegar with sugar and then mixing this concentrated syrup with duck fat. Pour over frisee.

Finally, bring ALL the components together. I veered a bit from the Thomas Keller recipe, which actually involves deboning the duck leg, pressing it down, and cutting out a nice 2x2 inch square for service. You can cut the fried egg open to allow the runny yolks to ooze all over the plate. Delicious dish that really worked well together. This was probably the guests' favorite dish.

Epilogue
As I mentioned before, this was the guests' favorite dish. I would happily make this dish again, although I must confess the fried hen egg, though delicious, was a PAIN to make. It was difficult to execute well. Furthermore, it made my tiny kitchen horribly messy. Need more counter space!


For regular meals, I'm happy to make this humbler version (just shred the duck meat withour searing and add the 5-minute egg without deep frying) which still tastes almost as good (and healthier!).

Egg Tempura (deep fried 5-minute egg)

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This fried hen egg was one component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

Oh my goodness - have you every had a deep fried egg? The kind where, when you cut it open, the yolk still oozes out?

I finally challenged myself this weekend by attempting a recipe from Thomas Keller's Under Pressure, a book dedicated to the art of sous vide. This beautiful coffee-table ready book provides sous vide recipes from his two restaurants, per se and The French Laundry.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I proposed attempting such a feat (especially in this tiny kitchen). The fried egg was messy, difficult to handle, and made my kitchen look like a tornado hit it.

Ohhh . . but it was so worth it.



First, heat up a pot of water to boiling and then drop in the eggs. Cook for exactly 5 minutes. To stop further cooking, cool immediately in an ice bath.

OK . . here comes the tricky part. CAREFULLY peel the eggs. I had a super hard time doing this. The eggs are still really wobbly because the insides are essentially liquid. Worse yet, if you are using fresh eggs (which you are supposed to use since you are eating these close to raw), the shells are even harder to remove because fresh eggs tend to have very tight shells.

I struggled, broke most of my eggs, and managed to salvage one or two out of the five that I had made.

Dip your intact egg first into flour (to coat), then into a beaten egg mixture, and finally in potato starch. Deep fry for 3 minutes in a 325 °F oil bath before removing and serving immediately.

This made a crazy mess of my kitchen, but it's worth trying once.

Deep Fried Hen Egg
from Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller

4 fresh eggs
all purpose flour
beaten eggs (1-2)
potato starch
neutral oil for frying

Cook eggs in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Immediately shock in cold water to prevent further cooling. Dry eggs, carefully peel off the shell. Coat in flour, then beaten eggs, and then potato flour. Deep fry in 325 °F oil bath for about 3 minutes, drain on paper towels, and serve immediately.

Duck Fat Fried Potatoes ( Pomme Sarladaise) Sous vide

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. These potatoes (pomme sarladaise) was a component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

When you usually read articles about sous vide, you probably hear authors extolling sous vide's wonderful abilities to make a perfectly rare steak or a beautifully soft short rib. Less often do you hear about people using sous vide to cook vegetables.

Yet sous vide is often used in high-end restaurants, and Thomas Keller uses it extensively both at  per se and The French Laundry.

Here, potatoes are cooked sous vide in duck fat. This method reduces the sheer volume of duck fat that needs to be used in order to fully coat the potatoes. Furthermore, excess cooking won't cause the potatoes to become too mushy and lose their shape.

You can buy a duck and render your own duck fat. Or, if you're like me, you can go to your local gourmet market and buy a tub of this stuff. It's not horribly expensive, and will last you a long time.

Potatoes need to be kept in a single layer in the vacuum bag.

Put garlic, thyme, and other herbs in a small bag. I use these disposable empty tea bags, which work pretty well.

Seal it up!

Cook at 180 °F for 20-25 minutes. Remove from bag and pan-fry about 1 1/2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Duck Fat Fried Potatoes (Sous vide)
4 thin slices garlic
2 thyme sprigs
2 small bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
24 Yukon Gold potato rounds
Kosher Salt
150g rendered duck fat
Canola Oil
25g unsalted butter
10 g minced shallots
flat leaf parsley (minced)

Make herb sachet with garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns (I used a tea bag to hold it all together). Cut potatoes into 3/8 inch rounds (24 slices). Seal in a vacuum bag with duck fat (mixed with a sprinkling of salt), and herb sachet. Cook sous vide at 180 °F for 20-25 minutes. Remove from bag and pan-fry about 1 1/2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Enjoy with your class duck confit salad, or just on its own!

Frisee Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This frisee salad was one component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.


I have always wondered how restaurants were able to get such a fragrant dressing flavor that I could never recreate. It wasn't until I tried out Thomas Keller's Frisee Salad recipe (as part of a larger recipe for a whole Duck Confit Salad), that I realized the secret ingredient.

Yup, that's right. Instead of using olive oil, duck fat is mixed with reduced vinegar and sugar to make this fragrant, rich salad dressing.

Frisee works great for this dish because its curly texture is able to hold the dressing really well.

Reduce a 1:10 ratio of sugar:red wine vinegar (by weight) until it is almost dry.

Add duck fat to taste (you can start with approximately the same amount as the amount of sugar you added)

Mix and serve!

Red Wine Vinaigrette
250g red wine vinegar
20g granulated sugar
20g rendered duck fat

frisee leaves

Heat red wine vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan until almost dry (getting near syrupy consistency). Turn off heat and add duck fat. Combine to create a "broken" vinaigrette.

Serve with duck confit, pomme sarladine, and a 5-minute egg for the classic French bistro salad. This is the more humble cousin of Thomas Keller's fancy version, which involves deep-frying the egg and pan searing the duck.

Duck Leg Confit (sous vide)

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This duck confit was one component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

Traditional duck confit is a pain to make because you need so much duck fat. Essentially, you are cooking the duck in its own fat. In order to really achieve this, you need enough fat so that duck meat can be submerged all the way. I watched one instructional video where the chef literally had over a quart of fat just for half a duck and a duck leg. It was crazy.

A great advantage of using sous vide to make duck confit is that you can drastically reduce the amount of duck fat you need. You can still cover the entire piece of meat much less fat inside a sous vide bag.

This recipe (from Thomas Keller) makes a flavorful and tender duck leg. It works great as an add-on to the tart frisee salad that typically accompanies this dish.

Visual "Movie Frames" of Duck Salting


Duck legs are first salted overnight in a 1.3 kg bed of kosher salt mixed with garlic and herbs.

You are basically curing the meat in the refrigerator for 6 hours. The beauty of this method is that, once the meat is cured, it will last a VERY LONG TIME in the refrigerator. Salt is a natural preservative!

After six hours, the legs will lose some water content, become a bit more firm, and, of course, be pretty salty. That's why you have to be sure to rinse the legs really well. Otherwise, it will be WAY too salty.

Place the duck legs in a bag with duck fat and an herb sachet full of garlic, thyme, and peppercorns.

Seal it up and cook for 8 hours.

Some say to cook longer, but I was running out of time, so I took it out after 8 hours. See how the duck leg is cooking in the fat?

Take out the legs, dry them, and then pan sear for service. You can also shred up the meat and serve it in the salad without bones, like a traditional duck confit salad (see second picture).

Duck Confit
4 duck legs (1.86kg)
1.33 kg kosher salt
3 bay leaves
6 thyme leaves
6 garlic cloves
400g rendered Duck Fat
Canola Oil

Mix salt, bay leaves, thyme leaves, and garlic cloves together. Cover duck legs completely in salt mixture and salt for 6 hours. Remove from salt and rinse very well. Dry the duck legs. Pan sear, skin side down, until the skin is crispy and golden brown. Serve whole or shredded up in a frisee salad with duck fat fried potatoes and a fried hen egg.

Or go the humble route and just shred the duck meat up and mix it throughout - still tastes delicious!

Enjoy!