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Sous Vide Cooking is Back and Better Than Ever: Salmon Recipe

One method of cooking that has been around (primarily in France) since the 1970s is making a big comeback in the United States these days. French for “under vacuum”, Sous Vide is a method of cooking that involves SLOWLY cooking food at a relatively low temperature – some recipes call for a cooking time of 72 hours! Ingredients are placed in airtight plastic bags and left in hot water (usually around 60°C or 140°F). Because the ingredients do not have direct contact with the water, when properly sealed, sous vide food retains its nutrients! Also, because the ingredients are completely submerged in the water, sous vide food cooks evenly all the way through! The results are an amazing texture and powerful flavor that has been said to be “Life Changing”.

Don’t worry, we are not about to make you stand over the stove for 72 hours. In fact, this recipe provides a twist to sous vide you would expect from Tim “The Toolman” Taylor. By slightly raising the water temperature, we can cut the cooking time. All without straying from the sous vide benefits! This recipe will leave you with the most evenly cooked salmon EVER. And this traditional beurre blanc, literally translated from French as “white butter”, is a rich, butter sauce infused with just the right balance of mustard and tarragon.

Parties That Cook debuted this Salmon Sous Vide recipe THIS SEASON as a menu option for its team building events and cooking parties, and the feedback has been fantastic!

Salmon Sous Vide with Mustard-Tarragon Beurre Blanc
This recipe can also be found in our entree recipes section.
For more tried-and-true entree recipes, check out the PTC main dish list!

Ingredients
Salmon:

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
2 Tablespoons tarragon, chopped + 8 sprigs for garnish
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
8 six-ounce center cut filets of salmon, skin off, pin bones removed
Ice cubes to maintain water bath temperature
Vacuum sealer and bags

Mustard Tarragon Beurre Blanc:
1 cup dry white wine
¼ cup vermouth
3 shallots, sliced thin
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into small cubes and kept cold
2 Tablespoons tarragon, chopped
2 Tablespoons chives, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Methods/Steps
Preheat a water bath to 160ºF. Keep a thermometer hooked to the water bath to ensure the temperature remains constant. Add ice cubes as needed to regulate temperature.

Salmon:
Combine the olive oil, garlic, parsley, tarragon, salt and pepper in a small bowl and pour over the salmon. Massage oil all over the salmon. Transfer the salmon to  vacuum packing bags, 2 filets per bag, and seal using the food saver. Submerge the bags in the water bath and set a timer for 12 minutes. Make sure the temperature remains constant!

Make Sauce: In a small sauce pan, combine the wine, vermouth, and shallots. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Add the Dijon and whisk to combine. Turn the heat to low or simmer and slowly add the cold butter one cube at a time, whisking constantly. Once the butter has melted add another cube and whisk. Repeat until all of the butter has been incorporated. Strain the sauce into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place over a low simmering pot of water until ready to serve. When ready to serve add the chopped herbs, lemon zest/juice and salt.

Serve: Remove the filets from the bags and place on the serving plate. Spoon some of the mustard sauce onto each filet and garnish with a sprig of tarragon.

This recipe serves 8.

September Cookbook Club: A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes

Yesterday I had the pleasure of experiencing my first Parties That Cook Cookbook Club. In case you are not familiar with the format of a cookbook club, as I wasn’t until recently, participants each pick and execute a recipe from a particular cookbook. Sounds easy enough, right?

As the lunch hour approaches, one can feel the tension building. Those with dishes to submit add the final touches to their item or items, and begin the plating process. In the few minutes before lunch, the office kitchen hosts a whirlwind of activity. The kitchen becomes the place where everyone congregates at a party.

The purpose of our cookbook club, aside from a great excuse to sit and chat and EAT together, is to ultimately evaluate the featured cookbook. Up for dissection this month: David Tanis’ A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes. Tanis is the current co-chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., where he has been a fixture on and off since the 1980s. Tanis is also well known for the private dining club he hosts in Paris.

Green Chili Stew: Beth started us off with a delicious labor of love. She definitely picked a challenging recipe, and I loved it! She found herself a little frustrated by the lack of instruction, or even instructions like, “Fiddle with it”. This was the first hint that A Platter of Figs may be written for your not-so-average cook. Beth ultimately decided to deviate from the recipe, which she felt did not allow for the fat to burn off.


Corn, Squash, and Beans with Jalapeno Butter:
Tanis’ recipes are categorized by season, which is a great thing to keep in mind when trying to decide on a recipe! Rosie’s dish fell in the category of summer foods, and called for fresh vegetables. Luckily, she was able to find her favorite veggies at a local farmer’s market. The jalapeno butter was a nice touch, and not at all overwhelming. Rosie was able to stick to the recipe. Unfortunately, a lack of information on the number of servings produced led her to make a dish that could feed an army!

Provencal Toasts with Olive Tapenade, Grilled Eggplant Paste, and Spicy Walnut Paste: Crissy’s execution of each of these spreads was great! She could not find the specific olive called for in the recipe, though substituting a different type of olive did not compromise the quality. Everyone loved them! The recipe noted that the pastes were meant to be thin, so even a small amount packed a punch. Again, problems arose with lack of details and yields. Because the Eggplant Paste recipe gave no size specification, Crissy ended up with SO much more than the other two pastes.

Chicken Tagine with Pumpkin, Chickpeas, and Harissa Oil: Bibby did an excellent job interpreting this dish -a definite contender for the group’s favorite! Using her chef’s eye, she was moved to deviate from the recipe, which didn’t call for searing the chicken. Also, despite halving the recipe, these was such an abundance of this dish! No complaints here, as the chickpeas and chicken were nicely complemented by the Harissa Oil. Strangely, there was no suggestion for what to serve this dish with, though the consensus was that it would be great over rice.

Lavender Honey Ice Cream: Carolyn took the coveted position of ice cream maker extraordinaire, and this dish was delicious! She was commended for her use of lavender, which can easily be overdone and made to taste like soap! Though this recipe calls for 5 egg yolks, Carolyn used 2 eggs, and the result was an incredibly rich and creamy dessert. I’m sure the remaining ice cream in the office freezer will be my downfall.

Peaches in Wine: Much to everyone’s surprise, two people chose to bring in this dish! Great minds must think alike. This dish was low-maintanence, simply calling for raw peaches soaked in wine for “several hours”. Open to interpretation, Michelene made her dish the night before, while Susanne made hers the morning of. I don’t think anybody could tell the difference in timing, though there were opposite preferenes for wine choice and peach flavor.

A Platter of Figs offers some amazing recipes. These delicious dishes are probably best suited for individuals who do not need to follow recipes down to a tee, and are okay wingin’ it in some cases. If all of our cookbook clubs result in meals as delicious as this one, I have no problem being a Parties That Cook guinea pig in the future! All in all, it was a wonderful day had by all.