Ingredients
12 oz salmon filets
1 tbsp olive oil
Cherry tomatoes
Flaky sea salt
Directions
- Preheat the sous vide bath to 48°C/118°F (or your favorite doneness preference from the time & temp section of the Sansaire App).
- Optional: Remove the skin from the salmon fillet. Better yet, ask your fishmonger to do this for you when you purchase your salmon. Remove the bones. Cut the fillet into the portions you’ll end up serving – the fish will cut much cleaner when it’s raw than after it has been cooked.
- Add 1 tbsp. olive oil to a zip-top bag, then add a salmon fillet. Use the water displacement method* to remove air from the bag. Bagging each fillet individually will ensure that they don’t become stuck together during cooking. *If you aren’t using a vacuum sealer, with the top of the bag open, use tongs to carefully submerge the bag into the bottom of the water bath, without allowing any water into the bag itself. The pressure of the water circulating around the outside of the bag will push any air out and form a seal around the food. Using the side of the water container, carefully seal the bag.
- Cook for 30 minutes for a 1” thick fillet, or until the core temperature of the fish reaches to 47°C/117°F (one degree below the bath temperature).
- Remove the salmon from the bag.
- Plate and season with high-quality olive oil, cherry tomatoes, flaky sea salt or any other sauces or garnishes you prefer.
Rainbow Carrot Salad
Ingredients
1 lb rainbow carrots, peeled
Fresh pepper to taste
Drizzle Dijon mustard vinaigrette to taste (optional)
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
3 Tbsp butter
Directions
- Preheat water bath to 183°F (82°C) with Sansaire
- Peel and separate by color.
- Combine carrots, salt, sugar & butter in bag and seal* *If you aren’t using a vacuum sealer, melt the butter before adding to the other ingredients. With the top of the bag open, use tongs to carefully submerge the bag into the bottom of the water bath, without allowing any water into the bag itself. The pressure of the water circulating around the outside of the bag will push any air out and form a seal around the vegetables. Using the side of the water container, carefully seal the bag.
- Add bag to water bath and cook for 60 minutes
- Remove carrots from bag and plate. Season to taste with salt and pepper
- Optional: Drizzle Dijon mustard vinaigrette or your favorite dressing.
Recipes by Jacqueline Kairichi
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Is It Safe To Cook In Plastic?
Now that newer, lower-priced sous vide machines have finally hit the market, home cooks have begun to ponder contemplating adding one of these nifty little gadgets to their kitchen arsenal. Many, though, have begun to wonder just how safe it is to cook in a plastic bag.
Practically speaking, cooking in plastic is not a new idea. Open up your kitchen cabinets and you are likely to find plenty of microwave-safe plastic containers, as well as Saran wrap, which can be used both in the microwave and, under certain circumstances, even in your oven. Then there are the ubiquitous plastic bagged pastramis that have been popping up in cholent pots over the past few years. Still, you have to ask yourself if a bag that is meant primarily for storage can cause problems when subjected to heat, especially for long amounts of time.
The answer, according to Modernist Cuisine, is a resounding no.
Virtually all ziplock bags are made of polyethylene which has been studied extensively and found to be safe. Typically, cheaper plastics are made out of lower-grade polyvinyl chloride (also known as PVC) which is not food safe when heated and can leach harmful compounds into food, so they are best avoided. However, since the price differential between the two materials is so small, most plastic bags and wraps on store shelves are made of polyethylene, not PVC. So read the small print on your plastic bags carefully and if you have any doubts as to your bag’s composition, feel free to call the manufacturer for more information.
Of course, if it makes you feel better, go ahead and spend the extra money on bags that are made specifically for sous vide cooking. Just know that, according to the experts, you don’t need to.
Interestingly enough, the idea of cooking food in a sealed environment to keep the item as juicy as possible has been around for centuries. Culinary historians note that food has traditionally been cooked wrapped in leaves, encased in fat, potted in salt, packed into intestines (here’s looking at you, kishke) and wrapped in animal bladders.
Animal bladders? No thank you. That box of ziplock bags works just fine for me.
