Sous Vide Carrots, Too

Memory is a funny thing. I’ve been convinced until about 45 seconds ago that the sous vide carrot recipe I love using is this López-Alt one, except it’s kind of not. Where that one uses parsley, I’ve been using dill, mostly because I was convinced that was what the recipe called for (in fact, that’s what I reported, even after linking to the recipe before; Christ). Also, I don’t add sugar — not that I’m opposed to it, just because I didn’t realize it called for it (and I probably assumed it didn’t need it [I can’t believe it does]).

So anyway, that happened. But what I really wanted to say is that I used ghee this time instead of butter and it’s even better. I used ghee last time but that was in a ziploc full of mushrooms and mushrooms have so much water that I think the ghee got lost.

So, like I said: ghee.

You Screw Things Up Enough, It’s Bound To Go Right

I had been thinking about the almost baked pate-kebabs from lamb we made the other day so when we were at the store the other day I picked up a pack of meatloaf mix (pork, veal, beef), which obviously isn’t lamb but which I figured might work anyway. Conceptually, it was something along the lines of “South Asian Meatloaf Ke-balls.”

So today I pull out the copy of At Home With Madhur Jaffrey and opened it to what I thought was the recipe I mangled and after I prepped the paste that the meat gets mixed into I realized that I was using the wrong recipe. I had the book open to the Lamb Kebabs with Mint recipe (page 116) and had dutifully measured out all the requisite cumin, coriander, cayenne and ginger and was going to mix it into the ground meat when I noticed it said “Mix well and prob the lamb cubes with a fork.” Hrm. It took me a while to figure out what the original recipe was, and only after referring back to this post was I able to reconstruct what happened — which is why I want to get this down in the first place.

One thing I changed was switching out plain yogurt for ricotta cheese, which we always have around. So: Ricotta cheese, lemon juice, salt cayenne pepper, ground cumin, ground coriander, two scallions (in place of an onion), ginger, the meat, and skip the mint but add the butcher parsley they always include in the meatloaf. Who eats that stuff? you might ask. We did. Tonight. It actually came in handy.

And then I turned the page to the actual recipe I mangled before which was when everything collapsed into itself. The only remaining issue was how long to cook the balls. The answer, I now Googled my way into, was 400 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.

The second part of the meal were the sous vide carrots (you know, those things), except this time I experimented with adding mushrooms. That part worked, too. Also, we used ghee instead of butter.

Here Are Some Things I Think I Need To Say About Sous Vide Carrots

I definitely love the immersion sous vide thingy Jen got me as a gift. And just to be upfront, I won’t talk about it like so many sous vide blog entries seem to: with a big disclaimer at the end that the gear they use is sponsored by one of the major manufacturers of the home cooking sous vide machinery thingys. All those posts freely admit that the gear is sponsored, but it never stops being strange to me. And the thing is that if you google “sous vide [blank]” nearly every goddamn post is somehow related to this one particular manufacturer. It beats you over the fucking head and while I’m perfectly willing to believe this is all rolling out according to plan, agencies involved in social media campaigns never seem that competent. So it’s crazy to me that [X] brand has cornered the market on information about sous vide recipes online.

And yet, so many of the posts are so relevant and useful that I don’t really mind so much.

Anyway, our sous vide thingy is not the same one that seems to dominate the googlescape. Jen paid full price for it. And it’s really cool and fun to experiment with and worth talking about.

So with that, carrots. I already mentioned before that I continue to be frustrated by a quest for super-sublime steak. The thing that is unimpeachable, however, is carrots. I first learned about this from one of J. Kenji López-Alt’s posts, and have made sous vide carrots pretty regularly since then. Everyone seems to like them.

(Just to be clear because two disparate thoughts are following in the above paragraphs, I don’t know if — and am not intimating — J. Kenji López-Alt gets complimentary sous vide gear but it wouldn’t matter to me because I always trust his writing.)

(As an aside, pork tenderloin is also pretty rockin’ with the sous vide thingy. Pork chops are unnecessary. The experiments continue.)

The sous vide carrots recipe is pretty straightforward: dill, salt, pepper and butter. I actually always forget about the sugar, but I don’t think you need sugar. It’s good. Tonight I looked at The Flavor Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, which was a gift from Goober and got the idea to substitute garam masala for dill after seeing cardamom and cumin mentioned as good matches with carrots. I thought the garam masala recipe I used included anise but I was mistaken. Oh well. Anyway, GARAM MASALA TASTES GREAT IN SOUS VIDE CARROTS. I just needed to report that.

Incidentally, I’m obsessed with this book. As I write this I’m dipping shitty Babybel mozzarella “style” cheese in dried basil, JUST BECAUSE I READ THAT MOZZARELLA AND BASIL GO WELL TOGETHER, WHICH IF I THOUGHT ABOUT IT FOR HALF A FUCKING SECOND WOULD HAVE BEEN OBVIOUS. But that’s part of what’s cool about Flavor — the inspiration is so great. Without that book I would have just been pilfering my kid’s shitty Babybel stash. This way, it’s elevated. Like an elevator. Or blood pressure.

The other thing tonight was chicken sausage. I make it a lot, mostly because I assume that Mr. Kiddo will eat it. He actually hasn’t touched it for months, but I’m not quite sure what to do and I have no time to think about other proteins.

Anyway, the recipe I tend to default to is probably a combination of a bunch of recipes that are forgotten to browser histories and then also the Frankies Spuntino cookbook, which Jen did get for free a few jobs ago. I would like to mention that it’s good. I use it a lot. I don’t totally get their obsession with white pepper, but whatever.

Some recipe, I can’t remember which, calls for marsala wine, which I keep on hand and use but which I skipped for a wine that’s been in the fridge for several weeks from when we had people over. It’s Baron de Seillac sparkling rose (thanks, MS!), which [googling] is a sparking wine made from 100% grenache grapes which is not particularly expensive. Let me tell you this, though: that wine with some tomato paste, oregano, salt, black pepper (sorry, Frankie, et al.), onion, mushroom and that’s it was really wonderful tasting. More research needed, for sure, but what the fuck am I tasting? I need to know!