Because of the development of the Internet, whether it is a professional restaurant or a family, there has been a wave of low-temperature cooking. In contrast to restaurants, which have only begun to use it in large numbers over the past few years, restaurants in Europe have been introducing this technology for 20 years, and there are even schools that offer specialized courses in low-temperature cooking.

The principle of low-temperature cooking

Low-temperature cooking in French is Cuisine Sousvide, some people will be translated into "Shu fat", rather than using the phonetic word, it would be better to turn directly into the "low-temperature cooking" is also relatively easy to understand. Sous Vide literally means "vacuum", which is because the ingredients must be packed in a sealed bag before cooking, and will be excluded from the internal air, so it is a vacuum. vacuumed, and then sealed immediately afterward before cooking at low temperatures.

Beef is well suited to this method.

1. Before cooking, vacuum packing:

In order to avoid prolonged contact between the ingredients and the water to become a pot of soup, it is necessary to isolate the ingredients from the water with an insulator, so before cooking at low temperature, we have to put the ingredients into the appropriate size of plastic material vacuum bag.

The next step after loading the ingredients is to remove the excess air from the bag, which is called "vacuuming". The purpose of this action is to allow the surface of the ingredients to come into close contact with the bag, so that the temperature can be quickly transferred into the ingredients. If you don't remove the excess air, there will be a lot of space between the bag and the ingredients, and all of this space will be filled with air, which will block the temperature conduction, resulting in less efficient cooking or uneven heating of the ingredients.

2. Vacuum:

1. Vacuum sealer vacuum. Vacuum sealing machine is the use of vacuum pump will be pumped out of the gas, after pumping also at the same time the bag mouth to do hot pressure sealing, operation is quite convenient.

2. Straw vacuum. Put the ingredients into a sealed bag, insert a straw into the side of the sealed bag, and seal it to the straw. Using the straw, use your mouth to suck the air out of the bag, wait until the air is almost dry, pull out the straw and at the same time, press the last clamping chain to seal.

3. Squeeze out the air with water pressure to put the ingredients into the sealed bag. Pour the appropriate amount of water into the container. Submerge the ziplock bag with ingredients into the water, as the water level rises, the excess air in the bag will be squeezed out by the water pressure, so the bag will stick to the surface of the ingredients, wait until the water exceeds the height of the ingredients you can stop and seal the bag.

3. The vacuum bag is made of plastic, will it have adverse effects on the body?

General HDPE plastic bags can be heat-resistant to 110 ℃, cheaper low-density polyethylene LDPE material can also be heat-resistant 80?90 ℃, and low-temperature cooking temperatures are mostly in the 60?70 ℃ or so, and rarely more than 80 ℃, much lower than the upper limit of the above two materials heat-resistant. When buying, you can pay attention to the manufacturer's heat-resistant labeling, and then choose a trustworthy product from a large manufacturer, you can minimize this risk.

4. With an electric pot, you can cook at low temperatures too!

If you don't have a special low-temperature cooking machine at home, in fact, using everyone's home has an electric pot, we can use the electric pot's heat preservation function as a tool for low-temperature cooking, of course, because the electric pot heat preservation temperature is set, so you can only do low-temperature cooking at certain specific temperatures.

In the general household electric pot is either a Tatung electric pot or an electronic pot, if your home is a Tatung electric pot, use the outer pot can be; if it is an electronic pot, you must use the inner pot attached to the electronic pot.

The holding temperature of the electronic pot is about 70 to 72 degrees Celsius, and the Tatung electric pot is about 50 to 52 degrees Celsius, in other words, you can only cook at a temperature suitable for cooking. In the case of electronic pots, you can only cook dishes such as oil-sealed duck legs, bacon, chicken breast rolls, etc. at a temperature of about 72°C; while Tatung electric pots are only suitable for cooking dishes with a temperature set at about 52°C.

The recent low-temperature cooking craze has attracted a lot of attention, and if you don't have a special low-temperature cooking machine at home, you can actually use the electric pots and pans that everyone has in their homes to have some fun!

2 Turn on the power of the cooker and set it to keep warm mode. Tatung electric pots are in keep-warm mode when plugged in, and electronic pots are in keep-warm mode when you press the keep-warm button.

3Cook with the lid on until the set time is up.

6. This is even more delicious! Before serving, color the surface

After the low-temperature cooking process is complete, the stewed dishes can be served directly, but the non-stewed ones will require an additional procedure of "coloring the surface" to make them more delicious!

This process usually involves using very high temperatures to create a Mena reaction on the surface of the food, which gives it a beautiful golden color or a darker brown, and also gives it more flavor through the high temperatures, so the beautiful color and flavor will attract people before they even eat it!

There are many ways to color the surface, such as pan-frying, charcoal grilling, and deep-frying. Generally speaking, pan-frying is the most common technique, and thick-bottomed pans or cast iron skillets are good choices. If you want to give your food a little bit of the original charcoal grill flavor, you'll need to use an open flame, so charcoal, a flamethrower, or even a gas grill are all good choices.

Lightly pan-seared spiced swordfish with bell pepper sauce

Swordfish, which is relatively low in fat, is succulent and delicious when cooked with vegetable fertilizer. Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2 yellow bell peppers in bell pepper sauce, 120ml chicken stock (or fish stock), 50ml white wine, 30g unsalted butter, sea salt, white pepper

1. Wash and dry the swordfish fillets and put them in a Ziploc bag with all the ingredients, a good amount of sea salt, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Exhaust excess air and seal, refrigerate and marinate overnight.

2. When the marinade is finished, place the swordfish steaks in a large electric pot, add hot water at 48-52°C, and cook in keep warm mode for 40-60 minutes.

3. Make bell pepper sauce yellow bell peppers with fire to burn the entire surface until black, and then rinse with water to remove the charred skin, cut bell peppers, remove the seeds, and then put into a pot with chicken broth, white wine to cook soft, and then use a blender to puree it while it's still hot, cut the cream into dices and add it to the bell pepper sauce, and then season it with salt and white pepper to taste.

The yellow bell peppers can be replaced with any color bell peppers, or make one of each color for a colorful presentation when serving.4 Remove the finished swordfish steaks and sear the tops in a skillet for color. Plate, garnish, and drizzle with the bell pepper sauce to serve.

How to Make Smoked Beef Ham

Smoked Beef Ham is good for slicing and serving cold, and making sandwiches is a great accompaniment to picnics. (Photo courtesy of Jaeger Culture)

Low-temperature cooking method: electronic pot

Temperature: 68 to 75 degrees Celsius

Time: 3 to 5 hours

Ingredients: beef 1kg marinade (per kilogram dosage) Salt 19g, sugar 6g, black pepper 2g, bay leaves, pink salt (nitrite) 0.5g (optional) Smoking material brown sugar 50g, 50g of wood chips, 25g of crushed black tea leaves (tea leaves from tea bags can be used)

1. Cut the beef into appropriate sizes and lengths. Mix all the marinade ingredients, spread evenly on the surface of the beef, then put it into a Ziploc bag, exhaust the excess air and seal it, put it into the refrigerator to marinate for 5?7 days.

2. Remove the marinated beef from the ziplock bag, rinse and dry the surface, and brown the surface in a pan.

3. Take an appropriately sized pan and lay a layer of aluminum foil underneath, spread the smoking ingredients evenly and flatly on the foil. Place a smoker rack in the pan and place the beef on the rack. Cover the pot with a lid. Use wood chips for smoking. If you don't have any, just use brown sugar and tea leaves.

4. First open the fire, see the smoke out and then turn to medium heat, the whole process of smoking about 15 minutes, the smoking process should see the smoke, if there is no smoke to turn the stove fire. Turn off the fire without lifting the lid of the pot and let it sit for 5 minutes.

5. Take out the finished smoked beef and put it into a ziplock bag and seal it after discharging the excess air. Add hot water at 68-75℃ to the electronic pot and cook in keep warm mode for 3 to 5 hours, when finished, it's smoked beef ham!