Sous Vide Steak

This is surely the best steak method I’ve ever tried.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

2 ribeye steaks, about 1 lb. each
Salt and pepper
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. butter, melted

How to do it

1. Preheat the sous vide to 129°F (medium rare). Meanwhile, season the steaks on both sides with salt and pepper.
2. Vacuum-seal the steaks (“dry,” “normal” setting) and place them into the bath. Set the timer for 2 hours.
3. Remove the steaks from the bath and from their bags, and place them on a double-thickness of paper towels. After a minute or so, flip them. Your aim is to thoroughly dry the steaks. Meanwhile, heat a cast-iron pan over highest heat until it smokes, and then perhaps for another minute – 4 to 5 minutes altogether. As the pan’s heating, mix the butter and oil together. Use a pastry brush to generously coat the steaks on all sides.
4. Lay the steaks into the pan. Push down onto the steaks – especially in the center – to ensure that the surface of the steaks are in full contact with the pan.
5. After no more than 30 seconds, flip the steaks. Working quickly, press on them as before, and then go at them with a torch – giving particular attention to the sides. After 30 seconds, ideally, you’ll have all the sear and char you need. Remove the steaks from the pan and rest them on a wire rack placed over a rimmed baking sheet, torched side up. However, if you need more searing, continue flip and torch every 15 seconds or so, until you attain get a good sear, but be aware that the longer the steaks are in the pan, the more heat will transmit to the interior, and faster than you can imagine you’ll increase the doneness of the steaks. As hot as possible, for as short as possible, is best.
6. They don’t need much if any rest.

Baked Potatoes in the Microwave

Technically, this is a recipe for nonionizing-radiated potatoes. There’s no actual baking involved. Nonetheless, this method produces perfectly beautiful potatoes. Start them during the last 15 minutes of the steaks’ water bath; they’ll stay plenty warm during the searing process.

Ingredients for 2-4 servings:

4 medium potatoes
Olive oil
Salt
Butter, for serving
Parsley or fines herbs, for garnish

How to do it:

1. Massage potatoes lightly with oil.
2. Place them into a shallow, microwave-safe bowl, leaning them all away from the center of the bowl and away from one another.
3. Season the potatoes.
4. Nuke them at 100% for 7.5 minutes. Take their temperature. Flip them, salt them again, and return them to the microwave for another 7.5 minutes. Take their temperature again. The thermometer should slide in almost like the potato wasn’t there, and interior should reach around 200°F. If it doesn’t/hasn’t, continue to flip and cook.
5. Slice, butter, garnish, and there you go!

Steak Notes

I got a sous vide over the holidays. This is my first experience using it. I had planned to use it first to temper chocolate, but I found myself in the mood for steak.

There are so many sects of Steakism, each one with true, die-hard disciples professing a variety of incompatible steakist beliefs. There is one article, though, that is true of all Steaklesiastical faiths: a good steak doesn’t become good through cooking. It is good to begin with, and the cook’s job is not to fuck it up. A sous vide machine is not going to cook your steak for you start to finish. It leaves few pieces of the puzzle up to you, and you want to be careful with those. What the sous vide is going to do is deliver is a steak with guaranteed doneness to however you like it, almost effortlessly.   

Serious Eats (SE) says, “…get steaks that are at least an inch-and-a-half thick, if not a full two inches.” I say, “Take that seriously.” I bought dry-age, in-house ribeye steaks from Whole Foods. They set me back more than $36 – which one the one hand, seems like a lot, but on the other hand – the hand that used a knife to carve up a steak its body bought at Gibson’s a while back … the hand that fed that steak to a mouth that could not believe how amazing it was … the hand that later whipped out a credit card to pay nearly $50 for that steak – just the steak, without sides … yes, on that other hand, $36 for two steaks seems like a deal.

SE also suggests setting your sous vide to 129°F for a medium-rare steak, and I can testify to the truth of that. You’ll get a steak that’s nice and red … tender, but with a clean bite. Brad at BA says that when you cut into a sous vide steak, it will appear too done, but that within a few moments, it will blush red. I found that to be true.

Surprisingly, this much meat took up more space in my sous vide container (my trusty “big soup pot”) than I thought it would, given that I assumed that – just like in an oven – you need to allow for proper circulation. My pot is 10¼” in diameter, 6¼” tall, so I was surprised. I would think I could fit one more steak in, but that’d max it out – so now I can see why sous vide aficionados use large commercial containers and jerry-rigged coolers. I insulated the pot by wrapping it with two kitchen towels that I folded over and binder-clipped together for a nice, snug fit. After I put the steaks in, I put foil and a towel over the top for more insulation.

This picture comes from the Serious Eats post that I’ve been quoting. I like it, because it shows just how much seasoning you need for a thick piece of beef. This has nothing to do with sous vide in particular; this is what you should do with steak in general. This is more seasoning that you’d consider giving most any other kind of food, and so if you’re not in the know, you might not consider seasoning a steak this heavily. That is a horrible, rookie mistake.

I noticed that 129°F is hot, but not so hot that I wouldn’t mind getting there with the steaks. (I should add that’s it’s 7°F outside, has been for days, and I’m watching a constant snowfall out my window.) That makes me wonder, can you sous vide a steak in a hot tub? Most hot tubs won’t get hotter than 104°F, so “no” … unless you like truly saignant beef or can rig your tub to exceed maximum safe temps. On the other hand, could you use your sous vide to turn your bath tub into a hot tub? Probably not, but I want to.

How do you know when your steak is done? Jason Logsdon has a handy chart. He also has advice about cooking steaks to different levels of doneness. Neither my husband nor I would ever want something other than medium-rare, of course … but it could happen that maybe a friend of a friend of a friend could wind up in our kitchen asking for something more done. Once.

Torching the steak in the pan will ensure that there are no un-combusted fuel aromas. Using the torch, if it’s new to you, is an issue – especially when you’re under the gun: trying to work quickly with fire over a dangerously hot, smoking pan. Fans whirring at full tilt. Two expensive steaks – not to mention your reputation – on the line. Until you’re used to how it works, you might want to have a friend man the tongs and keep track of the timing while you concentrate on the torch-work. But on the other hand … you get to use a torch!

A friend of mine says that she sears on only one side and serves the steak sear-side-up.

I had thought that you’d be able to leave food in a sous vide for as long as you like, but I hadn’t considered that at temperatures between 40°F and 140°F, this potentially could be unsafe. Some clever people have devised methods of starting food in an ice bath, and once the bath reaches 40°F, remotely (because presumably they’re at work at some millennial-oriented place like Google – but one that doesn’t offer free sous vide steaks in the break room) raising the sous vide temperature … like a sous vide start delay. Please don’t mistake my views on health concerns as fact. Do your own research and draw your own conclusions.

Potato Notes

Throw potato in microwave, push “potato” button. This is what I used to do. Not infrequently, my microwaved potatoes would come out less than ideally. Taking their temperature makes all the difference.

Because they’re medium-sized potatoes, you might want more than one per serving, although I do think one is plenty. Because this method helps to prevent them from drying out, the leftovers reheat so well that you’d eat them on their own.

Timing will vary from microwave to microwave.

The potatoes won’t be done the first time you take their temperature, but it’s important to know how far along they are, so that you can adjust the timing going forward.

One of the odd things I enjoy about this blog is that it lets me curate the internet for you. You’re welcome. I brought a bunch of work home with me today, but I felt more like web surfing.

Here are my favorite potato-baking videos:

• Although Dr. Scott’s video could use a little Hollywood, I do like his choice of potato-nuking music. On second thought, you know what’d be cool? The ding of the microwave launches an unexpected Bollywood dance number…
• The guy who stars in this Kitchen Tip Online video ought to voice-over something that slices and dices. One important thing I learned: taking your potato’s temperature (and knowing what that temp should be). Another thing: used medium-sized potatoes.
• Manfreed is an absolute must-see.
• Tom shows you how to put potatoes in a bowl. And he’s a fireman, which gives him automatic street cred, as far as I’m concerned. Also, who knew that people flipped their potatoes? Everyone seems to be doing it.
• I’m pretty sure Greg wants more than a potato – and I’m OK with it. However, he’s a hole-poker, and it seems to be the general consensus that that’s a no-no.

Steak and Potatoes

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. Thank you, Kesor. 

Keep up with us on Bloglovin’