Duck Confit

Ingredients: 

8 duck legs -- about 2kg
24g fine salt
8 juniper berries
6g whole black pepper
8 dried curry leaves
6g yellow mustard seeds
240g duck fat -- see notes
4 fat garlic cloves -- see notes

Pull the curry leaves apart into bits with your hands. Put all of the spices into a *mortar and pestle and crush roughly. Stir in the salt.

Rub all of the cure over the duck legs.

Let sit for 24-48 hours.

Rinse off all the cure, and pat dry.

Vacuum seal 2 of the duck legs at a time, with 60g duck fat and a clove of garlic.

Sous vide at 75C for 10 hours, and chill down. Stash in fridge for at least a week before eating.

Notes: 

Duck Fat: Hank Shaw suggests 1tbsp per two legs. I was trying to use up the rest of the duck fat I had already open from the can, so I added more. I also suspect that using more duck fat may lend the resulting confit a more unctuous flavor.

Garlic Cloves: For each bag of confit, use either two small cloves or a single fat one.

I use Michael Ruhlman's estimate of 6g salt per 500g duck. I often cure it for the full 48 hours, and do not find my duck to be too salty. If I am reusing duck fat, I generally adjust the salt downwards.

While Hank Shaw suggests 65C-75C, I saw lots of places suggesting 75C-82.5C. As I made a double batch (usually, I only do 4 at a time), and didn't have any curing salt on hand, I did it at a higher temperature this time as I expect that it will be kept for longer.

I have made a previous batch of sous vide duck confit, cooked at 65C, and then kept in the fridge for 2 weeks. The meat was deliciously tender, and the fat meltingly soft.

Prior to this, I had only ever made duck confit with olive oil. If you do not have a sous vide machine, I highly recommend the slow cooker or oven method with olive oil. Still superbly tasty. It is, however, messier.

I would actually not have bothered to use duck fat except Matthias bought me a can of duck fat some time back, and my vacuum sealer does not deal well with liquids.

Tasting Notes to come in a few weeks 

Sesame Rump Steak

Flavors adapted from Just Bento

Ingredients: 
10g sesame oil
5g Verjuice
5 drops sherry vinegar
10g sugar
20g soya sauce
Rump Steak

Mix everything but the steak in a small bowl.

Slice the steak into strips that are 1.5cm wide and 1cm thick. Each piece should have a bit of the end cap fat.

Brush the steak pieces with the sauce on all sides.

Vacuum seal so that the pieces do not overlap.

Sous vide at 60C for 8 hours.

Notes: 
Flavors were good, but next time I will sous vide it at a lower temperature for a longer time.

The meat was a little dry.

Buttery Sous Vide Veal Shank

Ingredients 
1 veal shank -- 1.2kg
35g butter
salt
oil
3 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic 6 cloves

Brush oil over the shank, then sear on all sides. Salt as you go.

Put everything into bag and sous vide at 55C for 24 hours, then raise temperature to 57C for another 24 hours.

Remove from bag. Pour off juices to make sauce if desired.

Sear on all sides.

Notes: 
Very tender and soft. Not in the least dry.

I could cut it easily with a butter knife.

The main problem with sous vide cooking for me at the moment is the difficulty I have in salting. This veal shank was not salty enough.

Aging Boulevardiers in the Sous Vide Machine

Ingredients: 
80g bourbon
40g Punt e Mes vermouth
80g Campari
10g Whiskey barrel chips

Put everything into a jar and into the sous vide machine at 40C for 40 minutes.

Tasting Notes: 
It is fairly mellow from the bourbon that was used.

Sous Vide Chicken Porridge

Ingredients: 
600g chicken stock
75g rice
2g salt
splash of soya sauce
splash of sesame ail
2 slices of ginger root
2g of green goo
Extra chicken stock or water for thinning out
soya sauce and white pepper to serve

Put everything into a jar and sous vide at 85C until the individual rice grains 'open' up. It will look more like individual rice grains that are fully cooked in liquid than rice porridge.

Store in fridge until ready to serve.

Serving Instructions: 
Empty out the jar, scraping out the remaining rice grains, into a saucepan. If you would like a thinner porridge (my preference), add up to 150ml of stock or water.

Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes, watching to make sure it does not burn. Rice porridge has a tendency to bubble and splatter.

When the liquid in the pot turns a slightly milky color, serve it ladled into bowls. Excellent accompaniments include shredded poached chicken, gomashio, other kinds of furikake and salty little fish, youtiao and freshly chopped scallions or coriander.

Ratios: 
The key ratio here is 75g rice to 600g liquid. Green tea or other stock would make delicious rice porridge as well.
I did try a 100g rice to 600g liquid ratio, but there was too much starch released by the rice relative to the liquid in the jar. In my experience, simmering the porridge a little longer to thicken it is fine, but having to thin it out when it gets too thick does not work out very well. I know this because I have made many many pots of overly thick rice porridge.

Sous Vide vs Stovetop 
The main benefits are that you do not have to watch it, check regularly to add water or stir. And it still will not burn.
If you don't have a sous vide machine, that's not a problem. You can just put the jar into very gently simmering water on a stove. If the water gets hotter than 85C, that is not a problem, just that it will probably be ready faster. It will be more of a problem if the water is not hot enough.

Tasting Notes: 
This tastes better with a lighter broth. It isn't meant to be a heavy meal, after all.
The ginger is essential, but coriander root is nice to have.

Sous Vide Chicken Stock

Ingredients 
450g Chicken Necks
2 cloves Garlic

I scalded the chicken necks with hot water, then divided them as follows:

1.5l Jar: 
240g chicken necks
1 clove garlic
1180g water -- tap

1l Jar: 
200g chicken necks
1 clove garlic
560g water -- tap

Sous vide at 80C for 4 hours.

I also have 3 carcasses and a clove of garlic in a giant pot of water on my new induction cooker for comparison's sake. The temperature in the pot also hovers around 80C.

(I planned for them to go into the machine too, however, my jars are not wide-necked enough.)

Tasting Notes: 
Not very different, except for the 1.5l jar tasting thinner, and my induction cooker does keep the temp hovering around 80C as well.
The advantage of using induction is that it lets me skim the scum off, though if you simmer at low temperatures, there isn't very much of it.
Overall, I might do this again if I am unable to use the induction cooker for some reason, but for the amounts that I normally make soup in, the sous vide machine isn't very practical.
If I wanted a jar of stock, and I was already using the sous vide machine for congee or something else, I can see that it would be convenient to also just put the jar the machine.

Other Notes: 
Tomorrow, I will publish my tasting notes for sous vide congee based on the jarred stock.

Savory Mash Potatoes

Ingredients: 
650g cubed potatoes -- after washing, peeling and cutting
200g chicken stock
100g butter
1 clove garlic

Sous vide at 80C for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Future Notes: 
Add salt at the beginning of cooking, not half way through because you forgot.
Higher temperature needed. Chef Steps has it at 90C for about half an hour.

Pasta Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg

Ingredients: 
50g crispy bacon -- or 75-80g uncooked
8g bacon fat
3 egg -- according to the box, an average of 58g (use Large)
100g grated parmesan  -- plus more to taste
170g dried egg noodles -- fettucine
Fresh black pepper
Salt

If the bacon is uncooked, crisp it up in the oven. You want it shatteringly crisp so it crumbles better.

Crumble the bacon in a bowl, and set aside. Pour the bacon fat into a medium mixing bowl, and once cool, grate the parmesan into the same bowl. Add a couple grinds of black pepper.

(Save the extra fat. People who don't should burn in hell probably.)

Sous vide the eggs at 60C for 40 minutes. 

30 minutes later, throw the pasta into a pot of salted boiling water, and cook as per package instructions. 

Drain the pasta and pour it into the mixing bowl. Crack the eggs into the bowl and mix well.

Serve with more parmesan and black pepper, as needed. 

Tasting Notes:

This recipe is for 2 hungry people. The leftovers can be crisped the next day, or thrown into an omelette.
If you like a looser sauce, I'd recommend saving a cup or so of the pasta water, and add it in if necessary.

Sous Vide Egg 
I settled on 60C for 40 minutes based on this Serious Eats article.
The eggs are just right at 60C for 40 minutes -- though, as always with sous vide, you probably have some margin of error on that.
For a looser sauce, you can probably try a little less time, or a lower temp.
In the past, using raw eggs, I was always careful to use the freshest eggs I can find (rather difficult to find here), but since the egg is cooked to temp before mixing, that is not really a concern here. 

Christmas Apples + Apple Syrup

Ingredient: 
350g cubed apples -- I used Pink Lady
Salt -- 3 fingered pinch
1/2 cinnamon stick
6 cloves
1 whole nutmeg
330ml apple cider -- 1 bottle
1/4 tsp vanilla powder
50g water
50g sugar - raw

Put everything into a 500ml mason jar. If the liquid does not cover the apples, add a bit more water.

Sous vide at 65C for 2 hours. Strain out the liquid and store separately.

Tasting Notes: 
The apples are still fairly firm. Would actually be ideal for apple pie, in my opinion, with a bit more sugar.
I plan to try this with apple molasses when I find it.
Pink Lady apples are on the sweeter side, so if you use something more tart (I do not recommend this because I think it would not taste good), add more sugar.
Might benefit from a hit of ginger if I wasn't using it for Fairytale of New York.

Other comments: 
I made the syrup for: Fairytale of New York
I was going to toss the apples, but the texture is still pretty good, hence I am munching on them.

Sous Vide Oatmeal

150g cereal blend with oatmeal and other things
10g quinoa
1/2 tsp cinnamon -- can omit
600g milk

Put everything into a 500ml canning jar, and into the sous vide machine overnight at 65C.

Notes:
I am making this thicker because that is how the Programmer Bear prefers it. I figure that if it's too thick, I can just thin it out stove top.
I estimate this makes about 2 portions. I am only making this much because I don't have smaller jars, and leaving the jar half full will cause to float and maybe turn upside down

Tasting Notes:
Creamy, but a little thick.
Might benefit from using a mixture of cream and milk.
Makes 3-4 portions as is.

Sous Vide Chicken Porridge

Ingredients: 
75g rice
600g chicken stock -- it should be thick enough to gel solid when cold
2g salt
2 spring onion stalks -- the white bit minus the roots plus a bit of the green part
small knob of ginger
sesame oil -- about a teaspoon or so
soya sauce -- just a few drops

Put all of the ingredients into a 500ml mason jar and sous vide for 4 hours at 65C, then another 8 hours at 75C.

Notes:
The stock was cold when it went in.
This is under salted, but you're meant to serve this with soy sauce and white pepper at the table anyway.

Tasting Notes:
The rice to stock ratio needs to go up, unless you are after a more Teochew style gruel. I will try 100g rice to 600g stock the next time.
Temperature needs to increase as well. When I checked it at 4 hours at 65C, the rice was still solid little grains. I will try 75C or 80C the next time for 8 hours.
(The only recipe I found online for Sous Vide congee suggested 90C for 1.5 hours, but I am aiming for an overnight recipe, at least until I get a sous vide machine with a timer.)
If you want to serve it piping hot, you will need to bring it to boil on a stove top.
I might reduce the salt the next time -- it was salty enough to not need extra flavorings.