My very generous brother, whose latest passion is cooking especially via the Modernist Cuisine cookbook, has given me some essential tools so that I too can cook with many of the methods highlighted in the book.  He gave me the Modernist Cuisine at Home, an ARY VacMaster Chamber Vacuum Sealer, vacuum sealing bags (think they’re thicker than 3 mils and BPA free) in two sizes, a PolyScience Immersion Circulator for cooking sous vide and he’s actually sending me some more supplies including citric acid and malic acid.  It’s been fun learning new, and using some old, methods of cooking.  The cookbook itself has amazingly beautiful photographs. You can find many of these items in my Have to Have link on the lower right side. (Have to Have recently co-sponsored a dinner and ticket to the Broadway showThe Heiress with Jessica Chastain and Dan Stevens-Downton Abbey’s Matthew Crawley.  Unfortunately Ms. Chastain was not performing that night but I still enjoyed the cringe-worthy play.) 

The other day we defrosted a big piece of top round steak (a gift from my sister-in-law) and decided the best way to cook it was sous vide.  Top Round (London Broil) is a fairly tough meat that greatly benefits by marinating and needs to be cooked the right way so it comes out tender.  This is a two day process by first placing it in a vacuum sealer bag with marinade then vacuuming and sealing and refrigerating overnight.  The next day we prepare the water bath and immersion circulator (you can use a bucket to cook this way!) and preheated water to 135˚F (57˚C).  Cooked the steak (just place bag in water) for 5 hours.  Right before we are ready to serve, we seared the outside of the steak in a lightly oiled, hot iron skillet.  Sliced and served.

Simple Steak Marinade
3-4 Tbsp Olive Oil (need the olive oil to conduct heat in bag)
Handful of fresh thyme, chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, sliced
Salt and pepper

Prepare above then coat the steak and vacuum seal. 

The meat was tender, succulent and perfectly marinated.  The flavors were phenomenal— vacuum sealing the marinade really permeates the steak thoroughly.  It was perfectly and evenly cooked, although my husband would have preferred it slightly, on the rarer side than it was. (130˚F for 4 hours would have accomplished that.)  We served it with a plain green salad, snow peas and roasted potatoes. All the boys loved the entire meal and there was nothing leftover.