The Searzall was packaged in a small box along with some hardware and literature.
Showing posts with label Brussels sprouts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brussels sprouts. Show all posts
Thursday, October 16, 2014
It's Here!: Searzall Edition
I've been listening to Dave Arnolds "Cooking Issues" for a few years now and had heard him talk about the torch attachment they had been developing on the show, so when he announced that they were launching a Kickstarter campaign to I jumped in. Today it arrived and I wanted to try it out!
Here is everything unpacked. Included in the box is the Searzall attachment, a spare set of screens, an allen key, limited warranty sheet, initial set-up instructions and a user guide. Also included is a small wooden stick, which confused me at first but made sense once I had read the instructions. There is also a torch head adapter which was already inserted in the Searzall.
Here is the Searzall attached to my torch. In anticipation of the arrival I had purchased the recommended torch head, a Benzomatic TS8000, a few months ago. Mounting the searzall was extremely simple, since the adapter was already installed (there is a thumbscrew to secure it in place) I just slipped the attachment on to the end of the torch. This is where the wooden stick comes in to play, you insert the stick between the tip of the torch head and the searzall to ensure proper spacing between the two, there should be a 1/8" gap. The Searzall is then secured by tightening a lock nut with the provided allen key and the stick removed (and stored in a safe location for future use!). The instructions at this point are to ignite the torch and position the Searzall with the screens pointing directly at the floor at a height of at least 4 feet for two minutes. The metal will glow red during this initial burn-in.
Here's a shot with the screen still red hot. It took about 7-8 minutes for the metal to cool to the pint it could be handled, but this thing gets HOT, so an abundance of caution is called for. I tried to get a temperature using an infrared thermometer but the temperature exceeded its range (550 C).
Finally I was ready to use the Searzall on some food. I've been trying to lose a little weight before the holidays so on the weekends I cook a lot of protein and sides, portion them to get the calories I want, vacuum seal the meal together and freeze. For tonight I pulled a sous vide pork chop with Brussels sprouts and new potatoes. The pouch was rethermed in a water bath heated by my Nomiku, removed and de-bagged. I patted as much moisture off the pork as possible and went to work with the Searzall, which gave me a really nice crust. I then went to town on the sides...
Getting a little char on the vegetables was a piece of cake! This weekend I plan on using the Searzall quite a bit while making meals for the next week, it will be a lot easier (and cleaner) than searing my proteins in a skillet like I have been doing. This is going to be an extremely useful tool!
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Christmas Dinner
Been a while since I've posted. I've been using my Nomiku often and loving it! On Thanksgiving we did a sous vide turkey breast along with all the traditional fixings which all turned out excellent! We've also been making chicken breasts, steaks and some vegetables sous vide.
For Christmas I decided to use a beef tenderloin that I vacuum sealed and froze last christmas, I've been trying to use some of the stuff that's been accumulating in our freezer. To make it more "christmasy" I decided to butterfly the roast and fill it with sauteed garlic spinach. The process was pretty simple, first I sauteed down some spinach by sweating a minced clove of garlic with some pepper, then adding fresh spinach and cooking it down. Once done the spinach was dumped in to a colander and allowed to drain a bit while I butterflied the tenderloin. This portion of tenderloin was already a bit flat due to the vacuum sealing and freezing, so I just cut it about half way down stopping about an inch from the other side. I opened it like a book, covered with plastic wrap and used a meat mallet to flatten to a uniform thickness. Salt and pepper was sprinkled on the meat, then a layer of the garlic spinach. The tenderloin was then rolled up and tied to keep the spinach inside, then I tried to stuff any stuffing that squished out back in the sides of the roast. I seasoned the outside of the roast and vacuum sealed it along with a few tablespoons of butter. This was cooked in a 56.7C bath for about 90 minutes, then allowed to cool in the bag for 10 minutes before being debagged and seared on all sides in a hot pan.
For sides we did potatoes dauphinoise, roasted brussels sprouts with smoked roasted red pepper and a salad. Potatoes dauphinoise is one of the easiest dishes I know of that always gets raves. It's just potatoes sliced on a mandolin and cooked in cream that's been seasoned with salt, white pepper and minced garlic. For this time I added some minced onion and topped it with parmesan cheese. I like to cook it in a shallow casserole to maximize browning. For the first 30 minutes the potatoes are cooked in a 350F oven covered with foil, then the foil is removed and they cook until the top is nice and browned. Sometimes I'll increase the oven temp to 400 to speed up the browning process.
The brussels sprouts are based on a recipe I saw on a cooking show earlier this year. I cut off the stem end of the sprout and then cut it in half lengthwise, then they're put in a bowl of cold water to soak for a bit. When I'm ready to cook I drain the soaking water, add salt, pepper and olive oil then toss to evenly distribute the seasoning. The brussels sprouts halves and arranged on a baking sheet cut side down, covered in foil and then put on the top shelf of an oven preheated to 500F degrees for 10 minutes. At that time the foil is removed and the sprouts are roasted for another 10 minutes until they start to brown. To add a little christmas color I roasted a red bell pepper, allowed it to steam a bit in a covered bowl and then removed the skin. The pepper was cut in to 1/2" by 3/4" pieces and placed back in the bowl, then covered with plastic wrap and smoked using my Polyscience Smoking Gun loaded with apple wood chips before being allowed to sit covered for 5 minutes to absorb the smoke flavor. The smoked, roasted red pepper pieces then tossed with the roasted brussels sprouts. My original intention was to try and mimic the taste of Brussels sprouts and bacon and this was a pretty good attempt, I'll be refining this recipe and pulling it out for cold weather dinners often.
Next time I'll try to get some pictures!
For Christmas I decided to use a beef tenderloin that I vacuum sealed and froze last christmas, I've been trying to use some of the stuff that's been accumulating in our freezer. To make it more "christmasy" I decided to butterfly the roast and fill it with sauteed garlic spinach. The process was pretty simple, first I sauteed down some spinach by sweating a minced clove of garlic with some pepper, then adding fresh spinach and cooking it down. Once done the spinach was dumped in to a colander and allowed to drain a bit while I butterflied the tenderloin. This portion of tenderloin was already a bit flat due to the vacuum sealing and freezing, so I just cut it about half way down stopping about an inch from the other side. I opened it like a book, covered with plastic wrap and used a meat mallet to flatten to a uniform thickness. Salt and pepper was sprinkled on the meat, then a layer of the garlic spinach. The tenderloin was then rolled up and tied to keep the spinach inside, then I tried to stuff any stuffing that squished out back in the sides of the roast. I seasoned the outside of the roast and vacuum sealed it along with a few tablespoons of butter. This was cooked in a 56.7C bath for about 90 minutes, then allowed to cool in the bag for 10 minutes before being debagged and seared on all sides in a hot pan.
For sides we did potatoes dauphinoise, roasted brussels sprouts with smoked roasted red pepper and a salad. Potatoes dauphinoise is one of the easiest dishes I know of that always gets raves. It's just potatoes sliced on a mandolin and cooked in cream that's been seasoned with salt, white pepper and minced garlic. For this time I added some minced onion and topped it with parmesan cheese. I like to cook it in a shallow casserole to maximize browning. For the first 30 minutes the potatoes are cooked in a 350F oven covered with foil, then the foil is removed and they cook until the top is nice and browned. Sometimes I'll increase the oven temp to 400 to speed up the browning process.
The brussels sprouts are based on a recipe I saw on a cooking show earlier this year. I cut off the stem end of the sprout and then cut it in half lengthwise, then they're put in a bowl of cold water to soak for a bit. When I'm ready to cook I drain the soaking water, add salt, pepper and olive oil then toss to evenly distribute the seasoning. The brussels sprouts halves and arranged on a baking sheet cut side down, covered in foil and then put on the top shelf of an oven preheated to 500F degrees for 10 minutes. At that time the foil is removed and the sprouts are roasted for another 10 minutes until they start to brown. To add a little christmas color I roasted a red bell pepper, allowed it to steam a bit in a covered bowl and then removed the skin. The pepper was cut in to 1/2" by 3/4" pieces and placed back in the bowl, then covered with plastic wrap and smoked using my Polyscience Smoking Gun loaded with apple wood chips before being allowed to sit covered for 5 minutes to absorb the smoke flavor. The smoked, roasted red pepper pieces then tossed with the roasted brussels sprouts. My original intention was to try and mimic the taste of Brussels sprouts and bacon and this was a pretty good attempt, I'll be refining this recipe and pulling it out for cold weather dinners often.
Next time I'll try to get some pictures!
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