Experiment / Recipe: Sous Vide Ox Cheek w/ Salad of Palm Hearts

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Lunch today has very much been a “let’s see what’s in the kitchen” kind of vibe. It’s really a test run to see how sous vide ox cheek comes out. I’d normally cook ox cheek slowly for 2 - 3 hours. This breaks down the fat and gristle, into an unctuous gelatine that really contributes to the stickiness of the sauce, and the vegetables and potatoes. That’s a classic and simple way to cook them.

For the sous vide test I wanted to keep the cooking process as isolated as possible to understand how the texture is affected, then have some fun experimenting with the accompaniments! Oh and get to use the pea shoots I planted a couple of weeks back : ) will post about that in the next post!

Pea shoots coming along nicely in the garden!

Sous Vide Ox Cheek w/ Salad of Palm Hearts 

check list:

Red pepper puree

Ox cheek sauce & spring onions

    (calçots style - Catalonian dish).

Miso creme fraiche puree.

Hollow palm hearts filled w/ miso creme fraiche puree.

Buttered rounds of Afghan sesame bread.

Lemon vinaigrette w/ spring onion.

Pea shoots (from the garden).

Seared spring onion.

Seared ox cheek.

ingredients (serves 2)

for the ox cheek

2 ox cheeks

2 sprigs thyme

2 sprigs rosemary

2 tsp garlic butter

~

Sear the ox cheek until golden brown.

Put all the ingredients into a vac pack or zip lock bag.

Sous vide at 80C / 9h.

After the ox cheeks cool, put them into the fridge until needed (or use immediately).

If they’ve come from the fridge gelatine will have set. Put the bag into hot water ~80C for 15-20mins to bring them up to temperature.

Take the cheeks out reserving the stock.

Sear them to finish it before serving. (They’ll be an awkward shape which is another good reason to brown before they go into the sous vide)

Do NOT put the remains of the back directly into the frying pan with the meat the gelatine will quickly reduce and stick to the pan!

Keep it for sauce!

for the ox cheek sauce

remnants from the sous vide bag (jelly, butter, leaves removed)

200ml chicken stock

200ml double cream

4 spring onion (bottom 2/3)

~

Peel the spring onions and cut the bottom 2/3’s off each.

Keep the tips for the vinaigrette.

Put stocks into the pot and bring to the boil.

Add the spring onions and boil for 2-3mins. Then remove them and put aside for later.

Add the cream and reduce the liquid until it reaches coating consistency.

Keep an eye on the saltiness as it reduces!

for the miso creme fraiche

15g miso 

200ml creme fraiche (hung for 24h)

lemon juice (as much as it will take!)

palm heart centres (optional)

~

Hang the creme fraiche in muslin over night.

Mix the miso & creme fraiche and season with lemon, salt and pepper.

It should be sharp as possible without being too loose.

for the palm heart salad

120g palm hearts (centres removed)

2 buttered toasted sesame afghan bread (cut into 6 rounds)

vinaigrette (lemon & spring onion)

50g miso creme fraiche

~

Cut the palm hearts into thirds (or halves).

Pop the centres out, these can be used in the miso puree or left as they are. They’re super soft!

Fill the hollow palm heart segments with miso puree after they’re plated.

Cut the Afghan bread through the middle, toast the sesame side, butter and cut into rounds.

for the garnish

pea shoots

lemon zest

maldon salt

black sesame seeds

apparatus / equipment

sous vide machine

to serve 

Pipe the red pepper puree onto a hot plate.

Place the palm hearts, fill them with miso puree & top with sesame seeds

Slice the ox cheek, and place it.

Add the crispy rounds & the seared spring onions, dress with spring onion vinaigrette & lemon zest.

Finally top with ox cheek sauce and serve immediately.

thinking ahead

The ox cheeks, red pepper puree, miso puree, vinaigrette will all last unto 5 days in the fridge.

conclusions

The ox cheek had a lovely texture and great gelatinous element to it. I chilled them overnight, warmed them through and seared them a touch more. Cracking!

For the ox cheek sauce, less is more!! Otherwise it over powers the acidity on the rest of the plate! 

Maybe lightly pickle the palm hearts for a touch more acidity!

reference links & variations

SousVide Ox Cheek 75C / 20h - maybe try this time / temp combo next.

Food n Chef  82.5C / 8h 

Modernist Cuisine 81C / 9h

Recipe: Sweet Corn Velouté w/ Chorizo Film

by ferdie, in partnership with Unearthed for Action Against Hunger

This is a pretty standard flavour combination, the film is almost undetectable but adds a strong complementary chorizo flavour to the thyme infused corn soup. Another contributing factor is taking a proportion of the corn and frying it to within an inch of it's life, giving it a charred savoury popcorn-esque dimension to the flavour of the soup! It usually goes down pretty well! 

Flavour 1: Sweetcorn

Flavour 2: Chorizo (pronounced cho-ree-tho)

INGREDIENTS (serves 6)

Sweetcorn Veloute
8 cobs sweet corn (if you're going to use tinned use 4 tins unsweetened corn 280g each)
4 tbsp EVO
1.0 litre veg/chicken stock (or 2 pints water + 2 stock cubes)
10g lemon thyme
50g butter
1 tsp table salt
250 ml double cream
1 large onion (finely chopped)

Chorizo Film
75g chorizo diced
50ml milk (semi skimmed fine)
150ml single cream

Lemon thyme imparts a wonderful fresh depth to the soup.

METHOD
Blend 3/4 of the corn until smooth and put aside.
Put stock, and cream in pot with bouquet garni of thyme and extra virgin olive oil.
Set to boil, then simmer for 20 mins to infuse with the lemon thyme.

Charring the sweetcorn adds an extra facet to the flavour.

Put remaining 1/4 of the corn in pan, with chopped onions and saute with butter until it's almost starting to burn, in fact the odd charred one will add to the flavour the frying brings out.
Blast the charred corn and onion in blender until smooth.

The chorizo film is an infused cream:
Pan fry finely chopped chorizo, let the fat seep out, add the cream and mix simmering to soak up the flavour of the chorizo for about 10 minutes, after which it will have taken the colour of the paprika from the chorizo, blend the mix, if the mix is a little too thick to sieve return it to the pan and add a little milk to loosen it, then sieve it, squeezing the mix down with a wooden spoon to extract as much flavour as possible. 

Put it into a squeazy bottle and, once cooled, into the fridge until ready for use.

TIP: If you want to make a chorizo and leek pie you can get away with not blending the chorizo and cream, simply loosen it and sieve it and keep the chorizo back to mix with leek for a nice pie filler!

Serve me! serve me!

When nearing time to serve, remove the chorizo cream from the fridge, to bring it to room temperature.
Finally remove the bouquet garni from the stock and add all the sweetcorn purée. Bring to the boil and simmer not more than 10 minutes or the colour will become dull.

Here you can see the cream starting to spread to form the film.

To serve ladle the soup into bowls and squirt the cream gently (so that it doesn't go under the surface) in a circular motion onto the surface of the soup. Initially it will form lines, but as the cream warms through it will spread to form a film on the surface of the soup. Garnish with a sprig of thyme and serve immediately.

This is a version we did in partnership with  Unearthed for Action Against Hunger 

Me thinks this one sneaked past quality control - served in a bit of a rush! Ahem!

Sweet Corn Veloute w/ Chorizo Film
We used Unearthed spanish chorizo, pre-sliced.
You can find the whole 8 course menu we served here.