Sous Vide Recipes: Dill & Garlic "Cantonese Style" Haddock

One of my favourite ways to eat fish is steamed - a classic Chinese technique that I believe brings out the best flavour and texture of fish whilst keeping it juicy. I am also very partial to Cantonese Style Steamed Sea Bass which is usually understood as a whole steamed sea bass bathed in a soy sauce and Shaoxing Rice Wine sauce, topped with ginger and spring onion then doused with sizzling oil.

For me, fish cooked sous vide brings the same advantages as steaming: and my next Sous Vide Supreme recipe had to be a variation on a theme. Going sustainable with haddock and playing with dill and garlic.

Ode to Cantonese Style Steamed Sea Bass

Sous Vide Recipes: Whole Beetroot with Ginger, Pumpkin Seeds & Sesame Oil

Last Friday's conversation with a colleague:

"Hey, do you want some beetroot?" There was loads of beetroot.

Me: "OK, what will I do with all of it?"

"Sous Vide it." I'll think about that, chef.

My adventures with beetroot were limited up to now. Just an addition to salad, sometimes grated to make a dip. So the suggestion to sous vide it by @itsachefslife sent my imagination sailing. I had made a quiet decision that I preferred sous vide-ing food items which don't have their own oils or fats such as fish, lean meat, vegetables and fruit. The controlled slow poaching seals in the little juices they have and concentrates them. With conventional cooking things like duck legs or pork bellies hold their own, they have enough jelly to keep self-basting. But with our beets, sous vide turns their deep fuchsia flesh into some kind of wonderful.

Sous Vide Recipes: Sambal Salmon with Lime & Thai Basil

After a long hard slog of a year to move into the food industry full time, it's time for a blog post. It's been emotional and exciting but so far so good and there's no looking back. Experimenting with cool foodie gadgets comes with the territory and this week I've been testing out the Sous Vide Supreme, darling of the slow cooking and poaching world.

My mind got thinking to Chinese and South East Asian cooking techniques that sous vide could easily replicate and enhance. Poached, steamed and slow braised dishes would all be wonderful and plunging a bag into a machine that claimed to cook food to perfection whilst I twiddle my thumbs was extremely welcome.

I decided on an easy classic with a twist for my maiden sous vide adventure: juicy salmon smothered in a spicy Malaysian sambal lined with lime slices and plenty of Thai Basil.