Sous Vide ... or not Sous Vide?

That is the question.

About six months ago I finally broke down and used a gift certificate to a local cooking store to purchase a Sansaire sous vide machine and a vacuum sealer. Sous vide is a method of cooking food at very low temperature for extended time in a circulating water bath. The food is vacuum sealed in a special non-reactive plastic bag before cooking. After cooking, it is usually finished with very quick pan sear. Many chefs use a blowtorch for this final step.

Over the last few months, I've tried cooking almost everything except vegetables this way. The result is that there are some things that sous vide is absolutely perfect for, and others, well, not so much. Take chicken, for example. I bake skinless boneless breasts coated with a barbecue rub or Emeril's essence to slice for my standard workday lunch of Greek salad with chicken.  I've tried it sous vide and the chicken has a strange texture. However, due to its moisture-retention abilities, I have found sous vide the absolute ideal way to cook the same  boneless breasts when making chicken salad. It's perfect!

Chefs in fine dining restaurants have been using this method for years, and now that I am cooking with this method I can usually recognize its use. We had a thick king salmon filet at Bluehour, one of our favorite Portland eateries, a couple of weeks ago. I noticed that it was exactly the same medium rare all the way through, with a brown sear just on the top side. I sensed the blowtorch method!

We occasionally find top-grade Oregon Wagyu beef at our local farmer's market in Portland, sold by Pono Farms. The tenderloin filets are so amazing that overcooking them on the grill accidentally is a real risk.

Enter sous vide. Last weekend, Pono Farms' booth had the rarely seen certified A-4 grade Wagyu, the second highest grade of Wagyu beef available from US farms, according to the Wagyu grading system.

Here's how we cooked these incredible steaks. Here they are, patted dry with paper towels: (Check out the amazing marbling.)

Next, I sprinked the filets on both sides with fresh ground black pepper, added a pinch of dried tarragon leaves, and topped each filet with teaspoon pat of butter.  

Next I vacuum sealed them in the sous vide bag.

The sous vide immersion circulator "wand" was then affixed to the side of a very large stockpot and pre-heated to 127 degrees, and in went the bag of beef.

You have to experiment with cooking times to find your preferred duration. Since the water bath stays at precisely the same temperature, there is no danger of overcooking in terms of "doneness." A sous vide tenderloin steak cooked at 127 degrees will be the exact same perfect medium rare if it's cooked for one hour or four hours. What changes is the texture. For 1" thick filets, I like to cook them for just a few minutes over an hour. Here's what they look like when taken out of the bath just before they are removed and thoroughly patted dry:

Next, the steaks go into a very hot skillet with a light film of high smoke-point oil (I use grapeseed oil) just until a crust is seared into the beef, about a minute per side.

When you cook meats in a pan or on the grill, or even in a high-temperature oven like the big steakhouses do, it cooks from the outside in. While the center portion might be medium rare, the top and bottom will go from brown seared crust, to well done, to medium, and then to medium rare in the middle. A sous vide steak cooked as above is exactly medium rare all the way from top to bottom.

Because of the amazing quality and texture of the Wagyu, we served it without a sauce, just a little sea salt. We accompanied the beef simply as well, with fresh-shelled English peas, boiled and buttered and sea-salted, and sautéed shallot, garlic and chopped Crimini mushrooms. The chosen wine was a Mondavi cabernet.

Perfect.

Bon Appetit!

R.I.P. Shibuya at the MGM Grand

My posts seldom live up to the title of my blog, but today Frank is incensed!

Shibuya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas was a one-of-a-kind Japanese restaurant, featuring exquisitely cut sushi and sashimi, innovative "modern Japanese" small plates, sumptuous entrees, and a broad and deep sake list. All served up by knowledgable, friendly staff in an absolutely beautiful decor. It was far from inexpensive, to be sure, but as the best Japanese food I've eaten outside of Japan, I always felt that it was worth the price.

The main dining room at Shibuya

I was down in Las Vegas in the second week of May, solo, for our annual condo maintenance trip. After two nights of burning our members' gift cards at the Foundation Room's private dining room, I was ready for a change. It should be no surprise that I chose Shibuya.

While sitting at the sushi bar savoring each delicious bite, one of the waiters who had been there for years came over to say hello. The restaurant boasted very low turnover, with many of the waitstaff working there for many, many years. This particular waiter joined shortly after Shibuya opened in the mid-nineties and had waited on us on multiple occasions. He leaned in and quietly confided that there were strong rumors that the restaurant would be closing, likely at the beginning of July. Of course, I said "How strong are the rumors?" He lowered his voice and said "They are not rumors."

I asked him if the restaurant was unprofitable, which seemed highly unlikely as the place is always jam packed, and, well, I already mentioned the prices. He told me that they were extremely profitable; in fact, they were the second most profitable of the seventeen restaurants at the MGM Grand, trailing only Joel Robuchon, where the grand tasting menu goes for $435 per person!

He further confided that they were almost certainly falling victim to the unending wave of celebrity chef-named restaurants that has been a trend since Wolfgang Puck opened his first joint almost thirty years ago. He whispered that the restaurant was likely to reopen in the fall, as Morimoto.

Morimoto, of course, refers to Masaharu Morimoto of Iron Chef fame. He already owns and operates his eponymous restaurant in Philadelphia. I have had the pleasure of dining there, and while excellent, it did not compare with Shibuya.

Fast forward to Friday, July 1st.  Some weeks after my solo dinner where I heard the "strong rumors," it was confirmed by the Vegas Eater blog that Shibuya was closing, and in fact had stopped taking on line reservations. I had called the restaurant from Portland, and learned that Saturday night, July 2nd's dinner service would be their last. I made a reservation for the 1st, and Laura and I had an absolutely fantastic last supper, albeit somewhat bittersweet. The staff all had the same line when we said how sad we were to se them close.

"Change is actually a good thing," every single person said, obviously coached. We finally got one of our regulars to come clean and admit that they were devastated and more than a little bitter.

And now we know why. Since that dinner, we learned the whole story. Morimoto signed a huge contract with MGM, Inc. and had planned to open in the Mirage in the space formerly occupied by Japonais in late 2014. They could not agree on a budget for the radical redesign and remodel that Morimoto and his design team were proposing. The rumor is that the contract included a huge buyout clause if they could not agree on a space for his new venture.

The rumor continues, saying that he toured all of the MGM properties and made a non-negotiable demand for the Shibuya space. Rather than pay the buyout, the MGM agreed, and Shibuya's fate was decided.

In the land of celebrity chefs that is Las Vegas today, where even an asshole like Gordon Ramsey has the holy triumvirate of steak, burger, and pub joints, Shibuya made it on their own. No celebrity chef ever lent his name. Their reputation spread over the years due the incredible quality of their cuisine, their terrific staff, and the beautiful room.

What a pity.

And now you know why Frank is incensed ...