Originally, I built this recipe to be for short-ribs, and this concept will still be perfect if that’s what you have! But because of recent events, everyone has had to be flexible with ingredient choices. Use what you have. The best lesson to take away from this is that cuts of meat that need a long time are great with sous vide.

So how do you cook them for a long time and make them very flavorful? Sous vide. As a house that has been sous vide cooking for years, it’s our automatic go-to. We sous vide our meat a lot because it produces a perfect outcome every time. Nothing is overcooked. It’s a fantastic texture all the way through.

And for a recipe that’s a 24-hour cook-time, you can put your sous vide on any heatproof countertop and let it be. Is the 24 hour period worth it? As someone who went into this skeptical, I promise you it is. 10/10 would make again. The fat remaining on the meat is melty and beautiful, not tough and chewy. It’s a very rewarding eating experience with intensely comforting flavors.

Anova’s Precision Vacuum Sealer is something we couldn’t wait to add to our kitchen. While we were using water displacement and zip-top bags before, the vacuum seal function really moves extra air to force flavors throughout what you’re cooking, and truly seals the top (no leaking worries over a long period of time).

The vacuum sealer is super tiny, slim, and easy to use. There’s definitely a slight learning curve with adding small amounts of liquid and not making a mess, but after one to two uses, you’ll get it perfect. A vacuum sealer is also a great opportunity to bulk buy meat and cut to portion to fit your needs all while avoiding freezer burn. It’s a convenience food for food lovers.

These beef back ribs have an Asian flavor profile that uses soy sauce, mirin, ginger, and sesame oil. They’re pretty much ‘self-saucing’ in that after cooking, you’ll reduce the liquid from the bags to make a downright delicious sauce to go over udon noodles, rice, or whatever calls to you. Actually, my baby bok choy recipe is a perfect companion.

On top of the ribs is a topping that adds a little zing and texture to the final dish. A mix of sesame seeds, bread crumbs, herbs, and panko make a beautiful aromatic meal.

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24-Hour Sous Vide Asian Beef Back Ribs with Udon Noodles

These beef back ribs have an Asian flavor profile that uses soy sauce, mirin, ginger and sesame oil. They’re pretty much ‘self-saucing’ in that after cooking, you’ll reduce the liquid from the bags to make a downright delicious sauce to go over udon noodles, rice or whatever calls to you.

Course Lunch & Dinner Recipes

Cuisine Asian

Keyword Beef, Dinner, Lunch, Sous vide

Skill beginner

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 day day

Total Time 1 day day 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Calories 1393kcal

Ingredients

• 3.25 lb beef back ribs (shorties)
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 small apple (Gala or Fuji)
• 1.5 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1.5 tbsp ginger, minced
• .5 cups brown sugar, packed
• .33 cups low sodium soy sauce
• .25 cups water
• .25 cups mirin
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• .25 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp panko
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• .5 tsp red pepper flakes
• a few leaves fresh cilantro
• a few leaves fresh basil
• udon noodles for serving

Instructions

• Set up your Anova sous vide machine in a water bath and heat to 158º. Make sure you’ve covered the top of the container with a lid to avoid evaporation over the 24 hour cook time.
• As the water is coming to temperature, add the onion, apple, garlic, and ginger to a food processor. Pulse until everything appears grated then place in a medium-sized bowl.
• Add brown sugar, soy sauce, water, mirin, sesame oil, and black pepper. Stir to combine.
• Cut the beef back ribs into sections of 2-3 ribs each. Add to the Anova vacuum bags (about 4-5 sets per bag, 3 bags) and ladle in the marinade evenly into each. Seal the bags with the vacuum sealer (it’s okay if a little liquid is pulled out).
• Drop the bags into the water bath and re-cover. Cook for 24 hours.
• Once the cooking is complete, remove the bags from the water bath, cut open, and pour the liquid into a small pan. Set aside ribs. Heat the liquid to medium-high, whisking occasionally and reduce liquid by half.
• Cook udon noodles to package specifications. Mix panko, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, and herbs in a small bowl.
• Plate ribs over udon and sprinkles with herb seasoning mix. If desired, pull meat from bones and chop, or serve on the bone.

Nutrition

Serving: 4g | Calories: 1393kcal | Carbohydrates: 52.5g | Protein: 115.4g | Fat: 52.5g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Cholesterol: 284mg | Sodium: 2435mg | Fiber: 8.6g | Sugar: 37.2g

The post Sous Vide Asian Short Ribs with Udon Noodles appeared first on The Inspired Home.

You need a sous vide machine if you’re the person who wants to save time in the kitchen. Cooking sous vide can help you break free from just Crock-Pot or Instant Pot recipes. It also gives you ultimate precision while cooking.

We’ve had a sous vide immersion circulator for years now and it’s saved us a ton of money and time. No one can cook a steak as good as we can anymore and we no longer stand around stirring custard like a crazy person.

A sous vide machine has also let us batch-make intenselt custom-flavored cocktails (tomato vine vodka anyone?). Did I mention we can do it in an hour? No more waiting around for weeks for flavor to infuse.

Sous Vide Is a Simple Cooking Method

So what is sous vide? It’s a cooking method in where an item, be it steak or fish, carrot or alcohol, is placed in a bag or container and dropped into a water bath. This water bath is kept at a precise temperature by the machine that both regulates heat and moves the water around the item.

The machine that makes this magic happen is a slender cylinder that can be clamped onto a variety of vessels including a cooler, stockpot, or large restaurant tub (our method of choice).

Benefits

1. It’s Easy

One benefit of a tool that closely regulates temperature without you having to do anything (besides pick the temperature and drop the sealed item into the water), is you end up with precisely cooked items while you go off and accomplish other things. Steak is the food that sealed the deal for us in our love triangle with the sous vide machine. It was perfectly cooked and no grey line around the outside and it cost us a fraction of a restaurant price. And we could eat at home with our cats without annoying people.

2. It’s Quick

If you’ve really got your act together, there are entire systems to batch cook multiple proteins in separate vessels at a time. That means you have dinner and lunch prepped for the week in a variety of different flavors (throw thyme in that chicken bag and rosemary garlic in with the steaks and chili with the carrots!).

With the steak, you’ll just need two minutes of a quick sear and you’ve got perfection on a plate. If you’re not sure what to make, Anova (one of the sous vide machine producers) has a ton of recipes to get you started on their website. There are also specialty websites and publications like Sous Vide magazine.

Sous Vide Salmon

In this first recipe, you’ll see how to perfectly cook salmon using plastic-free, silicone Stasher bags. Stasher bags are not only useful for sous vide cooking, but you can freeze them, throw them in the oven, and wash them in the dishwasher. They’re reusable and come in tons of sizes and colors (including a free-standing shape that’s great for storing dry goods or bulk shopping with your own container.

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Sous Vide Salmon

Course Lunch & Dinner Recipes

Keyword Dinner, Lunch, Sous vide

Skill intermediate

Servings 1

You Can Prep Cocktails & Beverages Too!

If you’re a cocktail and beverage fan, especially if you’re putting the effort into making your own recipes and drinks for friends and family, it’s worth looking at your ice. Clear ice melts more slowly than standard cloudy ice, meaning drinks are less watered down during consumption and maintain a cold temperature longer.

Cloudy ice from standard freezers or purchased bags of ice is the result of trapped air. While you can make clear ice at home by hacking an insulated cooler of some kind to fit into your freezer to promote directional freezing, it takes a long time and creates only a small batch. Trust me, it’s not worth it if you want to make enough for several drinks. I know because we did this when we were photographing our drink book and it was a huge pain.

The NewAir countertop clear ice maker is perfect for parties or home bars. Ice is produced quickly (only 20 minutes or so to get the first batch!). There’s no intense set up. Just plug it in and fill the water reserve.

Spiced Parsnip Rum

In this second recipe, we’ll make a batch cocktail (dram style) that’s perfect for cooler weather. It infuses tons of spices and two surprising ingredients into a well-priced white rum to make an astounding drink in under two hours (not two weeks!).

Secret ingredient number one? Parsnips! Parsnips are sweet and nutty and look like carrots. They’re a great way to add a rich flavor that’s comforting (think Christmas dinner). Unfortunately, I don’t think it counts as a serving of vegetables.

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Spiced Parsnip Rum

Course Drinks & Cocktails

Keyword Cocktails and spirits, Drinks

Skill intermediate

Servings 1

Check out these other delicious sous vide recipes:

Sous Vide Steak and Vegetables

Asian Short Ribs

Sous Vide Fig & Vanilla Syrup (for Cocktails)

The post Here’s Why You Need a Sous Vide Machine appeared first on The Inspired Home.

I have been quite curious about pressure cookers and sous vide machines, especially with warm months ahead! I’ll take any excuse I can to leave my oven off. If you don’t have a grill or it’s just not your thing, a sous vide machine is for you!

This Gourmia Sous Vide Cooker has been my favorite new kitchen appliance. I love breaking the sous vide out when I want to make a special Friday night dinner or when people are coming over and I need something super tasty.

Not only does the sous vide machine make the most juicy, succulent meats it has an extremely small clean up time for a recipe that tastes like it would take your entire kitchen arsenal to make!

What is sous vide anyway?

It sounds so fancy doesn’t it?! I’ll be honest I was a little nervous to master this new appliance but it couldn’t have been easier. All you need is a few vacuum-sealed bags, a big stockpot and your sous vide machine, THAT’S IT!

Once you have vacuum-sealed your ingredients the entire bag cooks in a temperature controlled water bath. The meat for these Asian short rib tacos took about four hours but this varies depending on what you’re cooking!

Are Ziploc bags safe for sous vide?

I wouldn’t recommend using Ziploc bags with a sous vide machine. The cooking bag needs to be able to hand a bit of heat and these Gourmia vacuum sealer bags are perfect for this! They were simple to use and sealed in every ounce of flavor from the marinade! I am testing out these Stasher bags for a new recipe this weekend, they also can handle the sous vide.

Speaking of marinade…

I have to tell you what we used for these Asian short rib tacos. These tacos pack a mean punch of Asian flavors. I love breaking out my Shun knife set for smaller and more intricate produce cuts.

This marinade involves fresh ginger, garlic and scallions, which means I need a super sharp knife for mincing. Whisk up all of the ingredients and pour them straight into your vacuum seal bag with the short ribs.

What happens when the meat is finished cooking?

If you feel like you’re meat has a ‘grey’ color that people talk about from cooking with a sous vide, there is a remedy! I heated a skillet on high heat with some oil and seared each side of the meat for 30-60 seconds. This will give your short ribs a golden brown coloring/crust but still remain juicy and flavorful!

Then you just dice up your short rib pieces and you can plate up each taco! Top with the short rib meat, sauce from the marinade, avocado, and cucumber slices.

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Sous Vide Asian Short Rib Tacos

These Sous Vide Short Rib Asian Tacos pack a mean punch of Asian flavors with fresh ginger, garlic, and scallions? And the best part: you can use your sous vide for the perfect cook every time.

Course Lunch & Dinner Recipes

Keyword Dinner, Recipes, Sous vide, Tacos

Skill beginner

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Calories 1962kcal

Ingredients

• 2 lb short ribs
• .5 cups soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp red chili sauce
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp sriracha
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 thumb of fresh ginger, minced
• Corn tortillas, heated
• Fresh cilantro
• Cucumber slices

Instructions

• Set sous vide to 140 F.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, red chili sauce, honey, sriracha, garlic, green onions, and ginger until combined.
• Add ribs and marinade to vacuum seal bag and submerge and cook for 2 hours.
• Heat a large skillet with olive oil on medium high heat. Cook short ribs for 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden and crusted.
• Pour remaining marinade from sous vide bag into a small saucepan. Heat on medium heat until sauce has thickened and reduced.
• Dice short rib pieces and being to build each taco. Top with short rib meat, sauce from marinade, avocado slices and cucumber slices.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 1962kcal | Carbohydrates: 26.9g | Protein: 69.3g | Fat: 173.3g | Saturated Fat: 73.5g | Cholesterol: 341mg | Sodium: 4136mg | Fiber: 1.1g | Sugar: 18.8g

The post Sous Vide Asian Short Rib Tacos appeared first on The Inspired Home.