Week 13 Review

Sous Vide Steak, Stir Fry Asparagus, Beer Battered Onion Rings, and Steak Fries

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Cooking Technique

Our cooking technique worked flawlessly throughout the lab. We sous vide our steak to perfection, stir fried our asparagus wonderfully, and fried our union rings/fries to the point of fairytale land. I didn't follow the recipe cutthroat which I think helped benefit our outcomes.

Dishes Characteristics (Texture, Taste, Flavor, Appearance)

Sous Vide Steak

Our steak was cooked to absolute perfection. The whole core of the steak was that wonderful medium rare color and the outside crust was a wonderful dark brown sear. Our steak was succulent, juicy, and tender. The rosemary and garlic stuck out to me the most when taking a bit of the steak, you could even smell these two ingredients. But, in every bite you received that sweet, bold garlic taste, and that strong rosemary taste. The flavor combination was absolutely to die for. The garlic, rosemary, and butter became one, and enhanced the filet mignon immensely.

Stir Fry Asparagus

The texture of our asparagus was mediocre. it was somewhat stringy, but was moist. The saltiness of the dish stuck out to me the most which is what you expect out of stir fry. This saltiness somewhat worked with the basic taste of the asparagus. I personally didn't like the taste of our asparagus, it just wasn't pleasing to me at all but my partners did like it. I had about one fork full and didn't eat another bite.

Beer Battered Onion Rings

We had an extremely crispy and delicious rings. The fry was right on point and the union within was cooked to perfection. The taste of the beer battered fry was awesome, I couldn't really notice the taste of the beer but it was extremely good. Of course the union stuck out due to its sweet taste. The overall flavor was great, it was sweet due to the union but salty due to the batter. I was very pleased with these.

Steak Fries

Once again we fried our fries to that of Gordon Ramseys standards. They were crunchy but moist within. The flavor of these worked great, they weren't too salty ;perfection.

Why did certain techniques work or not work?

Our sous vide technique worked the best out of all the techniques we used. I have never sous vide something in the past but I will continue to use this method in the future. What also worked great was sear all sides of the steak once out of the sous vide. We added a terrific brown crust to every side of the steak but maintained a medium rare color within. I can also say that we fried our union rings and fries to perfection. Both of these dishes had a very crunchy fry but a moist and succulent inside. We added just enough salt to each finished product so you knew it was there but wasn't over powering. The technique that was flawed was when making the stir fry. The seasoning within our stir fry was off by a good bit. I'm honestly not sure why this dish was even in this lab since it pair terribly with the other items. I think this could have lead to me not liking it.

What could/would you do to improve the outcomes?

To improve our meal I would change up the stir fry. First off I would completely get rid of it from the menu since it doesn't pair well with any of the other dishes. But, I'm not in charge of that so to make it better I would cook the asparagus for along and add completely different seasonings. The one we made was just simply not good, I feel like we followed instructions well but the person who came up with the recipe wasn't very bright.

Learning Objectives Achieved

The best learning objective I achieved was properly preparing the meat for sous vide. I prepared the meat perfectly by adding rosemary, garlic, butter, and salt/pepper. Once vacuumed sealed the flavors of those ingredients began to take their shape. Once we pulled out the filet mignon from the bag, the aroma immediately struck.

Apply What I've Learned

I have learned of the amazing powers of sous vide a meat. This allows for you to easily cook a steak to perfection without any worries. Moving on from here to the future I will use this a lot more since it is so efficient and easy.

Practice

What I need to practice the most during the next lab is plate presentation. Like I seriously need work with this. I am good at making great food but once I put it on the plate I am lost. I would say my plate representation looks like a middle schoolers lunch tray. We eat with our eyes in a way so I believe having a beautiful plate presentation will go a long way in making my dishes step out.

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Citations

Alfaro, D. (2019, June 26). 5 tips for making the perfect stir-fry. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.thespruceeats.com/tips-for-perfect-stir-fry-995435

Editors, T. (2020, October 08). Pro tips for making your food look beautiful. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.thekitchn.com/cooking-school-how-to-plate-food-22954318

López-Alt, J. (2019, March 07). Why double fry French fries?: The Burger Lab. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.seriouseats.com/the-burger-lab-why-double-fry-french-fries

Yoon, A. (2016, February 16). The science of sous vide. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://scienceandfooducla.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/the-science-of-sous-vide/#:~:text=By%20using%20sous%20vide%2C%20food,medium%2Drare%20%5B1%5D.