Espresso, Cocoa, and Chipotle Pork Tenderloin with Mole Sauce

Cooking pork tenderloin in the sous vide style  brings out its amazing texture and it will definitely surprise you with its pink color and juiciness. The coffee, cocoa, and chipotle rub add some nice flavors that go well with either a mole sauce or some mango chutney.

• One 1 1/2 -pound pork tenderloin
• 2 tablespoons finely ground coffee
• 1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 tablespoon chipotle powder 
• 1 stick salted butter, softened
• Vegetable oil, for cooking

1. Preheat a water bath to 140°. Rub the pork tenderloin with finely ground coffee, cocoa powder, and smoked paprika. Transfer to a 1-quart vacuum-pack bag and vacuum-seal. Submerge the bag in the water bath and cook at 140° for 2 hours.
2. Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Remove the pork tenderloin from the water; let stand in the bag for 10 minutes. Remove the tenderloin and pat dry. Brush the grill with oil and grill the pork over high heat, turning once, until browned and crusty, 2 minutes. Transfer the tenderloin to a work surface; let stand for 5 minutes. Thinly slice the meat and transfer to plates. 

Quick Mole Sauce

You can spend all day making mole sauce or you can throw together a pretty good version of it in a little more than a half hour.

• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup water
• 3 large ancho dried chilies
• 2 onions chopped
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1 oz. square unsweetened baking chocolate

1. Combine salt, pepper, water, ancho chiles and onions in a saucepan. Simmer for 30 minutes on low.
2. Add garlic, tomato sauce, peanut butter, sugar, cinnamon and chocolate.
3. Stir until heated through and chocolate is melted.

Wild Salmon with Sour Cream Dill Sauce

Fresh Wild Salmon from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest is a staple around our house during the late spring and summer. The quality of the fish and a simple preparation is the key. Cooking in the Sous-Vide style allows us to dial in the exact temperature with little chance of overcooking.

• 2 seedless cucumbers
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Four 6-ounce, center-cut skinless salmon fillets, chilled
• Freshly ground white pepper
• 8 ounces plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped dill
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon

1. Preheat a water bath to 122° for rare salmon, 140° for well done. Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Season the sliced cucumber with salt and black pepper. Grill over high heat, turning once, until lightly charred, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
2. Season the salmon with salt and white pepper; transfer to four 1-quart, vacuum-pack bags and vacuum-seal. Submerge the bags in the water bath and cook at the desired temperature for 12 minutes.
3. In a blender, blend the yogurt with the dill; season with salt and black pepper. In a small bowl, toss the julienned cucumber with the oil and lemon juice; season with salt. Remove the fillets from the bags and grill in an extremely hot cast iron pan and transfer to plates. Top with the grilled and julienned cucumber, dollop with the dill sauce and serve.

Introduction to Sous-vide Cooking

Have you ever eaten a perfectly medium rare filet at a large catered event and wondered how they were able to achieve that type of consistency for 200 or more people? The answer is usually that they probably have a Sous-vide machine.

Sous-vide is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a temperature-controlled water bath. Cooking times can be as little as only a few minutes for fish to as much as 72 hours or longer for brisket, lamb shanks, or short ribs. 

Sous-vide cooking temperatures are much lower than other cooking methods. The use of temperatures much lower than for conventional cooking is an essential feature of sous-vide, at these lower temperatures, cell walls in the food do not burst.

By placing the food in a water bath, with the temperature having been set at the desired final cooking temperature of the food, overcooking can be avoided, because the food cannot get hotter than the bath it is in. Temperatures typically range from 120°F for 160°F. 

The goal of Sous-vide is to cook the food evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside while retaining moisture. Browning (Maillard Reactions) doesn't happen during the Sous-vide cooking process. The crispy seasoned texture is developed by briefly grilling the item in an extremely hot cast iron pan or grill.

Sous-vide circulators used to run a thousand dollars or more which made it prohibitive for the average home based chef. The emergence of lower cost emersion circulators in the two hundred range over the past year has opened the door for everyone to experiment with this game changing kitchen appliance.

Why should you try sous-vide?

• Because the food is cooked inside a sealed bag, all the flavor and juices stay inside.
• The food is cooked evenly, it is equally cooked from the outside to the inside.
• A taste, and especially a texture and juicyness can be reached that cannot be achieved by other methods of cooking.
• Foolproof: meat and fish always come out exactly the way you like it (medium rare, medium, etc.)
• Less stress at dinner parties because there is a wide range of cooking times in which the food comes out ‘perfect’ and in many cases you can just cut open the bag and serve.
• Also less stress at dinner parties because you can cook a large number of single person portions at the same time and all of them will be cooked exactly right.