Featured Guests

Guests take hands-on direction from Chef Vivian Peterson to prepare dishes for a five-course meal

On May 29, SousVide Supreme joined forces with The Velvet Underground Dining Experience (VUDE) in Seattle to host a sous vide cooking class and dinner.

Chef Vivian Peterson led guests in a dynamic, hands-on, 3-hour class on the sous vide technique, culminating in a five-course sous vide meal, complete with wine pairings from Hand of God Wines. The menu for the evening included sous vide Copper River salmon, potatoes au gratin, and poached pear in spiced red wine. View more photos from the event here.

Recipes from the class, to your kitchen:

• Infused Cocktails
• Copper River Salmon
• Hanger/Sirloin Steak
• Rainbow Carrots
• Beets
• Potatoes au Gratin
• Red Wine Poached Pears
• Rhubarb Compote
• Vanilla Custard

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

• 4 (6 ounce/180 gram) halibut fillets
• 2 tablespoons (1 fl oz/ 30 ml) citrus infused olive oil or 2 tablespoons cold butter (1 oz/ 28 g), cubed
• 8 thin slices of assorted citrues (grapefruit, lime, lemon, orange)
• Sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill and preheat the SousVide Supreme to 132F/ 55.5C.
2. Season both sides of the halibut fillets with sea salt.
3. Put the fillets into a small (1 quart/0.9 liter) cooking pouch, place the citrus slices on each side of the fillet. Make sure to leave some room in between each fillet, 2-3 per cooking pouch.
4. Drizzle in the citrus olive oil or toss in the butter and vacuum seal.
5. Submerge the pouches in the water bath and cook for 20 minutes.
6. Remove from the SousVide Supreme and serve immediately with your favorite sauce.

Here are two of our favorites:

Citrus Beurre Blanc
Yields: 1 cup (8 fl oz/237 ml)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons (1 fl oz/30 ml) dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon (0.5 fl oz/15 ml) fresh grapefruit juice
• 1 tablespoon (0.5 fl oz/15 ml) fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon (0.5 fl oz/15 ml) fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon (0.5 fl oz/15 ml) fresh orange juice
• 1 small shallot, finely minced
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 8 ounces (226 g) cold butter, cut into 16 cubes

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan bring wine, citrus juices and shallots to a boil. Reduce to about 1 ½ tablespoons (0.8 fl oz/23 ml) of liquid.
2. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Pull the saucepan from the heat and whisk in 2 cubes of butter; as it melts whisk in one more piece.
3. Set the pan over the lowest heat setting and continuously whisk one piece of butter into the mixture at a time, making sure that each piece is melted prior to adding the next.
4. Pull the saucepan off of the heat when the last piece is melted.
5. Spoon immediately onto serving plates and top with fish. Alternatively drizzle over the top of fish.

Pounded Olive & Orange Sauce
Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1 small red onion, peeled and frenched (halved and sliced thinly lengthwise)
• ¼ cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) olive oil
• 8 oz (227 g) Castelvetrano Olives
• 8 oz (227 g) mixture of your favorite olives (both with and without pits)
• 3 oranges, divided, 1 for juicing (ie. Valencia) and 2 for segmenting (ie. Cara Cara/Navel)
• ⅓ cup (2.7 fl oz/78.9 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
• small handful of fresh basil, coarsely chopped
• small handful of Italian flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
• freshly ground black pepper & sea salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut the pitted olives in half or in quarters if particularly big.
2. With the blunt side of your knife press the olives with pits until they split, or using a heavy bottomed pan pound the olives until split.
3. In a saute pan warm ¼ cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) olive oil over medium-heat. Add the onions and cook until soft and translucent, approximately 8 minutes.
4. Add freshly squeezed orange juice and olives and cook for 1-2 minutes.
5. Add the orange segments and shut off the heat.
6. Toss in fresh basil and parsley. Drizzle in ⅓ cup fruity olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

with White Chocolate Sauce and Hibiscus Flower
Courtesy of MasterChef winner Whitney Miller
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup (240 ml volume) French bread, cubed to 1/2 inch (1.25 cm)
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons (25 g) granulated sugar
• 2 ounces (60 ml) half-and-half
• 1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) heavy cream, divided
• 1 1/2 ounces (42 g) good quality white chocolate chips
• 1⁄4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) pure vanilla extract

For the sauce

• 1 ounce (32 g) good quality white chocolate chips
• 2 ounces (60 ml) heavy whipping cream
• 2 Hibiscus flowers in syrup

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill and preheat the water oven to 170F/77C.
2. Preheat the traditional oven to 350F/177C.
3. Put the bread cubes on a baking sheet and toast in the traditional oven for 5 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the whole egg, egg yolk, and sugar.
5. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine the half-and-half and 1 ounce (30 ml) of the heavy cream and heat until tendrils of steam begin to escape the surface.
6. Whisk the egg mixture constantly as you slowly dribble in some of the hot cream to temper the eggs. Continue to whisk as you add the remainder of the cream.
7. Melt the white chocolate with the remaining 1/2 ounce (15 ml) of the heavy cream in a saucepan over medium low heat.
8. Stir the melted white chocolate and vanilla into the egg mixture.
9. Fold in the bread cubes and let the mixture sit for 2 minutes or until the bread has absorbed the liquid.
10. Grease 2 (8 ounce/240 ml) Mason jars with cooking spray.
11. Divide the bread pudding mixture evenly among the mason jars and screw on the lids.
12. Carefully lower the Mason jars onto the perforated bottom rack of the water oven and cook for 2 hours.

For the sauce

1. Melt the white chocolate with the heavy whipping cream in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally.

For the assembly

1. When the pudding has cooked, carefully remove the Mason jars from the water bath and transfer to the upturned SousVide Supreme lid with tongs.
2. Allow the jars to cool for 3 or 4 minutes, then using a tea towel, remove the jars’ lids.
3. Gently run a butter knife around the edge of the bread pudding and transfer to a shallow dessert bowl.
4. Spoon the white chocolate sauce around the bread pudding. Place an hibiscus flower on top of the bread pudding and then drizzle a teaspoon (5 ml) of the hibiscus syrup over the sauce.
5. Serve immediately.

With Passover approaching, we asked Israeli chef Yair Feinberg if he had a great sous vide recipe for the holiday. Not only did he share his special recipe for sous vide gefilte fish, but he also wrote a guest blog post to accompany it. We thank Chef Feinberg for creating a moist, flavorful take on a traditional recipe.

‘Gefilte fish’ is a classic fare in the Ashkenazi-Jews’ kitchen. A popular holiday dish that is usually served as first course on Rosh HaShana, Pesach and Shabbath, ‘gefilte’ means stuffed. The original dish was made from chopped freshwater fish and then stuffed in Pike or Carp skin. Most modern versions have done away with stuffing the skin and instead the ‘stuffing’ itself is formed into balls (or patties) and then poached in fish stock. The dish is always prepared in advance and thus served cold and garnished with a slice of carrot and the jellied fish stock (aspic).

For this recipe I used White Drum, because I love how this fish retains most of its texture and flavor even after cooking.  The advantage of ‘sous vide’ cooking technique is that the fish gets cooked at  its ideal temperature, thus avoiding overcooking (take note that it is very easy to overcook fish). As a result, the fish remains succulent and full of flavor.

Preparing the fish stock separately allows us to reduce it to the right consistency without sacrificing flavor and texture.

As a nice twist, I added Ouzo to infuse this dish with a delicate anise flavor.

Hag Pesaj Sameach! (Happy Passover)

– Chef Yair Feinberg

Gefilte Fish Sous Vide

Ingredients
12 slices (5 ounces/150g) white drum, about 1-1/4 inch/3cm
Zest of one lemon
Zest of one orange
2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Ground black pepper

For the ‘Gefilte’ you will need:
1 scant pound (500 grams) white drum filet, without bones and skin (substitute striped bass, corvina, rockfish, grouper or any white, firm-fleshed fish with a small flake)
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 tablespoons (30 ml) flour (use Matzoh cake flour for Passover)
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5 ml) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) coarsely ground black pepper

For the fish stock you will need:
2 pounds (about a kilogram) fish bones and heads
2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
1 onion, washed, peeled, and quartered
1 carrot, trimmed, washed and sliced (approx.  2cm each slice)
10 stems of parsley
1 bay leaf
2 fennel bulbs, washed, trimmed, and quartered
1/4 cup (60 ml) ouzo or arak
3 -1/4 quarts (3 liters) water
2 stars of anise

For the garnish you will need:
1 carrot peeled and sliced (approximately ½-inch/5 mm each
Minced tarragon (or parsley leaves)
12 lemon wedges

Instructions
1. Throw in all the ingredients for the ‘gefilte’ in your Thermomix (or a really powerful food processor). Mince until you have a smooth and homogenous mixture. Take care not to over-process the mixture because your machine might heat up and ‘cook’ the fish.
2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper, zests from both lemon and orange and a little bit of olive oil. Form the mixture into balls (about the size of a small lemon) and stuff them in between the fish slices. Arrange the stuffed slices inside the cooking pouches and close with a vacuum seal.
3. Arrange sealed pouches inside your SousVide Supreme which has been pre-heated at 131F/55C for 30minutes.
4. Take out pouches from your SousVide Supreme straight into a prepared ice-water bath. Leave the pouch in the ice-water bath for an hour and then transfer to your fridge until serving time.
5. Raise the temperature of your SousVide Supreme to 180F/82C, arrange sliced carrots for garnish inside cooking pouch and then vacuum seal. Cook for 15 minutes. Take them out and place the pouch in the ice-water bath for 30minutes. Transfer pouch in the fridge to cool until serving.
6. For the fish stock you will need a wide pot that can hold all the fish heads and bones. Heat pot and olive oil. Saute fish heads and bones and gently cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes (or until fish has a slightly golden color). Next, add your vegetables and let it cook till translucent (about 15 minutes). Add the Ouzo and let simmer for 3 minutes until most of the alcohol has evaporated. Add water and bring to boil. Adjust heat to low and let simmer for an hour.
7. Strain fish stock in a fine mesh strainer. Transfer to a clean pot. Add your star of anise for flavor and let simmer until it has reduced to a thick consistency. Let cool then pour into small ‘muffin’ molds and cool completely in the fridge (this is your aspic).
8. To serve, arrange a stuffed fish on each plate. Garnish with a slice of carrot and minced tarragon (or parsley) and several cubes of aspic (jellied fish stock). Don’t forget to add a wedge of lemon.

A guest post by Michael Ruhlman

About ten years ago, sous vide cooking, cooking food at low precise temperatures, entered the professional kitchen in America. It’s now solidly in the home kitchen with various devices for sale. For the best price/quality ratio, Sous Vide Supreme has, since its arrival in 2009, been my favorite tool. It’s fabulous for home use. Do you need one to survive? Of course not. Can you do endlessly creative and awesome dishes with it? You bet. What is it that makes you want to own a sous vide machine—slow cooking of tough meat, hitting the perfect temperature every time, egg cooking? Other? {Let us know in the comments!}

I slow cook beef ribs for 48 hours for tender and juicy ribs. I’m going to make this as simple as possible. Salt and pepper the meat, seal it in a bag (get out all air so they don’t float), cook, chill, finish. {Get the complete easy sous vide beef short ribs recipe here.}

I made these last January for the sailing crew in Key West. Short ribs cooked sous vide are amazingly juicy and tender and tasty, a quintessential example of the value of sous vide. You’d have to braise these to get them tender, in which case you’d need to rely on the sauce for succulence rather than the meat.

This recipe also defines a great general rule: all tough cuts of meat, braising meats, from brisket to pork belly to short ribs to lamb shank can all be cooked sous vide in the exact same way: 48 hours at 140˚F/60˚C. Then flavor the outside by searing, grilling, saucing or a combination. They can be cooked sous vide and chilled in an ice bath and refrigerated for days or frozen for months before finishing.

Photo by Donna Ruhlman, used with permission

You can transform eggs in ways no other method can. {Get Michael’s sous vide eggs recipe here.} I love putting a soft boiled egg into soups, as in the above ramen dish. I use it monthly to make a big batch of yogurt. {Get the sous vide yogurt recipe here.} It’s a great water bath for cooking custards, meatloaf, and its supercilious brother, pâté en terrine.

It’s an amazing technique, for weekday cooking (cooked ahead) or for cooking for big groups (also cooked ahead). And it results in tenderness and flavor that can’t be achieved any other way.

Editor’s note: If you’re as big a Michael Ruhlman fan as we are, you’ll want to check out his blog, which is absolutely filled with fabulous recipes–both sous vide and traditional–and the most glorious food porn imaginable, courtesy of his talented wife, photographer Donna Ruhlman. You can also follow Michael on twitter and facebook.

Courtesy of Michael Ruhlman (www.ruhlman.com)
Yield: About 3 cups/ 0.75 liter

I always have this on hand and eat some most every day. The bacteria are good for the gut and if you have a stomach bug eat this and it may help (I do). This will be loose yogurt; when you dip into the thick creamy stuff it will be soft , but hold its shape. It will weep whey, which is also tasty and good (I pour it on granola with the yogurt). For stiff-thick yogurt, Greek style, strain it through cloth for an hour, then refrigerate.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 quart/liter whole milk
• 2 tablespoons Fage Greek yogurt (or any yogurt that notes on label that it contains a living culture, or if you have a wonderful Indian neighbor with a live culture as I do, ask for a little of hers (thanks Tripta!!!)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill and preheat the SousVide Supreme to 104F/ 40C.
2. Pour the milk in a pot and bring it to a simmer on the stovetop (at least 180 degrees); careful, it’s easy to forget and leave yourself with a mess on the stove it if boils over; stick around. (Donna gets really mad at me when I leave the kitchen and she hears it boil over.)
3. Pour it into a four-cup glass measuring cup or appropriate bowl {Ed: a quart/liter glass snap-lid canning jar works well, too} and allow it to cool to at least 120˚F/48˚C or room temperature.
4. Stir in the yogurt with the live culture, thoroughly.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and sous vide for 24 hours. (Some people suggest going as high as 120˚F; feel free to test for yourself.)
6. Allow to cool, then refrigerate.

Courtesy of Michael Ruhlman (www.ruhlman.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 8 meaty beef short ribs (or however many you’re serving)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Barbecue sauce of your choice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill and preheat the SousVide Supreme to 140F/60C.
2. Give the ribs a generous seasoning of salt and pepper
3. Put them into a cooking pouch and vacuum seal them well .
4. Submerge in the water oven and cook for 48 hours, give or take.
5. If you are not going to finish them right away, submerge the pouch in an ice bath until thoroughly chilled, at least 20 minutes or more.
6. To finish, remove them from the pouch and allow them to come to room temperature (if serving a large crowd, leave in pouch and re-sous vide at 120˚F/48˚C for 30 minutes).
7. Slather them with barbeque sauce and grill till charred and smokey and beautiful, a couple minutes on each side on a hot grill.
8. You can also broil them to caramelize the BBQ sauce if you don’t have a grill.
9. Use one rib per serving.

Courtesy of Michael Ruhlman 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 egg per person (you can make as many as will fit into the machine)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill and preheat the SousVide Supreme to 145F/62.5C.
2. Put the eggs in their shells (not in cooking pouches) directly onto the bottom perforated grill and cook for 45 to 60 minutes.
3. Crack one egg into a bowl of soup or stew, onto grits or beans.

SousVide Supreme is thrilled to announce its partnership with Breville to bring the revolutionary sous vide cooking technique to Australian home cooks.

Breville is a leading brand of culinary products which has grown to become an iconic Australian brand and has enhanced peoples lives through thoughtful design and brilliant innovation, now delivering kitchen products to over 30 countries around the globe.

The Breville SousVide Supreme (BSV600, 220-240 volt) is now available at Australian retailers including Myer, David Jones and Harvey Norman. Breville recognized the need to introduce the sous vide cooking technique to the home cook and found the perfect partnership with the easy-to-use, award-winning SousVide Supreme water oven.

Sous vide cooking is popular in many of the world’s top restaurant kitchens. The gentle cooking method involves placing vacuum sealed meats, seafood, vegetables or fruit into a water bath at a precisely controlled temperature for unparalleled succulence and mouthwatering tenderness.

Watch Chef Jeffrey Schroeter, from Cloudy Bay Fish Company in Sydney, Australia, explain the benefits of cooking fish using the sous vide technique and demonstrate how easy it is to cook the perfect White Tuna and King Fish using the Breville SousVide Supreme!

For more information about the Breville SousVide Supreme, visit Breville.com.au

Sous vide cooking is fast becoming a global phenomenon, with the SousVide Supreme now available throughout the US, Europe, and the UK, but also now in markets as diverse as Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, Israel, and Scandinavia. The widespread adoption of the technique is creating fans among cooks of every skill level worldwide. One is UK photographer (and prolific food blogger) John Loydall, whose fabulous food photographs caught our eye. They are simply food porn at its finest.

Since he isn’t a chef by trade–and therefore a lot like the rest of us–we were curious about what drew him to sous vide. We caught up with him this week to ask him if he’d be willing to share a bit of his sous vide-ing experience with our readers. Happily, he agreed, and what follows will give us all some great ideas and tips for upcoming holiday meals!

SVS: Why did you first become interested in sous vide cooking?

JL: It was a combination of watching cookery shows where I’d seen professional chefs using this technique and also when I’d eaten out at restaurants, where I tried dishes like 24-hour blade of beef and eggs cooked for 45 minutes. There was something magical about both the process and the results – I just had to know how it all worked and how they achieved such amazing results.

SVS: What is the most interesting thing you’ve cooked sous vide?

JL: The pumpkin risotto I cooked last week was a real success. Risotto isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when cooking sous vide, but it works really well. I cooked half the pumpkin with the risotto and then roast the other half. When the risotto was ready I finished it off in a pan with the roast pumpkin and a generous chunk of butter. [OK, so we are hoping he will share this recipe with us all in coming weeks, but if you’re curious, here’s a recipe for Garlic Cheese Risotto that will show you the basic sous vide risotto technique.]

SVS: You are a professional photographer and take exceptional photographs of the food you cook. What is your culinary background?



JL: I’ve been cooking since I was young, but only began to take it seriously when I had to cook for myself every day when I went to university. Limited funds meant I had to learn to cook with cheaper ingredients. That’s not a bad thing though – it makes you think about developing flavor from what you’ve got available and making the most of leftovers. I also learnt to cook with cheaper, more obscure cuts of meat – something I still like to do nowadays.

I’ve always enjoyed the process of cooking – the preparation, pulling the different components together and then the final presentation of the dish. I think it often helps to think about contrast in a dish – hot with cold, sweet with sour, soft with crunch – that’s what really makes a dish.

When I started working in photography, it didn’t initially occur to me to photograph food, but as I progressed I began to see similarities between the two disciplines. Process, contrast, composition and the final presentation of a photo – it really ties in nicely with cookery. When I started photographing food, it immediately clicked – it made sense to me. The colours and textures you get in a dish often make a great photo.

Photographing food has certainly helped my cookery – I have to think about every element of a dish and how it’s going to look on a plate. Overcooked food never looks good, especially when you take a detailed photograph of it. Taking photos of your food is a brilliant way to force you to up your game when putting a dish together.

SVS: Are you cooking sous vide for the holidays?



JL: Definitely! Christmas is all about good hearty food and entertaining – serving a meal that has been cooked sous vide is a real treat – especially if you can tell your guests that the food has been cooking for 48 hours – it has a real sense of occasion to it.

SVS: Do you have a favorite holiday recipe that you have adapted to sous vide cooking?



JL: Every Christmas we get a box of pheasants from a local Boxing Day shoot. We spend the day gutting and preparing them – they usually end up roast, casseroled or in a curry. This year I’ll be cooking sous vide pheasant. Game meat can often end up a little on the dry side, so cooking sous vide makes perfect sense – locking in the moisture and flavor and requiring only a brief sear in the pan afterwards. I think that’s the meal I’m most looking forward to this Christmas.

SVS: OK — we are intrigued! You’ll have to promise to blog about it and let us all know how it turns out. Cooking game birds is tough traditionally and sous vide makes it so simple and foolproof, as it does for many foods. Which food group do you think benefits most from sous vide cooking?



JL: Well – meat is the obvious choice here – the control you have when cooking steaks is incredible and slow-cooked (24hrs+) meat takes on an incredible texture, when cooked with the SousVide Supreme. But for me the real revelation has been vegetables – the first thing I cooked sous vide was carrots – nothing complicated, I just sliced them lengthways and cooked them with a little salt and pepper and some butter. The firmness and flavor was a real surprise – they still had a decent bite and had so much more flavor than boiling or steaming them. I really like the way vegetables keep their shape when you cook them sous vide – if you take care prepping your veg it really pays off when you plate up – they still look great.

SVS: If you were a novice cook, what would be you ‘go-to’, ‘never fail’ sous vide dish to impress?



JL: I think I’d go for a cheap cut of beef – maybe brisket or flank. Cooked low and slow for 48 hours. You really don’t need to be too precise with the timing, so you can serve it whenever the rest of your meal is ready. The great thing is, you’re guaranteed a beautiful, fall-apart piece of meat that everyone will love and it hasn’t cost you the earth. Finish it off in a pan or just coat it in a sauce and you’ve got an amazing dish. Keep it simple – serve with oven roast potato wedges and maybe a simple salad. It doesn’t need to be complicated – once you’ve got that meat cooked to perfection you don’t need to do much more to create something pretty special.

SVS: If you were a novice cook and wanted to impress family or friends during the holidays, what would you attempt with sous vide cooking to blow the crowd away?



JL: I’d certainly take advantage of the way you can cook multiple dishes sous vide at the same time. Not necessarily a Christmas dish, but I think a fish course always adds a special touch to a meal. For the fish course – sea bass with sliced fennel and orange – reasonably light, but sets you up for the main course. Fish cooked sous vide is a pleasure to eat – once you understand the timings you’re guaranteed perfectly cooked fish.

For the meat course – something with a bit of a twist – sous vide duck with vanilla and lime creamy mashed potato. I’d make a brandy and port-based sauce with a touch of star anise and cinnamon to give it that Christmas feel and then parsnip crisps to add textural contrast. [OK, John, we need these, too!!]

One of the great things about cooking sous vide is that it frees you up to concentrate on your sauces and other side dishes – a meal like this means you can really get that all-important sauce perfected, without having to rush when you’re ready to serve.

I think with a meal like this you can tailor it to your skill level. If you’re just starting out, you can still get the same results with the fish and meat, but maybe simplify the veg. It will still be impressive that you’ve managed to cook fish and duck to perfection. If you’re a little more competent you can really elaborate on the other ingredients and create something extraordinary.

Courtesy of MasterChef’s Whitney Miller
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

For the potatoes

• 1 cup (200 g) sweet potatoes, peeled and diced to 1/2-inch (1.3 cm)
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) unsalted butter
• 3-1/2 tablespoons (52.5 g) light brown sugar
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) fresh orange juice
• 1-1/2 tablespoons (22.5 ml) rum

For the salted pecans

• 1/2 cup (60 g) pecan halves
• 1/8 teaspoons olive oil
• Pinch sea salt
• 1-1/2 quarts (1.4 liter) butter pecan ice cream

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill and preheat the SousVide Supreme to 183F/84C.
2. Put the potatoes into a large (gallon/3.8 liter) cooking pouch in a single layer and vacuum seal them.
3. Submerge the pouch in the water oven and cook for 1-1/2 hours.
4. Preheat the traditional oven to 350F/176C.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the salted pecans.
   1. On a baking sheet, drizzle the pecans with the oil and salt and toss to coat.
   2. Bake for 4 minutes.
   3. Remove pecans from the oven and allow them to cool.
   4. When cool, transfer pecans to a cutting board and chop into fine pieces.
6. When the potatoes have finished cooking, remove the pouch from the water bath, open the pouch, drain the liquid, and set potatoes aside until ready to use.
7. In a skillet, over medium heat, melt butter in a medium non-stick skillet.
8. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over the butter and when the sugar begins to dissolve, add the sweet potatoes.
9. Add the orange juice to the skillet and continue to cook for 1 to 2 minutes, flipping sweet potatoes over to coat in sauce.
10. Carefully add the rum and ignite it with a flame from the gas stove or with a stick lighter.
11. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes until flames subside and sauce slightly thickens.

For the assembly

1. Place a 3-inch (7.5 cm) square or round cookie cutter or ring mold on the corner of a dessert plate.
2. Immediately spoon the cooked sweet potatoes (without the sauce) into the mold and carefully remove the mold.
3. On the opposite side of the plate, arrange a tablespoon (15 ml) of salted pecan pieces.
4. Using two spoons, shape ice cream into a quenelle and place it atop pecan pieces.
5. Spoon a pool of the sauce around the sweet potatoes.
6. Serve immediately.

SVS: Welcome, Whitney, back to the SousVide Supreme pages. We always enjoy having you back for a chat. For our readers who may not be aware, you were the very first MasterChef winner in 2010. What led you to the culinary world?

WM: I have always been passionate about cooking, since I was a child. My dream was to have a career in the culinary field. I feel so blessed to have won Fox’s Masterchef program, which has helped to launch my career.

SVS: What is your most vivid memory of the show?

WM: My most vivid memory would have to be when I dropped my chicken on the floor in the last ten minutes of the show’s finale. It was one of those I-can’t-believe- that-just-happened moments but I knew I had to swiftly recover. I quickly prepared another piece and prayed it would cook in 7 minutes in the pan. To the judges’—and my—surprise, it did!

SVS: What was your best/worst moment on the show?

WM: My best moment was when I defeated Sharone Hakman [BTW: also a SousVide Supreme Ambassador] in the chocolate soufflé pressure challenge. He was a strong competitor and the challenge was intense, but when it was all said and done, I emerged (as Sharone deemed me) “The Pastry Princess.”

SVS: What are you doing now? Any plans for future shows, events, books you’d like to share with our readers?

WM: I have been really busy with speaking engagements, cooking demonstrations, and cookbook signings both in the U.S. and internationally. My travels have taken me to Dubai, China, and South Africa.[ed note: and soon to Malaysia to help launch our SousVide Supreme product line there.] I am currently a contributor to several magazines. I am excitedly working on my second cookbook. I am looking forward to participating in Chefdance 2013 in association with the Sundance Film Festival.

SVS: Wow! They’ve really kept you busy! And on top of that, in 2011 you published your first cookbook Modern Hospitality: Simple Recipes with Southern Charm. Are there any sous vide recipes included in your book?
WM: That cookbook does not contain sous vide recipes, but I have prepared some of my recipes in the sous vide water oven, such as Grandma’s Sunday Roast, and I have created recipes especially for SousVide Supreme that are available on the site.

SVS: What is your favorite food to cook sous vide? What food(s) do you feel the sous vide technique is especially suited to?

WM: I have prepared everything from meats to vegetables to dessert items. For me, I love the texture of Southern vegetables like sweet potatoes and okra [cooked] sous vide. No more slimy okra!

SVS: Sous vide is especially good for turning tough, inexpensive cuts of meat into something tender and juicy. The Southern US is noted for slow-cooked pork, ribs, and other flavorful meats. Have you adapted any of your favorite Southern recipes to sous vide cooking? If so, what’s your favorite?

WM: Sunday roast, for my grandmother, was always a bottom round roast. I have taken this Sunday roast and served it for more than just Sunday lunch. Inexpensive bottom round can be a tough piece of meat unless cooked low and slow, usually in the oven. Preparing it in the sous vide, however, creates perfectly tender meat, without the worry of overcooking and drying out. It also holds together well for slicing, like for my Mississippi Cheesesteak.

SVS: Tenderness with integrity. Is that one reason why do you think that sous vide cooking is taking hold both in restaurants and in homes around the globe?

WM: Yes. I have experienced some really great meals at fine dining restaurants and have had chefs tell me that the meats are prepared sous vide. The flavor and texture [of sous vide cooked meats] is incomparable.

SVS: We couldn’t agree more! Thanks, Whitney, for taking the time to catch us up on ‘life after MasterChef’! And safe travels… We invite all of you to take a look at Whitney’s cookbook and to follow her online at www.whitneymiller.com