Culinary Challenge 2 - Vegetarian Main Course

Michael Natkin

@Grant and @Chris are going to be traveling, so they asked me to suggest this week's culinary challenge. Well, when the omnivorous are away, the vegetarian is going to play. To make it interesting, I'm going to ask the readers from Herbivoracious to come over and throw down with all you short-rib lovers. All in good fun!

This week's objective: Use the sous vide method to make a great vegetarian main course. Eggs and dairy are fine, but it can also be vegan if you like. It could be as simple as using sous vide to blanch vegetables before grilling and serving over pasta, or you can make a multi-component masterpiece using high-tech techniques.

How to play: Take the challenge in your own kitchen, then share your results in this forum thread. Describe the dish you have chosen and techniques used to make it. Describe where your idea or inspiration came from and what your plan of attack was, and finally, post your pictures.

The top 3 posts will get their photos posted on ChefSteps' Pinterest board. Have your entries posted by Sunday 1/27. @Grant has already said he's entering one from the road, and I've got something up my sleeve too (but of course our entries aren't part of the challenge.)

Brian Douglas

Nice! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

Johan Edstrom

This could be really fun. I wonder if I can smuggle home a bag of great greens from AZ for use on Saturday.

Mason Perry

Guess I am headed to the farmers market

Johan Edstrom

I'll leave this as inspiration.
It is an Alinea salad - I used a few different techniques - Kale, Basil and Spinach.

Johan Edstrom

@Michael since you twisted the rules I think I will too ;)
I'm gonna see if I can highlight the vegan G+ communities on this one.

Allen Johnson

I have a dish thats bound to be amazing, but to be safe I might follow @Michael and @Johan lead and check out G+ communities

Johan Edstrom

Oh, @Allen please don't - Michael kinda wrote the book on vegan stuff, I was doing a thong around my ankles war dance.

Michael Natkin

You guys are very welcome to bring in anyone, and use anything for inspiration! The more the merrier.

Mason Perry

I might have to take a few practice runs at this one...

Mason Perry

I have cruised around some vegan sites, definitely more interesting than I originally thought. I think this will be a fun challenge.

Johan Edstrom

@Mason you are saying you are a vegan cruiser, you naughty boy you.

Mason Perry

No I have vegans who cook at work and it's such crap food, not cause they are vegan but because they are crappy cooks!

Brian Douglas

I'm going to try to go straight vegan for this challenge. I cook for vegetarian friends regularly. Initially, I would forget on occasion that ingredients like chicken stock and gelatin are not actually vegetarian, but I've gotten better, and they are forgiving friends. I think keeping it vegan will add another layer to the challenge. I pulled out the Dirt Candy cookbook last night to start getting ideas.

Brendan Lee

I have a feeling I'm going to lean towards the asian cuisine for this challenge. I have a few childhood tofu favorites that may be making an appearance in a modern way!

Mason Perry

I'm headed Latin!

Johan Edstrom

What do you mean, you don't eat no meat?
...That's okay, that's okay. I make lamb.

Mason Perry

It's ok I had a rib eye for lunch :)

Brian Douglas

I'd like to see the all the veganitarians from Michael's blog vote on their favorite of our (those of us here at the chef steps forums) dishes this week, and in return we (the mostly carnivorous or maybe just omnivorous crowd) will pick our favorite from their entries.

Mason Perry

Ok here we go looks like I am first. I got overly fresh and ripe ingredients at the farmers market today after the gym so I decided it had to be tonight to prevent awesomely ripe tomaotes from turning into moldy tomatoes. I was gonna go vegan but dammnit I love butter too much!

Deconstructed (kinda) Potato Tacos.

I cut the red potatoes into cubes and vac sealed with about 2 tbs butter and a few tbs of cream to get some fat in there for some rich potato flavor. Into the bath at 185F for approx 45 min. I also sliced a sweet onion, a yellow, green, red bell pepper and seasoned with spices for a sort of taco seasoning if you will. Those were vac sealed and placed in the bath for the last 5 min.

I cooled both bags to room temp and then stir fried the peppers and onion in a hot pan with a dash of oil and a whole serrano chile WITH seeds. Just heated them up and carmalized them a bit then removed and added the potatoes to the pan and did the same. This way both the fajita mixture and potatoes were coated with spiciness!

I cut some corn tortillas into small rounds and quick fried them in some canola oil only long enough for them to hold shape, hit with fresh ground sea salt and lime juice upon exit to cooling rack.

The salsa was 2 ripe tomatoes spun in the food processor with another serrano chile WITH seeds. That juice was added to 2 seeded and diced tomatoes, 2 seeded jalapenos, half a diced brown onion and some chopped cilantro.

The rest of the cilantro bunch was turned in the food processor with about a 1/4 cup water and then strained. Sodium alginate was added to the cilantro water and then caviar was made by dropping into a calcium chloride bath, they were rinsed and immediately plated a top some mexican Crema.

The tortilla rounds were placed down, then fajita peppers/onions, some potatoes, fresh salsa and topped with an oven roasted brussel slaw to help add some bitter notes (I am not a real cabbage fan but tacos gotta have cabbage!)

The serranos were HOT but the cool burst of the crema with the bubbly cilantro caviar was such a great balance. The potatoes were firm and the peppers/onion were just ever so slightly crisp in the center. The star was the salsa as it brought a sweet heat since the tomatoes I grabbed at the farmers market were overly ripe. I dipped every bite into the crema/cilantro caviar and I HATE cilantro, but it worked so well with the crema to relive the tingle on my tongue and the BURN on my lips. Needless to say no leftovers and I made enough for 4 and it was just me and my wife. She gave it a big thumbs up! This recipe was SO much better with sous vide as both the peppers/onions and the potatoes were perfectly cooked and the potatoes ALWAYS dry out if cokked in just the pan. Plus this was so light and fresh and not greasy, definitely a winner in my book. Oh best thing about dinner....it came with a $6.11 price tag, TOTAL! Can't beat that, go farmers market!

PICS!

Michael Natkin

Wow, @Mason! Out of the gate on the first day and looks delicious. Well done.

Mason Perry

Thanks, better than my cohorts at work and what they pass off as "cooking"

Allen Johnson

Now that the bar has been set, I will have to see if I can come close to our friend @Mason

Brian Douglas

Those look great!

Eddie Shepherd

Hi All

Michael pointed me in the direction of this challenge and its a great idea.

At the minute I'm crazy busy with work so I don't think I'll get time to sort out a totally new dish for this but I wanted to share something so here is a dish I did last year using sousVide. (I'm a vegetarian chef so all my dishes are veggie). I appreciate that because this is an old dish of mine I guess I can't really be part of the competition but I wanted to share something anyway.

It's 'Butternut Squash with Nettles'

The orbs of squash are cut with a Mellon baller the. Cooked sousVide with sage and juniper to infuse until they are just cooked 85C 25 minutes. Then the squash is served with crushed and seasoned microwave fried nettles and a nettle and tarragon purée.

Hope you guys like it and all the best with the challenge

:)

Eddie

Michael Natkin

That's gorgeous, Eddie!

Mason Perry

Very nice almost looks like egg yolks

Bryce

The potato tacos look great!

Mason Perry

Thanks they were super tasty! Definitley going to be a repeat!

Michael Natkin

Here's my "entry": Greek gigandes beans in a white wine & saffron broth, with romesco sauce, crispy-skinned potatoes, and leeks. Completely vegan. We'll have video and the recipe up on the site sometime soon. The beans, leeks and potatoes were all cooked sous vide.

Johan Edstrom

Dang that looks good, I especially like the saucing.