Sous Vide with Chef Preston Dishman and a podcast

I’m not huge on New Year’s resolutions. I prefer the softer sort of intentional change. Call it “examined life, light.”

I wake up each morning and take a little time to reorient my motivation. In the midst of the January resolution hoopla I find myself with a dozen or so thoughts on the year ahead that I might want to implement on a more drawn out basis – say one goal a month. Then even that gets too complicated and I revert to just wishing for the time to think about my direction.

So, as I steer my virtual rudder, I find myself with a few initial hopes, based in large part on my experiences in December 2011. The long and the short of it is this: I hope to refine my decision making skills, not to take on too much, and, last but not least, to be more ambitious and adventurous in my cooking.

I’ll start with my kitchen ambition. I took an incredible sous vide class with Chef Dishman at Draeger’s Market teaching space next to his restaurant Viognier. It was fantastic.

First of all, Preston’s a joy to be around, and just the right balance of talented and self depricating so none of his hocus pocus techniques seem frivolous or impossible. He’s relaxed, un-pompous, and highly knowledgeable. He cooks for people’s enjoyment – not so much to impress – although the harissa carrots and short ribs he made definitely had that effect. Preston’s sincerity allows for a reciprocal ambiance akin to Southern hospitality. His food isn’t taste bud stretching, or laden with chic offal offerings

Chef Dishman sat down with me for a chat after the class, not even phased by the hours of preceding live cooking and instruction. His energy was impressive.

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During the course of the evening he broke down the basics of sous vide to a rather knowledgeable, dare I say hoity toity group of diners. (As their questions were uttered regarding specific brands of knives and pans, types of vacuums, sous vides iphone apps and more I could picture them in their kitchens of marble and stainless steel appliances.) The mood was serious but Preston’s jovial light-heartedness warmed even the most thoughtful or austere of participants.

He broke down the basics – how the various types of sous vide machines work, how to properly vacuum the food in plastic without getting moisture into the machine (prop it up on a brick or a couple of cutting boards), why the vacuum technique works and what is does, the concept of retaining maximum flavor via the sous vide method. Then he and his elves made four unique preparations for a well-rounded sous vide meal of polenta and poached egg, short ribs with the aforementioned harissa carrot puree, and a sous vide apple with streusel, caramel, and ice cream. He also snuck in a filet mignon to show off a relatively short-cooking example of sous vide – 20-some minutes vs. 48 hours for the short ribs.

Basically, the kitchen aromas we experience can be more aptly classified as escaped flavor. By cooking at low temperatures for long periods of time, you can retain all this yum, granted the house might not smell as enticing. Through a higher degree of control you can perfect many basic recipes.

This class turned a haute technique into something doable for the home chef, even one on a budget. You can cook many things in a pot of low-simmering water in a bag and get sous vide-ish results, jimmy a sous vide rig, buy the consumer model for $100+, or go all-in and get the pro model that accommodates much larger batches and keeps the water circulating for much more moolah.

My excuse to move toward that direction, the big price tag that is, is that you can fill a number of bags with good – throw the spices and fats right in with veggies or meats, etc. – and the food is effectively shelf stable, or at least fridge stable, for long periods of time. You’d go shopping, prep the bags of various foods and vacuum them, organize them by cooking time and temperature, get a bath going, and adjust the temperature and set a timer, then over a period of a couple days you could effectively have cooked for a month or even two. Did someone say lazy gourmand? Another point Chef Dishman made was that if you were in a situation where 400 perfectly poached eggs were required, sous vide would probably be the only way that they could be procured.

You can taste his sous vide preparations in many of the menu items at his restaurant Viognier in San Mateo. It’s located next to Draeger’s Market, a genuinely fun place to shop. And today Chef Dishman’s new class schedule was posted!

So that takes care of my initial New Year wish to be more out-there in the kitchen. Bring on the beet sorbet, the three-day recipes, and all that deliciously fun craziness. Sous vide is on my horizon, and I can always go back to Draeger’s for a refresher course should I forget any of the magic. I’ll have to get to my other resolutions later…