What I cooked: January 20, 2011

Today I was in a cooking frenzy preparing for the onslaught of cold weather this weekend. No, seriously, cold even for Vermont:

I had to celebrate the last "warm" (25°F) and sunny day by grilling! I grilled off a steak, chicken and burgers.

The steak was a Tangletown Farm sirloin tip steak that I seasoned, lightly seared (1.5 minutes per side), divided, vacuum sealed and froze. When I decide to have steak for dinner I'll just drop the frozen vacuum bag right into the sous vide at 133°F and I'll have a perfectly cooked rare to medium rare steak.

The chicken was free-range antibiotic-free chicken, seasoned, vacuum sealed, cooked in the sous vide for an hour at 160°F, then grilled for 1.5 minutes per side. The sous vide does a great job of making a perfectly cooked, juicy chicken breast every time. The grilled chicken was then sliced, divided into 2.8 oz. portions, then vacuum sealed and frozen. I'll use that for chicken Caesar salad.

The burgers were local Boyden Farms beef, seasoned and formed into 6.2 oz. patties (before cooking) in a 4" cookie cutter. I just seared them for 1.5 minutes per side, so they're not fully cooked, but I then vacuum sealed and froze the burgers. They'll be finished off in the sous vide for 45 minutes or so (from frozen) at 133°F (for rare to medium-rare).

I also made a batch of Japanese-style curry since it's so satisfying after a day of skiing and I ate the last package yesterday.

And a double batch of maple candied walnuts since I've been using so many of them on my spinach salads, and I used the last of the last batch today.