BOOK REVIEW: Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals by Lisa Q. Fetterman

Title: Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals
Author: Lisa Q. Fetterman
Publication: November 1, 2016
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Genre: Cookbooks, Food and Wine
Pages: 288

 
Sous vide at Home

 

SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

From the creator of the first affordable sous vide machine comes this easy-to-follow cookbook that clearly illustrates how to harness the power of sous vide technology (the process of slow cooking ingredients to perfect tenderness using immersion circulation) to achieve restaurant-quality dishes, regardless of skill level.

Sous vide has been a popular cooking technique in restaurants for years, offering tender and succulent dishes cooked to perfection, but until recently home cooks were unable to re-create these at home due to the restrictive cost and size of the sous vide machine. Now, with the advent of portable and affordable sous vide machines, this method is fast becoming one of the hottest trends in home cooking. Sous Vide at Home, by the CEO and founder of Nomiku–the first immersion circulator for home cooks, offers a much-needed accessible cookbook for a diverse audience, from home chefs to tech-minded millennials. The elegant design paired with recipes such as Halibut Tostadas, Stout-glazed Short Ribs, and Salted Caramel Ice Cream, makes Sous Vide at Home both essential and timeless.

 
REVIEW:

To be honest, when my husband gave me a Sous Vide as a Valentine’s Day gift, I thought it was at little ridiculous. I know they come in all shapes and sizes, but mine is one that you stick in a stock pot and tighten to the side. I thought “Well this is silly. If I want to cook something I can just do it the old fashion way” But I am here to tell you it is a marvelous invention and makes amazing food every time. When I saw the cookbook in the request area of NetGalley I knew I had to get it and expand my abilities with the Sous Vide. The cookbook did not disappoint.

The cookbook starts with eggs and ends with sauces and condiments. Everything in between is amazing. Obviously, I didn’t cook every single thing in this book but the multiple ones I tried turned out really well. To name a few I tried: Quick Pickles, Homemade Tonic Syrup, Home-Infused Gin, and the soft boiled eggs. I did alter the Quick Pickle recipe to have a little less red pepper flakes. I have three small children and they are not a fan of overly spicy food. If you want a perfect soft boiled egg every single time, this is the way to go. Gone are the days where you have to guess whether or not the stovetop boiling water method has made them hard-boiled or if they are hardly cooked. The author makes this book easy to understand. Even the most novice of cooks can do it. All of the instructions are easy and most of the ingredients are easy to find at your local supermarket. I did have to order some cinchona bark off Amazon to make the tonic syrup but other than that everything else I either had on hand or a quick trip to the store would fix.

All in all, the book was a winner. I will certainly be keeping this book around and referring to it for my meal planning. What I love about the Sous Vide is that you set the temp you need to cook at and it holds the water at that temp indefinitely and the food will not over cook. So I can make, for example, yogurt and it will keep the milk at a constant 115 degrees for as long as it takes and it will not go over that temp. Kudos to the authors for making an easy to understand cookbook about a fantastic and (now) indispensable part of my kitchen.

 
Pick up your own copy of Sous Vide at Home on November 1st. It is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You can also leave feedback for the author when you are done by going to Goodreads.

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