Sous Vide Beef & Blue Cheese | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide Beef and blue cheese with broccoli and smoked pommes anna

COOK TIME: 2 Hours
PREP TIME: 8 Hours
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

400g of beef rump, divided into 4 portions
300g of Roquefort cheese, at room temperature
water, as needed
1 knob of butter

Smoked pomme anna

75g of unsalted butter
4 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
oil, for frying
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Broccoli relish

4 broccoli, stems only (reserve florets for the purée)
100g of sugar
20g of fish sauce
20g of soy sauce

Broccoli purée

6 broccoli, florets only (florets reserved from the relish, plus florets from 2 extra broccoli)
salt

Broccoli garnish

1 broccoli, cut into florets
1 dash of lime juice
1 dash of olive oil
salt, to taste

To serve

2 French breakfast radishes, shaved into fine slices
salty finger leaf, a few sprigs

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Cold-Smoker
15cm Square Ovenproof Dish
Sous Vide Water Bath
Blender
Vacuum Bags
Sous Vide Vacuum Sealer

Method

Recipe courtesy of chef Ollie Moore from www.greatbritishchefs.com

METHOD

For the smoked pomme anna, smoke the butter for 20-25 minutes using a cold-smoker.
Preheat the oven to a temperature of 180⁰C/gas mark 4.
Heat the smoked butter in a small saucepan until it melts. Using a pastry brush, coat the base of a 15cm square ovenproof dish with the melted butter, then cover with a layer of potato slices. Brush the potato with more melted butter and sprinkle over a little salt and pepper, then add another layer of potato, followed by more butter and seasoning, and so on until all of the potato has been used.
Place the dish in the oven and leave to cook for 1 hour.
Once cooked, remove the pomme anna from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes, then top with a heavy weight and press overnight.
To make the broccoli relish, pour the sugar into a heavy-bottomed pan and heat without stirring until caramelised.
Chop the broccoli stems into 5mm dice and place in the pan with the caramelised sugar. Heat for 3-4 minutes to release the moisture in the broccoli, then tip away the excess liquid in the pan. Add the fish sauce and soy sauce and cook until thick and sticky. This should take about 5 minutes.
Once reduced, take the pan off the heat and allow to cool, then transfer the relish to the fridge until needed.
On the day of serving, preheat the water bath to a temperature of 48⁰C.
For the beef rump, mash the Roquefort in a bowl, then gradually add water, stirring rapidly, until smooth and paste-like. If you prefer, you could use a blender or food processor but be careful not to add too much water.
Coat the beef rumps with the Roquefort paste, then place in a vacuum bag and seal. Leave to cook in the water bath for 45 minutes.
While the beef is cooking, prepare the broccoli purée. Finely chop the broccoli florets, then fill a large saucepan with salted water and place over a medium heat. Once boiling, submerge the chopped broccoli florets in the water and simmer for a few minutes until tender.
Transfer the broccoli florets from the pan to a blender with a small amount of the cooking water. Pulse the blender, gradually adding more of the cooking water, until a smooth purée has formed. This may take as long as 10 minutes. Season the purée to taste, then store in a warm place until needed. Do not allow to cool.
For the broccoli garnish, leave 4 florets whole. Strip off the green tops from the remaining florets and place in a bowl. Discard the stems. Add the lime juice, olive oil and salt to the broccoli tops and mix well. Check the seasoning, then set aside until ready to serve.
Once cooked, take the beef out of the water bath and unseal the vacuum bag. In a large frying pan, melt the butter over a high heat until foaming. Fry the beef in the butter for approximately 2 minutes on each side until browned all over. Once cooked, leave to rest for 10-15 minutes, then cut each portion into thick slices prior to serving.
While the beef is resting, divide the pressed pomme anna into portions and slice the reserved whole broccoli florets lengthways to produce cross-sections 5mm in thickness.
Heat a little oil in a large frying pan. Once hot, place the pomme anna portions in the pan and fry over a medium heat until heated through and crispy and golden on all sides. Set the fried pomme anna aside and add the broccoli cross-sections to the hot pan. Cook until lightly charred on both sides.
To serve, place a portion of pomme anna and several quenelles of broccoli purée on each plate. Divide the sliced beef between the plates and drizzle with the juices from the pan. Spoon over the broccoli relish and add some charred broccoli slices. Finish with a garnish of lime-dressed broccoli tops, radish shavings and salty finger leaves.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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