Sous Vide Cauliflower with Apple | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide Cauliflower with apple, raisin and cheddar

COOK TIME: 1 hour
PREP TIME: 30 Minutes
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

200g of butter
1 cauliflower, cut into florets and each floret halved lengthways
1 pinch of salt
butter, for frying

Raisin purée

200g of raisins
20g of capers
100g of water
100g of port
1 bay leaf
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Apple gel

300g of fresh apple juice
6g of agar agar
1/2 lemon, zest only

Apple batons

4 large green apples
100ml of fresh apple juice
1 tsp ascorbic acid

Roasted cauliflower purée

1 cauliflower
200g of butter
300g of vegetable stock
70g of mature cheddar, grated
1 pinch of salt

100g of mature cheddar, finely grated – to serve
micro cress, to garnish – to serve

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Sous Vide Water Bath
Vacuum Sealer Bag
Chamber Sealer
Whisk
Blender
Piping Bag
Food Processor

Method

Recipe courtesy of chef Nigel Mendham from www.greatbritishchefs.com

METHOD

To make a beurre noisette, melt the butter in small saucepan over a medium heat. When it begins to turn brown and releases a nutty aroma, take the pan off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
Preheat the water bath to a temperature of 85⁰C.
To make the poached cauliflower, combine the cauliflower florets, salt and buerre noisette in a vacuum bag and shake well. When the cauliflower is thoroughly coated in butter, vacuum the bag in a chamber sealer, then place in the water bath. Leave to cook for 35 minutes.
Next, prepare the raisin purée. Combine the raisins, capers, water, port and bay leaf in a saucepan. Stretch a layer of cling film over the pan, then bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes over a medium heat.
Meanwhile, make the apple gel. Pour the apple juice into a saucepan and heat until boiling, then add the agar agar, whisking to combine. Keep whisking for 2 minutes, then mix in the lemon zest. Empty the pan into a deep baking tray, spreading the mixture thinly and evenly, and chill in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.
Once set, break the gel into rough pieces and place in a blender. Pulse until smooth, then spoon the gel into a piping bag and set aside until required.
To finish the raisin purée, take the pan off the heat and remove the bay leaf. Transfer the mixture to a blender and purée. Add salt and pepper to taste, then spoon the purée into a piping bag and set aside until ready to serve.
Once cooked, take the cauliflower out of the water bath and put to one side until needed, leaving the vacuum bag sealed. Change the temperature of the water bath to 76⁰C.
To prepare the apple batons, trim off the tops and bottoms of the green apples to leave flat surfaces. Push an apple corer into the apple flesh to extract cylindrical batons.
Place the apple juice in a jug and add the ascorbic acid, stirring to combine. Tip the mixture into a vacuum bag, then submerge the apple batons in the liquid. Vacuum the bag in a chamber sealer, then place in the water bath and leave to cook for 6 minutes.
After this time, unseal the bag and tip away the liquid. Place the batons in a bowl of iced water and leave to chill until required.
Next, prepare the cauliflower purée. Roughly shred the cauliflower, either by hand or using a food processor. It is useful to chop the cauliflower into florets before shredding, especially if using a food processor.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat until just foaming, then mix in the shredded cauliflower and the salt. Increase the heat and fry until the cauliflower starts to brown. Keep stirring the cauliflower during cooking to prevent sticking.
Add the vegetable stock to the saucepan. Continue to cook until the stock has reduced to about one quarter of its original volume. This should take around 5 minutes.
Mix the grated cheese into the cauliflower mixture and stir until completely melted. Empty the saucepan into a blender and purée. Season to taste, then spoon the purée into a clean saucepan and place over a low heat, keeping the mixture warm until required.
Melt some butter in a large frying pan. Unseal the vacuum bag containing the poached cauliflower and tip away the buerre noisette. Transfer the cauliflower florets to the hot frying pan and cook until golden brown. This should only take a few minutes.
To serve, spread some cauliflower purée on each plate and encircle with dots of raisin purée and apple gel. Add a few fried cauliflower florets and apple batons, sprinkle with grated cheddar and garnish with micro cress to finish.

Back to Recipes

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...

...