Sous Vide Dabs
I’ve been waiting to try the Anova immersion heater circulator that I got for Christmas with fish from our CSF. This week we got a bunch of dabs, a flat fish in the flounder family. When filleted they are very thin so it’s very easy to over cook them and they end up rubbery. It seemed like an ideal candidate for the immersion circulator. First I took the fillets and put them into freezer bags with lemon slices and some lemon vinaigrette.
Technically sous vide means “under vacuum”, and I don’t actually have a vacuum sealer. But for something that cooks relatively quickly like this fish you can just submerge the bags in water and close the last part of the seal once all the air has been squeezed out by the water. While preparing the baggies, I had the immersion circulator heating a pot of water up to 135°F. Then I popped the sealed bags into the water to heat for 30 minutes.
Dab fillets are probably thin enough that they’d be ready in less than 30 minutes, but I wanted to be sure they were cooked through. Sure enough they came out perfectly tender and moist (not overcooked at all).
After draining off the cooking juices, I served them with a nice Beurre Blanc with Capers. Yum.
- 4 dab fillets, or other type of flounder
- 1 lemon sliced
- lemon vinagrette
- 1 large shallot finely chopped
- 8oz white wine
- 1-2 oz white wine vinegar
- 1 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1 stick (8Tbsp) cold butter cut up
- 1-2 Tbsp capers
- salt & pepper
- Put each fillet in a ziploc bag with a couple of slices of lemon and 2-3 tablespoons of vinaigrette.
- Submerge in cold water to squeeze out all the air, then place in the heated water for 30 minutes at 135 degrees.
- Cook the shallot, wine and vinegar until the liquid is reduced to just 1-2 tablespoons. If you go too far, add in a tablespoon of water.
- Once it’s reduced add the tablespoon of cream.
- Reduce the heat to low, then whisk in the chilled butter pieces one at a time. Keep the butter moving so it emulsifies rather than just melting. [Take the pan off the heat if it’s getting too hot].
- Once all the butter is whisked into the sauce season with salt and pepper, and stir in the drained capers.
Parece muito bom, deu agua na boca.