Sous vide, Sans Frais

As anyone who watches Top Chef knows, cooking sous vide means cooking food sealed in a vacuum pouch, in a low-temperature water bath, for a long time. As anyone who has ever considered actually doing this knows, the "proper" way to do this - with special bags and a fancy, temperature-controlled water bath setup - is really expensive. I don't even have a vacuum food-saver, let alone a separate gizmo for water temperature control.

But I still wanted to try this sous vide business, and decided to see what I could come up with. I figured - my freezer bags are supposed to be microwave safe, why not lukewarm water safe? I also have a large pot and a candy thermometer which handily dangles from the side, measuring the temperature at about the center of the pot. The half-pound mahi hahi fillet I bought at the fishmonger today was just begging me to experiment.

I filled my large pot with water over a high flame and set up my thermometer. I stirred it around occasionally to make sure the temperature was even, and when it was at 125 (F) I reduced it to low heat, and made sure I could maintain it there while prepping the food.

For the marinade, I decided to go a bit Japanese, and used:

1/4 cup shochu (sake might be better, but I had shochu)
1/4 cup water (because shochu can be vicious)
1/8 cup light soy sauce
2 squirts of Sriracha
1 handful of chopped spring onions

I put all that, along with my fish, into a medium-sized (2-cup) freezer bag, and sealed it almost all the way. I then made my own vacuum by sucking the air out of the remaining open corner, pressing it shut as I did. Don't do this in front of your guests - it might will weird them out. Then, I dropped the bag into my pot and watched until the temperature rose back up to 125. Then, stirring occasionally and checking/adjusting the temperature, I let it cook for a little under 25 minutes (this was all, by the way, wild guesswork).

I opened the bag and served the super moist and extremely tender fish with jasmine rice. Let me tell you, this is a great way to cook. The flavors were amazing! I would use an even lighter marinade next time, because the fish really did just suck it all up - I even cut myself a few bites from the very center of the fillet and even there it was saturated with deliciousness.

Sous vide may become my new default way of cooking, when I'm not in a hurry. Fish cooks pretty quickly, but something like chicken or steak (which I fully intend to try!) will take a bit longer. But let it be known - this technique is not just for fancy-pants drama queens on Bravo. You too can use the principles to cook some really spectacular stuff at home.