Mahi Mahi Pil Pil #2 sous vide: lower temperature, less oil

We discovered that Mahi Mahi releases the emulsifier (like Bacalao) that builds the creamy Pil Pil sauce. This time, we'll try lower fish-friendly temperature and less oil, since the sauces expands like a mayonnaise. We're using sous vide again to control the temperature and minimize oil; this turned out very well.

Mahi Mahi with Pil Pil sauce, served with asparagus and patatas bravas

Our previous work with Bacalao and Mahi Mahi used temperatures from 90C/194F down to 65C/150F, and this time we'll go to 60C/140F.  We got a vacuum packed pair of filets, skin on; we believe the emulsifier is under the skin, but cannot prove it. We freeze a bit of oil, and vacuum bag it with the fish, traditional garlic and chili. It doesn't take long, about 30 minutes.

312 g       Mahi Mahi, as 2 skin-on filets
100 ml      Olive Oil
  4 cloves  Garlic
  2 whole   Chili
            Salt

Put 50 ml of Oil into 2 bowls and freeze hard so it doesn't get sucked out when vacuuming the bag.
Chill the filets of fish in the freezer so they won't lose water when vacuuming, or leave frozen if they came that way.
Use two vacuum bags, and place a filet in each, with a frozen Oil puck, 2 cloves Garlic, 1 Chili each; seal.

Cook the bags in a sous vide bath heated to 60C/140F for 30 minutes.
Strain off the oil into a tall narrow container like a skinny glass: you hopefully should have some white proteins, the precious emulsifier; let it settle out and slurp the protein into a small bowl or glass with a turkey baster.

Note the protein, the emulsifier, settling to the bottom

Building the emulsion

Leave the fish in the bags, hanging in the water to keep warm for service.
In a warm skillet, whisk the protein to whip in air; after a while -- about 5 minutes -- it should start foaming.
Drizzle in some of the fishy oil, a little at a time, and whip until you form an emulsion.

The sauce has incorporated most the oil and come together beautifully

Continue adding oil and building the sauce; if it starts to thicken, whisk in some warm water; season with salt as you whisk. We used all the oil from the bags and it made a proper amount.
Plate the fish, top with the sauce, add the garlic and chili as a garnish.

Results, Next Time

The texture of the fish came out well at this low temperature, but the thicker piece could have used a little more time under the skin. 

The skin on this fish was a distraction, it was soggy but a bit chewy; next time, remove the skin while the fish is raw but put it in the sous vide bag because we believe that's where most of the emulsifier is. (I think it would be more difficult to remove the skin after cooking, as the fish is fragile, and it would cool down.)

This was a perfect amount of Pil Pil sauce, so the reduced oil was the right proportion.

Consider adding some lemon juice to the Pil Pil in addition to the water too give it some zing; maybe this violates some Basque law...

Pizza party indoors: stone, cast iron, quarry tiles

We are jonesing for a pizza party but COVID-19 quarantine's put the kibosh on having a big group over, so we improvised indoors. We experimented with a pizza stone, cast iron griddle, and quarry tiles to see which produced the best crust.

Irene stuffed cheese in the crust, kinda fun actually

I made my usual pizza dough with Italian 00 pizza flour and a hydration of 70%: 500 g flour, 350 ml water, a teaspoon of yeast, and a tablespoon of kosher salt. The dough looked a bit dry, so I added a touch more water, but this turned out to make the dough a little too slack. We let it rise overnight in the fridge as we always do. In the morning, we divided and put individual balls in oiled plastic containers for the day to rise slightly.

An hour before baking, I heated the oven as high as it would go, 550F plus convection. I have a big heavy pizza stone on the bottom shelf, a thick cast iron griddle in the middle, and lined the top shelf with quarry tiles. Each pizza would sit on a hot surface and also be heated from the hot mass above. I let the oven preheat for about an hour so all the thermal mass would come up to temperature.

Top: quary tiles; middle: cast iron griddle; bottom: pizza stone

The dough in the containers slipped out easily so were a breeze to shape. We topped them then put them in the oven and compared the crust.

Irene topping the first pizza, done on cast iron griddle, middle shelf

Our pizzas took 4-5 minutes, compared to 1-2 minutes in the pizza oven. None of these puffed up like they do in our outdoor pizza oven, which gets to 800-1000F. We were surprised that the griddle produced the best crust. It was much less expensive, and more versatile, than the very heavy and thick pizza stone. The inexpensive quarry tiles did OK, probably about equal to the stone. Lesson learned: save your money, you don't need the pizza stone.

Nice browning on Irene's pizza, done on the cast iron griddle

Why didn't our pizzas puff? It may be that my extra hydration made them too slack, not enough structure. The lack of heat and thermal density may also have contributed. But we also realized that we didn't let the dough rest covered after shaping into balls, as we do outside.

Chris pizza done on stone

Chris' pizza on quarry tiles

While these pizzas were a far cry from the puffy, silky Neapolitan style pies we get from the outdoor oven, it was definitely quite good, and worth doing again.

Next time we do this inside, I won't be tempted to add water to my 70% hydration, and we'll let the shaped balls rise covered before stretching and topping.  I might move the stone to the top shelf and put our other cast iron griddle in the oven.

Pesto, fresh oregano, kalamata olives, bell peppers, mozza -- really tasty

Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin Confit

We're riffing on chef Suzanne Goin's Pork Confit, which is first marinated, then conifitted, and finally flashed on a barbecue to crisp up. We got a lovely pork tenderloin from a heritage pig breakdown seminar, and are cooking it sous vide with her marinade's herbs so it will confit in its own fat: our pork has plenty of fat that will melt. We finish on a hot grill for texture.

1/4 tsp    Juniper berries
1/4 tsp    Allspice berries
1/4 tsp    Fennel seed
1          Clove
1          Bay leaves
1/4 tsp    Black Pepper
1/4 tsp    Granulated Garlic
2          Chile, fresh
2   slices Onion
2   sprigs Thyme, fresh
2   sprigs Parsley, fresh

500 g      Pork Tenderloin, about 2cm thick (1 pound, 1 inch)

Grind hard spaces: Juniper, Allspice, Fennel, Clove, Bay, Black Pepper and rub this powder into both sides of the Pork.
Add the other spices and flavorings with the Pork to a sous vide bag and seal.
Cook at 54C/130F for 4 hours; this will be cook to a rare pink, but that's all we want since we'll finish it later.

Pork bagged with spices and aromatics

When done, let the pork rest in its flavorful fat for an hour in the fridge.
Remove the pork from the bag, saving any tasty juices; you may need to let it warm up a bit to pour off the fat.
Season the Pork generously with Salt, which we omitted from the sous vide because many people say it draws out the liquid and harms the texture.

We like to cook this on a hot BBQ fire, but if the meat is too tender, or you're concerned about fat dripping onto coals causing a flare-up, or you're cooking inside, use a bitchin' hot cast iron pan filmed with a bit of fat.
Sear the outside to develop a bit of a crust, just 2-3 minutes a side; you don't want to cook it more, just bring it up to serving temperature.
Serve.

Results: Great aroma, needs work

The external layer of fat on the pork did not liquefy at this low temperature, so we did not get a cooked-in-fat confit. The aroma was great, however.  The internals were a beautiful faint pink, but this cut was surprisingly chewy:  it may have been due to a heritage pig that got to walk around, rather than being boxed in feed lots. We could sous vide it an extra hour, or bring the temperature up slightly, and add a bit of solid (frozen) fat to ensure a confit.