Something worth trying

The April 18th edition of the Los Angleles Times Food section introduced me to a concept that I'd never encountered before. Perhaps some of you know of the cooking method sous-vide but it is new to me. The idea is extremely low-tech and apparently can be applied to any food you wish. Simply set your oven for the lowest possible temperature it will do and then leave the food in for a prolonged period.

Our first attempt was with a family super easy recipe that is really best when used for church potlucks and the like. You simply pour raw rice into the bottom of a pan, mix a can of soup (either chicken or mushroom) with a half can of water to pour over the rice, place chicken pieces on top of that, sprinkle the whole thing with Lipton's Dried Onion Soup, cover with foil and pop into the oven for 90 minutes. The problem has always been that sometimes the rice is crunchy and the chicken is dry. It can be very annoying. Sooooo, in the spirit of discovery, Mrs. Sarge used brown rice for the bottom layer and when she put it into the oven, turned the temp down around 275-300 F and let it cook for four hours. The result was astonishing. The rice turned into what the Chinese call jok or rice porriage, the soups blended together to make a brown gravy and the chicken was moist and tender as never before. This is going to require further exploration.

Therefore I put out for your investigation a slow-cooked fish recipe that was originally designed for salmon but should work just as well with any large fish.

Slow-Cooked Whateveryoushot
4 fillets, 5-6 oz each
Salt
Olive Oil
1 thnly sliced onion
1Tbs fresh herbs of your choice (I'd use dill and thyme)

1. Sprinkle the fish evenly with salt and set aside for 30 minutes to come to room temperature.
2. Heat the oven to between 200-250 F depending on how it works best.
3. Brush about 2 Tbs olive oil in a shallow dish and cover with onion slices. Brush additional oil on the fish and place the fillets on the onions, skin side down.
4. Bake until done to your taste, I'd aim for 130 F internal temp. This should take about 30 minutes.
5. Remove the fish from the oven, sprinkle with the chopped herbs and serve either hot or cold . . . perhaps with a garlic mayonnaise.

Slow Food is not only a great organization and philosophy but good to eat, too.

I'm assuming that the fish will either be frozen or fresh out of the ice chest. Either way, it still needs to be at room temp.

Ask our European members for carp recipes. That's a very highly rated fish in Germany and places like that and they know much more about cooking it than we do. I cooked some once in a recipe that used vinegar and thought it was good. The problem is finding carp in clean water.

As for the "hungry smilie", I like the idea! Let's take it to Papa Smurf.

Slow cookers are great! They've been pooh-poohed by the "foodies" since they came out but that's just plain stupid. I recently did much the same thing with a pork shank. No marination needed as after scorching the six sides, I added chicken stock, soy sauce, Chinese red rice wine, some onion and some garlic and let it simmer overnight. The next morning the bones fell out! After fishing them out of the sauce, I pulled out the meat, chopped it up, put it back in the pot and served it over rice for a school pot luck lunch. Most satisfactory!

I think you're right, Maytag. Fish generally doesn't need much more that heating up to 130 F and sitting in a slow cooker all day would ruin it. However, you can do a right decent minestrone whose major protein base is dried beans in one. It would be a two day operation, though, or at least a 24-hour one. Soak the beans (small whites or kidneys, for preference) overnight and discard the water, then begin with by saute'-ing a cup of onion, half cup of carrots and quarter cup of parsley, all minced, in 2-3 tablespoons of good olive oil. Once the onion is transluscent, add a cup of rice and toss to coat with the oil. Next you have to ask yourself how many people you intend to feed and pour in lots of water, maybe a quart or maybe a gallon, depending. I'd use chicken stock, but then I'd have started with frying bacon and you asked for the vegie option so plain spring water would be fine. A cup of white wine never hurts, a chopped Savoy cabbage, the soaked beans, 1-2 sliced zuchinni and a minced garlic or so and then put on the lid and go to work/school/library/diving, etc. By nightfall it should be ready to drive you nuts with the smell. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh grated Parmesan and a loaf of hot bread.

Of course, the kind of vegetables you use is unlimited. It's hard to imagine not putting a couple of peeled, skinned and chopped tomatoes. How about Swiss Chard leaves? Spinach? You could probably make a new batch every week for a year and never repeat yourself. And remember, soup always tastes better the next day.