Fetterman Lisa Q. - Sous Vide Made Simple

Whats for dinner? These seemingly innocent words can strike dread in the heart of anyone managing a busy household. If you know me (or have read my first book), you know how much I love cooking. But after a long day at the office, juggling errands and kids, the prospect of getting even a simple dinner on the table can feel like climbing Everest. The last thing I want is for cooking to feel like yet another chore on my to-do list.

When my husband and I launched Nomiku as the first sous vide company geared toward home cooks, I managed to find the energy to make elaborate meals in between long hours at the office. But that, as my coauthor and friend Meesha is wont to say, was BCBefore Children. Five years later, my passion for cooking delicious meals at home hasnt slowed down, but neither has life. As my company continues to grow, so do the two mini people I createdmy wonderful son and daughter, Zech and Mari. Crazy busy has become my norm.

Then I had a revelation. While I was crisscrossing the country evangelizing sous vide as the perfect tool for making exceptional restaurant-quality meals at home, it dawned on me that it could solve the unglamorous but more pressing challenge of getting food on the table every night.

Despite its rapidly expanding popularity, sous videthe technique of cooking sealed food in a precise temperature water bathis still widely misunderstood as something meant only for top chefs and other culinary obsessives. Even among those who already own home immersion circulators1 million converts and countingit still tends to be reserved for special occasions or ambitious projects. I want to change all that! Thats why I launched Nomiku Meals, a frozen-food meal delivery service that brings ready-to-reheat sous vide meals to your door. But for those of us who want both convenience and the satisfaction of cooking a homemade meal, this book teaches you how to prepare your own delicious sous vide weeknight meals with ease.

In contrast to my first book, Sous Vide at Home, which showed ambitious home cooks how to re-create elaborate dishes like duck confit and butter-poached lobster, this book is aimed at home cooks (sous vide novices and old hands alike) who simply want to make delicious everyday meals with readily available ingredients and with minimal effort. The key is preparing everyday standbys like chicken or salmon in advance, to be used as the building blocks for an endless variety of delicious, unfussy meals on short notice. I want you to be able to come home from work, open up your fridge, and quickly whip up a tasty, nutritious dinnerwhich is why you wont find me calling for exotic ingredients that will take up more of your precious time to hunt down. The recipes in this book require only common ingredients that you either already have in your pantry or can easily pick up at a local Mexican bodega, Asian market, or in the international aisle of a grocery store. And anything you cant sleuth out on foot can be ordered online and shipped to your door. Whether youre craving cheesy chicken parm, juicy grilled pork chops, or Korean barbecuestyle beef, the recipes in this book are impressive enough to serve to guests, yet quick and simple enough to make for your family on a Monday night.

This book is organized into chapters centered around fourteen master recipes, simple instructions designed to teach you how to use sous vide to prepare the workhorses of everyday cooking with sensational results. Each master recipe is followed by three spin-off recipes that transform the master into a finished dish. I did my best to showcase a variety of cooking techniques and cuisines, and also provided additional serving suggestions, so youll never get bored. Like buying precut vegetables or marinated meats, preparing these foundational ingredients in advance offers both convenience and versatility. The tender chicken thighs cooked on Sunday night can be made into hearty chicken pot pies or a zingy low-carb chicken stir-fry with red pepper and pineapple later in the week. Likewise, succulent, slow-cooked braised beef can become richly spiced Thai curry or a beef Bourguignon par excellence in next to no time.

This do-ahead approach also gives you the freedom to stock your fridge for the week without committing yourself to any particular dish. Just cook and store the master recipe for chicken breasts or pork loin over the weekend, and then on Wednesday decide at dinnertime whether you want to make pasta, salad, or stir-fry with them, depending on your mood and what other ingredients you have on hand.

In this book youll also find a handful of stand-alone bonus recipes, such as the Deluxe Stuffed Cheeseburger (), that I simply didnt want you to miss. And while everyone knows that sous vide does a miraculous job of cooking meats, to show just how versatile this cooking method can be, Ive also included recipes for vegetable side dishes, fork-and-knife salads, and plant-based mains that are substantial enough to play a starring role. And the icing on the cake? I spell out how sous vide can help you add swag to your dessert game by mastering just one simple custard base recipe!

For each master recipe, Ive provided a range of time, from the minimum to the outermost time required to yield the best results. Ive also indicated the time required to prepare the final spin-off dishes, assuming the main ingredient has already been cooked. Nearly all of them can be prepped and finished using a conventional cooking method, and on the table in under an hour (most of them take fewer than 30 minutes). You certainly can make the spin-off dishes in one go; just factor in the additional time it takes to sous vide the master recipe.