Welcome to this month’s sous vide recipe in our series of posts. Whether you’re new to sous vide cooking or want to add something to your repertoire, we aim to inspire you. Caroline’s been using the Sous Vide Supreme Demi. In the Edinburgh Foody household, we have the larger machine, the Supreme. This sits in pride of place in the utility room and gets used many times each week. It’s sleek, easy to clean and a doddle to use.
A few simple ingredients for our whole fish sous vide recipe
Cooking a whole fish in a sous vide machine might seem a little daunting. Not so! It’s simple and easy and keeping on the bone adds just that bit more flavour. Nor does it need to take a lot longer than usual to cook. We cook most fish for 30 to 40 minutes at 60°C
Don’t these ingredients look inviting?
For your first forays, we’d suggest keeping to something of a manageable size, like a whole sea bass (keep to smaller sized fish) or sea bream or as we use here, plaice. Get your friendly fishmonger to trim and gut the fish for you. Supermarket staff do get training in such skills, so do give them ago if you’re not lucky enough to have a fishmonger near you.
Although it is possible to add liquid to pouches before sealing, it is a bit more tricky, so we tend not to bother. However, seasoning in advance and adding a spot of spice or zest really enhances the flavours. Get your sauce and accompaniments ready separately and you have supper ready in under 40 minutes.
We find that plaice pairs particularly well with a citrus based sauce. It’s not overpowering and complements the fish well. You might find that when you take the fish out of the bag, the skin is left behind, we managed to get ours out intact to show off its wonderful spots.
- Whole fish such as plaice, sea bream, sea bass (smaller sized) ½ to 1 per person
- ½ Lemon, juice only
- 1 Orange, juice and zest
- Pinch of ground cinnamon or small piece of cinnamon stick
- Sprig of rosemary chopped
- 6 anchovies
- 50 gr butter
- Salt and pepper
- Preheat your sous vide machine to 60C
- Vacuum pack your fish ensuring all air has been expanded.
- Place in water bath and cook for 35 minutes
- Meanwhile make the sauce
- Put the orange juice, orange zest and lemon juice, cinnamon, anchovies, rosemary into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.
- Stirring constantly with a balloon whisk, gradually add the butter.
- Keep pan over low heat and makes sure the sauce emulsifies nicely (blends to a creamy consistency).
- Taste and add seasoning if required. If you've used cinnamon stick, remove it.
- When you are ready to serve, remove the fish from the vacuum bag, place on a hot place and spoon the sauce to one side.
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