About a year ago I backed a project on Kickstarter for the Sansaire Sous Vide machine.  It was a purchase of passion and took a little convincing to a certain rationally-thinking wife that it was going to be amazing.  It arrived, I tried it out without much fanfare, and put it in the cabinet.  Well I recently got re-excited about it and have had lots of success, so I thought I’d share what came out of our kitchen!

Briefly, sous vide cooking is slowly cooking food in a water bath to the exact temperature you want without fear of it overcooking.  The idea is you can more easily control the temperature for longer periods of time to give tough cuts of meat more time to break down.  Last week we swung by Salt & Time for lunch and took home two under blade steaks for dinner.  Once home, I got to work!

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I also decided it was time to make some corn tortillas!  We got a tortilla press shortly after moving to Austin (Welcome to Texas, y’all!) and hadn’t used it in awhile.  These came out great, putting store-bought packaged ones to shame.

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With tortillas pressed, peppers sauteed (not pictured), and meat seared, it was time to assemble!  But first, just look at this meat:

And the final product, with a little avocado:

These tacos were great!  I will say, the under blade steak was a bit bland.  Maybe it just needed more salt, but it wasn’t marbled enough to have that real beef flavor I wanted.  However, the execution of everything was spot-on and the only change would be to swap in some skirt or flank steak.  Once I get a few more sous vide experiments under my belt it’ll be time to take things to the next level, maybe with a whole pork belly or beef short ribs.  Can’t wait!