The Great Oven Ban Challenge (Day 5) in collaboration with Home Spares.
There’s something really satisfying with going into your local butchers and having the butcher know your name. I don’t go into town very often, but when I do I usually combine several errands into one trip to save on fuel (I live a half hour drive from town).
One such trip happened earlier this week where I had been invited to meet the lovely Marian Armitage, author of Shetland Food & Cooking for an early morning coffee and a chat about all things food. For me, being on time means being ten minutes early, and on this occasion I arrived a good twenty minutes early – the cafe wasn’t even open yet, so I popped over to a nearby DIY shop to see if, just perhaps, they might have some of last season’s floorboard samples available.
You see, I live in rented accommodation and my landlord has no intentions of re-doing our outdated and quite literally falling apart kitchen any time soon. My food photography secret – floorboard samples set up in the one window in my house that allows enough natural daylight in. Smoke and mirrors, dear readers.
As luck should have it, a young shop assistant had just that moment finished swapping over the new season floorboard samples, and there were 39 of last seasons samples heading for the skip. True story! I am now the proud owner of 39 new wooden food photography backdrops!
That took a whole 7 minutes. So, on the way back to the cafe I popped into the butchers where I had previously ordered two racks of pork ribs to try out my Severin Sous Vide machine. It all felt rather Beauty & the Beast (you know, the Disney version where she sings as she strolls through the village in the morning – Bonjour! Bonjour!).
What is a sous vide, you might ask?
Well, the term is French for ‘under vacuum’. It’s a method of cooking where food is vacuum sealed in bags and placed into a low temperature controlled water bath for long periods, ensuring even cooking throughout without drying the outside of food like you would get in an oven. Sealing the food in bags is supposed to keep in the aroma and juices of the ingredients without any loss in nutrients.
So I put it to the test with the 48 hour BBQ ribs recipe that Home Spares had sent in a recipe booklet, since this was my first time ever trying out the machine.
The sous vide was very easy to use. First, you prepare your ingredients, place them into a specific type of vacuum bag and use a vacuum sealer (not pictured) so remove the air and seal the edge. The bags (I used four – 1/2 rack of ribs in each bag) fit perfectly in the sous vide and were covered in water and I set the timer. Unfortunately the timer only goes up to 24 hours, so I had to remember the next day to reset it again.
To prepare the BBQ glaze I used a Severin induction hob. Now this little hob I am really impressed with – it heats up immediately and takes up very little space. It makes a little whirring fan noise when it’s on, and if you remove your pan for any reason it beeps at you to remind you that you’ve left the hob on and unattended. Quite handy! I think this hob might be very useful during busy festive seasons when four hobs on the cooker just aren’t enough, or perhaps when glamping when you want a quick heat source and you have access to electricity but no cooking facilities.
But back to the sous vide – what do I think of it? I’ve been intrigued by this machine for awhile, having heard good things about them from my fellow bloggers. With this particular recipe I found that after 48 hours there was a lot of liquid lost from the pork ribs. The meat was incredibly tender and evenly cooked, yes, but I ended up pouring a lot of juices down the drain and I found the meat quite dry. The sauce recipe wasn’t particularly tasty either, but it was still edible. I prefer a more smoky intense stickiness with my BBQ sauce (see my sticky brown sugar glazed pork recipe for what I mean).
Regardless, I still ate an entire half rack of ribs for my dinner after work, hurriedly photographed in the late evening before they got cold. Just ribs. No, no not just ribs – ribs and gin. A good healthy nutritious meal there with all the best food groups: meat and alcohol (and a vitamin C packed wedge of lime!). Ha!
It’s an expensive way to cook – the Severin sous vide from Home Spares will set you back £129.99, and then you need the sous vide bag sealer (£69.99) and the special bags too (£12.99 for 50). Still, I’m looking forward to experimenting some more with this machine. I think it’s got a lot of possibility. Watch this space.
48 Hour BBQ Ribs
Ingredients
for the ribs
- 1 rack pork ribs or more
- 1 tsp smoked paprika per rack
- 1 tsp brown sugar per rack
- Shetland sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
for the glaze
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 orange juice only
- 2 apples peeled and grated
- 3 splashes Tabasco sauce
- 240 ml water
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 sprig dried thyme leaves only
- 2 bay leaves
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
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Instructions
for the ribs
- Fill and preheat the cooker to 143F/61.5C.
- Mix together the paprika, sugar, salt, and pepper and rub the ribs liberally with the mixture. Put each rack into a cooking pouch and vacuum seal Submerge the pouch(es) in the water oven and cook for 48 hours
for the glaze
- In a saucepan, fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until soft.
- Add the fennel and cumin seeds and fry for a minute or two more.
- Add the remaining ingredients and cook over a low heat for half an hour.
- Remove from the heat and blitz (blend) the sauce with a hand-held food processor for 30 seconds. (Alternatively let it cool a little and pour into a blender jar or food processor and blend.)
- Remove any pulp left in the sauce by straining through a sieve.
- Return the sauce to the heat and reduce it until it is reasonably sticky.
to finish
- When you’re ready to eat, remove the ribs from their pouches, spoon over some of the glaze and seal in a frying pan or on the BBQ until the meat starts to blacken a little. Use the remaining glaze as a dipping sauce.
OTHER SOUS VIDE RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE
60 hour Sous Vide Japanese Inspired Ox Cheeks by Fuss Free Flavours
Sous Vide Duck Breasts with a Charred Orange and Cointreau Sauce by Cook Sister
36 hour Sticky Sous Vide Ribs by Munchies & Munchkins
Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary was sent a selection of Severin kitchen appliances, pictured above, from Home Spares for the purposes of The Great Oven Ban Challenge to show how a few small appliances can transform your kitchen into something worthy of Masterchef. This is not a paid post and all thoughts and opinions expressed are our own.
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Michael Simmons
It’s a wonderful recipe! The dish on the photos looks so juicy and appetizing. I’ll definitely prepare it this weekend! I am also very interested in Severin vacuum sealer mentioned in your article. I’m used to using a model of another brand, but it’s still interesting to know: what are your impressions of Severin model? Have you had any problems with it?
Elizabeth
Truth be told, the Severin vacuum sealer packed in only after a few uses, so I’m not in a position to comment on the efficacy of the sous vide. I ended up giving it away to a friend.
Michael Simmons
I see. Thank you for the answer, Elizabeth.
Good luck! I really like your blog.
helen newton
Wow the ribs look yummy I’m getting hungry looking at them 🙂
munchies and munchkins
Oh these look heavenly, I am a big fan of sous vide ribs. I use my sous vide a lot. I am loving the look of that induction hob -so helpful!
Ana De- Jesus
I might be a vegetarian but even I can appreciate how good these ribs look, this would make a delicious meal for my bezzie!
Sabina Sher
Your photography is amazing! Sounds like a great recipe too x
Gwen Maynard
These look delicious. I really need to give these a try. My family would love them.
Helen at CAsa Costello
Thanks for sharing your food photography secrets! Been meaning to source some wood for yonks! I am so intrigued by SousVides – Your ribs are some of the nicest food I’ve seen produced from one.
Tanya Brannan
Those ribs look like they would melt in your mouth!!! I’d love to try them
Stella
Beautiful photos as always. Food looks yummy. Making me hungry.
Hannah
These photos made me SO hungry. I have never seen this way to cook them before.
Louise
This looks tough for someone like me who doesn’t cook often, but it looks worth it! Thanks for sharing!
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche
The glaze sounds absolutely incredible! I wonder what else I could slather that on…
Liz Mays
I’ve never cooked ribs like this before. They look amazing! Experimenting with that method of cooking will be a lot of fun.
Mel
I’ve read quite a few reviews of the sous vide machine and I’ve been intrigued. It’s a shame the meat ended up dry and the sauce not so tasty, though. New equipment sometimes requires tweaking and trial and error, but I like the cleanliness of this type of cooking (I’m such a messy cook!).
Sarah Bailey
Oh wow those ribs look just delicious – I can just imagine taking a bite! Delicious. x
Melanie Edjourian
OMG my mouth is watering after reading this it looks really good!
lisa prince
omg im so pleased youve shared this i love this snack and wanted a nice recipe , defintiely trying this oen thankyou
Erin - Yorkshire Tots
That looks absolutely amazing! I know my husband would love them.. could they be made in a slow cooker?
Harriet from Toby & Roo
My husband would love this! I’m not a big fan of ribs but her loves them! H x
The Nice Nest
Those ribs look amazing. I like the idea of the induction hob, looks great for holiday periods when you have lots of guests but also good for camping when you have the luxury of qn electrical hook up to the tent! Elizabeth, was that you on Radio 4 food programme?
Elizabeth
Yes, that was me! 😀
StressedMum
These sound amazing, my husband loves cooking and would love to try a Sous-Vide cooker x
Rhian Westbury
What great timing that you got the flooring samples, and the ribs sound amazing x
Life as Mum
This does look really delicious! My partner would love this as it’s his kind of food
Kira C
Those photos are making me sooooooo hungry! They look and sound delicious! I must give these a try!