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Vacuum Sealing Food for Sous-vide and Sanity

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I’ve had an Anova sous-vide for a couple of years. It’s a fantastic device and makes cooking meat and poultry to perfection so incredibly easy.

However I held off on getting a vacuum sealer. While I am a gadget addict I just couldn’t see the real need for a vacuum sealer. But that changed last week.

Why?

With the country (and most of the world) on some form of “lockdown” I’m trying my best to limit my shopping excursions as much as possible. What that means is that instead of picking up a couple of days’ worth of fresh meat and vegetables on my way home I now do one “big” shop per week. I might supplement it with one or two extra trips if I discover I’m missing ingredients or something else, but I’ve been mostly keeping to the one trip to the shops per week.

So getting a vacuum sealer suddenly went from “nice, but not necessary” to “very useful and possibly essential”.

Being able to vacuum seal fresh meat and other produce means that I’m able to keep them fresh for longer. I’m not 100% sure how much longer the vacuum sealer will extend their fridge shelf life, but the estimates I’ve read are more than enough for my needs. Basically I want to be able to buy fresh meat once a week and not kill myself with food poisoning before I get to the butcher again. Not a crazy challenge really!

But of course the original reason I was interested in getting a vacuum sealer was for my sous-vide cooking.

I had been happily using various resealable bags. They worked pretty well, but they were never 100% free of air. Sure, you can get a lot of air out of a bag using the “submersion method”, but it’s not perfect. What that means is that you end up having to weigh down bags or they start floating to the top of your sous-vide bath.

With the vacuum sealed bags, however, the cooking experience is significantly better.

I did some lovely rack of lamb in the sous-vide this week and the results were exceptional.

The meat is sealed fully and will sink right down. You can also season or marinade the meat in the vacuum bags, though that does require a bit of advanced organisation.

It also meant that I was able to store mince meat more sanely for several days and save space in the fridge.

So which vacuum sealer did I go for?

While I had been looking into this ages ago I really hadn’t made up my mind on which make and model to go for.

In the end I just took the “simple” route. I picked up one of the cheap and cheerful vacuum sealers from my local Lidl as well as a few spare rolls of the seal. They sell Silvercrest branded machines which cost around EUR 30. Extra rolls were about another EUR 4, which should keep me going for a few months.

I would warn you, however, that the instructions that come with the Silvercrest are terribly unclear. I ended up resorting to watching a couple of Youtube videos before I was able to make sense of how to operate it. It’s not complicated, but with instructions that badly written it does take a while to work out why every attempt at sealing a bag fails!

In any case once you’ve got the sealing down you’ll be able to store your fresh meat (and other produce) for longer safely in your fridge (or freezer) as well as being able to get more out of your sous-vide.

Delicious Low Carb Shepherd’s Pie

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At the moment, in common with almost everybody else, I’m stuck at home most of the time.

So what kind of things am I cooking?

I’ve been going through my usual stable of frequently used recipes, so I end up doing things like Indian butter chicken or some kind of chilli con carne, or simple dishes like “meat and veg”.

But I’ve also been experimenting with slightly different takes on some of the classics.

One dish that I’ve always loved is Shepherd’s pie. The traditional recipe is a meat base topped with mashed potatoes and then finished off in the oven. It’s what you’d probably call “comfort food”. And once you’ve made a batch of it you’ll have enough to last a few days. All you’ll need to do is pop a serving into the microwave for a couple of minutes.

Since I’m trying (mostly) to stick to a low carb diet I can’t use potatoes for shepherd’s pie. Instead I end up using a lower carb cauliflower based mash as the topping.

Of course there are plenty of recipes out there for low carb shepherd’s pie.

I’ve taken elements from a couple of them and added my own twist.

The meat sauce can be made that little bit more interesting by adding in a few ingredients that give it a bit more “oomph”. Adding some Worcester sauce and soy sauce as per this recipe makes a big difference. I don’t have tabasco in the cupboard, so I’ve been dicing some fresh chilli peppers when I have them or simply adding a bit of smoked paprika instead.

It makes the sauce that much richer.

I also like to add in some grated carrot and a couple of diced mushrooms.

Again, this is all about the taste profile.

I’ve made this twice in the last ten days and each time has been slightly different because I’ve varied the ingredients slightly.

The end result, however, has been lovely.

So which parts of the recipes have I adopted? The cauliflower mash from Diet Doctor’s recipe is pretty good, but I didn’t have any leeks, so I just left that out. Did it make any difference? Not that I noticed. While adding the egg sounds a bit odd it works out very well, so I’d definitely use that version of the mash recipe.

So the diet doctor recipe is pretty good, as it has the extra ingredients in the sauce, but I like to get more bang for my buck, so I’ll reduce the amount of mince and add tomatoes and stock. I usually buy mince in batches of about 250g, as I think that’s enough for most things. You can add more “bulk” via the other ingredients. The Ditch the Carbs recipe has a bit more to it so that’s my inspiration for the sauce, with the addition of the sauces from the other recipe.

A note: I always like to have some basic vegetable stock in the cupboard, rather than beef or chicken specifically. If you don’t use stock in your cooking regularly this is probably a happy medium. At the moment, as we’re all at home and cooking up to three times a day it might be worth getting a variety of different stock cubes.

I’ll be trying a few other recipes over the coming days, but this kind of meal is so tasty and simple. It’s an absolute pleasure to cook and of course to eat!

Eating Properly During the Pandemic

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Over the past few weeks we’ve all got used to living a whole new reality, or at least we’re trying to. Terms like “flatten the curve” and “social distancing” are now part of our everyday vocabulary.

So obviously I’m at home pretty much all the time, except for some brief forays out to get supplies or to get some fresh air. Anyone reading this now is probably in a similar situation.

I’m more or less used to living like this now. That doesn’t mean I’m happy with it or 100% comfortable with it. I’m not. But I can cope. Most of the time.

The upside to being at home for several weeks, which will probably become several months, is that I am 100% in control of what I eat. There’s no chance of me being tempted by a breakfast buffet or a tantalising “treat” in a café.

But the current situation is far from normal. I can’t go food shopping like I would have done previously. I used to swing by a supermarket or the butcher on my way back from the office. But these days my office is at home and we’re all expected not to make unnecessary trips to shops or anywhere else.

So now I’m going shopping about once a week. I’ll go to my favourite butcher and pick up a range of protein that I’ll spread out over the rest of the week. Some of it will get frozen so that I can use it later in the week, but, as my freezer isn’t exactly gigantic, I’ll try to keep as much of the meat in the fridge.

Once I’ve stocked up on the meat (the all important protein!) I’ll then go to one of the larger supermarkets like Dunnes or Aldi. There I’ll be able to get the rest of the groceries I need for a week.

With the market closed I thought I wouldn’t be able to get good quality fresh vegetables, but fortunately several of the producers are still operating, though it now involves picking up vegetables directly from the farm. I did that a couple of weeks ago and was also able to drop by Malone Fruit Farm to get some nice homemade fare including chutneys made using their fruit.

I’m trying to “behave” most of the time, but I am probably drinking a bit more alcohol than I should.

My nutritionist has put me on a plan that involves changing some of my eating habits, which hasn’t been too hard now that I’m not travelling at all. I’m taking a range of supplements including vitamins and magnesium and drinking water with lemon juice in the morning. She’s also encouraging me to reduce my caffeine intake, so I now switch to herbal tea from lunchtime onwards.

Food and cooking-wise I am not really suffering at all. With being at home all the time I have to prepare some form of food three times a day. So I’ve been exploring new options. I’ve tried out recipes that I normally would have avoided. The other evening, for example, I made stuffed courgettes. I’d normally have avoided anything like that, as it’s just too finicky for my liking, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out.

stuffed courgette

I’m still not particularly good at planning my shopping and my cooking for a week at a time. I’m getting better, but I still end up a few days into the week realising that I’ve miscalculated in some way and either have too much or too little of some ingredients and have to switch around what I’m doing.

By the time we return to any form of “normal” I’ll probably have mastered some new cooking skills at least!

Fresh Vegetables From the Local Market

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Not all vegetables are created (or grown) equal. This weekend I was able to do a bit of vegetable shopping at the local farmers’ market in Carlow. It’s not a particularly big market, but there is always a reasonable selection of vegetables.

What I like about farmers’ markets is that you can often find a more interesting selection of produce than the average supermarket will stock. That can mean vegetables that you might not find easily, but more often than not it means things like artisan cheeses that rarely make it into the main supermarkets.

In the photo below you can see the comparison in size between a “normal” parsnip that I got in Dunnes or one of the other supermarkets and the much bigger one from a local farm that has a stall at the market:

Not all parsnips are equal. The one on the right is shop bought, while the one on the left is from the local farmers’ market #food #vegetables #cooking

Fresh vegetables from a farm or a market may not be quite as “pretty” as the ones you’ll get in your local supermarket, but they’re going to be better. Also it’s nice to be able to support a producer directly – buying at the market cuts out the middle man!

I’ll be trying out a few variants on existing recipes with these rather large parsnips. They definitely lend themselves to something a bit out of the norm.

Simple Recipes Aren’t a Compromise

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When you get home from work the last thing you probably want to do is get embroiled in complex food preparation, which is why I suspect a lot of us leave more involved cooking to weekends or when we have a bit of time off.

Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself being lazier than usual with cooking and I’ve also fallen off the bandwagon a few times and eaten something convenient, but really bad for me.

That’s not good. Sure, you can be tired and lacking in motivation to get stuck in to a big cooking session, but you still need to eat properly.

For me that means that I need to find workable uncomplicated recipes that give me decent meals without me having to spend hours in the kitchen. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy cooking, but if I get home from work before 7pm I’d like to be eating by 8pm if possible. And that’s probably quite a bit later than most Irish households already!

Over the past couple of years I’ve been trying out different recipes. I like being adventurous, but I am also aware of my limits. One of the other limiting factors can also be access to the ingredients. Pearl onions, for example, are still on my list of things that I simply have not been able to find in any of the local supermarkets.

Just because a recipe is “simple” does not mean that it is bad or not as good as a more elaborate one.

I love Indian butter chicken, but you need to let it marinate for at least half an hour. So when I’m in a hurry but still want something “decent” I’ll often opt for recipes like this one. It’s not complicated. In fact it’s incredibly simple. Of course I will tweak it a little and add both garlic and fresh chilis into the beef to give it a bit of a kick, but it’s still super simple to make. And if, like me, you’re not a big fan of washing up it only uses a single pot!

The key point is that you can eat well without having to spend hours in the kitchen.

Last night, for example, I made a chilli without beans. I made enough that it’ll last for today’s dinner as well. All I’ll have to do is prep some kind of side to go with it, as the sauce will just need to be heated up.

And that chilli was simple to make especially in my Instant Pot!

Low Carb Irish Made Granola

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I like to buy Irish food when I can. Unfortunately when it comes to buying low carb or keto friendly products the options available in most Irish supermarkets is pretty awful – and that’s without even considering the country of origin!

I’d heard of Maria Lucia Bakes, but while they did a “low sugar” granola it was still quite sugar heavy ie. not really compatible with anyone doing a low carb or keto diet. Sure, I have misbehaved with “low sugar” versions of various food stuffs, but when it comes to things like granola I’d ended up making my own in the past or buying a low carb one from a UK supplier.

Earlier this week, however, I was contacted by Maria Lucia Bakes’ marketing team and they sent me out two packs of their new low carb and keto friendly granola. (You can see a photo of the packs above)

For now they have a “macadamia and coconut” granola that is really tasty – I have been eating a bowl of it for breakfast in the morning with some Greek style plain yoghurt since I got it and I really like it.

The granola has about 3g of carbs per serving, though obviously that will depend on how big your portion size is!

Maria Lucia Bakes low carb granola macadamia and coconut

What is in it?

Coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, linseeds, coconut oil, vanilla essence and cinnamon

It goes well with plain yoghurt, be that Greek or not and I suspect adding a few fresh berries would be a nice addition. It definitely gives me a good start to the day – so much so that I’m seriously tempted to just bulk order enough of it to keep me going for the next few months.

If anyone knows of other Irish food produce that specifically caters to low carb or keto please let me know.

Why the Blogging Hiatus?

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Giant see through clock face

I haven’t been writing as often on this blog as I’d like.

Why?

There’s probably more than one reason for that:

  • I don’t write simply for the sake of it, so unless I feel I have something to say I’ll keep quiet
  • I’ve been very busy. Simple. I used to burn the proverbial candle at both ends a LOT, but I try to not “work” in the evenings these days.
  • I haven’t been as good at sticking to the diet recently as I’d like, so I’ve been avoiding thinking about it

Will any of this change?

Probably, but I’m not going to make any insane commitments.

I should write more often, but as I already said I’m not going to simply for the sake of it.

Over the last few months I’ve fallen off the bandwagon quite a bit. Put another way, I’ve been quite badly behaved. That’s partially due to my travel schedule and partially down to me being lazy and lacking motivation. When I look at how well other people I know have been doing I don’t feel motivated, though I am happy for them.

Now I need to work out how to get myself freshly motivated!