Help making a recipe ...not suck?

I have a recipe I am loath to post here because after numerous bits of hackery I think it's "out of true."

The recipe is for "curried flounder," but it comes from a book full of recipes hacked to try to minimize (or even zero out) various things like fat, sugar, etc. When I rehacked it to try to make it work with Joule (or the sous vide technique in general), what I ended up with was less "creamy" and more "gelatinous."

Oh well, this is the Recipes forum, not the Doubts About Recipes forum...

Curried Flounder

Ingredients:

3/4 c. skim milk
1/4 c. green onions, chopped
2 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 c. chicken broth, defatted
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
1 c. chopped tomato
1 lb. flounder filets

Steps:

Combine milk, onions, curry powder, dried basil, and garlic powder in small saucepan, and bring to a simmer (or at least over 140°F)
Combine cornstarch and chicken broth to make a classic slurry, and add it to the saucepan to thicken.
Add tomato and parsley to saucepan, and cook for 2–3 minutes to at least wake up the flavors.
Remove saucepan from heat and allow to cool. Portion resulting "sauce"/"ook" between four quart zipper-lock freezer bags, and add a quarter of the fish to each. Optionally, freeze bags.
SV at around 122°F for 40 minutes (fresh/thawed) or 60 minutes (frozen). Carefully remove fish from bag before trying to combine fish juice and "sauce" for actual saucy sauce. Serve over rice or whatever.

At least it seems to freeze well.

I did it this way because the original recipe had cornstarch in it, and that doesn't contribute its thickening power until about 140°F. The sous vide doesn't get over 122°F, so the cornstarch would just settle out, be chalky, and leave an unsatisfying sauce. This way, the sauce at least thickens first, smooths out, and becomes unsatisfying in a completely different way.

As a side-note, it's kind of amusing that I bag the flounder for cooking SV, and I use a multi-cooker to do the rice in a fraction of the time.

Can anyone suggest how to fix this? I would still like to keep the fat and sugar down.

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Comments

FrankM_3301

Sous vide is just a tool. Are you sure it is the correct one for this job? I am not a fan of sous vide fish in general. Flounder cooks in minutes.....way less than 5 in most cases.....using traditional methods. Why complicate it?

territan

It’s a fine tool, and no, I’m not sure it’s the correct tool for the job. But I wanted to find out. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to hack this recipe.

I disagree that this is complicated; it’s more than four ingredients, sure, but the gist of it is combining a bunch of things and poaching and serving the fish in the result. I tried to stick to that spirit with a prepared “sauce” that I could freeze with the fish and cook in the bath when I wanted a serving. That sounds conveniently simple. If there’s complexity, it’s front-loaded.

It is also entirely possible that the original recipe was kind of off.

FrankM_3301

My "complicated" reference was to the fish cookery. I imagine flounder, cooked in a bag, will simply fall apart. If that is the effect you are going for...by all means, bathe away! If you find it a convenient way to prepare the sauce, that would be a better use in my opinion., but again, it would probably be more efficient to do it on the stove top. By the way, joule can easily get above 200 F (and a simmer is about 195 F).

territan

The sauce is done on the stovetop first; I even explained why in the recipe: it’s so the cornstarch can justify its existence. Then the resulting “sauce” is cooled and closed up in the bags with the fish, and most of them frozen, waiting for the days they hit the hot tub at a temperature friendlier to the fish. Still doesn’t feel complicated.

And yes, the fish is fall-apart tender at that point. That’s a minor point compared to the flavor of the sauce, which as I said, “needs work.” Do you have any suggestions beside “lol throw out the recipe”?

CharlesLangley_1652801

To enhance your curried flounder, consider using coconut milk for creaminess without adding too much fat. Swap the skim milk for coconut milk, adjusting the quantity for your preference. Additionally, incorporate fresh garlic and ginger for depth of flavor. Experiment with a touch of honey or agave syrup for sweetness, maintaining a balance. And to write your essay assignments you can take help from this https://writinguniverse.com/free-essay-examples/entertainment/ website because over there you will find a lot of essay examples and you can read all of them for free.