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Sous Vide for Par-Cooking

Lou_34544

Hey all,

I have a mobile wood fired oven for pizza and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for things I could cook sous vide until cooked through or almost cooked through and chilled, so for "service" the pickup could be to take that parcooked item and finish in the wood-fired oven.

The only catch is the oven runs from 750 to 900 on the floor, and has an even hotter air temp. As a result, most foods (aside from the pizza) have to be par roasted or par cooked in some way so they cook thoroughly.

I am looking to focus primarily on vegetable dishes. Cauliflower, carrots, Eggplant, and some other things (like maybe potatoes or brussels) would all be nice.

Does anyone have experience doing this? Any suggestions?

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Comments

FrankM_3301

Hi Lou,

I have no direct experience with this in a pizza oven, but I do this from time to time on my big green egg. It seems you're on to it already with your own suggestions. I think low temp cooking of the hearty vegetables would be perfect for your application. You could even do them a few degrees low, say 85 C, chill, then for service, dress/season, place in the appropriate pan and blast them in your oven for flavor and a char. You might have to experiment to zero in on the exact temperature and time, but it seems to me that this would be a perfect way to go, and probably take as long in your oven as a pizza.

Robert_Conn_II_123023

If you have such a hot oven I would recommend cooking your ingredients all the way through sous vide beforehand. That way, you know without a doubt, everything is safe when served. If your pizza dough is the only thing uncooked, you can rest assured any pizza you build upon it will be perfect when served. The only caveat would be that all the ingredients were also hot and ready when the rest of the pizza is. This is achieved by slicing those add-on ingredients thin enough so they are heated through when the pizza is done. Simple enough. So as long as it's not a deep dish pizza, all of your ingredients are good to go. I can't think of an ingredient you could serve on a pizza that would not work well like this. It all comes down to the the placement of those ingredients on the pizza. Precooked items below the cheese layer and any raw items above it.

seijoed

I;d follow the regular recipes for veggies, green ones like brussel sprouts may just be nice to simply quickly blanch and break apart, especially for a pizza.

Lou_34544

Thanks, guys.

I'm looking less to roast vegetables to put on a pizza and more to use my wood fired oven (at 750 to 900 degrees) to pickup dishes that aren't just pizza. For example, charring carrots that are cooked through for a salad, eggplant for a dish, warming through confit squash for a salad, etc.

The unforunate thing is, that, at that temperature it's difficult to thoroughly cook things through to serve and I wouldn't want the pickup on a particular dish (ie, time it takes to roast a vegetable) to be that long anyway. I think I'll just have to experiment but was fielding ideas for sous vide temps/times/vegetables that take well to this sort of pickup.

For example, I imagine mushrooms cooked and held wouldn't be ideal for flashing in a wood fired oven. However, maybe par cooked cauliflower might be.

FrankM_3301

Right. That is what I was thinking you were asking, side dishes as opposed to toppings. 90c for 30 -45 minutes should cook through most of those sturdy veg. See the Chefsteps main site for some ideas. My thought was to cook slightly below that so when you blast them in your oven you don't over cook. You'll have to play a bit, but I think you could zero in on a time and temp pretty quickly. Post some pics!

Lou_34544

Will do. At that temp, I may have to invest in a vacuum sealer. I'm not sure ziplock swill work. Thoughts?

FrankM_3301

Vacuum is good, but Zippys are fine. Use freezer bags. You will need a way to keep them submerged. Something heavy in the bag or a rack to keep from floating. Veg. contain lots of air, which is expelled during cooking.