Go to the Recipe: Dine In: Three Courses for a Special Occasion
2 questions
1. Wrapped cake should be left outside or in fridge if made early?
2. Steak doesn't get pre or post seared?
Thanks!!
Hello Mohit, I typically leave the cake wrapped at room temp. You can refrigerate it but I would give it time to temper before serving. Thanks for pointing out the gap in info around the steak being seared. I was pre searing it before bagging it or even unto the day before get ahead. I didn't find a reason to bother with a post sear. Cheers!
How do you make the truffle sauce?
Video mentions xanthan but not the recipe. How much is needed or is it optional? Thanks.
Buy it from Chefsteps
Thanks guys -- this is a really cool feature, would love to see more items like this in the future
How much Xantham, Nick?
I am preparing this meal for 4 people. To cook 4 filets, should I put them all in the bag provided with the sause, or should I put half of the sauce into another bag with 2 of the filets? Any other suggestions? The rest of the dinner looks easy enough to increse quantities as needed.
I wish they put the shipping time in the meal prep cheat sheet...
It is used for the Cloud Cake for some added moisture, you will need 1.3g for a single batch of Cake. Bob's Red Mill makes it and it's widely available https://www.bobsredmill.com/xanthan-gum.html
That cloud cake looks damn good, very curious about how it comes out, can someone please report back!
My cloud cake was not cooked all the way through. Can you provide some extra details in order to be successful the second time. I suspect I should have cooked it longer than 30 mn @ 302F. Also, could this cake be cooked in a steaming device like a pressure cooker @ 15 psi?
Now this is the Chefsteps I know and love
I've not tried this sauce yet (Saturday!), but I've generally found there is enough sauce in a Joule Ready bag for 3-4 servings, although sometimes less. Just be careful that you can actually fit all that meat in the bag and still close it. Also, the sauce is designed to take into account the juices that are released from the meat during cooking. If you put more than 2 portions in the bag, there will be more juices and the sauce will be thinner. I haven't found this to be a problem, except when I squeezed 7 chicken thighs into the Vadouvan curry bag, and the resulting sauce was definitely on the thin side (although still tasty).
5 days by FedEx (free if you purchase 4).
1.3g, see comment above.
I agree. The Chef Steps of old. Love it.
Any reports back from Valentine's Day dinners? I'm not cooking mine until Saturday lol.
Thanks for the warning. Perhaps stick it with a toothpick or cocktail skewer. If it comes out with some wet batter or crumbs on it, the cake needs to bake some more.
Also, did you put the water bath in the oven in advance to warm up? I suspect that is what they did, although the recipe doesn't say so.
I had the same issue with the cake being under cooked. Would be interested in additional details as well.
Ahh, ChefSteps is back - lovely! (:
Yes, my water bath was in the oven for at least one hour before putting the cake in. A toothpick test might not work here since we use different cooking temperatures. Indeed, how I'm suppose to know which part of the cooking process was not long enough? It was still a great cake but I would love to have it done perfectly next time this is why I'm here.
The salad, potatoes and desert were fantastic. I cannot comment on the Périgord truffle sauce since we had scallops with our dinner.
Hello what can I use instead of light corn syrup for the cake ? It’s not available in my country. Thank you
Maybe you could try honey
you can always reduce the remaining sauce if it's too thin
This was an excellent Valentine's Day 3-course meal (for 4 people in my case), and was fairly easy to prepare. Some comments:
SALAD:
1) Radicchio di Treviso is a bit hard to find, so you might have to go to several grocery stores or settle for the more common round radicchio (not sure how they taste different)
2) If you are doing nice very wines with dinner like we were, you might skip the wine-unfriendly Fresno chilis, as the salad is fine without them. Or put them on the side for those who want them
3) For the frico (what I refer to as "frico fa respirare i morti"...crisps so tasty they can make the dead breath again!), use the best aged Parmigiano-Reggiano you can find (not the mediocre stuff you find in grocery stores). These things are addictive!
4) As illustrated in the video, don't over dress your salad; do it a little bit at a time until it is what you want
STEAK:
1) I used 6 oz "Midwestern" prime filet mignon from Flannery Beef, one of the best beef purveyors in the US. Air-dried the steaks on a wire rack in the fridge for 6+ hours before putting in freezer for 20 min and then lightly brushed on Hellman's Original Mayonnaise, and seared for 60 second/per side in a 450°F non-stick Scanpan. Then into the sauce bag and sous vide at 130°F x 60 minutes, before slicing into triangular halves and plating. I did it this way to get a nice sear without risking over-cooking (these were from the fat end of the tenderloin, so ended up a bit thinner than I'd like). I've previously compared a regularly seared steak to a mayo-seared steak side-by-side and couldn't taste any difference (the mayo results in a slightly darker sear), so I was confident this wouldn't screw up the lovely sauce
2) 4 x 6 oz steaks per one Joule Ready pouch gave plenty of sauce
3) As with all CS vegetable purees, this can be made the day before (or even 2 days before) and reheated in the microwave before plating. If you have a vacuum sealer, you can also julienne the raw celery root and vac pack it the day before to keep it from oxidizing until ready for plating. Cut it thin!
4) The sauce is really killer, and even with world-class beef, no one noticed the meat for the sauce lol
POTATOES/ONIONS:
1) I made this in a 2 3/4 qt Le Cruset Dutch oven. The recipe makes enough for 4 or more servings
2) It is difficult to remove the outer layer from cipollini onions, so remove what comes off easily and then just cook as is. I used a non-stick covered chef's skillet to prepare the onions.
3) The recipe results in WAY too much garlic butter, so resist the temptation to put it all on the potatoes and save some for garlic toast. Strangely, there is such a thing as too much butter lol
CLOUD CAKE:
1) This is the most difficult part of the dinner, but give it a shot, it turned out pretty good for me
2) I purchased the same cake pan as CS used, and you can get it in a 3 pan set. The largest pan is then perfect for the water bath. You will end up with more batter than will fit in the pan
3) I just used vanilla extract and 1.3 g of xanthan gum (see CS's comments below)
4) Although it is not mentioned in the recipe, I believe you should put the water bath in the oven for at least 30 min before adding the cake to warm it up to temperature
5) My cake did rise, although maybe not quite as much as in the video, and I think it ended up being slightly denser in texture, although still very nice. When I poked a toothpick in, it seemed to be a bit moist, so next time I might go 10 min longer on the time
6) The top of my cake looked nice but was quite moist, and the top tends to stick to your fingers. So I recommend letting it air dry for an hour or two before trying to remove it from the pan. Turning it upside down on a plate resulted in me ripping off all of the lovely browned crust on top, which made for a less appealing appearance, even covered with confectioner's sugar. So let it air dry first
7) The tea-infused whipped cream is sensational! I infused 2.5 bags of Dammann Freres "The Noire Breakfast Black Tea" (Ceylon + Indian) tea for 1 hour into heavy cream in non-stick saucepan heated on low (~110°F), with occasional stirring, strained out any membrane that formed on top, and then applied CS's "World's Best Whipped Cream" recipe using an iSi Whip:
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/world-s-best-whipped-cream
Well done ChefSteps!!! I'm glad I bought several of the truffle sauce bags, since I'm going to make this again.
See my comments above. I suspect mine was a bit undercooked as well, so I'm going to try it again this weekend but go 10 min longer at the first temp.
Such a delicious meal, I prepared all these dishes a second time for a birthday party.
1) I used two different colors of Kale, and two different colors of radicchio (couldn't find the long thin ones, so both were the round sort, including a very pretty one that was mostly white with red streaks)
2) Fair warning, this will be a bitter salad and the dressing is strongly flavored thanks to the fish sauce
3) Left the chilis out to avoid over-powering the accompanying wines (paired with 2014 Giuseppe Quintarelli Bianco Secco Veneto IGT and Clos du Mont-Olivet Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc)
1) Again I used 6 oz "Midwestern" prime filet mignon from Flannery Beef, air-dried on a wire rack in the fridge for 5 hours before putting in freezer for 20 min and searing for 60 second/per side in a 450°F non-stick Scanpan with Safflower oil (no mayo sear this time). Sous vide in sauce at 114°F x 1 hr (based on previous experience, I thought they'd benefit from a bit of "warm aging"), then 130°F x 1 hr for medium rare
1) Squeezed a few extra potatoes in to serve 8 people, and actually still had leftovers (although this was part of a 6-course dinner, so there was no shortage of food).
2) Reduced the garlic butter to 50 g (made with Kerrygold)
1) Put the water bath in the over for 30-60 min before adding the cake to warm it up to temperature
2) IMPORTANT: When melting the cream cheese etc, do it quickly and make sure it doesn't get to hot (use a thermometer), or you will create dense, gloppy cheese mess (I did, and had to repeat it!). Don't worry about those tiny bits of cream cheese that don't fully melt, just get it 98% melted and quickly move on to the next step
3) Since I thought my last attempt might have been a bit overly moist and underdone, I increased the initial temp by 10°F and the time by 10 min. Turns out this was probably a mistake. Although the cake did seem to rise a bit more than last time, it was ultimately less airy and denser than my first attempt (or it's possible this was due to over-cooking the cream cheese mixture slightly?)
4) VERY IMPORTANT: Again, the top of my cake looked nice but was very moist. Be careful it doesn't stick to your fingers, and in fact, hold it in the pan until the day of serving, and then let it air dry for 2-3 hours until it is no longer tacky before flipping it over and removing it from the pan. If you don't do this, you will loose the crust when it sticks to your plate or waxed paper
WINES: Paired with 2014 Giuseppe Quintarelli Bianco Secco Veneto IGT and Clos du Mont-Olivet Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc, 1982 & 1989 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste, and 1997 Niepoort Porto Vintage
Brings back some good JouleReady memories!
A great 3 courses dinner. I have made many times.
For the Caesar dressing, replace the lemon with lime. You can thank me later.
That Caeser dressing recipe is so damn good. It's a shame it's hidden here, it needs its own feature. 💪
