Go to the Recipe: Scallion Ash
could you use the same technique with others like green garlic or leeks?
Yes you can really do anything you'd like. We've done it with beets, turnips, onion etc...
wow, looks amazing!
Lemon ash is also great
Did you zest, then dehydrate the lemon, or dehydrate the entire peel? Same time and temps as with the scallions?
When doing lemon ash I do the whole lemon sliced thin.
Is a spice grinder mandatory or could I reach a good result with a blender also?
A blender would work out great.
Thanks - I will give it a try then!
what does dehydrating the onions do to them if you just roasted them to blackness instead?
The Recipe says to dry the scallions at 66°C, so i guess i could do it in a dehydrator right? Somehow i feel better with it running over night than my oven.
Why we need to dehydrate 10 min first , Can we just roast until scallions black .
This looks like fun and I agree..the dark colored beef we get in high end joints serving Beef B and such is wonderful. But ChefSteppers..very few home ranges will go below 170 F. Since you're low temp roasting, not dehydrating those scallions is there an alternative? Leaving the oven door ajar aint popular here in Florida.
Just made double the recipe and put the two baking sheets on the highest rack in the oven for 10 hours on 170F. Turned out perfect.
you mean 10 hours first? for the flavor. You can just roast them until they're scorched if that is your preference, but the flavor will be different.
Question, when you use this to coat meat, do you use i like a spice rub and coat the meat before cooking/roasting/smoking, or add it after cooking?
How long does this ash last in the pantry for? Vacuum seal vs a jar?
How do you make ash?? Maybe for use like a powder, for potato and so anything else. If you know, what i am mean.. Like a salt and pepper.. for food garnish, just ash.. thanks
Is this a helpful addition to enhancing the flavor of center cut tenderloin? If so, do you use the rub after the final sear post-sous vide or before the final sea? Am also serving bone marrow compound butter — is it wise to even add this ingredient?
Inspired by CS's Beef Bourguignon recipe, I served sous vide New Zealand free-range, grass-fed venison tenderloin roast from D'Artagnan, coated in burnt scallion and Hawaiian black lava sea salt ash, with old-school fondant potatoes, sous vide carrots/broccoli rabe/onions, and ruby port demi-glace...
For the ash, my oven only goes down to 175°F, so it took about 12 hours to fully dehydrate 5 large bunches of scallions. Powdered in a KitchenAid coffee grinder. Rather than the 50% w/w black Hawaiian sea salt in the recipe, I used 10% because I had already marinaded and cooked the meat in salty fish sauce. Sifted to remove any remaining chunks. I only coated one side of the roast, which looked fine.
Since I hadn't ordered this cut from D'Artagnan before, I tried sous vide cooking just the tip of the tenderloin in advance at 131°F x 1 hour and I thought it was a bit on the tough side.
So for the actual dinner, I did a 3-day Red Boat fish sauce marinade (3% w/w) under vacuum, then sous vide "warm aging" 114°F x 1 1/2 hours, before finally finishing it off at 131°F x 1 1/2 hour and then blotting it dry and coating with scallion ash (no pre- or post-sear). Paired with 1999 Harlan Estate cabernet.
That really did the trick! It was perfectly tender, but still steaky, and very flavorful. I really liked the visual contrast between the 100% edge-to-edge medium rare color with the intensely black ash coating. Although my plating and photography don't really do it justice. Vegetables were sous vide without oil at 194°F x 15 min (10 min for the broccoli rabe).
The "warm aging" trick, which is purportedly at the optimum temperature for activating the meat's endogenous tenderizing enzymes, can be read about here...first time I've tried it, but it really works: https://kosherdosher3.blogspot.com/2016/05/crazy-sous-vide-meat-aging-experiment.html
For the ruby port demi-glace, I reduced some port by two-thirds, add D'Artagnan's veal demi-glace, simmered with chopped scallions and chervil, reduced further by a third, strained, then microwaved to warm before serving.
Fondant potatoes are from Chef John's recipe (FoodWishes on Youtube).
It does add an interesting caramelized onion flavor. No sear is needed, although you could do a pre- and/or post-sear if you wanted that for flavor. If you did a post-sous vide sear, you would dry the meat and add the ash as a finishing step. However, the technique is really meant to avoid the searing step entirely, but still give a beautiful look to the meat.
Coffee grinder.
I think it would last a long time. I made extra and used a chamber vacuum to seal it in a bag and stored at room temp.
After (dry the meat first with a paper towel).
If you were just to burn them right off the bat, maybe they would taste more burnt? By drying them first, and then a quick burn, you get a nice onion flavor, with a little bit of caramelized flavor in my experience. Quite delicious on a steak.
