Recipe for sous vide chops with root vegetable puree and potatoes
The key to the juiciest sous vide chops with root vegetable purée and potatoes.
The word “chops” might trigger a little tick in some because chops have a reputation for becoming a dry and dull affair.
The keyword here is the cooking method!
The issue, in part, is that many tend to cook pork chops too hard and for too long, possibly because there’s a certain “fear” of bacteria in pork, but pork can indeed be pink. It should preferably be pink, if you ask me! Those bacteria that some are slightly afraid of are actually on the outside and not inside the meat.
Here, I used neck chops, which, unlike the lean cut from the loin, have quite a fine fat marbling, contributing to the meat’s juiciness and flavor. When the chops are also cooked using the sous vide method, it suddenly becomes incredibly easy to get a juicy and tender chop every time.
In this way, the “ordinary” chop turns into something that can easily be served in slightly fancier settings, for example, when you want to impress your significant other with your kitchen skills 😉
By the way, don’t be intimidated by the word “ghee” – it’s just clarified butter, and you can easily replace ghee with a 1:1 blend of oil and butter.
I served the chops with a root vegetable purée and oven-baked potato wedges, leeks, and garlic, along with crispy pork rind.
Ingredients
Sous vide cutlet
- 1 Pork Chops neck fillet, approximately 200 grams
- Salt to taste
- Pepper from grinder, to taste
- Ghee or a 1:1 mixture of oil and butter - for frying
Root fruit puree
- 1 Celery
- 200 gram Parsley Root
- Leek 1/3 stalk
- 103 gram Milk
- 102 gram Cream
- 100 gram Water
- Salt to taste
- White pepper to taste
- Lemon Juice to taste
- Vinegar to taste
Baked potatoes and more
- 500 gram Potato
- Leek 2/3 stalk
- 1 Garlic
- Difficult from the chop
- 91 gram Oil
- 42 gram Butter melted
- Salt to taste
- Pepper from grinder, to taste
- Sugar to taste
Instructions
Sous vide chop
- Remove the rind from the chop.
- Season the chop with salt and pepper.
- Place the chop in a vacuum bag and vacuum seal it.
- Place the vacuum bag with the chop in your sous vide.
- Cook the chop at 57 degrees Celsius (135 degrees Fahrenheit) for 2 hours (in the meantime, you can move on to preparing the side dishes).
- Take the vacuum bag with the finished chop out of your sous vide.
- Open the bag and pat the meat dry with a kitchen towel.
- Now you just need to give the chop a delicious golden sear. You can do this in different ways, but here I offer you two options:
- Traditional pan: Turn up the heat on your stove so the pan gets smoking hot! It's important that the pan is as hot as possible. Add ghee (or a mix of oil and butter) to the hot pan. Remember that the chop is already cooked and only needs a sear to get the crust. It should only need 15-20 seconds on each side. The meat doesn't need to rest afterward. Slice the chop and serve.
- Grill/grill pan: It's obviously quite tempting to throw the chop on the grill if it's grilling season. Brush the chop with a bit of neutral-tasting oil. Make sure the grill/grill pan is VERY hot. Give the chop 10-20 seconds on each side. The chop doesn't need to rest afterward. Just slice it and serve it.
- Place a few slices of chop, a piece of leek, some rind, and the crispy potato wedges on each plate.
- Distribute a bit of baked garlic on each plate as well.
- Add a generous dollop of the root vegetable puree to the plates.
- Bon appétit!
- Rinse the celeriac, parsley roots, and leek.
- Remove the peel from the celeriac.
- Peel the parsley roots.
- Cut the celeriac and parsley roots into smaller pieces.
- Cut off the green top from the leek.
- Divide the leek into three parts.
- Chop one part of the leek and set the other 2 parts aside for later.
- Place the celeriac, parsley root, leek, milk, cream, and water in a saucepan.
- Boil everything for 20 minutes.
- Then, place the mixture in a blender.
- Blend until smooth and uniform.
- Season with salt, white pepper, lemon juice, and vinegar.
- Place the puree in the fridge until serving.
- Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius (428 degrees Fahrenheit) with fan.
- Rinse and scrub the potatoes and pat them dry. They should be really dry.
- Cut the potatoes into wedges.
- Place potato wedges, oil, melted butter, salt, and pepper in a plastic bag.
- Mix everything well to coat all the potatoes evenly.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Spread the potatoes and marinade onto the parchment paper.
- Cut the top off the garlic bulb.
- Sprinkle a little salt and sugar on the garlic bulb.
- Put the top back on the garlic bulb and wrap it in foil.
- Place the foil-wrapped garlic bulb on the baking tray.
- Place the leeks and rind on the parchment paper.
- Place the baking tray in the hot oven.
- Bake everything until the potatoes are nicely golden and crispy. This typically takes between 30 and 40 minutes, but it depends on your oven.
- Take the baking tray out of the oven.
