Daniel Pfyl, senior lecturer at Otago Polytechnic's Food Design Institute, shares some professional techniques to make your cooking easier. This month, he shows us how to make low temperature-cooked roast beef.
Low-temperature cooking is a technique using temperatures of 45degC to 80degC for a prolonged time to cook food.
Low-temperature cooking methods include sous vide, slow-cooking using a slow cooker, cooking in a normal oven which has a minimal setting of 70degC and using a combi steamer.
For this recipe I am going to use a normal oven set at 80degC (not fan bake).
Ingredients
beef
butter
oil
seasoning (you can use a mix of oil, dijon mustard, salt and pepper and smoked paprika)
Method
1) Take the meat to be roasted out of the fridge at least one hour before cooking to bring it up to room temperature.
Tie it with string to help hold the shape of the meat and ensure even cooking.
2) Melt some butter and oil (half each) in a frypan, bring to high heat, and sear the meat quickly to achieve good colour. (The longer this takes the shorter the cooking time.)
3) Season to your taste (unless marinated first). Can use a mix of oil, dijon mustard, salt and pepper and smoked paprika.
4) Place on a pre-warmed ovenproof porcelain dish (don't cover). Insert the meat thermometer. If your meat has a bone in it ensure the thermometer does not touch the bone.
5) Place in the oven and ''slow roast'' until the core temperature is reached - 55degC-57degC would be medium rare, 60degC-63degC medium (but every oven is different).
Don't open the door unless you need to.
6) Take out of oven and rest for 15 minutes covered with a tea-towel for warmth (not tinfoil as this creates steam).
Note: Should the temperature be reached, but the guests have not arrived, open the oven door to let the heat escape, lower the temperature to 60degC and you can keep it this way for up to an hour.
As a guideline 1kg of roast beef cooking in a 80degC oven should take about 2 hours and have a core temperature of 57degC to 60degC.
• If you would like to request a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know. Write to Cooking 101, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 715, Dunedin or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with cooking 101 in the subject line.
• To check earlier Cooking 101 columns visit: www.odt.co.nz and search for ''cooking 101''. More information on cooking from Otago Polytechnic can be found on www.otagocookeryl4.blogspot.com.