Hi @herkimer
Yes you can cook the Veg at the higher temperature, then drop the water down to the lower temperature to cook the steak once the vegetables are done.
But if you mean keeping the vegetables in the water at the lower temperature along with the steak, I would not think this would give great results and vegetables served at the lower temperature tend to seem “cold” to me as we are used to them being served hotter.
Using your example of asparagus and steak…
Asparagus at 85°C (185°F) for 12 mins
Steak at 53°C (127°F) for 60 mins (Or what’re temperature you like your steaks)
So the asparagus would be way over cooked.
In this example, I would cook the asparagus ahead of time for slightly under the 12 mins, say 10mins… then but the bag in cold water to cool quickly, then refrigerate. Could be done the day before.
Cook the steaks, sear the steaks and reheat the asparagus either by putting the bag in some boiled water for a few mins to come back up to temp, or griddle them to reheat them.
The good thing about using 2 cooking temperatures is for people who like steaks at different levels, you could cook a steak to well done for 60mins, leave it in the water… drop the water temperature to rare and then cook another steak for an hour… you would have one well done and one rare steak… but both at the rare steak serving temperature, but the well done steak would have the consistency and texture of well done and not rare