Not a fan of Cauliflower, have had on glaring at me on the side of the kitchen, wife the cauli-lover, it is also on the top end of bag sous vide that I ever want to do based on plastics & temp releasing potential nasties.
I have considered broccoli before but always choose to microwave steam it for quick rice dish breakfasts, but the air pockets of cut florets has always stopped me till now, I have resorted to several containers on top of the bag to submerge it properly, having taken as much air out as possible, but this is where I am stuck as to doing it properly, as a result the water is to the top edge of my silicone lidded container.
Likely a lost cause asking here based on meat heavy attendance, but…
EDIT: rough chopped 2/3 of a cauliflower, bagged & submerged for 1 hour, due to my failure to get all the air out the ziplok was bulging regardless, clearly affecting the cook, I pinched the cauli to test, decided on 2 minutes in the microwave to be sure (1st time with cauli ever) then baked for 25 mins at 160c / 320F with sloppy sauce poured on & crusting, sweet paprika liberally sprinkled. (parking this here as there is no actual cauli cheese recipe on the site which surprised me.
Thanks John, makes perfect sense & dense as heck I guess.
I resealed the bag (pushed air out) 3x during the cook, & this has always been the problem when considering some veggies.
Although basic & finished in the oven, wife stated it was the best cauliflower cheese she’s ever had, primarily due to the non water logged veg cook, she described it as “almost crisp” (firm but done) …to give clarity, I have an awful gag reflex going back to a toddler, veggies were boiled back then which never helped texturally & I used to throw up all the time as a result of overboiled minging & wringing veggies.
I got over “broccoli” some 22 years back, but cauliflower & most cabbage elude me, if it wasn’t for the wife ganneting this cauli I would have had a “small” bowl when hot rather than a spoon that was lukewarm when she was finishing it off, so massive progress achieved, next is to up the cheese sauce flavour as I did not want to mask it (facing the enemy head on) …what this has done is twofold, as the wife is now far more open to the prospect of veggies in sous, I think I’ll invest in a silicone bag & a lump of S/Steel & try again this week.
Nice to be over the hump with another veg, a lifelong journey, thanks for chipping in with the obvious solution to all but me, …but then again, thats what impromptu experimentation is about I guess.
(Makes me want a home “poured” rice pudding)
Unexpected win, better get the lottery ticket in (this is big)
I need to cast my eye around for something small inert & dense in the meantime.
Small borosilicate plate from ikea “might” be able to deal with 85c i’m hoping as a temporary solution, may have to try the drinking straw “suck & see” method the combination of the two (larger surface area compression & less air might just do it for now, I can use my usual tupperware type containers as usual to push down from under the silicone pot lid.
NB to anyone reading this if using a plate the likes of your corningware may be ok, but it is hard to tell what weaknesses have occurred over time with this kind of dinnerware, I’ve had corningware roll out of a window & be fine, but have also had it break in a combination oven / microwave, the impeller motion may cause it to constantly knock, with the high heat combination failure might occur, so use common sense & caution if cobbling something like this together as a temporary fix.
When I first identified the need, I bagged a wrench from the garage. Perhaps half of my SV time is with vegetables, globe artichokes are a particular challenge to prevent floating
Just to finish off the cauliflower I cut the remainder up & bagged it with a straw suck method (same bag, clean) to see how / if it survives multiple hot cooks.
I was being a dumbass (head injuries takes the blame there)
Pot is round & instantpot brand (as we have multiples of them)
Therefore I have a number of the accompanying s/steel trivets.
3 trivets dumped in & the regular sealed lidded plastic container pressed against the silicone lid immersed it with aplomb.
No $24 dead weights required it seems, though I did ask someone local I know from a metal supply shop to cut & round off some high grade offcut weights …when they have a moment just to be on the safe side.
I have now got to submerge some maple carrots & sample some broccoli for tonight.
Well that was a damnable waste of time, wife came home knackered from work (tired) so it was covered & set aside for last night, she got home late & within 40 minutes she was taking work calls due to a patient having gone off on his own (not on restricted movement) so we ended up having a 22 hour day involving 5 hours travel to go look for them & bring them back, getting to bed at 4 am with the alarm due to go off 90 mins later.
I got up & shouted to my groggy wife “dinner is STILL in the oven” & cauliflower cheese sandwich for your packed lunch today OK!? …the reply was curt to say the least
I daresay the positive advantage was not being trapped in the tesla on a 5hr night drive with someone who had just ganneted a copious quantity of cabbage & cheese though… “parp”
I have two chain “scrubbers” for my cast iron and I put them on my sous vides bags and weigh them down. Anything that will weight them will work. An enamaled cast iron pot lid for example.
If your dilemna is not being able to keep your bagged cauliflower or any other product completely submerged; I fixed my similar problem (bagged product not properly submerged) with a re-sealable bag. I had tried everything short of buying anything specifically for this problem. Not wasting my money. Anyway, I fill a 17cm x 18cm re-sealable Ziplock Medium Freezer bag about 3/4 full of water and seal. Make sure you have a good seal and just lay the water filled bag on top of whatever it is you are sous videing. Works for me.
You are more than welcome. Hope it works for you. Now you have me wanting cauli & cheese. Don’t have any at the moment but I have some broccoli/cheese that I’ll give a go in the sous vide.
NB, the cauli in a 1 litre bag is best defined as 1/3 of a typical cauli (if not doing the lot) a decent meal in itself if one person is just hitting it hard as a main in itself.
My wife would prefer it a bit softer (though she loved the fact it was not soggy from boiling, so maybe depending on how much bite you want either more time in the oven or increase the sous cooking time possibly.
One cannot deny if not overly heavily loaded with cheese sauce it is fairly healthy & easy on the gut biome (something I wish I’d understood as a lad)
Chopping Cauli now, will be applying “the bag trick”
