Hangar Steak en sous vide with Tomato & Asparagus
For the tomato & asparagus, I used the bacon - tomato sauce from the Ad Hoc cookbook, it was pretty easy to put together and had a lovely flavor - just a hint of bacon to round out the acidity in the tomatoes. I also added about a teaspoon of Amore double-concentrate tomato paste to give the sauce a bit more flavor since tomatoes aren’t exactly in season right now. I think next time I might ad a bit of esplette too.
For the asparagus, I just boiled them in salted water until tender and spooned the sauce on top.
For the hangar steak, I simmered bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, garlic and peppercorns in some olive oil and then let it cool. I added the hangar steaks and olive oil mixture to a ziploc bag and sucked the air out through a straw. I warmed a large pot of water on the stove to 145 degrees using my probe thermometer - fortunately the low heat setting kept the water at 145 perfectly! I let the hangar steak cook for about 3 hours then took them out of the oil, let them cool for a bit and then seared them in a cast-iron pan.
Over all, the tomato-asparagus side was great, but I think the hangar steak was a little bit to robust for the marinade I used. It was perfectly tender, but I think that the (relatively) delicate flavors of the marinade would work better with a different cut.
There you have it, with a big pot of water, a ziploc bag, and a thermometer anyone can do the basics of sous vide at home!
