Don't get to thinking sous-vide is too fancy for you. If you have a deer in the freezer and a Weston Vacuum Sealer, you have no excuses for not making the most tender, juicy, perfectly-cooked venison steaks. Here we'll show you how to do it while sharing a delicious recipe for Pomegranate & Mint Venison Steaks.
Pomegranate & Mint Venison Steaks Sous-Vide Recipe
Recipe is for each steak
- Ingredients -
A decent cut of venison (doesn't have to be the tenderest since sous-vide is perfect for tough meats, but you also don't want sinew - we used a chunk of the round)
Marinade
1 tablespoon pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon red wine
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
Mint Pesto
handful fresh mint leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons pine nuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
For Searing
1 tablespoon olive oil
For Garnish
handful pomegranate arils
- Tools -
Weston Meat Slicer (optional, but you'll need it if you need to cut your steaks)
Weston Vacuum Sealer + one quart vac bag
kitchen thermometer
Weston Manual Kitchen Kit
skillet
To cut your steaks, set your
Meat Slicer to the highest setting (1/2") and slice away until you have enough steaks for everyone!
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| Slicing perfectly cut steaks with our Weston Pro 320 Meat Slicer |
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| Okay, now we're just showing off - but doesn't our 10" Slicer look awesome? |
Place each steak into a Vacuum Sealer Bag with the marinade, then use your
Weston Vacuum Sealer to seal it.
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| Not only will vacuum sealing this steak prepare it for sous-vide, it draws the marinade into the fibers of the meat |
On your stove, bring a pot of water (just enough to cover your steaks) to your meat temperature preference:
125-130 for rare
130-140 for medium rare (recommended)
140-150 for medium
150-155 for medium well
160-212 for well (just don't bother because that's gross)
The temperature of the water and the stove won't stay constant on its own, so keep a thermometer near to check it every so often and adjust your burner accordingly. We brought the temp to 130 on an electric range over medium heat, then left it on the lowest setting for the rest of the time. The temp stayed right within 125-130 for us.
Place the vacuum-sealed steaks into the water and allow to cook for 4-6 hours. You can certainly keep them in for less time - the steaks will come to temp within a half hour, but the whole point is to let them get super tender. You could keep them in the water forever so long as you kept the water at the right temperature.
While the steaks tenderize in their bath, prepare the mint pesto. Place all of the ingredients into your
Weston Manual Kitchen Kit and turn the handle until you have a nice paste.
Once you're ready, remove the steaks from the water and throw them into a hot skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil. You're just browning the outside of the steak to get a little crust, so just give them about a minute on each side. You'll notice the steaks look a little strange when you take them out of the bag... because they're evenly cooked throughout and haven't been touched by fire. Browning them in a skillet is mainly about appearance.
Remove them from the skillet and serve immediately, smothered in mint pesto and sprinkled with pomegranate.
