When Anova Met Instant Pot - A Love Story

Never mind when Harry Met Sally. Whatever. Tonight, my new Anova met Instant Pot and it was glorious. Although I just got a new Anova Precision Cooker Wifi , I have had an Anova sous vide for over a year now and I love it but this one is even cooler.

Now, because of the wifi, I can set it up before I go out and then I can use the new WiFi app to turn it on so that it's ready to go when I get home. No more coming home and waiting for the water to heat up. You just download the WiFi app, make sure both your wifi and bluetooth are turned on to set up the wifi on your device for the first time and that's it. I tested it and I can turn it on and off and set the temperature when I am away from the house. I am not sure it is essential to have that feature but it's a bit of a time saver, especially if I bag up my meat or fish earlier in the day before I go out. Also, we tend to get these mini power outages that only last for a minute but they cause my computer to restart and if I have a long cooking item in the sous vide, it would turn it off. With the wifi feature, I can monitor it and restart it if this happens while I am out. No more guess work and then coming home to see that it's off and the food is now only fit for feeding my composter.

Because I am loving making risotto in my pressure cooker I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to fire up my two kitchen loves at the same time and do the risotto in the pressure cooker while the salmon enjoys a luxurious 135F/57C sous vide bath.

Just so my stove wouldn't get depressed, I prepared some garlicky rapini in an actual frying pan on the actual burner, old school.

Okay, this is going to sound daunting but it's not that bad. You can even do the rapini first and set it aside if it makes life easier. Because the salmon is cooked in 20 minutes but can spend another 20 to 30 minutes in the water bath without suffering, you do have a bit of time to play around.

*one note, the next time I will give the salmon a quick pass with my blow torch to make it a bit prettier because, although it was absolutely delicious, it wasn't winning any beauty contests.

Sous Vide Salmon with Rapini Risotto

sous vide salmon isn't all that pretty but I don't care because it's amazing, the texture is perfect - it's like buttah

salmon:
4 220 g salmon filets

4 cups cold water
1/4 cup kosher salt

4 tbls extra virgin olive oil
fresh basil (about 3 big leaves per piece of salmon)


Rapini:
1 bunch rapini, washed, tough stems discarded and chopped roughly
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 tsp chili flakes
pinch kosher salt

Risotto:
1 tbls butter
1 tbls olive oil
2 shallots, minced
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
2 tbls cold butter, cut up
kosher salt

*optional stuff to serve - chili oil, fresh basil, more cheese if you want

For Salmon:

mix the cold water and kosher salt and whisk until the salt dissolves to make a brine. Put the salmon filets in the salt water and leave in the fridge for between 30 and 60 minutes while you get the rest of the stuff ready.

Preheat the sous vide bath to 136F  (57C)

While it's heating up, bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the rapini for 2 minutes. Drain and run it under cold water, set aside.

 Heat up a frying pan, add in a glug of olive oil and saute the garlic and chili flakes for a minute. Throw in the rapini, add a pinch of kosher salt and cook the rapini for a couple of minutes, and dump out into a bowl, setting it aside.

When your sous vide reaches the 135F, get the salmon from the fridge, remove it from the brine, run it under cold water and dry them off.

You can either use a vacuum sealer on manual OR you can use zip lock freezer bags, using water displacement to seal up the bag.

this lovely lady will demonstrate for you

 Put one piece of fish in each bag, drizzle 1 tbls of olive oil on each and lay about 3 whole basil leaves on each piece of fish. If you are using a vacuum sealer, use the manual function to gently remove the air so that you don't squish your fish. Repeat with the second bag.

The fish will be cooked in 20 minutes and it can stay in the water for an extra 20 minutes without any problems.


Now, when the fish has been cooking for about 10 minutes, start your risotto in the Instant Pot.

Risotto:

Hit saute and when it says HOT, put the butter and olive oil in the pot and saute the shallots for a couple of minutes until they are soft. Add in the rice, stirring constantly, and cook for another 3 minutes or until the rice is opaque. Pour in the white wine and stir for a minute until the wine has pretty much evaporated and then pour in 3 1/4 cups of your chicken stock. Lock the lid on, make sure the valve is shut and program on manual for 6 minutes.

By now the timer has gone off on your Instant Pot, so do a quick release and take the lid off. Hit the off button and then hit saute again. Put the rapini in the pot with the rice. You will need to stir the rice for a few more minutes, adding more stock by the ladle full, until it's perfectly cooked and creamy. Turn off the heat, add in the cold butter and cheese, give it a good, vigorous stir with a wooden spoon until the cheese and butter have melted into the rice.

Fish the salmon out of the water bath, take it out of the bags and wipe them off with a paper towel to dry them and to remove any of the white albumin that might seep out of it (don't panic, its' normal , its just not pretty). Remove the skin and discard it.
* you can give the fish a quick blast with a blow torch if you don't like the look of the naked fish.

To serve, mound some risotto on each plate and sit a salmon fillet on top. If you have some chili oil, you can drizzle that around, if not, don't worry about it. Scatter some chopped basil over the top and if you are feeling really sassy, throw on a bit more cheese.