Yesterday since we had the Sous Vide Supreme up and running, cooking our thai style pork ribs, I also threw in some leg of lamb that we picked up earlier in the week. While I've previously done a slow-cooked leg of lamb at 133 degrees (read more about it here), we decided to go in more of a braised direction since the water bath was already set at 160 degrees for the pork ribs.
First step was to make a pretty traditional red wine marinade. I sweated down some basic mirepoix, including diced onions, celery, carrot and garlic, and then added in some dried rosemary, thyme, and a few bay leaves. We actually got the bay leaves from my wife's boss and her husband who own a real bay tree. To the sweated vegetables and herbs I added a few glassfuls of red wine and let this cook down. I finally added some tomato puree that we had also gotten from my wife's boss and husband who process and jar their own tomatos from ones grown in their garden during the summer.
After adding the tomato, I let the marinade simmer away for a few minutes and then I added it to the zip loc bag containing the leg of lamb. I removed as much as air from the bag using the water displacement method and then dropped the sealed pouch into the Sous Vide Supreme at 160 degrees, letting it cook overnight for about 24 hours.
The next day after coming home from shoveling our car out, I took the lamb out of the water bath and it turned out ridiculously good. The meat was incredibly tender and easily flaked apart using two forks.
I cooked up some rotini since that's what we had on hand (parpadelle would have been even better) and then topped it off with the shredded lamb and rich, dark brown lamb jus. Some aged parmesan cheese finely grated on a microplane was the perfect way to finish the dish. So f-ing delicious. I can't wait to make this again.
