When I got back home from work, I turned on my Sous Vide Supreme and set the temperature to 132 degrees, which would be the target end temperature for the NY strip steaks (medium rare). I let this pre-heat and also put some water on the stove in a pot to blanch what Chinese call "gailan", also known as Chinese brocolli.
I seasoned the NY strip steaks in a very straightforward manner, adding some smoked salt I picked up from my local Whole Foods Market, black pepper, and a dash of some high quality olive oil. I placed the the steaks in a zip loc bag and then sealed it up after pressing all the air out using the water displacement method. I dropped the bag into the Sous Vide Supreme and let it go for approximately an hour at 132 degrees.
Meanwhile, when the water in my pot on the stove came to a boil, I dunked the gailan in and let it sit for about half a minute to a minute. Once the gailan changed color to a bright, vivid green color, I removed the vegetables.
I had some herbs leftover from earlier in the week that I wanted to use up so I decided to make a chimichurri sauce to accompany the NY strip steaks. If you've never had chimichurri, it is a sauce eaten in Argentina with grilled and roasted meats and is made typically made from some chopped herbs like oregano, garlic, olive oil, and white or red wine vinegar. I've made this sauce before in my food processor but used my Vitamix instead (easier clean-up as you can easily clean the Vitamix by dropping in a few drops of dish detergent and giving it a whirl). In my Vitamix container, I added some garlic, extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, and the leftover herbs I had (cilantro, scallions and thai basil) and blended it for a few seconds. Since the Vitamix engine is so powerful and the shearing force of the blades so strong, this doesn't take long.
After the steaks cooked for an hour, I removed them from the water bath, dried them off, and then did a quick sear on them in a hot saute pan with some oil to trigger the Maillard reaction. After nice and mahogany brown, I took them off the pan to rest. After slicing the steaks in one inch pieces, I then served them with the gailan and some white jasmine rice. This was a quick and easy week night meal that took around an hour to put together.
