In a fast paced city like Hong Kong, slow cooking is often a time-consuming luxury we can't afford (let alone cooking in general!). Cue Miele's newly launched Vacuum Sealing Drawer, which considerably speeds up the marination process while keeping ingredients fresh for longer. As a person with very limited time and patience myself, this is definitely the kind of breakthrough product that would get my lazy self to cook more on weekends.
Head Chef Kuen Chan of acclaimed Nordic restaurant FINDS prepared the 4-course tasting menu of the night, specially designed to showcase dishes he created using Miele goodies.These include the vacuum drawer and touch-controlled Combination Steam Oven (water for steaming is replaced in a separate compartment, so as not to disturb the steaming process and to keep temperatures consistent). Totally felt like a kid in a candy store in the Miele showroom - a gorgeous space filled with state of the art Miele kitchen gadgets.
Chef Kuen explains the vacuum sealing process below:
The air is completely sucked out of the plastic bag, which is also then sealed. This allows for the ingredients to develop a rich flavour within only half an hour or so, as the marination has literally no where to go except into the ingredients themselves.
A simple demonstration using bell peppers & olive oil.
And now for the dinner itself. This was the torched and slow-cooked sea bass layered on top of tofu, with a dollop of miso. Loved the Asian flavours running through both this and the salmon fillet steamed with preserved black beans and garlic paste. They paired well with the dry Riesling.
In between courses, Chef Kuen gave us a taste tester of the difference between air-marinated and vacuum seal-marinated cuts of veal. The difference was obvious, as the vacuum-sealed piece (left) was noticeably juicier and more tender.
The strawberry and bell pepper gazpacho was interesting, to say the least. It almost resembled a strawberry smoothie, but not quite because of the savoury notes of bell pepper coming through.
The cod fish marinated in sweet soy sauce was tender, flaky and absolutely delicious. The meat slid away easily and the flavours were well-absorbed.
We concluded the meal with Chef Kuen's vanilla-infused melon dessert. The melon was semi-transparent with an intense green colour because of the vacuum-seal marination, and tasted awesome with the chocolate bits and light cinnamon cream. I liked the idea of the tonic jelly, but found it to be a tad bitter.
For more information on the Vacuum-Seal Drawer & Combination Steamer, check out http://www.miele.hk/,