Exploration of Eggs: CVap® Crème Brûlée

creme brulee is easy in a cvap oven

Creamy, velvety, decadent, smooth…there are so many delicious words to describe custards! Of course, anyone who works with eggs or custards knows they are delicate and require precision handling. Even with the right skill set, it can be hard to get the same results every time, given the limitations of traditional equipment. Not anymore! I have a few recipes that will give you perfect results, time after time. The way CVap® treats a custard is just awesome.

We’re sharing our favorite creme brulee (or crème brûlée, if you want to get fancy with the accents) recipe. We’re presenting two processes. One prepared in a CVap Cook and Hold Oven and the other in a CVap Retherm Oven – ENJOY! If you have a favorite custard recipe that you’d like for us to try in a CVap, please share it.

creme brulee is easy in a cvap oven

Creme Brulee Baked in a CVap Cook and Hold Oven

Ingredients

  • Egg yokes – 6
  • Sugar – 4 Tbs
  • Vanilla extract – 1/2 tsp
  • Heavy cream – 2-1/2 cups

Process

  1. Preset Cook and Hold Oven to 200°F Vapor / 200°F Air and allow approximately 30 minutes to preheat.
  2. Set timer to 45 minutes.
  3. Beat egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.
  4. Pour heavy cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to a boil. Remove the cream from heat immediately. Stir cream into the egg yolk mixture; beat until combined.
  5. Pour into a shallow, heat-proof ramekin.
  6. Place in Cook and Hold Oven and press start. After time is up, remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
  7. When ready to serve, sprinkle sugar on top of the custard, and caramelize with a chef’s torch.

Creme Brulee Baked in a CVap Retherm Oven

Ingredients

  • Egg yokes – 6
  • Sugar – 4 Tbs
  • Vanilla extract – 1/2 tsp
  • Heavy cream – 2-1/2 cups

Process

  1. Preset Retherm Oven Oven to Channel #1, place a full sheet pan on the top rack and allow approximately 30 minutes to preheat.
  2. Set timer to 30 minutes.
  3. Beat egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.
  4. Pour heavy cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to a boil. Remove the cream from heat immediately. Stir cream into the egg yolk mixture; beat until combined.
  5. Pour into a shallow, heat-proof ramekin.
  6. Place in Retherm Oven and press start. After time is up, remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
  7. When ready to serve, sprinkle sugar on top of the custard, and caramelize with a chef’s torch.
creme brulee
creme brulee
cremebrulee

Bring Bodacious Benedict to Your Breakfast

Eggs Benedict

Life is busy. That fact is as true for us here at Winston as it is for anyone. Taking the time to have a good breakfast is a rarity. I suspect that’s the case for most of us. What if you could easily provide your customers with eggs benedict, without a big investment in time, ingredients, or manpower? Staging with your CVap® Cook and Hold Oven makes this possible.

Eggs benedict is a simple recipe, and can easily be prepared and staged in a CVap oven. It requires a simple handful of ingredients and only takes minutes to make. It’ll make your customers want to slow down – at least for a moment – to savor the fantastic flavors.

The recipe, as listed, is for a relatively small batch. But it can easily be scaled up to fit larger operations.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Dozen biscuits (canned or frozen)
  • 1 Dozen eggs,
  • Shredded cheddar cheese
  • Melted butter
  • Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Set a CVap Cook & Hold Oven to Vapor Temperature 150°F / Air Temperature 350°F, and allow to preheat. Place biscuits on parchment-lined half sheet pan. Bake for 30 minutes.

Next, remove biscuits from oven, brush with melted butter, and use a pastry cutter to remove the centers. Importantly, be careful to leave bottom crust intact! Place a raw egg and a pinch of salt and pepper in the center of each biscuit.

eggs benedict biscuit

Adjust preheated oven to Vapor Temperature 156°F / Air Temperature 161°F. Place the egg-filled biscuits in the oven for 25 minutes.

eggs benedict with ham
eggs benedict with sauce
eggs benedict closeup

Once the eggs are poached to your liking, remove the biscuits, sprinkle with cheese, and place the pan back into the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt. The beauty of staging is that you can pause at virtually any point in the cooking process, and the food will remain unchanged until you’re ready to garnish and serve – whether that’s in ten minutes or five hours.

We garnished ours with shaved Woodlands Pork Mountain ham, Parmesan cream sauce, minced scallions, and paprika. You may want to use bacon, prosciutto, sausage patties – whatever savory protein appeals to you – to make it your own benedict.

Download the free egg Ebook

Celebrating Hispanic History Month – CVap Tamales!

CVap Tamales

September 15 marks the beginning of National Hispanic History Month. This 30-day observation celebrates the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. Enjoying the flavors and culinary influences of this diverse group is a great way to celebrate. This CVap tamales recipe, made with slow-cooked pork butt, is a fantastic example of Hispanic cuisine.

Recipe: Pork Tamales, CVap Style

Ingredients

  • Pork Butt, 7 to 14 lb Whole
  • Tex-Mex Dry Rub of your choice (we used Chef Barry Yates’ secret blend)
  • Tamale sauce of your choice
  • Masa, cooked per label instructions
  • Corn Husks

Preparation

masa

Prepare masa and set aside.

Corn Husks

Soak corn husks in warm water, set aside.

Apply a layer of dry rub to pork butts as desired.
Preheat a CVap Cook & Hold Oven to 180 + 7 with Constant Cook OFF (high yield) (new CVap 180°F Vapor Temp/187°F Air Temp). Cook with fat cap up for seven hours.

Hold for a minimum of six hours at 150°F + 0 (new CVap 150°F Vapor Temp/150°F Air Temp). (We held for 14 hrs.)

Allow pork to cool and then shred it.

Mix enough tamale sauce into the pork to wet it. You may add additional seasoning (cumin, red pepper) as desired.

pork-adn-masa-in-corn-husk
Tamale assembling

Lay out a corn husk, apply a generous spoonful of masa and a spoonful of pork.

Fold the corn husk to envelope the mixture.

Place in pan. You can stack the tamales.

Pour tamale sauce over the top and bake.

Serve immediately with additional tamale sauce and enjoy a cool beverage!

How are you celebrating Hispanic History Month? Share with us on Facebook or Linked In!

CVap Oven: Prepare in the PM for Perfect Porchetta

Perfect Porchetta

Prepare the perfect porchetta in CVap with the Overnight Cooking setting.

Inserra Shop Rite Supermarkets, one of our valued customers, uses CVap Cook and Hold Ovens in three of their locations. Executive Chef Paulie Velletutti takes full advantage of their CVap Cook and Hold Oven stacked pair. He produces a variety of dishes for their prepared foods section. Likewise, he also roasts deli meats in the CVap, increasing yield and maximizing profits. After all, who doesn’t want versatility and extra profit?

A great example of Chef Velletutti’s creativity is an amazing porchetta using two bellies and a pork loin to make a succulent porchetta that flies off the shelves. Critically, most of the work is done overnight! This recipe comes from their Wallington, New Jersey store.

First, prepare your porchetta as normal with your favorite herb or spice rub. Tie it up and place in the CVap Cook and Hold Oven. Next, set the oven to vapor 144°F/air  154°F, cook time 15 hours. Finally, walk away and let the CVap do its thing.

wrapping porchetta
porchetta in the oven
cooked porchetta

Perfectly Cooked Porchetta

The next morning the porchetta will be perfectly cooked. A nice texture and a beautiful browning are achieved by finishing in a convection oven at 475°F degrees for 12 minutes. Lastly, blast chill it and slice it up.

These portions have been a hit with customers. For that reason Inserra includes this porchetta as a regular item in the rotation of the prepared foods case.

Perfect Porchetta

Rack of Lamb in CVap® from The Country Club of Florida

rack of lamb from florida country club
rack of lamb from florida country club

We had the pleasure of spending time in the kitchen at The Country Club of Florida, where they use two CVap® Cook and Hold Ovens on a regular basis. Executive Chef Tony Larsen shared his thoughts about the equipment along with the fabulous lamb recipe that follows. It is comfort food at its finest with an elegant presentation. Delicious!

“The Winston CVap has changed the way we cook at The Country Club of Florida! It’s the best and most used equipment in the kitchen. Our members constantly ask how we make our food so tender and juicy? It’s the precision of CVap that allows the food to come out so fantastic. We cook and hold in ours without any compromise. The CVap will always be a part of my operation…” –Executive Chef Tony Larsen

Rack of Lamb with Carrot Puree, Root Vegetables, Carmellini Beans and Port Wine Sauce

  • Lamb rack, boneless – 1 lb
  • Chervil, chopped – 1 bunch
  • Dijon mustard – 2 Tbsp
  • Fine bread crumbs – ¼ cup
  • Salt – 1 Tbsp
  • Pepper – 1 tsp

Procedure

  1. Set CVap oven to Vapor 130°F / Air 140°F. Allow 40 minutes to preheat.
  2. Cook lamb for two hours.
  3. Remove, and allow lamb to cool completely.
  4. Sear lamb with ample salt and pepper.
  5. Cool and brush with mustard, then roll in chervil and bread crumb mixture.
  6. Bake to order, then slice.

Carrot Puree

  • Carrots, peeled – 1 lb.
  • Chicken stock – 2 oz.
  • Butter – 2 Tbsp.
  • Sherry vinegar – 1 tsp
  • Salt – to taste

Procedure

  1. Cook carrots in water until fully tender.
  2. Strain carrots and put in blender.
  3. Add stock, butter, and vinegar, then season to taste with salt.

Carmellini Beans

  • Carmellini beans, trimmed
  • Butter

Procedure

  1. Blanch and shock beans.
  2. Melt butter and toss beans with butter and salt.

Root Vegetables

  • Carrots – 4 ea.
  • Potatoes – 6 ea.
  • Artichoke – 1 ea.
  • Butter – 2 Tbsp
  • Thyme – 3 sprigs
  • Salt – to taste

Procedure

  1. Cryovac separately with thyme, butter, and salt.
  2. Cook in 200° water until tender (25 mins.).

Port Wine Sauce

  • Beef demi-glace – 6 oz.
  • Port wine – 6 oz.

Procedure

  1. Reduce wine to syrup.
  2. Add demi-glace and strain twice through cheesecloth.

Submitted courtesy of Tony Larsen, Executive Chef.