Sous Vide Cauliflower with Herb Butter and Duxelles

Sous Vide cauliflower with herbal butter has subtle herbal notes throughout. (photo by Courtney)

This is the first time I've used the sous vide for cruciferous vegetables. They cook at a higher temperature (83.5C) than meat and take longer in the sous vide than if you just steam them, so it's a bit inconvenient for me. I had received a set of flavored butters from Epicurean Butter to try, and needed the gentle heat of the sous vide so that I could cook the veggies with the butter without losing the aromatics, and that prompted me to finally use Kameko-san for this purpose. Easy instructions after the jump.
Sous Vide Cauliflower with Herb Butter and Duxelles
(to serve 2 - 3)
Florets cut from 1 head of cauliflower
2 Tbsp herbal butter
2 Tbsp duxelles

Massage the butter and duxelles into the florets as best you can, then vacuum seal them. Cook in the sous vide at 83.5C for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Remove from pouch and stir to distribute butter, duxelles, and oil. Serve hot.

Cooking notes: It was hard for me to distribute the duxelles, and as the picture shows they kind of clumped up in some of the florets. Using a highly spreadable butter was a good idea, as it did distribute fairly evenly. In the future, I would probably cook the cauliflower with the butter, but then sprinkle the duxelles over after the cauliflower was plated.

Eating notes: The folks at Epicurean Butter encouraged me to use their butter, which is less dense than Meggle or Kerrygold, as a final spread or finishing sauce, but it held up just fine in the sous vide. Cooking the cauliflower with the butter allowed the herbal notes to spread a bit more than they would have as a sauce and made a more subtle dish. As noted above, the duxelles were a different story. They added a great flavor, but tended to clump so that it came through unevenly.