Three Day Beef Short Rib Sous Vide Bento

Whew a long winded title, I know. Ever since I bought the Sous Vide Supreme, I knew it was inevitable that I would try my hand at the Three day short rib. (I'll post on that more separately) the problem is that it's not a theme on it's own. I freely admit this bento was built around the fact I needed to make some short ribs that took three full days to cook. Heck even wedging the thing into the box created a layout nightmare for me. Fortunately I persisted in my endeavor and hopefully my eaters will enjoy.

I needed to try to keep my bento some what light. I borrowed a recipe that I found from Paula Deen on Roasted Beets with feta. I really am intrigued by beets, I didn't grow up eating (read: forced to eat) beets, I find their slightly sweet flavor and texture to be quite nice. I understand that they are some sort of bain to the typical American kid, I cannot imagine why. The dish called for pitted olives and feta that provided the necessary salt to a typical variation of a vinnaigrette. I think it gives a nice color to the box and the nice tang from the dressing should help create some additional flavor profiles to lunch.

I had a lot going on this weekend and cooking for eight can be an ordeal. I opted for this simple Sundried Tomato Tartlet to rounded out some substance to the bento. I love pastry dough, you can practically make any sort of combinations of flavor and dress it up with the pastry dough. It works as a entree, it works as a side pastry, it works as a dessert, what's not to like. Just put/stuff/fold whatever you want, 450F for 15 mins boom, done. For lunch I have a very simple treatment, I took some sundried tomato pesto (store bought) put some fresh tomatoes, basil and mozerella and called it done.

Finally, something like a beef short rib screams for some starch. I really wanted to avoid the usual suspects of potato and polenta. I had this Barley and Brown Jasmine Rice pilaf that I clipped somewhere in my notebook that seemed to be the right balance between starch and not so heavy. The short ribs on their own bogged everything down and I'll admit everything else in the box doesn't necessarily make for the healthiest of meals, but it does do the best given what I'm trying to play with. Anyhow, I really like this pilaf, the nutty flavors and the textures of the two grains are complemented with the earthy mushrooms and mild pearl onions. This one could easily be a crowd pleaser at a potluck.


Finally the star of the show. The beef ribs you see to your right have been dressed with a simple salt and pepper vacuum sealed and placed in a perfectly controlled 136 degree Fahrenheit water bath for three full days. I then pulled them from their bath and seared them quickly to get that nice brown crust. I plan on posting a more detailed post on the process so for now you just get to see the results but no cross section, but trust me yum. I think the struggle here will be the re-heat process, you want to get some heat on them but you don't want to continue to cook the meat a quick treatment in the toaster oven might be in order.


This was a simple and quick box to build. It gave me time to get on my scooter and visit the Old Pecan Street festival (which isn't on pecan street) with my friend. What a great weekend! Thanks for reading.

Box Contents

• Roasted Beets with Feta
• Sundried Tomato Pesto Tartlets with fresh Mozzerella
• Barley and Brown Jasmine Rice Pilaf
• Three Day Sous Vide Short Ribs