Sous Vide: Pork Belly

I'm on yet another adventure with my Anova Sous Vide circulator. It's been great fun fiddling with this amazing machine. It has seen steaks, eggs, chicken breast, vegetables, short ribs. Now, it's time to  put one of my favourite foods to be cooked sous vide–pork belly.

I am a big fan of this particular cut of pork, largely for its flavour, but also for the crackling when roasted. I also like it braised, be it the ang-moh style with herbs, or the Chinese style with spices. For this particular one, I am going for the char siew flavour for that smokey taste.

Pork belly lathered with the sauce and in the bags, ready for sous vide.

Here's my method, for a quick and easy prep and just let it sit in the water bath overnight.

1. Preheat the water bath to 75ºC on the sous vide circulator. I'm using the app what connects to the device via bluetooth
2. To serve 8 people, I am using 1.2kg of pork belly. Cut the pork belly, rind on, into blocks of 10cm x 10cm each. I have 4 pieces in total
3. Rub a mix of char siew sauce (I am using Lee Kum Kee) and barbecue sauce (Heinz smokey) in a 2:1 ratio. I want more of the sweetness of the char siew sauce, and a hint of smokey flavour form the barbecue sauce
4. Vacuum seal the pork belly with the sauce rubbed all over. You may want to put a couple of slices of ginger in each bag
5. Chuck the bags into the water bath, and let it sleep away for 12 hours for fork tender pork belly
6. After it is done, remove from bags. Slice up and give it a quick sear, or till the surface chars slightly
7. Serve with more sauce in a bun, together with lettuce (for freshness) and pickles of your choice

Another optional item to go along is a few sprigs of fresh thyme in the bags with the pork for sous vide. It adds more fragrance and flavour to the meat. 

The Five Dollar Dinner

#FiveDollarWonder

It all started with a conversation in Starbucks one afternoon, and the idea became a reality. A college friend, Elliot, and I, decided to create a full dinner based on a five dollar per person budget. So, we invited a whole bunch of friends along and designed a full menu consisting of an appetiser, good load of carbs and fibre, perfectly cooked protein and a nutritious dessert to finish off the meal.

We designed a simple menu that was aimed at tying all dishes tie in together with a similar flavour that flows throughout all the different courses.

1. 62º egg
    sous vide egg served in a ginger soy reduction
2. hainanese style chicken breast
    sous vide chicken breast, served with a garlic chilli dip
3. kailan, with lup cheong and scallop sauce
    poached greens with a rich chinese sausage and dried scallop dressing
4. buckwheat noodles
    soba with home made ginger soy sauce
5. yoghurt with ginger oat crumble
    chilled plain yoghurt with brown sugar and ginger crumble

62ºC egg

Poached kailan, with Chinese sausage

All plated up, sous vide chicken breast on the right.

Yoghurt with ginger oat crumble

And the best thing is, we kept to the budget! Here's a total cost breakdown for 15 people :))

1. Buckwheat Noodles  $14.00
2. Kailan (market)         $4.00
3. Ginger (market)         $1.50
4. Brown sugar              $1.15
5. Chicken breast           $16.50
6. Kailan (Fairprice)      $3.20
7. Spring onion              $1.00
8. Garlic                         $0.90
9. Lime                          $0.30
10. Chilli                       $1.00
11. Chicken rice mix     $2.95
12. Oats                         $2.50
13. Yoghurt                   $10.25
14. Butter                      $3.95
15. Eggs                        $5.70
16. Scallop sauce          $2.90
17. Chinese sausage      $3.00

Total                              $74.80

Really happy with how it had turned out! :))


Photos courtesy of Edna :) @ednacpz on instagram