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.