Let's make pork belly - WARNING: Sous Vide

First, make the chicken stock from wing tips, mirepoix, garlic, ginger, peppercorns, bay leaf. I love fresh ginger in my stock, and I cut off the tops of celery that I wouldn't use for anything else.



I'm then following Thomas Keller's recipe from his book Under Pressure. He recommends making an herb sachet wrapped in plastic so that the herbs are not in direct contact with the protein. It's fresh thyme, peppercorns and bay leaf, rolled and then cut into portions. The cooled chicken stock added to the bag helps disperse the flavors. Here's the sachet before rolled up...



Brining pork belly



Here's the pork belly portion vacuumed in a food saver bag with herb sachet (cut into portions for each bag) and cooled chicken stock. How did I seal it with the liquid stock? I propped open the bag in my freezer until solid, then vacuum sealed it.



Into the 180 degree water for 12 hours, then ice bathed down for an hour.

Keller says to cut off the skin, leaving only a thin layer of fat, then sear in a pan. Since this was my first time making pork belly using this method, I cut the belly into four different sized pieces to see how they would turn out and what I could do with them in the future.



The bits on the left would make a killer garnish. The second was more like cracklins, and the larger portion on the right was sublime. This was merely a test run for future dishes, but I plated one up with jus and sriracha. Here's a pic after I bit off half of it. Looks dry but wasn't. The crispiness was awesome and after I dragged it through the jus and sriracha, the bite was a pure foodgasm.



As most know, I'm constantly exploring what sous vide is capable of. More to come.