This weeks Egg Award blog centres on sousvidetools.com who have donated a PolyScience Smoking Gun as a prize for the winner. So we're delighted to welcome this North West company who are the UK's leading supplier of sous vide and vacuum packing equipment. They are a family run business that distributes all over the UK, Ireland and Europe to aspirational chefs and foodies who enjoy cooking, who strive for consistency and accuracy whilst always looking to further refine their cooking skills.
The great news for Egg Award entrants is that sousvidetools.com are giving competitors 10% off - so get your thinking caps on foodies and chefs and get a dish in for The Egg Award 2013. You can find out details by clicking on this link.
At sousvidetools.com their portfolio of products offers everything you would need for sous vide cooking commercially or domestically, from sous vide water baths, thermal circulators, vacuum sealers, vacuum packing machines and vacuum pouches. For customers starting out with Sous Vide cooking they also offer a full range of books that offer not only recipes but an insight into Sous Vide as a cooking technique. You will also find areas on the sousvidetools.com website that will give you an insight into the world of Sous Vide cooking, this will hopefully give ideas on how you can incorporate the technique into your own kitchen.
They understand that with ever changing consumer demands a business has to constantly adapt to meet its customers' needs. For this reason sousvidetools.com understands the fundamental science of advanced culinary techniques so that together with tem you can deliver your customers an experience they'll definitely remember. Backing up the science, their team has a wealth of experience in Sous Vide cooking and vacuum packing, which allows them to offer top level sales and technical support. They're particularly committed to offering a “one-stop-shop” to professional chefs and foodies alike focussed on Sous Vide cooking trends and have just started providing hands on training courses and chef support through their development chef Chris Holland on this important culinary technique.
Chris Holland
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"…all in all I would recommend the equipment to any aspiring amateur cook or professional chef…"
More words from Chris…
I have been using equipment supplied by SousVideTools.com for over 12 months now and for me the equipment speaks for itself. In particular I found that the range offered by SousVideTools.com is second to none. It gave me the opportunity to buy the most important pieces of equipment in my kitchen from one supplier. I have found in particular that the Foodtek Platinum Thermal Circulator produces a fantastic way of delivering real precision cookery in any part of the kitchen. All in all I would recommend the equipment to any aspiring amateur cook or professional chef.
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One of their most exciting new products is the Smoking Gun™ by PolyScience® which is the quickest and most convenient way to apply cool natural smoke to food. The ability to expose food to smoke without heat opens new ways to create exciting flavours and unexpected combinations. Compared to a traditional smoker, which uses heat and longer smoking times, applying The Smoking Gun™ technique leads to a lighter infusion or subtle finish of smoke. This allows for quite unusual approaches to smoking.
Sous vide crispy skinned pork belly
The 4.5 day process
- The belly is brined for 24 hours in a standard brine mix of sugar, salt, peppercorns and water.
- Then it’s sprinkled with Chinese five spice (though not on the skin) before being vac sealed and poached at 62°C for 72 hours (don’t forget to top it up with water during that time, we must have added a few litres to the bath over those three days).
- After that I cooled it quickly, and once cool, removed it from the pouch (reserving the crystal clear jellified pork stock surrounding the slab).
- I covered it with a sheet of baking paper and a chopping board and placed it in the fridge under some heavy weights for 12 hours. This pressing made it much more uniform, flat and easier to work with.
- Following that I scored the skin in a criss cross pattern (it looks at that stage like it has a sheet of plastic over it).
- Placed it onto an oven rack over the sink and poured a whole kettle of boiling water over it, this makes the scored skin really open up and steam off excess moisture in the fat, which you need to do to get crispy skin later.
- After patting the belly dry with kitchen paper I placed it into the fridge for a few hours to chill down and dry out further.
- Then it was ready to cook.
Pork belly for four, or pork belly for two and enough for another meal a different day
- 1.4kg belly pork – skin on, hair removed, not scored, mine was without bones (though had a few small ones in it)
- 100g salt
- 100g sugar
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 2L cold water
- Chinese five spice powder
- Groundnut oil
Method
- Into a large pot place the water, sugar, salt and peppercorns. Stir until dissolved (some recipes call for doing this warm then letting it cool, but this works just as well) and place the pork belly into it, skin side up for 24 hours.
- Remove the pork from the brine and on the flesh side only, sprinkle Chinese five spice powder. Then vac seal and place into your sous vide at 62°C for 72 hours.
- Remove it from the sous vide and cool down in an ice bath or under a cold running tap for a good 15 minutes. Open the pouch and remove all the clear pork gelatin off from ound the slab, reserving it for another recipe (I will be blogging my sous vide pork belly with dashi and pork consomme with noodles shortly, and it’s made for that).
- Transfer the slab to a plate then cover with greaseproof paper and a chopping board and weigh down in the fridge (I used some large tins and jars, a mortar would work too) leave for 12 hours.
- Take out of the fridge and score the skin diagonally with a sharp knife, cutting into the fat beneath the skin but not the flesh.
- Place the pork onto a wire or oven rack and suspend over the sink, then pour a full kettle of boiling water over the skin. Leave the pork there for 10 minutes as the steam steams off and the crosses open right up.
- Pat dry with kitchen paper to get rid of all the moisture on the surface and place back into the fridge for a few hours to chill down and dry out further.
- Preheat your oven to 220°C.
- Remove the pork from the fridge and cut into cubes as large as you like, then sprinkle the skin of each cube with a little five spice and more salt.
- Place 1cm groundnut oil into a saucepan (the higher the sides of the pan the better – this next bit will spit a lot) and heat it up on a high heat. After 5 minutes heating up place the cubed pork in there skin side down, cook for 2 to 3 minutes – you’re wanting it to get a rich golden colour. Then turn the dice over on all sides for a further minute.
- Remove all the cubes and place them onto a baking sheet, skin side up and place into the hot oven for 4 minutes to cook through and really crisp up the top.
- Remove and eat. We ate our belly with jasmine rice, and Chinese stir fried vegetables and dried scallops with a ginger and garlic infusion.
Aiden Byrne
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…like the Polyscience Immersion Circulator, which enables us to cook with accuracy and precision never seen before"
More words from Aiden…
There are no new fish coming out of the ocean and all the food groups remain the same. So to provide innovative tastes and culinary experiences, chefs search for new techniques and technologies, which is why I work with SousVideTools.com, like the Polyscience Immersion Circulator, which enables us to cook with accuracy and precision never seen before.
Aiden Byrne - Head Chef/Owner - The Church Green
Chef Patron - the newly-opening Manchester House
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