Sous Vide Pork Belly & Crackling| Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide pork belly with crackling and baked apple

COOK TIME: 3 hours
PREP TIME: 24 hours
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

Pork belly

400g of pork belly
100g of sugar
100g of salt
1 tbsp of smoked paprika
2 cardamom pods, crushed
1 tsp of fennel seeds
1 tsp of coriander seeds
1 dash of oil

Crackling

1 pork belly skin
rapeseed oil, or sunflower oil, for frying
salt
pepper

Baked apple purée

2 Bramley apples
1 Granny Smith apple

Celeriac purée

1 celeriac
milk
1 garlic, peeled and bruised
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
salt
pepper

To serve

150ml of red wine jus

Heritage carrots

4 heritage carrots, 2 yellow, 2 purple
1 knob of butter, small
salt
pepper
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary

Equipment

Method

This delicious recipe by chef Richard Davies has been recreated for our website with kind permission from Great British Chefs

Method

You will need to prepare the pork belly 24 hours before serving the dish. To do this, combine the salt, sugar and spices in a bowl. Sprinkle some of the mixture onto a baking tray then place the pork belly on top, ensuring it is skin side down. Use the remaining spice mixture to sprinkle the top side of the pork belly then allow to chill for 24 hours
After 24 hours, fill and preheat your water bath to 70°C
Take the pork belly from the fridge and rinse thoroughly for at least 10 minutes. Pat the meat dry before placing in a vacuum sealer pouch and sealing. Submerge in the bath and cook for 24 hours
Once cooked, take the meat out of the pouch and slice into portions. Refrigerate until required
To prepare the crackling take the pork belly skin and remove all the excess fat. Place the skin in a pan of cold water. Heat on the stove until simmering then cover with a cartouche. Allow to simmer for 2 hours or until you are able to pinch through the skin
If you have a dehydrator preheat it to 60°C. Alternatively you can use a conventional oven
Drain the liquid from the pan then transfer the skin onto a non-stick baking tray. Place into the dehydrator or oven and cook until the skin is crispy
To finish the crackling, break into small pieces and transfer to a preheated deep-fat fryer (180°C). Fry the pieces until light brown in colour and chewy in texture. Remove from the fryer and drain before seasoning to taste. Set aside
Now move on to the apple pureé. Bake the apples in a preheated oven (190°C) for 25-30 minutes or until they are soft. Blend until smooth then pass through a chinois
Begin the celeriac pureé by chopping the celeriac and placing into a pan. Cover with milk before adding both the thyme and garlic. Simmer until the celeriac is tender. Drain the milk into a jug and take out the thyme sprigs. Blend the celeriac pieces until smooth. Use the milk to bind the pureé together then strain the mixture. Season to taste then transfer the pureé to a piping bag and set aside until ready to serve
Fill and preheat your water bath to 87°C
Lastly you will need to prepare the heritage carrots to accompany the dish. Begin by peeling the carrots then use either a melon baller or a Parisienne spoon to shape the carrots into small balls. Place the sphere-shaped carrots into a vacuum pouch along with rosemary, thyme and seasoned butter then vacuum seal
Submerge the pouches into the bath and cook sous vide for 30 minutes
When ready to serve the dish preheat the oven to 200°C. Heat some oil in a pan then take the pork belly portions from the fridge and add to the hot pan to colour evenly all over. Transfer to a baking sheet and cook in the over for approximately 4-5 minutes or until the meat has warmed through
In the meantime, take the carrots and colour along with butter and seasoning in a hot pan
Warm both pureés and the red wine jus just before serving
To arrange the dish, lay each pork belly portion onto a plate then dot the pureés down the side. Arrange the carrots around the plate then scatter with the crackling. Finish with a drizzle of red wine jus

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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