Tag Archives: Home Cooked Heston

SousVide Pulled Pork


SOUSVIDE PULLED PORK 

This tasted every bit as good as it sounds. Being a HCH dinner party I had to impress of course and as you can see below it pulled apart too easily. Combining this with some slaw, caramelised onions and steamed buns (that my dear friend Dre made bless her they added to the dish) with spiced infused apple sauce or a killer smokey BBQ bourbon sauce, it was so damn good. As I know a lot of you guys don’t have SousVides I will also give you a method equivalent for the oven or slow cooker.

IMG_8202

 Ingredients

For the Pork
– 1 Kg of Pork Shoulder
– 2 Cups of Stock (Pork or Chicken)
– 1 Tbsp of Peppercorns
– 1 Tbsp of Coriander Seeds
– 1 Tsp of Fennel Seeds
For the Caramelised Onions
– 3 Onions, Sliced
– ¼ Cup Balsamic Vinegar
– 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
For the Slaw
– ¼ Head of Red Cabbage
– ¼ Head of Green Cabbage
– ½ Bulb of Fennel
– 2 Carrots, Grated
– Kewpie (Japanese Mayonnaise)
– Juice of ½ a Lemon
For the Apple Sauce
– Store Bought Apple Sauce
– 3 Star Anise
– 1 Cinnamon Quill
– 10 Peppercorns
For the Bourbon Sauce
– 2 Cups Tomato Sauce
– 1 Cup Bourbon Whiskey
– ½ cup brown sugar
– ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
– 3 Tbsp Chopped Garlic
– 2 Tbsp Liquid Smoke
– 2 Tbsp Worcester Sauce
– 1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
– 2 Tbsp whole grain mustard

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_8127IMG_8102

METHOD

DAY 1: For the pork, debone the pork shoulder and remove any unwanted fat and gristle. Place the pork in a vacpac bag along with the stock, pepper corns, coriander and fennel seeds. Seal and place in the fridge over night.

IMG_8205

DAY 2: Fill the SousVide with water to the fill line located inside and set to a temperature of 57.5ºC. Place the bag with the pork in and leave until day three.

DAY 3: For the apple sauce place all ingredients into a vacpac bag and seal. Place into the SousVide and await for the final day to come!

IMG_8203IMG_8196

DAY 4: For the caramelised onion, place them in a fry pan on medium heat and cook them until they become translucent. Next add the sugar and balsamic vinegar, this starts your caramelisation process. Turn down the heat and cook for five to ten minutes or until sticky and caramelised. For the slaw, use the mandolin to shed the two different cabbages, fennel and cabbage carrots and put into a large bowl. Add the kewpie and lemon juice and using a fork combine all the ingredients together. Season with salt and pepper.

IMG_8201IMG_8198IMG_8206IMG_8200

For the bourbon sauce, place all ingredients into a small saucepan and whisk to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook for ten minutes then remove from the heat and set aside for the flavours to infuse. When you are ready to serve take the pork out of the SousVide and put on a hot frypan to brown and caramelised all over. Remove from the pan, place on the largest meat cutting board you have and with two forks pull apart the meat with oh so much ease.

To assemble cut the buns in half place a little bit (or a lot) of the pork, some slaw then caramelised onion and top with either of the two sauces (or both we were hungry!) and enjoy.

IMG_8197

Below are the links for cooking in the oven:

http://userealbutter.com/2007/11/09/carolina-style-pulled-pork-recipe/

AND here is the recipe my good blogger buddy GusFace Grillah made for pulled pork

http://gusfacegrillah.com/2014/03/03/pulled-pork-the-first-attempt/

Adapted the bourbon sauce from the guys at Modernist Cuisine link below. I added so many other ingredients to mine but the thing is I forgot all of them as i did not write them down 😦 haha

http://www.modernistcookingmadeeasy.com/info/modernist-recipes/more/sous-vide-pulled-pork-recipe

Duck À L’Orange


DUCK À L’ORANGE

I wanted to cook a great meal for my beautiful girlfriend Emma and I thought the best way to do this was to cook her something from Shannon Bennett’s cook book “My Vue” and take her back to our Vue de Monde experience. This was the second time I have cooked this dish but this time round I had a lot better of a recipe. I had to improvise a little but managed to produce a very good-looking dish. Duck being one of my favourite types of meat, it really was a spectacular dish. I did adapt this dish however because I had a whole duck to get rid of.

IMG_7706

INGREDIENTS

– 1 Whole Duck

– 2 Shallots

– 1 Garlic Clove

– 5 Sprigs of Thyme

– 4 Star Anise

– 2 Bay Leaves

– 100 ml of Grand Marnier

– 2 Cups of Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

– Sea Salt Flakes and Freshly Cracked Pepper

– Grape Seed Oil

– 8 Thin Slices of Pancetta

– 1 Small Onion

– 100 ml of Double Cream

– Thermometer

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180º. Cut the legs off with poultry scissors, place on a tray lined with baking paper and then season with salt and pepper and place in the oven until they reach 54º. Let rest and shred the meat and set aside for later.

Next remove the breasts. Heat a large heavy base frypan, season the breasts with salt and pepper and sear on all sides. Then place in the oven with a thermometer and cook until you reach a temperature of 54º remove from the heat and let rest. The temperature should rise to around 58º to 60º which is the temperature you want.

IMG_7705

To make the orange sauce you need to melt ½ a tablespoon of butter in a heavy-based sauce pan. Add the shallots, garlic, thyme, star anise, bay leaves and cook for 2 minutes. Add the Grand Marnier and reduce by two-thirds. Add the orange juice and reduce by half. Whisk in one tablespoon of butter which gives it a smooth, thick sauce. Strain through a fine sieve and season with salt and pepper. Place a thin slice of orange and a slice of pancetta into the oven this was the flower shaped garnish I used.

IMG_7704 IMG_7701

For the sautéed cabbage heat one tablespoon of grape seed oil in a large fry pan. Add the pancetta, onion and sauté for two minutes without colouring. Toss in the duck leg meat, remove from the and set aside. In the same pan, warm the cabbage for one minute. Add a teaspoon of water to create steam to help cook the cabbage. Return the pancetta mixture to the pan and the double cream. Reduce for two minutes or until the sauce resembles mayonnaise.

IMG_7703

To plate up slice the duck into centimetre pieces and position on the plate. Spoon full of the pancetta mixture next to the meat and push the slice of orange on top. Lastly, place the curled pancetta on top of the orange slice and spoon the orange sauce over the dish as little or as much as you like.

–

Full Credit to Shannon Bennett on this dish. I have made a number of recipes from his limited edition book and boy are they good!