Pork poached in Chinese-style star anise sauce

Notes

This dish can be made sous vide. We have done this, successfully. The ratios and quantities are the same. Instead of adding the meat to the pan D, allow the sauce to cool below 60°C / 140°F and then transfer to a vacuum bag with the pork and seal. Cook at 60°C / 140°F for 1 hour 30 minutes. The rest of the process is the same: reduce the sauce while keeping the meat warm. The meat is very tender and there is no margin for error.

Our next experiment is to do an equilibrium brine on the meat prior to cooking. The pork was almost too tender—soft but not yet mushy. I think that a little extra springiness to the meat may be obtained by brining. Following that, blanching the outside of the meat and then jacarding prior to equilibrium brine with marinade (see Heston Blumenthal’s pork belly brine as a reference along with Modernist Cuisine). The incremental experimentation will allow me to analyse the impact of each process. Will the marinade add significantly more flavour? Finally, rolling the meat in a tight plastic truncheon so that the result is more uniformly cylindrical and I wonder if the saltiness of squid ink…

Food pairings

Baby bok choy, asian greens, rice