Delicious. The only snafu was that I plated it in reverse order as I had intended. The potato does not work on top because it's too crispy to cut through that way. The potato dedinitely needs to be on the bottom, and I somehow just forgot when plating it this time. It's also a too-large pluche of chervil on the top. Still, this was pretty fucking tasty.

The pork belly was corned in a standard corned beef brine for 3 days, then rinsed, sealed, and poached sous vide 12 hours @ 82C. While still hot, half the corned pork belly is diced pretty small, and the other half is mixed in a stand mixer for a couple minutes with a paddle attachment, adding back as much of the liquid and fat from the bags as possible (the liquid will be quite salty, so you may not be able to add all of it). Once it's all mixed up, the diced stuff is folded back into the mixed stuff. Then all of it is added to a sheet pan to a thickness of 10mm and pressed, then refrigerated until cooled. Finally, the cooled meat will be sticking together because of the gelatin. Cut out rounds (I used a 40mm cutter) and store them, refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks. When you're ready to serve, sear the two sides of the rounds in a hot nonstick pan, using very little oil in the pan.

The potato was Kennebec potato, sliced then cut into the same size rounds as the corned pork belly, then triple fried, freezing between each fry (with the final fry being just before serving).

The yolks were awesome. Riffing on Wiley Dufresne's yolk cylinders from his Eggs Benedict dish, I wanted to make rounds the same size as the pork belly and the potato.

Structured Yolks
18 eggs

Separate 18 egg yolks from whites, picking off every little bit of white strand from yolks. Salt yolks to taste, mixing with a fork and trying not to incorporate air. Stir every minute or so for about 5 minutes, until yolks turn more translucent and orange from the salting. Pour yolks into 8" wide vacuum bag, being extremely careful that no yolks get on the inside-sides of the bag (or else it won't pull the air out of the bag). Let bag sit upright for at least an hour to let air bubbles rise. After the yolks have sat for a while, knead bag for a few seconds to pop air bubbles at the top. Vacuum seal the yolks into a bag space 8.5" long, using gravity to keep the yolks at the bottom (by putting the FoodSaver on the edge of a table and letting the bag hang down).

In order to keep the yolks flat while in the circulator, press the sealed yolk bag between two screened objects that will fit in water bath (I used a tamis and a cooling rack). Fix the two objects to each other to keep them lightly pressed against the yolk bag. Sous vide entire contraption for 17 minutes @ 70C. Remove contraption and plunge it into a sink full of cold water. After a few minutes, dismantle contraption and plunge just the bag of yolks into ice water until fully chilled. Then, cut open bag on 3 sides and peel away top of bag. Yolks are ready to be portioned however you want to do it. I used a 40cm round cutter, and I found it helpful to clean the cutter between cuts and dip the cutter edge in oil before cutting. Keep yolks in airtight container for up to one week. This yielded 18 cylinders 40mm in diameter and 10mm in height.

Temper the yolks to room temperature by removing them from the fridge an hour before you're going to serve them. Reheat them gently in a very low oven, or sous vide (with plenty of oil in the bag, and be careful you don't crush the pieces of yolk. I place the the yolk rounds on top of the pork rounds in the pan after I've already flipped the pork rounds. It helps gently warm the yolks.

Posted by Barzelay on 2009/11/24 @ 19:56 | Comments (0) | Comfort Food, Deli, Lazy Bear, Meat, Science, Technology

Name

Email

URL

Remember personal info? Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.