Sous Vide Sticky Pork Belly with Thai Mango Salad

Cooked this way, pork belly is so moist that you can literally taste the juices within the meat. Slow cooked and finished under the grill with Chinese char siu sauce, it is then served with a refreshing, spicy Thai mango salad.

Author

Christina Wylie

Christina Wylie is an award-winning writer, author, editor, food stylist, recipe creator, entrepreneur and radio host whose work has been featured in The Times & The Sunday Times, Time Out (Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong and Dubai), Traveler’s Digest, Fah Thai Magazine, Broadsheet, Wining & Dining and many other internationally renowned publications. In 2013, after almost a decade of working as an international journalist, Christina founded the online lifestyle magazine The GAB Magazine, for which she now leads a team of 60 writers based all across Australia. She then founded Samui Life Magazine in 2016. After working as a recipe creator for Anova Culinary for over a year, she signed a cookbook contract with the American-based, international publishing company Quarto. Her cookbook, titled The Sous Vide Kitchen: Techniques, Ideas, and More Than 100 Recipes to Cook at Home, was published worldwide in 2017. She wrote, styled, and photographed everything that you see within that book. In 2017 she opened her first restaurant, Bootlegger, in Koh Samui, Thailand. She is currently in the initial stages of launching Bootlegger 2 in Phuket in 2018, and is looking to open Bootlegger 3 in Bangkok in 2019. She is currently working towards stepping into the world of food and travel presenting. As an entrepreneur herself, Christina co-founded the charity initiative Project Gen Z in 2015 to teach orphaned Cambodian children entrepreneurial skills. A British expat born and raised in Hong Kong, Christina has worked across the globe, and has lived in Thailand, London, Hong Kong, Australia and South Africa over the years.

Prep Time: 00:30

Recipe Time: 16:00

Temperature : 158F / 70C

Ingredients

• 1 pound pork belly, sliced into 4 pieces
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 3 tablespoons palm sugar or packed dark brown sugar
• 2 red Thai chiles, chopped
• 2 small green mangos, sliced into thin strips
• 1 cup Thai basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup peanuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup char siu sauce

Directions

1. Set the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker to 158ºF (70ºC).
2. Season the pork belly with salt and pepper. Place in a large zipper lock or vacuum seal bag with the olive oil and garlic. Seal the bag using the water immersion technique or a vacuum sealer on the moist setting.
3. Place the bag in the water bath and set the timer for 16 hours. Cover the water bath with plastic wrap to minimize water evaporation.
4. About 30 minutes before the pork is finished, prepare the salad: Combine the fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, and chiles in a large bowl. Mix well.
5. Add the mango, basil, cilantro, and peanuts to the fish sauce mixture. Mix well and let rest until pork is finished.
6. About 5 minutes before the pork is finished, heat the broiler to high.

Finishing Steps

1. When the timer goes off, remove the bag from the water bath. Remove the pork from the bag and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the cooking liquid.
2. Transfer the pork to a foil-lined broiler-safe baking dish. Generously brush pork with char siu sauce.
3. Broil pork for 5 minutes, and then brush a second layer of char siu sauce over the pork. Continue to broil until sauce is caramelized, about 5 more minutes.
4. Transfer pork to a serving plate and let rest for 5 minutes before serving with the mango salad.