Extreme Cooking Blog

Took some of the leftover pork from yesterday (see below) with the caramelized pineapple and some Oaxacan cheese and stuffed them into roasted poblanos.

Of course carnitas and tacos al pastor are different dishes. And they definitely do NOT involve sous vide techniques. But stay with me here and see what may be the best dish I have ever cooked.

I took a big pork shoulder roast (picnic portion) and cut it into big chunks.The skin/rind was removed. The pork chunks went into pouches with my standard al pastor marinade, sealed, and left to marinate overnight. The next day the pouches went into a 154F water bath and left for 24 hours. The chunks were throughly dried and then fried in very hot lard for about 1 minute to form a nice crust.

Meanwhile the skin/rind was cut into small pieces and fried in lard for cracklings (chicharrones). Some dried chile-spiced pineapple chunks were sealed in a pouch with some orange juice to rehydrate for a few hours in the water bath. These were then caramelized with some onion with the cracklings:

The pork was fall-apart tender and extremely juicy due to the lower cooking temp.

Served on very fresh corn tortillas with some of the marinade that had been cooked down into a “manchamantel”-like sauce.

I love burrata. When I saw some at Trader Joe’s, I was excited. When I got home and tried it, I was bummed. No flavor. Yucky texture. Pizza was OK, but I won’t be buying this stuff again:

Did the buttermilk brine & all that, but with a major departure. I love big, meaty chicken thighs – skin on/bone in. The problem is that the crust can be almost burnt before the inside is completely cooked. So I brined them in buttermilk in a plastic pouch, and then cooked them sous vide @ 170F for a few hours; they were completely cooked, but still big and juicy. Then breaded them as usual, but only fried them for a few minutes until the crust was done. Very tender and juicy – not greasy. Much easier also. With mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, and green peas

The shell has some toasted almond flour in it. Just because.

This one was a little involved, but fun and really delicious. Here are the basic steps:

1. Separate whole duck into parts.
2. Marinate with some rice wine, soy sauce, etc.
3. Seal in plastic pouches
4. Cook the legs and wings for 8 hours @ 175F
5. Cook the breast for 1 hour @ 145F
6. Remove all of the skin and cook until fat rendered out and the skin is crispy
7. Make Mandarin pancakes (see video below)
8. Make hoisin-based sauce and fava bean paste sauce
9. Assemble and eat!

Here is my sous vide rig:

Mandarin Pancake Movie:

Can’t get enough of these. So much fun to bake – even more fun to eat.