Sous Vide Pork Chinese Style. (Con)Fusion Cooking.

I’m managing to totally befuddle myself. Up to a few weeks ago, I was pretty clear on the principles of Fusion Cooking. As I understood it, all one had to do was add some chilli, garlic, coriander leaf and a slice of lime to any tried and trusted European dish. Hey Presto! – Fusion Cooking. A regular beef stew could be transformed by the adding of a couple of bashed lemongrass stalks and a ghost chilli. Fusion was easy to understand, if less easy to comprehend. So, when I decided to cook some Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin Chinese Style, it was more confusion than fusion.

• My ingredients list was pretty ‘Oriental’ in it’s origin. Ingredients
• 2 pork tenderloins
• 1 tablespoon of 5 spice powder
• 1 tablespoon of Szechuan peppercorns

The rest of the ingredients are used to make up the noodles. I served five of us with this lot.

• 6 portions of noodles
• 10 dried Chinese mushrooms
• 2 bell peppers
• 6 to 8 spring onions
• A big handful of green beans
• A big knob of ginger
• 2 tablespoons of rice wine
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

First trim and prepare the tenderloins.

Totally gratuitous meat trimming shot. Nothing too confusing about that.

Crush the peppercorns and mix with the 5 spice powder. Cut the tenderloins in half and roll in the spice mixture.

A completely extraneous meat rolling in spice photo.

Vacuum seal the meat.

The spice is pressed into the meat when vacuum sealed.

Side note on confusion: I have never come across any Oriental dishes cooked sous vide. Why is that? The sous vide method was originally tried out by a Brit, abandoned and rediscovered by some French and Americans and, as far as I can see, never used by the Orientals. Yet, it seems to be so appropriate to this type of dish. I’m discombobulated! 

Set the sous vide machine to 53ºC for an hour and pop the bags of meat into the water.

This blog is beginning to look like an advertisement for sous viding.

Then get on with chopping the ginger, mushrooms and the vegetables. Get the ginger into shreds, the mushrooms and vegetables into small bite size pieces.

About this size will do. The beans go very well with noodles.

Cook the noodles and reserve. Heat some oil in a wok and add the ginger. When this releases some aromas, add the rest of the vegetables.

Lots of colour makes this a pleasure to cook.

Add the rice wine and stir fry until the colours get high and the veg is ‘al denté’ (strange  to use an Italian term.  for Oriental cooking). Add the soy sauce and stir it a bit.

Look at those wonderful vegetable colours.

Add the noodles and get ready to do a lot of heavy lifting. There is a lot to be stirred in the wok.

That will make a man of you. Stir those noodles until everything is combined.

Turn the heat off. Take the pork out of its plastic wrapper. It looks and feels pretty strange at this stage.

Very odd-looking pork. Note the seams that have formed around the middle. Confusing or what?

Heat a little oil in a frying pan and quickly (It happens very quickly) brown the pork. Slice it and serve it on a bed of the noodles.

Perfectly cooked pork with a spicy, crispy crust.

My state of bewilderment was complete at this stage. This was the most delicious piece of Oriental anything I have ever tasted. I can’t understand why nobody (or so it seems to me) has not confused fusion cooking by adding in sous vide. I’ll be doing a lot more of this.

This didn’t last long. We loved it.

Wine paring: My wine choice for this was not wine at all. Very confusing, I know. I served it with a glass of Rosé Lillet. It stood up well to the spice and salty soy.

If you get a chance to cook sous vide, try this. You will be left as befuddled and perplexed as me. Why has it not been done before? It’s a form of fusion confusion.