Buta no Kakuni

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1 kg boneless pork belly
• 100 ml soy sauce
• 100 ml mirin
• 100 ml sake
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 3 cloves garlic
• 6 cm ginger root
• 3 spring onions

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 day 12 hours 10 minutes; Total time approx. 1 day 12 hours 40 minutes

Japanese-style pork belly from the sous-vide cooker

First, cut the pork belly into approximately 3 cm cubes, ideally with layers of fat and meat as evenly as possible. You can prepare the belly in the same way with or without the rind. First, place the cubes fat-side down in a hot pan and sear them vigorously. Since some of the fat will immediately release, no additional fat is needed. Then sear the other side and remove from the pan. Mix together the mirin, sake, soy sauce, sugar, and a little fish sauce. Peel and slice the garlic and ginger, and roughly chop the spring onions. Vacuum-seal everything together with the pork belly cubes and let it cook in a sous vide cooker for 36 hours at 64 °C. Of course, it goes much faster if you choose a higher temperature, but then the fat won’t convert into a pure, tender melt as ideally. When the cooking time is over, remove the meat cubes from the cooking bags and keep them warm in the oven at 65 °C. Reduce the cooking liquid again until it begins to thicken. To serve, coat the pork belly pieces only thinly with the very aromatic sauce. Buta no Kakuni simply translates from Japanese as gently cooked pork belly cubes. The variations of this dish lie primarily in the marinade/cooking liquid and the cooking time. Because of the slow cooking required, this recipe is particularly well-suited for sous vide cooking.