Pork Belly

I brined a slab of pork belly overnight in the following brine solution:

4 cups water
50g kosher salt
50g dark brown sugar
4 bay leaves
.5g thyme
.5g ginger powder

After rinsing and drying, I vacuum sealed the slab of pork belly with maple syrup (from Michigan!) and duck fat. It was then cooked at 182F for 10 hours.

After ten hours, the pork belly was taken out, the fat side scored, and then placed onto a cast iron pan and cooked for about 12 minutes on the fatty side to crisp it up.

The pork belly was also served with some apples. For the apples, I first created a syrup of sauvignon blanc by taking 25g sauvignon blanc, 25g sugar, 25g water and boiling it in a sauce pan. Stirring to make sure the sugar was dissolved, I placed the syrup into a steel bowl over ice, and cooled it. Using a melon baller, I pulled apple balls, and placed it into the cool syrup. The entire batch went into a bag, and it was cooked sous vide at 185F for 30 minutes.