Sweet and Sour Pork with the Billyboil

Have you ever heard the term Thermal Cooking before dear Readers?


It certainly wasn't a term I was familiar with until recently. Also known as Vacuum Cooking, it's a great method to create delicious meals while saving on time, energy and power bills

The nice people at Billyboil kindly sent me a unit to play with, no strings attatched regarding writing a review or plugging their product, but I was genuinely impressed with it's ease of use and overall performance and just couldn't help letting you know how great it really is and how easy it is to use

The Billyboil is a nice little unit that has an insulated outer pot that acts as a thermos maintaining temperatures for quite a long time, and an inner pot that's just like a regular saucepan or stockpot.
 It's perfectly suited for 'Wet Dishes' like casseroles, curries or braising, but you can also use it to cook rice, pasta or even breads or cakes!

I thought the best way to try it out would be with a dish I'm comfortable and familiar with so I'd have something to compare it to at the end of the day

The recipe I decided to go with is pretty much my tried and true Sweet and Sour recipe. I blogged about it a few years ago here: Cooking En Masse  It's actually still one of my favourite posts, as it shows a little about what I love to do and what it's like to put your food and heart on a plate :)

I have cut down the process a little and have chosen more store cupboard ingredients along with the fresh veggies as this is more suited to the style of the Billyboil with it's camping/mobile application where you might have limited pantry access

Sweet and Sour Pork
* If you aren't lucky enough to have a Billyboil on hand, you can of course cook it gently on the stove top, in a slow cooker, or even a pressure cooker if you're pressed for time

500gm diced Pork
large tin/440gm tin Australian Pineapple Pieces
1/2 cup gf Hoisin Sauce
1 tab Sesame Oil
1 tab Arrowroot Powder
375ml tetra pack Chicken or Veggie Stock
1 big tab minced Garlic
1 big tab minced Ginger
1 large Capsicum
1 large Onion
2 large Carrots
2 large Tomatoes


For those who don't know, this is arrowroot. It's a great thickening agent that sets clear, works well with acid and doesn't need to be boiled to thicken up- it's also gluten free

You can use any cut of pork, but I used fore quarter chops and just trimmed off the bone and fat. They are such an economical cut of meat and well suited for this style of cooking

Mix the ginger, garlic and sesame oil into the pork and let it marinate for a while. Overnight would be fine, but even just while you prep the veggies will be OK

Slice the veggies into nice bite size pieces. They don't need to be too thin as you don't want them to mush

Using the inner pot, brown off the meat in a little oil. I always like to do this to seal it and add a little extra depth of flavour, but you can skip it if you don't have the time

Add in all the veggies

Combine the pineapple with all the juice, hoisin sauce and stock together, then pour into the pot and mix through

Bring the pot to the boil, then simmer for about 10 or so minutes to bring the temperature of the contents up to a safe region

Yes, the pot is quite full- I was greedy and made a huge batch. With wet dishes like this I always make extra to add to my Freezer Meal stash for busy days. The recipe given above is more manageable with just a nice generous amount for 4 or 5 hungry people. The inner pot has a 3.5 litre capacity and as you can see I filled it right up

As I don't want to give anyone food poisoning, I took the temperature of my dish after simmering so I had a bench mark to compare it to before serving, it was definitely nice and hot indeed

Quickly add in the arrowroot dissolved into a little water, and stir to mix through
Pop the lid on, and then put the whole pot into the outer unit and close it up immediately

Now go and do whatever you want to do for pretty much the rest of the day. The Billyboil website claims the unit will retain it's heat safely for up to 8 hours, so far I've only tested it to 5 1/2, but with fantastic results

I left my meal for about 4 1/2 hours, and as you can see the temperature was still well and truly in the Safe Zone at over 80*C. I could have left it for a couple more hours if I was busy and it would still have been fine, but it was dinner time and the family wasn't prepared to eat at bedtime- even for the sake of scientific investigation. They can be difficult like that sometimes... :)

Cooking the meal the Billyboil way really does work indeed! It's such a lovely gentle method of cooking that results in tender meat, veggies that still hold their shape and structure, and sauce with a lovely clean, fresh taste. I can definitely see it becoming a fixture around my kitchen as it will save so much time, effort and energy!

You can see how convenient this little package is for caravanning adventures- just get it ready in the morning while you're still plugged in on-site, and you can have a nice hot meal at tea time without having to plug in or get a generator going. It's also handy for people like my parents who live on a rural property that can be regularly flooded in and suffer power blackouts.
Last year they had to go a whole week without power and had to cook everything over an open fire. The Billyboil would have been a godsend indeed, as it only needs to be on the heat for such a small length of time and would save so much fuel and effort

So Dear Readers, what's your favourite 'Wet Dish' and have you heard of Thermal Cookers before?

Thanks to the nice guys at Billyboil for sending me one of their products to play with! For more information, or to find out where to buy a Billyboil of your own, check out their website Here 
to answer any questions you might have about this energy efficient cooking style

 

Cooking En Masse

Not for the faint hearted.

This post is about corporate catering. At one of my places of employment we cater for HUGE amounts of people at a time.
This poses unique challenges like: Is pre cooked food really any good? How can something maintain it's structural and flavour integrity if it has to plonked in a bain marie for an hour? How can I stir 75 kilos of meat plus veggies and liquid in a vat the size of a single bed when I'm only 5'1" and have girly muscles and not quite optimum physical fitness levels? All will be revealed.....

Just so you understand, the photos for this post won't be too terrific. I had to shoot them under harsh fluro lights with my phone camera, dodging steam and grease. I figure as most of you would like a look behind the curtain, you'd probably forgive me.

Today I'm making Sweet and Sour Pork.

So as not to scare you too much, this is a SMALL example of my daily work. There's only 45kgs of meat this time. I know some chefs who hate cooking like this, but I really do enjoy it, I like to think that the dish still deserves the very best I can give it, and as much flavour as I get in! It's all about the love.

I won't give quantities for obvious reasons. Adjust the amounts to suit your individual needs, not all families have such voracious appetites. Here's another secret, I make it up as I go along. I have a vague outline of what to include, but I can pretty much use what I can find. This is not, repeat not, haute cuisine. I don't have access to fancy pantsy ingredients, just good honest basics and a few extras.

This is the meat I'm using today, as I said, it's only 45 kilos this time, lovely cubed pork shoulder at 92% lean. To get the most flavour in I'm going to marinate the meat overnight in a mixture of minced ginger, bashed up garlic cloves and some sesame oil. Massage it in (a good arm work out) and wheel back into the coolroom overnight.

I'm not going to deep fry the pork for this, as it has to be reheated the batter would go soggy anyway, and this way it's a bit more healthy. So, to cook this I'm going to steam it. I like this method as it's a good way to keep the juices in and tenderise the meat without overcooking it or drying it out. I put the meat on perforated trays to stop it stewing but over deeper containers to catch the juices so I can use them in the sauce later.

 What do you think of our big combi oven? This can do the lot, steam, conventional heating, or any combination in between. Fantastic, don't you wish you had one- maybe just a bit smaller perhaps. I pop the trays in for just long enough for the meat to be cooked through, but juicy, and nice and soft still.

The trays go onto a trolley, and then into the blast chiller. We need to get the temperature of the meat down quickly to keep it in appropriate safe zones. The standard guide is above 65* or below 5*, the middle zone is the perfect environment for breeding nasties that could make you sick. I could just put the meat in the hot sauce, but because the food won't be served for a day or so, I want to keep it separate and maintain the structural integrity of both meat and veggies, and it's easier to do if they're apart.

 Now to the sauce.

For economy I'm using a mixture of fresh and tinned pineapple. Of course if this was for home it would be all lovely Queensland beauties, but at least this way I can use the juice from the tins in the sauce. The amount shown in the photos is just a token amount, I used a LOT more than this I can assure you.

I start off making a syrup with drained pineapple juice, castor sugar, white vinegar and some ginger and garlic. I boil this down until it's reduced and add some tomato paste and a little bit of salt as well- in this case I add it by the handful, not pinch. I also add in a lot of the liquid that came off the pork, this way I have the best flavour and I'm not diluting it.

 Once I'm happy with the way it's going, I throw in a couple of buckets of onion pieces. I never want to hear you whining about peeling a few onions again Readers, just try doing this for an hour or so at a time, peeling then slicing, with acid stinging your eyes and tears running down your cheeks. Suck it up Princess.

 Once these have softened down a little, I add the carrots and let them cook off for about 10 minutes or so. I turn the heat off, then add the pineapple and once it's cooled a little, the capsicums. It's a constant juggling act to get the flavors mingling happily without turning everything to mush. Remember this meal will get reheated in a day, then popped in a hot box for delivery to the customers, then placed in a chafing dish to stay hot until the customers get around to eating it. That's a lot to expect from my poor little sweet and sour porky!

Now I scoop out the veggies and put them in vats for cooling down. I leave the sauce as I want to thicken it a little. I know that more liquid will seep from the pineapple over time, so a bit of thickening is definitely called for. My favourite way to do this is with an Arrowroot powder. I make a slurry with a small amount of water bring the sauce to the boil and mix it in. Arrowroot doesn't have any colour or flavour and doesn't cloud the mix either. It's also gluten free! In fact the whole dish is, this means it's easier for me to taste as I go, and sample some for lunch- I mean for 'quality control'.

Now I cool the sauce, and put everything in the great big walk in coolrooms until tomorrow.

Ok, now to bring it all together.
 I've got to mix the meat, the veggies and the sauce into one mass of yumminess. I had to split it into 2 lots and then glove up to mix, mix, mix! Once again a terrific upperbody workout. I like to leave the boxes on trolleys as it's easier on my back that way then bending over the floor, but it would be soooo much easier if I was just a bit taller.

The meal now has to get split into the right size bain marie containers. It all depends on what function it's going to and how many each is catering for. The dishes are then double wrapped with cling film, overlapping so nothing can get in or out. The steam oven generates a fair bit of condensation and I don't want it diluting the meal.

 Back into the coolroom again, and just a little while to showtime. This all needs to be done quickly, every step is more time out of the coolroom and we need to keep the temperature in that safe zone remember.

 Action stations everyone!
The baines go into the steam oven for about 2 hours to heat up thoroughly. Before pulling them out of the oven, I use this nifty little instant read probe to check temperatures again- after all, I don't want anyone getting sick on my watch, and if all is well, they go into the hot box.

The hot box keeps the food at a constant safe temperature so we can deliver it where it needs to go. As you can see, it's bigger than me as well, and it's very, very heavy. This needs to be pushed miles along carpeted floors... another good workout. The dishes then get taken out and put into the chafing dishes at the various functions. The box sides are really, really hot and if you accidentally brush your hand against them the skin will either blister or be seared right off leaving a painful burn for more than a week. Good news for the food, not so much for me.

Ok, by my reckoning, I have taken the meat from the coolroom, lifted into the vats, lifted onto steam trays, trays into steamer, from steamer onto trolley, from trolley into vats, then sauce onto meat, then meat into bain trays, then back onto trolley, then into steamer again, then out of steamer into hot box, then hot box to chafing dishes. Is that 11 times? So 11 x 45kgs, well more than that with the sauce and the veggies and stuff, 495kgs, no wonder I'm so tired every night! Why aren't I stick thin? It must be all the muscles I'm building, yeah, that's right, muscles.


Have you ever waved a loved one off at the airport, never expecting to see them again?
It would be a lot like this.
The food is now out of my control. I have taken it from it's very basic existence, nurtured it, given it a healthy environment, kept it warm and tucked in carefully, helped it mature with a bit of exotic culture, and added a lot of love.
Now it heads off into the big wide world to be investigated, judged and criticized. It's upbringing and parentage perhaps called into question as well. I've done my best, now I just have to trust in the strength and integrity I've built into it's character.
The only difference between this and a loved one, is in this case, I am happy for it to be attacked and devoured by strangers- for money.

Well Readers, have you enjoyed this voyeuristic foray into corporate catering?
I trust you will never again eat these type of mass function foods without a little thought for us behind the scenes, and a new appreciation for the effort that goes into it.