Sous Vide Pork Steaks & Mustard Gravy
Sous vide (sue-veed) is a culinary technique that translates to “under vacuum” in French. An immersion circulator is the heating element that heats and circulates water, and that heating element is set to the temperature you want the meal prepared.
Ingredients
Equipment
Sous vide immersion circulator
large container that easily fits loin
cast iron
Pork Steaks
1 pork loin - roughly 6 pounds
3 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp mustard powder
1/2 Tbsp chile powder
1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
About 2 Tbsp dijon
A few tablespoons of neutral cooking oil
Gravy
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 Tbsp dijon
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 cup stock of choice
1/2 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Reserved juices from cooking bag
Directions
Fill a container that's large enough to fit the entire loin with water and preheat the immersion circulator to 130°F.
Trim the pork if needed. If desired, use kitchen twine to tie the pork into a tighter, more uniform log. Season the pork with the spices and mustard. Vacuum seal the pork and let her go in the sous vide for 4 hours.
After the time is up, place the vacuum sealed pork into an ice bath until completely chilled, about 10 minutes. At this point, you may store this in the fridge up to 3 days before searing or into the freezer for future use.
Remove the loin from the bag, reserving the juices. Slice the loin to your desired thickness, roughly 1.5 inches.
Preheat a cast iron on the stovetop on the highest temperature for a few minutes. If possible, turn on fans, open a window, and remove the batteries from the smoke alarm (and set an alarm to remind yourself to put them back!!)
Add oil to the pan and sear the steaks in batches, two at a time at the most. Sear for about 2 minutes on all sides or until you get a desired crust. Optionally, add herbs and butter towards the end to baste. Let them rest 5-10 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium. Add wine to the pan and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the butter, let it melt, then add the flour. Stir well and let cook about two minutes.
Add a clove of minced garlic to the pan to get fragrant. Add the juices from the bag and the stock and let this reduce about five minutes.
Note: Because the cooking temperature is much lower, meat juices didn't coagulate yet, so when using these juices, you may get weird floaters. The taste is fine, just either strain them out or combine well enough to make for a better presentation
Stir in the milk and mustard, let cook another minute. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper, then serve with the pork steaks.