Bacon to Sausage Sous Vide

I'm new at sous vide and can't help you with your question about the herbs & spices, but I'd love your recipe for the Sai Oua. We spent 2 years in Indonesia/Malaysia/Thailand and I'm always on the lookout for flavors that "take us back." Thank you.

Well I have the Thai Sai Oua recipe so all I need now is someone to tell me how to upload it to the forum
Cheers Ed

I think the herbs would be ok within the sausage during the sous vide processes. If you'd like to upload the recipe you can either paste it into the forum box, or if you have images too you can email it all to me at jason@afmeasy.com and I'll create a guest post from you. Whatever you prefer is great. Thanks, and happy cooking!

Thanks Jason, here is the recipe, By The Way I started Sous Vide with all your books & now have 4 Anova & the Modernist Cusine book sets plus everything Doug Baldwin, Harrold M, Heston B, Escoffier etc, all this & I live in the jungle near the beach 255km SE of Bangkok!, there is nothing not possible! Cheers Ed

Northern Thai Sausage Sai Oua


While living in Chiang Mai I spent 3 months pestering a guy at the markets for his special Sai Oua recipe. Turns out his wife was the expert & she took pity on me,, so one evening she showed me the process & there are some secrets which my wife documented in Thai. We have carefully translated to English & added western food safety notes.
This recipe works very well Sous Vide. Run a tooth pick over the Sai Oua before steaming or adding to the Vacuum bag. All measures are checked & correct for fresh product, Ed
Ingredients
1 1 kg pork minced 70% meat 30% fat
2 300g of small hog casings
3 2 Tbs. shredded kaffir lime leaves
4 2 Tbs. of shredded coriander (leaves roots & all)
5 2 Tbs. shredded spring onion
6 1 Tbs. of raw sugar
7 1 Tbs. soy sauce
8 100g dried chilli
9 1 Tbs. shredded turmeric
10 2 Tbs. shredded lemongrass (lower centre white parts with hard outside removed) 50% reserved & finely chopped.
11 2 Tbs. sliced shallots ( the small brown ones)
12 1 Tbs. sliced garlic
13 1 Tbs. shredded kaffir lime zest
14 1 Tsp. shrimp paste
15 1 Tbs. salt
16 2 duck eggs ( higher protein & with more Albumen & Cholesterol, cook out better than chicken eggs & have a much higher binding capacity)
Method

Pound or blitz the chilli, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, turmeric, salt, shrimp paste & lime zest completely. Keep 50% lemongrass & add in next step for flavour burst.
Add above mix to a very cold Stainless bowl & tip in the very cold pork mince, mix well then add the sugar & soy sauce & mix.
Add eggs & mix, then add the shredded lime leaves, spring onion & reserved lemongrass then mix again. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
All this mixing is done to release the gluten like proteins which you will see as very sticky, use gloved hands dipped in ice slurry, the idea is to keep the mix as cold as possible.
Wash hog casings inside & out & cut to about 30cm (Thais use about a 45cm spiral). Tie end with kitchen string & fill casing to about 20 – 25mm, not too tight & tie end.
Steam or poach the Sai Oua for about 20 minutes but remember to prick the skins on each side to prevent bursting.
If Sous vide, remove & dump into an ice slurry for 15 min then Vac bag & freeze.
Here the poached Sai Oua is dumped into plastic bags & taken to market for BBQ & selling.
On a charcoal BBQ (which is going well with white ash on coals) set up for a low heat grill.
Add old coconut shell or your favourite wood chips & smoke grill your Sai Oua gently until brown & everywhere is filled with the fragrant smell of a Thai BBQ market.
Cool on wood boards or paddle & cut to about 25-30mm pieces
Some Thais add Galangal to this recipe & there is debate as to which version is best.
Sai Oua is served with Nam Prik Num & slices of lime

Edward,

Thanks for the recipe. This is great! I'm really impressed at your books & equipment, given where you are. If I get back to Thailand, I'll search you out! Kind regards, Julia (Papilloncooks)