Pork knuckle with beer, juniper berries and caraway red cabbage

Recipe

Toast the juniper berries and caraway seeds in a hot, dry pan for 2 minutes. Grind to a fine powder using a spice grinder or pestle and mortar. Mix in the salt and set aside. Remove the bone from the pork knuckles, leaving the knuckles intact. Remove and discard any cartilage. Season the inside of the pork knuckle with the spice mix and seal each knuckle in a sous-vide bag under full vacuum. Place the bags into a preheated water bath set at 85C and cook for 9 hours. Remove and place into an iced bath to cool completely. Remove the cooked knuckles from the bags. Remove and reserve 30g of the jelly and set aside.

Heat a little grapeseed oil on the Teppanyaki plate of the Furnace BBQ set to medium. Place the knuckle skin side-down and grill for 15 minutes, applying a little pressure. Once the skin is crispy and golden, turn over and cook the underside in the same way. Check the internal temperature using a thermometer probe: it should read 65c when its ready to serve.
For the cabbage, trim the thin outer leaves into 20 triangles, approx. 5cm in size. Avoid the thick stalk area. Set aside. Place the remainder of the cabbage into a juicer and set aside 100g of cabbage juice, discarding any unused juice.

Melt half the butter in a pan and add the cabbage leaves along with a pinch of salt. Once the cabbage starts to wilt, add the Port, red wine vinegar and cabbage juice, as well as the reserved knuckle jelly. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the liquid volume reduces by half. This should take approx. 15 minutes. Add the remaining butter and mix until emulsified. Adjust the seasoning with salt and a little red wine vinegar.

Serve the pork knuckle on top of the braised red cabbage.