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Recipe: Chef Blair Lebsack’s Alberta Pork with Beans & Mostarda

August 1, 2015 is Food Day Canada, a chance for all Canadians to join hands in one massive celebration in praise of our farmers and fishers, chefs and home cooks alike.

You can participate in Food Day Canada buy shopping at local farmer’s markets or by eating at restaurants you know source local ingredients from Canadian farmers. When you dine at Edmonton’s RGD RD, you can ensure you are supporting local farmers and producers. Since 2011, local Chef Blair Lebsack and general manager and partner Caitlin Fulton have been praised with utilizing locally sourced seasonal ingredients and highlighting the hard-working farmers who help fill their plates.

Through the restaurant and their outdoor RGD RD diners, Chef Lebsack is helping to connect urban dining patrons with food fresh from Canadian farms.

At RGD RD Chef Lebsack proudly supports Nature’s Green Acres, a small husband and wife operation near Viking Alberta, by using their locally raised pigs for a variety of dishes on his menu. I had the pleasure of tasting RGD RD’s June is Pork Month dish: Alberta Pork with Beans and Mostarda; you could taste the quality of the locally-sourced ingredients. Try Chef Lebsack’s recipe on Food Day Canada and be sure to pick your pork loin up from a local producer.

Alberta Pork with Beans and Mostarda
Recipe courtesy of Chef Blair Lebsack, Range Road

Mostarda Mostarda is a piquant fruit and dried mustard condiment. Chef Lebsack makes a western Canadian version and pairs it with pork tenderloin and beans. Start the mostarda mid-week for a weekend dinner.

2 applies
2 pears
1 star anise
4 whole cloves
1 cardamom pod
2 bay leaves
¼ c dried Bing cherries
1 cup dry white wine
dried mustard (move these two items over to line up with the other ingredients)
Riesling vinegar

Day 1 Small dice apples and pears, then weigh. Measure 165 grams of sugar per 1 kg of fruit. Sprinkle the sugar over fruit and let sit for a few hours. Make a spice sachet with the cloves, star anise, cardamom and bay leaves. Chop dried cherries, put in pot, add spice sachet, cover with wine and cook for 15 minutes to soften fruit. Cool. Pour over the apples and pears. Stir all fruit together, leave in sachet and store overnight in cooler.

Day 2 Pour off liquid from fruit into a pot on medium heat – reduce to a thin syrup. Cool slightly, then pour back over fruit and stir to combine. Do this for 2 more times (once per day).

Day 4 Mix together 25 ml of dry mustard into 60 ml of Riesling vinegar per 1 litre of fruit. Pour mustard blend into fruit, mix thoroughly. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Pork Loin

1-1.5 kg Alberta pork loin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
1 Tbsp kosher salt
black pepper to taste
canola oil

Pre-heat oven to 475 F. Rub the roast with garlic, rosemary, oil, salt and pepper. Place the roast on a baking pan and put in oven for 15 minutes. Baste pork with juices. Return to oven and cook for another 5 minutes, then turn down heat in oven to 350°F, cook another 10 minutes or until it reads 140F on a meat thermometer. Remove from oven, drain off liquid and reserve for beans. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving.

Great Northern Beans

¾ lb cooked beans
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 large onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp butter, cubed

In pot, heat oil and add bay leaves. Add onion and cook for 3-4 min, add garlic and beans. Cook for 5 minutes, add 2-3 tablespoons of reserved cooking liquid from pork. Allow beans to absorb the liquid, then add butter and parsley. Turn off heat and swirl in butter. Season.

To serve: While the loin is resting, warm mostarda in a pot. Slice pork and serve family style with the beans. Serves 4-6.