Tag: awesome

Recipe: Pork Meatballs with Mandarin Orange and Fennel Sauce

Posted on by Dan Clapson

I came up with this recipe last Christmas. 100% Santa approved meatballs for the holidays! Turkey doesn’t always have to be the star at a Christmas Dinner, and this meatball side dish almost steals that bird’s spotlight away!

I generally don’t use mandarin oranges for anything other than simply peeling and eating, but thought that adding them to a sweet and sour sauce for these meatballs would make things a bit more merry. Speaking of merry, Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you are able to enjoy a nice holiday break with family and friends!

What you’ll need…

Meatballs:

1 yellow onion (finely chopped)

1 pound lean ground beef

1 pound ground pork

2 eggs

1/2 bulb roasted garlic (minced)

1 cup bread crumbs

1 cup fresh parsley (finely chopped)

2 TBSP ketchup

1 TSP chili powder

salt and pepper

olive oil

Sauce:

1 yellow onion (finely chopped)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1 bulb fennel (thinly sliced, approximately 1 cup)

2 mandarin oranges (zest and juice)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup orange juice

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

2 TBSP brown sugar

1/4 TSP ground cloves

2 TSP flour

salt and pepper

olive oil

Directions:

Starting off with the meatballs…Place the onions in a medium-sized pan, drizzle with some olive oil and cook on medium-high heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and let cool for a few minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and combine with a spoon or by hand (I say by hand! Come on, it’s comfort food!). Form into 20 2″ diameter balls and set aside for now. These can be made a day in advance, just leave covered in refrigerator.

Now, moving along to the sauce. First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the onion and garlic in a medium-sized pot, drizzle with some olive oil and let cook until the onion begins to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Next, aside from the flour, add all remaining ingredients into the pot. Once mixture comes to a bubble, reduce to low heat and let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the sauce is simmering, you can brown the meatballs. Drizzle some olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the meatballs (in two separate batches) and brown on all sides, cooking them for about 6-8 minutes per batch. Remove and place into a prepared baking dish.

As a final step for the sauce, sprinkle in the flour to help it thicken a bit, then salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over the meatball-filled baking dish and bake in the oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Serve on some white rice with some fresh bread or crostini to soak up the sauce! Happy holidays!

Serves 5-6

Total cook time…1 hour

Recipe: Sweet and Savoury Sausage Pancakes

Posted on by Dan Clapson

If you’re a fan of the wonderful world that can be ‘sweet and savoury’ than this is the perfect weekend breakfast dish for you. The salty, richness of the sausage and sautéed onions combined with a drizzle of maple syrup (and a side of bacon, of course!) makes this plate of hotcakes so much more rewarding than the everyday version!

What you’ll need…

1 yellow onion (diced)

2 mild Italian sausages (casing removed, approximately 1 1/2 cups)

1 TBSP water

2 TSP soy sauce

1 TSP chili powder

1 TSP cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1/4 cup honey

2 eggs

1 TBSP coarse ground black pepper

olive oil

Directions:

Start off by cooking the chopped onion down in a bit of olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat until they soften, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage meat to the pan and cook until the meat is nice and brown, 5 more minutes, stirring often to break apart the sausage. Next, stir in the water, soy, chill powder and cinnamon and let the mixture cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat to let cool slightly.

Place all remaining ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk until a batter forms. Place the now cooled sausage and onion mixture into the bowl as well and stir until incorporated.

To cook up the pancakes, let a large pan heat up on medium-high heat and add ladlefuls of the batter when it’s nice and hot. Once bubbles have formed around most of the edges of the pancake, about 1-2 minutes, give it a flip with a spatula and let it cook for another minute.

You can cook to order, or make the whole batch and keep warm in the oven in it’s lowest setting, covered with a tea towel so they don’t dry out! Serve covered in maple syrup, obviously! 🙂

Serves 4-5

Total cook time…20 min

Recipe: Honey Glazed Ham with Oregano Roasted Root Vegetables

Posted on by Dan Clapson

This past weekend, I realized how long it had been since I’ve had a simple glazed ham for dinner. Hot or cold, ham was always one of my favourite things to east growing up. Cubing it and tossing it into a simple ham and cheddar omelette, split pea and ham soup, homemade cobb salads, the list goes on…

When it gets colder outside, it’s always nice to whip up a hot, comforting meal and a nice, roasted ham always fits the bill. This recipe is uber simple. No frills, just a delicious meal on the table in under 45 minutes. Any leftovers are always great in-between some slices of bread with a generous amount of dijon mustard! Yum!

Honey Glazed Ham with Oregano Roasted Root Vegetables

What you’ll need…

Root Vegetables

2 white potatoes (1″ cubed, approximately 2 cups)

1 medium-sized yam (1″ cubed, approximately 2 cups)

3 TBSP fresh oregano

1 TBSP olive oil

salt and pepper

Glazed Ham

2 lbs ham (1/2″ sliced)

1/4 cup honey

1 TBSP grainy dijon mustard

2 TSP ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the cubed root vegetables, oregano and olive oil in a medium-sized mixing bowl and toss until evenly coated. Lay out evenly in a large, prepared baking dish and season liberally with salt and pepper.

On top of the root vegetables, layer the sliced ham in the middle of the baking dish. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, mustard, pepper and drizzle over ham.

Let roast in the oven, uncovered, until the root vegetables are fork tender, about 40-45 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. Portion out the sliced ham onto plates and stir the vegetables in the baking dish before scooping out to coat in the roasting juice from the glazed ham. Enjoy!

Serves 4

Total cook time…45 min

Cure For The Cold Autumn Weather: A Recipe for Confit Pork Poutine

Posted on by Dan Clapson


Mmmm…..poutine….

Now that October is here and we’re experiencing some less than pleasant weather, it’s time to embrace the comfort foods we know and love. Calgary’s Passion for Pork restaurant week kicks off this Monday, October 16th. There’s a whole list of awesome restaurants that are taking part and one of them is Blue Star Diner. Blue Star’s executive chef, Drew Masterman, shared his recipe for Confit Pork Poutine with me earlier this week.

 

Definitely more than a few steps to go through to whip up this dish, but if it’s a cold day out there (which it most likely is). Nothing will hit the spot quite like this rich, appropriately cheesy, pork-centric poutine. Check out the recipe!

Drew Masterman’s Confit Pork Poutine

What you’ll need…

2 lbs boneless pork shoulder, pat dry with paper towel and cut into 1/2inch cubes
1/2 tsp fresh chopped sage
1/2 tsp fresh chopped thyme
1/4 tsp ground chili powder
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 bay leaves crushed
1/2 Tbsp course salt (the gravy, curds and fries will be salted so be careful not to over salt)

1/2 large sweet onion chopped
1/2 medium red beet chopped
4 garlic cloves peeled
1 fresh rosemary sprig cut in half
1.5 Liters melted pork lard

4 fl oz melted butter
5 fl oz flour
6 cups chicken stock
1.5 Tbsp grainy mustard
1.5 Tbsp sherry vinegar
1.5 Tbsp medium body red wine
1/4 tsp truffle oil
couples dashes of cinnamon
Course salt & cracked pepper to taste

6 cups french fries of choice (roasted baby potatoes would also be perfect)

2 cups cheese curds

*Note: Your regular grocery store may not have cheese curds regularly stocked. Look to a specialty cheese shop like Janice Beaton or Springbank Cheese Co. to find some great quality curds to make this poutine the best it can be!

Cooking Method

-Preheat oven to 275F
-Gather all ingredients.
-Mix all herbs and spices in large bowl add pork and gently mix together. Can leave in fridge to season overnight for best results.
-In ovenproof pot, place pork on top of vegetables, garlic & rosemary.
-Poor melted lard over pork to cover by approx 1/2-1 inch and braise pork for 4 hrs turning every hour.
-Remove pork with slotted spoon and strain pork fat through a sieve into a measuring cup, allow juices to separate and discard solids after 15-20min and or ladle off fat from red juices. Poor fat over pork and refrigerate till needed (can be stored for up to 6 months). Reserve red juices for gravy.
-In sauce pot add butter, flour and cook on medium heat till a golden brown roux forms, add red wine and reduce slightly for a syrupy consistency.
-Slowly add 6 cups chicken stock, 4 floz pork juices, reduce till gravy has a thick consistency, add mustard, vinegar, truffle  oil, dashes of cinnamon. Season to taste .

 Serving

-Portion out french fries or roast potatoes onto plates

-Top with generous amount of the confit pork, curds and gravy

Enjoy!!!