Tag: Nature’s Green Acres

Recap: Swine and Dine at RGE RD

Posted on by Sharman

This past week, Edmonton’s RGE RD played host to not one, but two nights of back-to-back RGE RD Swine and Dine dinners. While regular service was taking place in the main restaurant, twenty plus diners each evening were treated to whole hog menu introduced course by course by owner and chef Blair Lebsack in The Butchery that featured Nature’s Green Acres Alberta pork from table snacks through to dessert.

Chef Blair Lebsack has built the RGE RD brand on introducing diners to nose-to-tail cuisine, so it was no surprise to see a wide representation of piggy parts in his Swine and Dine menu. The restaurant’s nightly Questionable Bits plate is described as utilizing whole animal cooking, and often features off-cuts and offal. For their Swine and Dine menu, chef Lebsack and chef-de-cuisine  Davina Moraiko were sure to include some house favourites.

In fact, the challenge for chefs Lebsack and Moraiko was narrowing down their all-pork menu – they had too many ideas. While some people may seem challenged to incorporate Alberta pork into each course, chef Moraiko told me pork is so versatile, she could have created an entire menu with just pork liver.

The menu the duo shared included pig skin, pork liver, smoked jowl, pig face (headcheese), belly, cotecchino sausage, loin wrapped in more belly (porchetta), lard (pig fat) and even pig blood – proving that Alberta pork farmers have so much more to offer than just pork chops and tenderloin.

RGE RD
SWINE AND DINE MENU

TABLE SNACKS
Spicy Chicharrones | Smoked Corn Dogs | Pork Liver Mousse Donuts

 

FIRST COURSE
Naanwich
Smoked Pork Jowl | Smoked Charred Aioli | Pickled
Cayenne | Pickled Apple | Crackling

Last month, chef Moraiko created this dish, but on a bao for a collaboration event at Baijiu. For Swine and Dine, chef Moraiko and the RGE RD culinary team swapped the bao out for naan bread. The sliced smoked pork jowl was incredibly flavourful, especially paired with the tart pickled apple; the smoked charred aioli should be bottled and sold at the RGE RD monthly Butchery off – sales. After introducing the dish, chef Lebsack gave strict instructions this dish was to be eaten with our hands.

 

SECOND COURSE
Deep Fried Headcheese
Rhubarb | Radish | Greens | Chimichurri

Chef Lebsack explained that people coming to RGE RD, particularly for a Swine and Dine dinner, need to try their headcheese. The pig-face terrine was then breaded and deep fried and served alongside rhubarb, radishes, greens and chimichurri.

 

THIRD COURSE
Pork Belly & Potato Perogies
Cotecchino | Carmelized Onion | Beurre Blanc |
Creme Fraiche | Fermented Ramp

Chef Moraiko is Ukrainian, and she certainly brought some of heritage and upbringing to the plate for our third course. While she upgraded the potato filling with pork belly, she decided to serve her perogies classic by boiling and then giving them the RGE RD upgrade by bathing them in beurre blanc. While the restaurant normally serves perogies pan fried, that was the leftover way of eating perogies in her home growing up.

The dish was elevated from the homestyle variety with slices of cotecchino, a sausage chef Lebsack explained is made in house by first boiling the skin of pig. They grind it and add to sausage, which adds a silky texture. The sausage is then dry cured, which helps it develops all the flavours of dry curing, but then slowly poached, which helps firm up the sausage before serving.

FOURTH COURSE
Wood Roasted Porchetta
Nigella Seeds | Compressed Pear | Fiddleheads |
Asparagus | Hollandaise

 

You won’t find porchetta on the regular menu at RGE RD, chef Lebsack explained that they only share their pork loin wrapped in crackling topped pork belly for large group special events. Our dish was served with seasonal aspargus and fiddleheads, compressed pears, and bright yellow Hollandaise sauce. The nigella seeds were served table side by Chef Lebsack.

FIFTH COURSE
Pork Blood Ice Cream
Pork Lard Pastry Gallette | Saskatoon Berry

 

Chef Lebsack wanted his Swine and Diner to try a little bit of the whole pig, so they served a chocolate pork blood ice cream for dessert. Chef Moraiko explained that it was not that scary – and the chocolate ice cream was flavoured with lovely spices. The ice cream topped a Saskatoon berry pork lard pasty gallette. There were a few nervous people at my table, but after a few hesitant bites, many of the dessert plates were licked clean.

A special thanks to RGE RD owners Cailtin Fulton and chef Blair Lebsack for hosting back-to-back Swine and Dine dinners, to chef Lebsack and chef Moraiko for sharing their passion for pork, and the staff for serving up our Swine and Dine feast.

Whole-hog dishes featuring Nature’s Green Acres Alberta pork will always have a prominent place on the menu at RGE RD. While this Swine and Dine menu is no longer available, many of the bites and dishes will continue to make an appearance on the regular menu or on nightly specials. Try the nightly kitchen board, questionable bits, or experience the RGE RD Road Trip – a multi-course dining experience like Swine and Dine – ideal for those who want to take a hands off approach to dinner.

RGE RD – Eat off the beaten path
10643 – 123 Street
OPEN MON – SAT: 5PM TILL LATE

RGE RD Bread & Meat Off Sales

Posted on by Sharman

Still have people to buy for on your Christmas list? Why not give the gift of meat?

Since January 2016, Chef Blair Lebsack and his culinary team at RGE RD in Edmonton have been letting customers take a piece of the restaurant home each month during their Butchery Off-Sales. The multi-day event features a variety of meat delights for sale including Nature’s Green Acres finest Alberta Pork transformed into rillettes, country style terrines, sausages, pate, mortadella and even pork fat (ideal for roasting veggies or making a flaky pastry crust).

Off-sales were always part of the plan when the restaurant first opened. Holding a monthly event gives chef Lebsack and his team an opportunity to get creative with off-cuts and pieces of pork that may not make it on their regular menu. RGE RD receives their whole Nature’s Green Acres black Tamworth and Berkshire hogs just one day after they are slaughtered, giving the kitchen the control to age, cut, and create a variety of dishes that have regular customers stocking up each month.

Rillette, which Lebsack believes is served best at room temperature with a baguette and a glass of wine, was on the original menu when RGE RD first opened. Lebsack isn’t surprised by the popularity of the Butchery items, but he has been surprised by the increase in quantity they make each month.

When they first started his team was making just 10 kg of sausages; today, the RGE RD Butchery often sells out of 60 kg of sausage at their monthly sales events.

Friday, December 22, from 12pm to 6pm is RGE RD‘s final Bread & Meat Off Sale of the year. The last time I stopped in for a RGE RD off sale they were already sold out of several items, so if you want your choice RGE RD Butchery offerings, be sure to get there early or call 780-447-4577 to preorder.

The assortment of meats from the butchery is an ideal hostess gift and perfect for any charcuterie plate, which pairs beautifully with a French baguette or loaf of mountain bread baked in their wood-burning oven.

If you are looking for suggestions, I’m a big fan of RGE RD’s rillette. Pork shoulder cooked confit style, low and slow in stock and fat is hand-pressed in a mortar and pestle until velvety smooth. And if you are lucky – the mortadella!

RGE RD
10643 123 Street
Edmonton, AB T5N 1P2
(780) 447-4577

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

Posted on by Sharman

Alberta Pork with Beans and 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.

Chef Blair Lebsack of RGD RD

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.