Tag: porchetta

Recipe: Chef Brochu’s Porchetta with Black Pepper Relish

Posted on by Sharman

MILKCRATE PORCHETTA with RED PEPPER RELISH

Chef Steve Brochu has shared his passion for Alberta Pork with us on several occasions, and at the Taste Alberta food stage at this year’s Porkapalooza BBQ Festival, he handed out tips on tricks on how to season and roll a slab of pork belly into beautiful porchetta. Chef Brochu sliced and served his porchetta on the food stage with a sweet and sour black pepper relish and locally baked fresh bread, but the base porchetta recipe can be topped with your favourite homemade jam, jelly, mustard or relish.

Chef Brochu, who recently opened MilkCrate coffee and sandwich shop in EPCOR tower, serves MilkCrates’s signature porchetta sandwich weekdays along with several rotating daily features. Pop in weekdays for a taste of the original:

MilkCrate – EPCOR TOWER
10423 101 Street NW, EDMONTON AB
MONDAY – FRIDAY 6:30AM – 4:30 PM
CLOSED WEEKENDS

MILKCRATE PORCHETTA
What you’ll need…

Porchetta stuffing  / rub
Pork Belly – skin on 
3 tbsp thyme leaves
3 tbsp rosemary leaves
6 tbsp parsley, chopped roughly
1 cup sliced red onion
150ml Saskatoon berries, pureed
4 tbsp paprika
1/2 cup Chopped Garlic
Salt / Pepper

Directions:

  1. Combine everything but salt and pepper in a bowl.
  2. Season the inside for the pork belly with Salt and Pepper. Spread the rub all over the inside of belly.
  3. Roll the belly tightly on itself , and using butchers twine, tie off the belly so it looks like a tightly wrapped log or sleeping bag.
  4. Place Porchetta in 250F oven for 8 hours or until the skin is golden and breaks apart easily.
  5. Slice and pile on top of a fresh crusty roll and accent with red pepper relish. Enjoy.

 

MILKCRATE RED PEPPER RELISH
What you’ll need…

5 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup minced garlic
3/4 cup minced ginger
30 green onion
20 button mushrooms chopped
2 tbsp crushed black pepper
3/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 cup  granulated sugar
1/3 cup lime juice fresh
1 cup Saskatoon berry
1 tbsp salt

Directions:

  1. In a pan over medium-high heat, get oil hot but not smoking. Sauté garlic, ginger, onion until they are golden.
  2. Add pepper and mix until you can smell pepper.
  3. Pour in the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 10 min or until it is thick enough to cover the back of a spoon.
  4. Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a blender, and blend till smooth in texture. Once completely cool, store in a jar and refrigerate until use.

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

Recap: Swine & Dine at the Red Ox Inn

Posted on by Sharman

Last week, Chef Sean O’Connor and the team at the Red Ox Inn played host to the final Swine & Dine of 2016 in Edmonton. The event was limited to one seating at the boutique restaurant in Strathearn, and those quick enough to secure a table were treated to an Alberta Pork packed meal featuring locally-sourced pork from Bear & The Flower Farm.

Chef O’Connor kicked things off shortly after we arrived. I was pleasantly surprised to see he had added an amuse bouche to the menu and offered diners to a couples of bites of deep fried confit pork shoulder rillettes served with a herb aioli. It set the tone for a unique menu full of texture and flavour.

p4p blog (2 of 10)1st Course
For our first course, Chef Sean O’Connor served a crunchy crackling topped bite of porchetta with fresh corn polenta, salsa verde and carrot.

Porchetta with fresh corn poenta

2nd Course
Next, Chef O’Connor plated a unique combination of a confit pork jowl with a cauliflower puree and prunes poached in a Sherry vinegar. While I really liked crunch and flavour of the porchetta from the previous course, I absolutely loved this dish. The cauliflower was smooth as velvet and the prunes brought such an interesting flavour when combined with the tender confit jowl; it was my favourite among a string of hits.

Confit pork jowl

I’ve had some delicious pork dishes at Red Ox Inn over the years, so I wasn’t surprised when chef O’Connor agreed to hosting a Swine & Dine. The restaurant plays host to a variety of events and set menus throughout the year, and chef O’Connor was eager to create a menu featuring different parts of a pig throughout the whole menu.

Chef Sean O'Connor

3rd Course
When we started our meal our server gave us extra napkins, explaining that the chef intended us to use our hands; the main course was no exception. Chef O’Connor served up elevated comfort food with a delicious plate of dried cherry BBQ pork back ribs with leek bread pudding and kohlrabi.

Dried Cherry BBQ Pork Back Ribs

Red Ox Inn

4th Course
For dessert, chef O’Connor decided to play on what a pig might eat. Using lard for the final dish, chef O’Connor combined sugar, oats, pretzels, graham cracker crumbs, coffee grounds, corn flakes, chocolate and butterscotch chips. The result was more finger food –  a compost cookie and caramel ice cream sandwich. (And not just one ice cream sandwich – we all got two!)

Compost Cookie and Caramel Ice Cream Sandwiches

Chef Sean O’Connor made serving up course after course featuring Alberta pork seem easy. He let all of the different cuts from the Bear & The Flower Farm shine, and it was a great way to finish off this year’s Swine & Dine season.

Thank you again to chef O’Connor, his culinary team and the front of house staff for serving up a very memorable Swine & Dine. Looking forward to another edition in 2017!

The Red Ox Inn
9420 91 Street
Tuesday to Sunday
Open at 5:00pm

Chef Andrew Cowan Launching New Menu at Packrat Louie

Posted on by Sharman
Chef Cowan's Pork rillette and chicken liver pate at Packrat Louie
Chef Cowan’s Pork rillette and chicken liver pate at Packrat Louie

Chef Andrew Cowan started as the new executive chef at Packrat Louie on Tuesday April 14, 2014. I had heard through Alan Irving that Andrew had ordered one of his Irving Farms Berkshire pigs for following week, but I couldn’t wait. I gave him four full days at the helm of his new kitchen before I came calling for whatever Alberta pork treat he had ready. 

IMG_0247I have been a loyal fan of Andrew’s since I met him at 100 Bar & Kitchen. I walked in, told him I had an idea for a swine & dine crawl through three restaurants off Churchill Square and he promptly responded ‘sure’. At that inaugural event he treated diners to an enormous helping of pork and waffles, and even accommodated this gluten-free girl; my belly has had a soft spot for him every since. 

Over the years Andrew has treated me to plate after plate of Alberta-pork packed charcuterie boards, porchetta, Fred Flintstone worthy pork chops, and more bacon-topped treats than I can remember. I knew when I took over at Packrat Louie that this chef with a Passion for Pork would create a menu packed with Alberta pork. 

When I popped in for lunch on Saturday Chef Cowan shared a few of his new menu items featuring local pork with me – braised bacon with bacon cream corn and the pork rillette.

Both dishes are available now and there will be plenty more Alberta pork dishes featured on the new menu; as each week goes by I am sure he will be unveiling additions to his charcuterie plate. I hear Packrat Louie’s patio should be open soon – a little sunshine and bacon cream corn sounds like the perfect combination for summer in Old Strathcona.

Packrat Louie
10335 83 Ave
open daily
packratlouie.com

Chef Cowan's braised bacon with bacon cream corn at Packrat Louie
Chef Cowan’s braised bacon with bacon cream corn at Packrat Louie