Tag: RGE RD

Swine and Dine Takeaway Pork Packs at RGE RD

Posted on by Sharman

Many locally owned and operated restaurants are proving resourceful and finding innovative ways to cater to their customers during the physical distancing restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. RGE RD, as well as The Butchery at RGE RD, is stepping up to offer RGE RD at home with curbside pick up of everything from a la carte dishes, sausages, empanadas and meat pies, to butchery cuts.

RGE RD Owners Caitlin Fulton and chef and Blair Lebsack consistently share their passion for Alberta Pork with their customers, so when we offered up some Alberta Pork recipe books for a special RGE RD Swine and Dine takeaway order, the answer was a quick “yes!”

SWINE AND DINE RGE RD TAKEAWAY PORK PACKS

Butchery day has resulted in Swine & Dine inspired RGE RD Pork Packs. These take-away packs are $100 (plus GST) for approximately 3.5 kg of Nature’s Green Acres Alberta pork including:

4 pork chops
2 Coppa steaks
8 sausages
1 shoulder roast
1 smoked pork belly

Each RGE RD Pork Pack includes a cookbook from Alberta Pork. Supplies are limited, so call RGE RD at 780-447-4577 to reserve Swine & Dine inspired Pork Pack.

During COVID-19, the Alberta pork sector continues to operate; however, the situation can change quickly. Alberta Pork is working to help Alberta’s registered pork producers wherever possible, and we are grateful to see so many local chefs, restaurants (like RGE RD), butchers and delis finding away to continue to sell and promote Alberta Pork.

 

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

Swine and Dine at RGE RD June 6, 2019

Posted on by Sharman
Alberta Pork is excited to announce the next Swine and Dine dinner will be hosted at one of Edmonton’s most celebrated farm-to-fork restaurants. RGE RD owners Caitlin Fulton and chef Blair Lebsack are ready to share their passion for pork with an interactive, multi-part pork experience in the RGE RD Butchery at 6 pm on Thursday June 6, 2019.
SWINE AND DINE AT RGE RD – THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2019
The casual kitchen party is all about having fun and being adventurous with delicious Albert pork piggy parts – from appetizer to dessert. While the menu will be a surprise, if you have visited RGE RD for their monthly off-sales, you can hope to see some of their nose-to-tail charcuterie items like terrines, rillettes, and sausages on the menu.

 

Seating for this intimate experience is limited to 20 swine lovers. Tickets are $75 plus tax and gratuity, call 780-447-4577 to reserve.

RGE RD – Eat Off The Beaten Path
10643 – 123 Street
Edmonton, AB T5N 1P3
Phone 780-447-4577

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