One of the most common questions I get asked is, “What’s your favorite thing to eat?” And I can’t answer it, man! How could I? The truth is, for me I really enjoy the process of cooking more than I enjoy eating itself. Don’t get me wrong; I like eating. A lot. But there’s something about the virtue of cooking something beautiful yourself, filling the house with smells, crying as you chop onions (I don’t care how hard core of a chef you are, they still get you), and having a glass of wine or two while you do it. For me that’s what this dish is all about, and it’s one of my favorite things to prepare:

Recipe: (Serves 4-5)

- 3 lbs boneless beef short ribs, trimmed of excess fat
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 6 small dried figs (use fresh if available)
- 2 cups Cabernet Sauv. (or another full bodied red)
- 2 cups beef stock
- 4 large celery roots, peeled and cubed
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1/4 cup cream or milk
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
- fresh parlsey for garnish
- salt and pepper
- flour

Method:

Season the pieces of short ribs liberally with salt and pepper, and dust the pieces with flour to help them brown. In a large, heavy bottomed pot, heat a thin layer of oil and add in a tsp of butter. Add in the pieces of short ribs and brown over med-high heat for 5-7 minutes until caramelized. Flip and do the same on the other side. Once they are evenly browned, remove short ribs from the pots and add in the garlic, onion, celery, and carrots and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add in the dried figs, wine and beef stock and bring to a boil. Add the short ribs back into the pot and cover with a parchment paper lid, which will allow for some evaporation and reduction of the sauce while still protecting the top of the short ribs from becoming burnt. Cook at 325 for approx 3 hours or until the short ribs are very tender.

While short ribs are in the oven, heat a large pot with boiling salted water. Add in the cubed celery root and the sprigs of rosemary. Boil for approx. 20-25 mins until fork tender. Remove rosemary sprigs from pot and mash or whip with cream butter, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a medium sauté pan, cook the mushrooms over med-high heat in 1 tbsp of veg oil and butter. Add in 1/2 cup of red wine and let it reduce. When mushrooms are dark and most of the liquid has evaporated, turn heat to low and set aside.

When short ribs are out of the oven, remove them from the pot, and using a hand blender or a standard blender purée the vegetables and figs into the sauce. Place back on the heat for 2-3 more minutes to reduce.

TO PLATE!

Plate a couple spoonfuls of the rosemary celery root purée in the center of the plate and top with a couple pieces of the braised beef short ribs. Add a tbsp or so of the sliced red wine mushrooms on top, and finish with the cabernet fig sauce on top. Garnish with fresh parsley and DIG IN!

The first of our 6 brand new HD video recipes is here for your viewing pleasure. In this video we were making use of a Himalayan Pink Sea Salt Block sent to us by a company called The Meadow in Portland, Oregon. They specialize in gourmet salts, salt blocks as well as chocolates, fine wine and spirits, and even flowers. To me it sounds like the mecca of shopping for apologetic husbands

Enough talking, let’s see it in action:

The salt block 100% exceeded my expectations. During this video was actually the first time I’ve ever used one, and reading over the materials provided by The Meadow it stated the salt block held its heat even better than cast iron. They were completely right, after taking the time to heat it up properly, it was hot enough to actually cook on for a good 10-15 minutes even AFTER removing it from the heat. It imparted a very delicate salt flavour to the tuna that was more complex than any other salt I’ve tasted. It was a treat to cook on and I’m looking forward to many uses in the future.

Here’s the recipe:

Salt Block Seared Albacore Tuna with Shaved Fennel and Citrus Salad

Ingredients: (serves 4)

- 1 whole albacore tuna loin, about 1-1.5lbs (can substitute ahi tuna)
- 1 large fennel bulb
- 2 large pink grapefruits
- 2 belgian endive
- 1 head radicchio
- 1 lemon
- 1 cup baby arugula
- juice from 2 blood oranges, about 1/3 cup
- 1 tsp sugar
- vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- salt and pepper

Method:

If using a gas stove, place salt block directly on the element and turn heat to medium, let the salt block heat up for 15-20 minutes. If using an electric element you will need to use a spacer, then follow the same instructions. While salt block is heating, prep ingredients for salad. Use a mandoline or very sharp knife to thinly shave the fennel bulb, removing any core pieces. Cut the belgian endive in half, remove any tough outer leaves, and slice thinly. Cut the peel and pith off the grapefruits with a sharp knife and use a pairing knife in between the section to cut supremes. Thinly slice the raddichio, and add all these ingredients plus the baby arugula to a mixing bowl. Season the salad with the lemon juice, salt and pepper, and olive oil.

To make the blood orange vinaigrette, combine the blood orange juice and apple cider vinegar and sugar in a bowl, drizzle in 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper until dressing comes together, set aside.

Once the salt block is nice and hot, you can either cook the tuna right there on the element, or remove it like I did in the video and cook it tableside for a more dramatic presenation. The block holds heat so well you don’t need to worry about the tuna cooking properly. Place the unseasoned slices of tuna on the salt block and cook 2 mins per side, they should still be rare in the middle.

To plate!

Pile high a nice assortment of the salad, follow by a few nice slices of the albacore tuna layered in front. Whisk the vinaigrette again just before serving and drizzle all around the outside. Serve immediately!

Enjoy!

The old tailgating classic is getting a facelift today, and I know some of you may be thinking, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Believe me, we don’t think there’s anything wrong with grilling up some brats or Italian sausages along with a cold pint, or cooking them in beer and piling them high with caramelized onions. In fact, it’s so right we wanted to be able to serve it not just for our summer BBQ events, but also as part of something like a multi-course dinner party.

While this version isn’t technically a sausage, I wanted to make use of some of the ingredients commonly used in sausage making such as fennel (seeds) and other ingredients classically paired with pork, such as apples, and present them in an interesting way.

Here’s what I came up with:
Berkshire Pork Jowls with Fennel Purée, Braised Endive and Apple Ale Sauce

Here’s the money shot, now let’s see how we made it there:

Start with the Berkshire Pork Jowls. Berkshire pork is a heritage breed of pig, kind of like pork’s answer to Kobe beef. It is prized for it’s flavour and marbling. While the premium cuts of Berkshire can be pricy, there is great value to be found in cuts such as the jowls, which with a little love can be elevated into a terrific dish:

Beautiful marbling on this pork. Supplied by Cioffi’s Meat Market and Deli in North Burnaby.

Trim any excess fat, and use butchers twine to tie them into rolls.

Next, peel and slice a couple apples, diced a couple cloves of garlic and cut a large fennel bulb in half (bottom removed). Don’t chop up the fennel as we’ll need to remove it from the braising pot later.

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Heat up a large, heavy bottomed pot, add in a layer of vegetable oil. Season with pork and sear 3 mins per side until golden brown. Remove from pot and set aside:

Next, add in the fennel, apples and garlic and saute until softened. Add the pork back in.

Now it’s time to add the beer, which is a nice segway to show you a new Vancouver-area brewery, Stanley Park Brewing. The brewing operations are powered entirely by wind, and it’s a great, smooth tasting Amber Ale. Try it!

Alright, pour in a couple bottles of suds, and bring the mixture to a boil, season with salt and pepper.

Add in a bouquet garni, and cover with a parchment paper lid. Transfer to the oven for 2 hours.

While the jowls are in the oven, let’s prep the braised endive. Belgian endive is a bitter green that mellows out quite a bit when braised, but still provides an interesting note to the dish. I love to serve it with pork and chicken, especially.

Cut off the bottoms, and saute 2-3 minutes per side in a hot pan with some oil.

Add in some chicken stock and a bit of dark soy sauce.

Transfer to the oven to braise for 35 minutes.

After 2 hours, this is what your pot looks like:

Remove the pork, herbs, and fennel from the pot, and purée the apples into the ale sauce. Season with salt and pepper and reduce the sauce over medium heat for 15 minutes.

Next, blend the fennel with some of the sauce until smooth:

Alright! Time to head to the plate. Batting leadoff is our fennel purée, use the back of the spoon to spread it across the plate:

Slice the pork into medallions and arrange in the center of the purée:

Next, fan some of the braised endive around the pork, and spoon some of the reduced apple ale sauce on top:

Lastly, while the pork was braising I julienned some apples, carrots and fennel and tossed them in a touch of lemon juice, salt, pepper and some of the fennel fronds to make a quick “slaw” to provide some acidity to the dish:

And that’s it! Money shot time:

While it may not become the staple at tailgate BBQs this summer, for anyone feeling a little ambitious on a rainy night, I encourage you to try this dish or any of the elements in it. As always, let us know what you think!

We sometimes get people asking us about sweetbreads, so much so we wrote a blog about them about a year ago, in which we basically described them, threw in a pretty gross picture of them uncooked and didn’t show what the finished product could become. I doubt too many readers were inspired to try them out, and we wanted to change that.

Sweetbreads are a star performer of the foodie community. People that know them, love them. It’s like knowing an indie band before they make it big. You can say you were around in the beginning, then accuse the sweetbreads of going mainstream and selling out when they show up on menus all over the place like they are starting to. Or just eat them more often.

This dish combines 2 unusual (for lack of a better word) cuts of meat, and makes them into one enormously satisfying dish. Let’s get started.

Here’s the money shot, now let’s see how we got there:

Start with the sweetbreads in their humble raw form. I purchased them along with the veal cheeks at Cioffi’s Meat Market and Deli in North Burnaby.

Now, you’ve got to soak them in some cold water with a bit of salt for at least a few hours to draw out some blood and other impurities, it really does improve the final product. Do this overnight if convenient but for at least 3 hours.

Now, get out a couple big ugly celery roots:

Preheat the oven to 350F, and slice off the outer layers of the celery root, like this:

Chop them up a put them in a pot of salted water to boil:

Now throw in a couple sprigs of rosemary to the pot, the smell will be fantastic!

Now on to the veal cheeks, let’s have a look:

As you can see, they’ve got quite a bit of fat/silverskin that we need to trim off using a sharp knife. Go for it.

Now, preheat a heavy bottomed pot with some vegetable oil, season the cheeks with salt and pepper and dust lightly with flour.

Brown the cheeks on all sides over high heat:

Next, remove the cheeks from the pot and add in some aromatics and some figs. I’m using dried figs but if you can get fresh in your area, absolutely go for it.

Now, add half a bottle of cabernet, some veal stock and bring it to a boil.

Throw it in the oven and let it braise for about 1.5 hours at 350F.

Drain the celery root when tender and mash with a little butter and cream. Season and add in some fresh parsley to finish and set aside:

Next, scoop out the underrib of a small portobello mushroom cap, coat it lightly with oil, and fill it with the celery root. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

After 1.5 hours the cheeks should look like this, pull it out and remove the cheeks, they should be very tender but not completely falling apart:

Next, puree the figs and aromatics into the sauce. Put back on low heat and let it reduce for 10 minutes.

Next we’re on to the sweetbreads. Drain and pat them dry, cut them into chunks:

Heat a heavy bottom pan and fill it up about half way with canola oil. If you’ve got a home deep fryer, fire that bad boy up! Always use caution when working with hot oil! Set up a breading station with eggs and milk, as well as seasoned flour. Lightly and evenly bread the sweetbreads:

Test a sweetbread by placing it in the oil, it should bubble immediately which will indicate the oil is hot enough. If you’ve got a good thermometer the oil temp should be around 350F.

Fry them up until they are a golden brown. Words cannot describe how delicious these are. I like to dust them with a touch of smoked paprika right out of the fryer. Use this opportunity to sneak a chef’s snack. Or two.

Once the sweetbreads are fried, it’s time to plate! Start with your beautifully reduced cabernet fig sauce:

Now place the celery root stuffed mushroom cap in the center:

Thinly slice the veal cheeks, and arrange on top:

Followed by those beautiful crispy sweetbreads:

Experiment a bit with garnishes, a simple sprig of rosemary or parsley works, maybe some caramelized shallots.

And there we have it! Sure, it’s not for everybody, but if you’re feeling adventurous and are up for adding something to your culinary repertoire, why not head to your butcher and try at least one of the elements of this dish out for yourself? I promise, you’ll soon be a fan too.

We get some emails and questions from our clients and visitors on what to do with rabbit. It’s a little pricier than say, chicken, and people will often shy away from cooking it either thinking they don’t know how, or that they won’t like it. There’s also the “cute” factor. Some of us have hang-ups with cute, fuzzy, hopping little bunnies making their way onto the dinner plate. I’ll let you know right now that I’m not one of those people, and for those looking for an absolutely delicious meal, read on with me through this picture tutorial for a great preparation of rabbit. Here’s the final dish:

Now let’s see how we got there.

Start with a whole rabbit, it’s likely your supermarket won’t carry these, so visit your local butchershop:

If you’re lucky, the rabbit will come with liver and kidney inside. Don’t throw these away. Rabbit livers as well as kidneys are in my opinion the finest in the animal kingdom, a true delicacy. We’ll be incorporating them into our final dish.

Now, we need to cut the rabbit into parts. Start by removing the hind legs. Make a cut at the base of the thigh, then twist to expose the bone:

Use a sharp knive to cut inbetween the exposed joint. Since this is a more refined dish, the entire leg is too large. We need to separate the leg from the thigh. We do this again by cutting down the middle and twisting to expose the joint we need to cut through:

Use the blade of your knife to clean up the bone a bit, and what you should have at this point should look something like this:

Next, onto the rabbit loins. Flip the rabbit over and count about 4 ribs up from the top section, then use a large knive to cut the body:

Next, flip the middle section over, and cut along either side of the spine to remove each loin section, which should look like this:

Trim the excess flap, fat, and silver skin until you have just the rabbit loins intact. Save the extra trimmings and bones for stock. Your cutting board should look like this at this point:

Put the rabbit bones and trimmings in a bag and set in fridge/freezer for stock later. Put the thighs, legs and loins on a plate and and set aside. Wash cutting board with hot soapy water and it’s on to the vegetables:

Chop 1 large leek, 1 fennel bulb, a couple large carrots , garlic and shallots into a dice.

Next, grab 2 slices of bacon and slice them into 1/4″ thin strips like so:

Heat up a large, heavy bottomed pot with a thin layer of vegetable oil, and 1 tsp of butter. Season the rabbit thighs and legs with salt and lightly dust with flour. Add them (not the loins or kidneys) to the pot and brown well:

Once browned on both sides, remove rabbit pieces from pot, and add in the bacon:

Once browned, remove bacon from pot and drain on paper towel. Drain half the fat from the pot. Now add in all the vegetables, and 1/2 cup of dry white wine.

Cook for 5-7 minutes, then add in 2 cups of chicken stock, season and add the rabbit pieces back in. Cover with lid and turn down to a simmer. It needs to simmer for 45 minutes or so.

While rabbit is cooking, make the parsley oil. Add in 2 cups fresh flatleaf parsley, a pinch of salt and 3/4 cup vegetable oil to a blender or food processor:

Blend for 5-6 minutes:

Strain through a fine sieve and set aside:

After 45 minutes, remove lid and your pot should look something like this:

Boil a small pot of salted water. Add in the gnochetti and cook for 4-5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Heavy a large heavy bottomed saute pan with vegetable oil and butter. Saute the rabbit loins for 2-3 minutes per side, they should still be nice and pink in the middle. Then sauté the rabbit kidneys and liver for 2 minutes per side. (Keep the kidneys as a chefs snack)

Set loin aside to rest, and remove the thighs and legs from the pot. Add in 1/4 cup heavy cream to finish the sauce and reduce for 5 minutes.

To plate:

It works best if you allow the gnocchetti to cool slightly and become sticky first. Using a ring mold, spoon some of the gnochetti into the center of a plate. Compress.

Next, ladle some of the fricassee mixture over top evenly:

Slice the loins into medallions, and arrange the rabbit parts on top of the fricassee mixture. Then place a couple slices of the rabbit liver on top of it all.

And finally, drizzle with the parsley oil and rendered bacon to finish!

If this dish hasn’t made you want to try rabbit, I don’t know what will! To get the full recipe, sign up for our newsletter on our homepage, or join our facebook group here! Enjoy!

Well it seems as though we’re in a sharing mood lately over here at the ol’ Drew Cooks food blog! And at the end of the day, isn’t that what cooking’s all about anyways? Try this one out for some high end finger food to wow your guests. Thank us later

This is a great, flavourful and simple vegetarian preparation that works as a terrific appetizer or light main course. Simply omit the butter in place of vegetable or olive oil in the recipe and it becomes completely vegan as well! This recipe of ours is a little unique in that it uses both red curry and yellow curries. Yellow curry powder for the vegetables, and red curry paste for the sauce. The result is a visually appealing dish with a ton of flavour, without a particular component being too overwhelming. Try this one out next chance you get!

This is one of our favorite dessert recipes. It’s unique, delicious and a lighter dessert choice! Try it out, you won’t be disappointed:

Pumpkins, gotta love ‘em. Though for the most part, we know 2 good uses for pumpkins: carving and eating large amounts of pie. Well there’s more than meets the eye to our dear old October friend, and I’ve got a great savory pumpkin recipe for you to try out this season.

First things first, cooking with pumpkins 101:

- While as kids we seemed to want to hunt for the biggest pumpkin we could possibly carry, this isn’t the case when picking out a cooking pumpkin. Find a nice small one, they have a much better flavour.
- Don’t shy away from pumpkins that have a duller colour to them, pumpkins can actually get sweeter as they age a bit. So as long as there’s no bruising or other flaws, grab that dull pumpkin over it’s bright orange brothers.
- A good cooking pumpkin should weigh between 4-8 pounds. They may be labeled as Sugar Baby Pumpkins or Pie Pumpkins to help you find them better.

Let’s get to it!

Pumpkin and Sage Risotto with Goat Cheese

This dish not only says fall comfort food, it sings it from the mountaintops.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

- 1 small cooking pumpkin, approx. 4-5 pounds whole
- 2 cups arborio rice or similar risotto rice
- 6 cups chicken stock (can substitute vegetable stock)
- 1/3 cup goat cheese
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
- pumpkin seeds, toasted
- fresh flatleaf parsley
- 10 leaves fresh sage
- olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp butter.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F. Take the pumpkin and cut it in half using a large, sharp knive. Scoop out those pesky seeds and inner pulp. Save the seeds if you did not buy pre-toasted pumpkin seeds for this dish. Take a large casserole dish and add a 1/4″ layer of water to the bottom, season this water with salt. Take the sage leaves and place them inside the pumpkin halves, then flip them face down in the casserole dish, like this:

Roast in the oven for 45-60 minutes until fork tender.

While pumpkins are resting, heat a heavy and large saute pan or heavy bottomed pot with 2 tbsp of olive oil. In a separate pot, heat up the 6 cups of chicken stock until steaming but not boiling. When oil is hot, add in the diced onion and garlic and saute for 3-4 minutes until softened, add in the arborio rice and stir to combine, add in the white wine and let it cook off. Season with salt and pepper. Begin ladelling in the stock slowly, stirring after each addition, and continue doing this until the stock is gone and the risotto is creamy. When rice is nearly cooked through, turn the heat down to low and add in the butter, goat cheese, and parsley. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes. While rice is simmering, scoop out the flesh of the pumpkins and cut into 1/2″ pieces. Add these to the risotto and stir to combine.

Serve immediately in bowls and garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds and more fresh parsley.

Enjoy!

Our latest article has been published in Home Makeover Magazine containing 2 product reviews, summer grilling tips, and a fantastic summer party recipe.

Check it all out here!