In a world of beverages full of sugar, artificial colours, sweeteners and more, it’s pretty darn refreshing (literally) to find a company like R.W. Knudsen Family that is sticking to the same philosophy they’ve had since they started in 1961: 100% natural ingredients, with no added sugar, artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

And man are they good! For our corporate catering lunches around Vancouver, Richmond and the Lower Mainland, we’ve begun using these products almost exclusively as they are such a great alternative to sugar-filled colas and other beverages. My personal favorites are the “Spritzer” beverages that come in a range of great flavours such as:

Black Cherry
Boysenberry
Jamaican Lemonade
Orange Passionfruit
Organic Apple
Mandarin Lime
Tangerine
Vanilla Creme
Red Raspberry and several others.

It is truly a great tasting natural product, and it’s something we’re proud to offer our clients.

I don’t know about you, but all this talk has made me thirsty! Enjoy the games everybody…Go Canada!

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:

We use Tater-Ware biodegradable and compostable food service utensils for all our corporate catering lunches in the Vancouver area.

What is Tater-Ware? It’s a great line of products made from, you guessed it, potato starch. These incredible utensils are tan in colour and feel very similar to a high quality plastic, however they have been proven to even out-perform plastic in boiling and microwave tests, are dishwasher safe and of course, will completely biodegrade or compost when disposed of.

I encourage anyone planning a large event where disposable food service items would be required to consider using these fantastic products:

http://www.bdfs.net/products/TaterWare/

While they are not the most cost-effective option out there, they are the highest quality and most sustainable product available that we could offer to our clients, so for our business, it was an easy choice.

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!

I’m always surprised how many people have never heard of brining, much less tried it. This incredibly easy technique is the key to most amazingly juicy turkey you’ve ever eaten. It’s not difficult, and it uses ingredients everyone has at home. All you need is a little time and a vessel large enough to hold the turkey and the brine. So what is it?

A brine is simply a solution of water, salt,  sugar and often some other basic flavouring ingredients. These ingredients are mixed and the turkey is submerged in the brine, and allowed to soak refrigerated overnight, or up to 24 hours. The result is the juiciest bird you’ve ever eaten with a virtually fool-proof technique. Ready to try?

Recipe:

2 gallons water
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
3-4 bay leaves
a dozen or so black peppercorns
1 lemon, halved
1 bunch fresh thyme sprigs

Step 1: Ensure your turkey is fully thawed. A frozen bird will not absorb the solution and the brining will be all for not.

Step 2: Mix all ingredients in a large stockpot, big enough to hold the turkey and the brine solution. If you don’t have a pot large enough, use a cooler.

Step 3: Submerge the turkey in the solution, what you have at this point should look something like this:

Step 4: If using a cooler, add in a large quantity of ice to keep the solution very cold, and place in a cold place like a garage or a safe place outside. If using a stock pot, place in the refrigerator.

Step 5: Allow to soak overnight, or up to 24 hours. For a large turkey, the brine needs a minimum of 6 hours to have an effect, though longer is desired.

Step 6: Remove from the brine, pat dry and roast as usual!

That’s it, and this technique works on ALL poultry, so don’t hesitate to try it and put the usual BBQ’d chicken over the top. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and happy brining!

…for the Drew Cooks! van making it’s way around the Lower Mainland!

Let us know what you think of the design by leaving a comment on our blog.

Crispy skin is one of the true delights of cooking fish like salmon, trout or bass. The combination of perfectly cooked fish and skin so crisp you could strike a match on it is in my opinion one of the best textural experiences in the culinary world.

Too often I find people removing the skin, largely due to bad experiences eating fish improperly prepared resulting in soggy, rubbery skin. No thanks! But once you get these few steps down and nail your first fillet, you’ll never go back to sans-skin, trust me.

Salmon is a great fish to start with on this. It’s firm enough that it holds up well in the pan during flipping, and has lots of natural oils which help it to crisp up more easily.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 325F. Start with a smaller piece of fillet (5 oz or so, skin on of course). Ensure all the scales of the fish are removed by running the blade of a knife against the direction of the scales across the skin. Rinse under cold water.

Step 2: The most important factor in crisping skin is removing as much excess water as possible from the skin. Excess moisture will cause steam and prevent the skin from browning properly. Dry the fish thoroughly with a paper towel. Next, use the blade of a knife and draw it over the skin. This is called the “Squeegee” technique and is designed to draw out excess moisture from the skin. Dry again with paper towel.

Step 3: Using a good size sauté pan, heat over med-hi heat. Coat the bottom of the pan a thin layer of vegetable oil or a similar good high heat oil. It is very important to ensure the oil gets hot enough before placing the fish in the pan. It should be hot enough to sizzle right away, but not hot enough that the oil is smoking, this will cook the skin too quickly causing it to burn before it crisps.

Step 4: Season the fillet with salt and pepper and place skin side down in the hot pan. Cook for approximately 5-6 minutes, until the fish is nearly cooked through, and the skin is golden. Flip the fish and place immediately in the oven to continue cooking for an additional 3 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve…..skin on!