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.