Rillettes

In our exploration of cooking and experimenting with food, the one conclusion we repeatedly come to is - dishes that have the simplest preparations are often the best. We've been fortunate to have dined at a number of fine restaurants and the most memorable foods tend to be the one you would least expect. Rob Feenie's pea soup at Lumiere, Thomas Keller's salmon rillettes at Bouchon and Fergus Henderson's gulls eggs at St. John are just a few that come to mind. The next time you dine out and are left with a lasting impression of a wonderful creation, challenge yourself to recreate it at home; you may be patting yourself on the back. I shall pass on what I believe to be an excellent piece of advice from Fergus Henderson, 'do not be afraid of cooking as your ingredients will know and misbehave.' Have fun with experimenting with food!

Another of those unforgettable dishes for me was a pork and duck fat rillettes which I've had the pleasure to enjoy a number of times at Salade de Fruits Cafe in Vancouver. If you haven't been, I do highly recommend should you be living in or visting Vancouver. Cash only! Rillettes, the name itself is intimidating, is an incredible dish that should be anything but. It's definitely old school, in the words of Anthony Bourdain, and I would have to agree. Having no Salade de Fruits Cafe or any other restaurant in Halifax that served this dish, I was pushed to my own devices and can now enjoy rillettes whenever I feel like it, provided I plan 3 to 4 days in advance. Patience for this dish is essential, but oh so worth it!

I turned to our cookbooks and found a recipe in Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles. If you don't own this already, it is recommended. And apparently it wasn't that I didn't look hard enough in this city for rillettes, according to Bourdain, it is tragically hard to find. A true shame!

Rillettes necessities:

2 lbs good quality pork belly

1 lb good quality pork shoulder (do not buy from grocery store, you will be disappointed, speaking from experience)

3 sprigs of thyme

1 sprig of parsley

1 bay leave

4 cups of water

salt and pepper

fat pork

duck fat

Remove the rind from the pork belly without discarding too much of the fat and cut into 2 inch pieces.

Cut the pork shoulder same size as pork belly.

Place all the pork in a heavy bottomed pot.

Pour 4 cups of cold water over the pork pieces and toss in the bouquet garni (thyme, parsley and bay leave) wrapped in cheesecloth if you have, otherwise simply tie with a piece of string. Turn the stove on very low, place lid on pot allowing for moisture to escape and let simmer for 6 hours. Did I mention patience?

After 6 hours, remove pork from pot along with 3 tablespoons of the remaining liquids and let cool. Add 1 tsp of salt and pepper to taste and using 2 forks pull apart into very small stringy pieces.

Mix in 1 heaping tablespoon of duck fat.

Place in jars topped with a piece of salt pork. Cover with lids or plastic wrap and place in fridge for 3 to 4 days. This is by far the most difficult thing in preparing this dish...the waiting.

Patience.

3 to 4 days later enjoy with crosstinis, cornichions and picked onions.

Thanks Anthony Bourdain in helping me find a solution to my rillettes dilema!