Canada Day Ribs!

For Canada Day I decided to make some ribs.

The first challenge in making great ribs is finding great pork, which is sadly becoming near impossible.  Pig farming has evolved (or devolved) from a livelihood into business into big business.  Today's commercial, commodity market pig is bred to be as lean as possible and is raised on a farm that operates like a factory, probably never even seeing the light of day or a bit of mud to root around in.

Sure, you can buy a nice looking rack of ribs from the supermarket.  Take them out of that styrofoam tray, slather them in a store-bought barbeque sauce and grill 'em up; they will probably taste okay.  Not much different than what you might get at your local TGI Friday's or Outback Grill.  Of course, you have no idea what age the pig was slaughtered at.  Or what breed the pig was.  Or what it was fed.  Are you eating ribs from a single animal, or were there a couple different pigs in that tray?  Where is the pork from?  Did it travel across the country in a transport container from Alberta?  Is this pork from one of those farms you hear about, where the animals are jacked up on antibiotics to prevent them from getting ill from the squalid, festering conditions they live in?  Maybe that rack of ribs on your plate starts to look a little different.  Or the ribs on your children's plates.

It wasn't always this way.  And thankfully it doesn't have to be today.  There are plenty of farmers around producing natural, healthy food.  Food you could feel good about serving to your family.

Heritage Breed Pigs

You may be astonished to learn there used to exist different, distinct breeds of pigs (I know I was).  They  were bred over generations for various qualities.  Hardiness.  Grazing ability.  Mothering ability.  They looked different, sometimes very different, from the pink stereotypical "commercial" pig of today.  Some were black.  Some were spotted.  Some were really hairy.  All of these traits, of course, are of no use to a "big business" commodity farmer.  He wants an animal that is disease tolerant, grows fast on minimal feed, and it extremely lean (the pork industry thinks everyone wants lean pork, for some deluded reason).  The unique characteristics of those old breeds have been bred out of today's commodity pig.

Thankfully, the bloodlines of those old breeds have not been entirely lost.  Known today as "heritage breeds", small scale farmers continue to raise the traditional breeds.  Tamworth (a descendent of the wild boar).  Berkshire.  Large Black.  British Saddleback.

Grass Roots Farm

One such farm that raises heritage breed pork is Grass Roots Farm.  Located in Mt. Uniake, they raise Tamworth, Large Black and Berkshire pigs.  The pigs are free range pasture raised and feed on natural green pastures.

They are able to roam freely, root up grasses and farrow naturally.  Basically living like pigs are supposed to.  These pigs are free of drugs, with no antibiotics or growth hormones used.  The pastures the pigs graze are are free of synthetic inputs of any kind.

These are some happy looking Tamworths on Grass Roots Farm.  Tamworths are on the Canadian Endangered Species "Critical" List.  Farms like Grass Roots are helping to save the breed from extinction.

The black & white pig above is a Berkshire on Grass Roots Farm.

Pork

Kelly and I recently bought our second pig from Grass Roots Farm.  Our first was a Tamworth, and we really enjoyed it.  The meat is quite dark and has a distinctive flavour, different from any pork we were used to.  For our second pig we chose a Berkshire.  As they had not been slaughtered yet we were able to have the animal butchered to our specifications.  Among other cuts I was able to get some "double-cut" chops and fresh pork belly, both unavailable at your local supermarket.

Ribs

Getting back to my ribs.  These are two racks, halved, of Berkshire spare ribs.  The animal was a little on the smallish side when it was slaughtered, but they typically dress at a smaller size anyways.  

Berkshire has a wonderful marbling of fat and is prized in Japan, where is known as "Kurobuta" (black pig).  The fat, I hope I don't have to remind you, is where the flavour is.  Why does bacon taste so good?  Fat.  Why are your porkchops always dry and flavourless?  Commercial pork producers have bred their pigs to be extremely lean.  Berkshire is interlaced with beautiful, snowy, tasty fat.  Berkshire, incidently, is crossed with commercial "commodity" pork bloodlines when they get a little too lean even for the mass market.

Canada Day Ribs

Canada Day in Halifax, 2011 was a beautiful day and I decided around noon that I would smoke these ribs over apple wood for the afternoon, as I had done with great success a couple weeks ago.  However, the weather meant that everyone on the block had their clotheslines out.  While I personally have no objection to bed sheets redolent of smokey pork (and Whistler actually prefers it) I don't think the neighbours share my enthusiasm for slow smoked barbeque.  There is, however, no chance these ribs aren't going be slow-cooked, so that means the oven.

Despite what you may think, you can make some fantastic ribs in the oven. 

Oven "Smoked" Ribs

I started by slicing up a Nova Scotia apple and put that with some sage leaves from the garden into a shallow pan.  I filled the pan with the water that had been soaking my apple wood chips, which had turned the water a tea-like colour. 

Over top of that I placed my four demi-racks of pasture raised Berkshire ribs, that had been seasoned with kosher salt and pepper.  The oven smelled incredible as these slow cooked for about 3.5 hours.

The finished product.  These went over the neighbour's to be warmed on the barbeque with a little homemade BBQ sauce as part of a neighbourhood Canada Day potluck, to be served with copious amounts of craft beer.  Happy 142 years Canada!  And what better way to enjoy it than with friends and some natural, ethically raised, local, top quality pork.

Homemade Butter

Do you fall on the butter or the margarine side of the debate? There's no question where I stand, butter is the better option as it's natural, saturated fats that one's body needs. The French are well known for their diets high in fats, yet they have very low incidence of heart disease. Or perhaps you are a margarine user believing what the marketers have filled your head with, that margarine is healthy for your heart. If that's the case, do a little experiment: place a tub of Becel in a garage and let it sit there for an entire year. You'll be astounded with what you find. Looks the same as the day you put it there. Is that something you really want to consume? If you are a margarine consumer you may want to do some research and reconsider your choice. Trans fats, polyunsaturated fats, hydrogenated oils, not exactly something that you could make yourself at home.



Butter, on the other hand, is something you can easily make in your own kitchen within minutes. Have you ever whipped whipping cream in a mixer for a dessert or perhaps an Irish coffee and over whipped the cream? If you have, than you've already started the butter making process. That simple!

To make your own at home all that is required is whipping cream at room temperature, a mixer, salt, cheese cloth and cold water. Pour the cream into a chilled sterilized bowl and begin to whip.


The cream will become light and fluffy. Continue to whip until the cream starts to resemble scrambled eggs.


The buttermilk will begin to separate from the butter and if you're not watching closely you'll also find yourself having to clean up a big mess.


Once the cream has taken on a solid form, strain off the whey using cheese cloth and submerge in ice cold water and knead your butter squeezing out any excess buttermilk.


Continue this process, kneading and changing the water with fresh water as needed. Using butter pats or your hands shape the butter. You can add salt at this point; we opted for no salt and placed the extra butter wrapped in wax paper in the freezer.


We enjoyed our homemade butter on a baguette with a little sprinkle of salt. The bread was merely a hold device for the butter. Heaven!

"It is a slow roasted pork...

"It is a slow roasted pork, nothing fancy, just happens to be my favorite."

Those were the words spoken by Johnny Depp playing Agent Sands in the movie "Once Upon a Time in Mexico".  One night I decided to check out the DVD Special Features and found a short where the director (Robert Rodriguez) shows you how to make the dish.  I was hooked.

Puerco Pebil

I have made this dish many, many times.  Every time, I am asked for the recipe, so here it is.  One should exercise caution when approaching this dish as in the movie a chef is killed (whacked) for making this dish too well.  Consider yourself warned.  I have very slightly modified this recipe from the one Rodriguez provides on the DVD.

Spices

You will need to make a trip to a specialty grocer as I know you don't have annatto seeds in the pantry.

You can find them at Pete's Frootique.  All the other spices are standard issue.

You should use whole spices, and grind them in a coffee grinder.  As Rodriguez points out, you'll need one dedicated for spices otherwise your coffee will start to taste like spices.

Grind the following into powder, as fine as you can get it:

2 tbsp annatto seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorn
8 allspice
1/2 tsp cloves

The Secret Sauce

In a blender, mix:

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp salt
8 cloves of garlic
Couple habanero peppers (seeds removed)

Then add:

Juice of five lemons
A splash of the finest tequila you can find

Add the ground spices to the mixture on the blender.

Puerco

Cut up a good sized pork roast into cubes.  Shoulder, butt, whatever you can find.  This dish, incidentally, is also really nice with beef.  And could also be made with chicken, although I've never done that.  Put the pork into a large ziploc bag, and pour the liquid mixture over it and coat it well.

Line an overproof pan with banana leaves.

Pour in the pork, then top with more banana leaves.  Use tinfoil on top of that to seal it.

You want the seal to be as tight as possible, so no moisture escapes.

Cook at 325 F for 4 hours.

Serve on a bed of white or Spanish rice.  I've also used a fork to pull it apart and served it on tortilla chips.  I've also served it in soft tortilla's with guacamole, salsa and cheese.  I've also served it on top of a cornbread biscuit topped with a poached egg and guacamole (a fall out of your chair good eggs benedict).  This stuff is durable, versatile and very, very good.

A dish so good, you might get whacked just for making it.  Enjoy!

A Bloody Valentine to Local Eating

This Valentine's Day dinner included a rack of Bill Wood's lamb.  Bill Wood, of Wood 'N Hart Farm in Tatamagouche, needs no introduction.  His is the lamb on the menus of the best restaurants in the region.   But this isn't a story about Wood 'N Hart Farms.  It's my Valentine's Card to Nova Scotia food.

The preparation of this lamb couldn't be simpler.  I seasoned it with salt & pepper.  I browned it quickly with butter in a saute pan, sprinkled it with rosemary & thyme from the window box, then finished it in the oven.

That's it.  When I carved the rack, the lamb was a beautiful, blushing shade of pink (I like my lamb rare, in the British tradition of my family).  A glorious juice which reminded me of pinot noir spilled out onto the cutting board.  I served it with mint sauce made from my grandmother's recipe.

I'm not a proponent of local eating per se.  I'm a proponent of eating the best quality food I can find.  It just so happens that the best you can find, in Nova Scotia, is what is produced right here.  Cooking this rack of Nova Scotia lamb and making it part of a special family meal was my way to send a Valentine's Card to all of the Nova Scotia food producers out there.  Keep up the great work!

The Best Beef in Nova Scotia

A lot of people have been asking me where I buy my beef from.  So I'm going to tell you, along with the story of how I found it.

Kelly and I are steadfast Halifax Farmer's Market shoppers.  Relocating to Nova Scotia in 2008 forced us to seek out new purveyors for all the things we love, and one of my "loves" is steak.  Over the course of a summer I purchased the same cut of steak (rib-eye), at the same thickness, from every supplier of beef I could find.  This included all of the Farmer's Market vendors, the local grocery chains (high-end and low-end), little butcher shops tucked away in corners, farm outlets, anyone selling cow.  Some were really disappointing, most were decent, some were great.  But there was a clear winner.

Highview Farms

LeRoy Little of Highview Farms is one of the many vendors at the Halifax Farmer's Market that Kelly and I have developed a relationship with.  LeRoy and his wonderful wife Kathy raise Highland cattle on a beautiful farm in the Annapolis Valley, overlooking the Minas Basin.  Highland cattle are an ancient, hardy breed developed in the Scottish Highlands.  The royal family maintains a fold of Highland's at Balmoral Castle, and it is considered the royal beef of choice.  And LeRoy can well attest to that, as he provided beef for "her majesty" when she was visiting Halifax in July 2010.

Farm Visit

Kelly and I visited Highview Farm in October 2009.  The cattle live outdoors year round and feed on natural grass and hay.

Many of the cows have names and they are treated on the farm like pets.  Here Kelly is getting to know "Ruby" the cow.

The cattle receive no growth hormones, steroids or antibiotics.  These are happy cows enjoying a comfortable, healthy, natural life.

LeRoy giving one of the bulls some scratches on the chin.

Beef

A result of their natural diet and typical of the breed, Highview Farms Highland cattle are slow to  reach a size suitable for processing.  Once finished, the resulting beef has a beautiful marbling of fat.  It should also be mentioned that Highland beef has some incredible nutritional benefits as well, such as being a third lower in fat and cholesterol than other breeds.

The beef has a wonderful grassy aroma.  Above is a Highview Farms rib-eye that I requested have the bone left in.

Custom and obscure cuts are no problem here.

Dry Aging

Highview Farms beef is dry aged for between 21 to 30 days, which concentrates the flavour.  You can only dry age the best cuts of beef to begin with, plus it adds additional cost as you lose some beef during the aging process.  So if you're wondering why you don't see dry aged beef at the Sobey's or Costco, now you know.  It's typically only available at steakhouses or high-end butchers.

A Highview Farm Steak

I usually grill my steaks on the BBQ, but a recent post on the Brooklyn Warehouse chef's blog led me to try pan grilling in butter, and I've found the recents fantastic.

In his 2010 book "Steak: One Man's Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef", Mark Schatzker rates a grass-fed Highland steak (sampled in Scotland) as A+.

I carved this steak up into slices and heaped it onto a plate, reserving the bone for gnawing on once the beef was all gone.

Highview Farms beef has a beautiful, rich flavour, and a juicy, meaty texture.  In my continual search for the finest beef available, it's the best I've found.

Beyond Restaurant Quality

I recently had a steak at a Halifax high-end steakhouse.  The appetizer was incredible, the side dish great, the cocktails delicious.  But the steak was a disappointment.  It was cooked to a turn but flavourless.

A typical large scale beef producer will sell their finest quality beef to restaurants at a premium cost, rendering this product largely unavailable to the retail consumer.  Because of the low production at Highview Farms (they process one animal every couple of months), they can't supply restaurants as they don't produce the volumes.  What this means for you is that all of their beef is available for sale, not just the leftovers after the commercial customers have picked them over.  And when Highview Farms does sell to a professional chef (which they often do), they are selling them the same product they would sell to you.

You can find LeRoy Little selling his beef at the Halifax Historic Farmer's Market, and his wife Kathy at the Wolfville Farmer's Market, every Saturday morning.

Lamb Bellies with Mint Stuffing

I love the challenge of turning something that others might not consider ever eating, let alone cooking, into a regular household favourite. Lamb bellies has been one of those discoveries that we look forward to having and like to introduce to others.


Being a fan, no make that a lover of pork belly, I was intrigued the first time I saw lamb bellies at Wood n Hart Farms at the Halifax Farmer's Market. My inquires led to the discovery that the lamb belly cut was the result of an American chef's request and Bill thought he would introduce it to his Halifax clientele to see if there was any interest. I was keen to try it using Bill's recommendation of an apricot stuffing. The first attempt involved a stuffing made of bread crumbs, apricots, onions, herbs, butter and salt and pepper. It was good! Since that first attempt I continue to seek out the perfect lamb belly stuffing and after close to 10 variations, I've found our household favorite. The stuffing...mint, lots of it from the garden or indoor herb pot, stale bread crumbs, finely chopped onion, butter, egg and salt & pepper.


As mentioned, for those that you that live in Halifax, you can find lamb bellies at the old historic Halifax market at Wood n Hart, provided I've not been there before you and purchased the lot. Should you not be fortunate enough to live in this city, check with your local butcher who might be able to obtain this unappreciated cut.

Remove some of the fat and most the membrane from the bellies. Mix up the bread crumbs, mint, onion, butter, egg salt and pepper. You'll need butcher's string, 2 pieces per belly to keep the belly together. Roll the stuffed lamb bellies, membrane side out. Slice a clove of garlic and place a few pieces of garlic in your lamb belly roll.


Add a little oil and butter to a cast iron pan, brown the bellies and place in the oven to finish cooking for about a half hour.


Serve with braised leeks, celeriac or any side vegetable that you have available.


Bon appetit!