A Chef's Journal

My apologies for the belated post.  It’s been a couple of busy weeks with business, birthdays, summer activities and revamping the upcoming menu.  I’ll be talking about the new menu in the next few posts, and I promise you’ll love the changes if you are a customer.  But this post will focus on the splendour of pork.  You know, the “other white meat”?  Every so often a brave and close guest at the restaurant will graciously invite us to their place for dinner.  I use the term “brave” because everyone seems to be intimidated by the fact that they are cooking for a chef.  You know, we aren’t much different from the rest of you.  If you cut us we do bleed.  Of course, when we bleed, we bleed cream sauce.  Anyway, this particular couple took one of our cooking classes so we were confident the food would be great.  Our thoughts were right on target.  They prepared a tasty appetizer of smoked oysters wrapped in puff pastry with goat cheese.  It was awesome.  And for dinner we had cucumber salad, a mixed greens salad and zucchini casserole.  All of this from their garden!  It doesn’t get any better than that.  But the entree, oh the entree.  Pork ribs that had been slow roasted all day, then finished with a sweet and spicy sauce.  They had finished it on the grill, slightly charring the outside.  Not burnt, but charred.  There’s a big difference.  Charred imparts a crisp smokiness to the meat.  Burnt tastes like the fire pit outside your house.  In any event, the meat fell off the bone and melted in your mouth.  Thanks to their thoughtful efforts, we had a relaxing evening with some great food and great friends!   

There are several ways to cook pork, with as many types of cuts of meat.  There are ribs, of course, pork loin, pork chop, pork steak, pork butt and pork shoulder.  How do you pick which one?  Well, here’s some food for thought.  My wife recently celebrated another birthday at the beginning of August.  I’m not sure how old she is because the numbers keeps changing like the stock market.  All of our children, their girlfriends and my mother gathered to celebrate the great event.  Catherine wanted to have a pork roast wrapped in banana leaves.  She had recently served one for a party and wanted to try one at home.  So my sous chef, Jeremiah, prepared this beast of a roast wrapped in banana leaves which was rubbed in a blend of spices.  We chose a boneless pork butt, but Chef Jeremiah prefers bone-in.  We put it in the oven at 9:00 a.m. at 250 degrees and pulled it out about 6:00 p.m.  When we cut through the leaves and unmasked the pork, the aroma was incredible.  Pure heaven!  And you could smell how moist it was.  By wrapping the pork in banana leaves and then in foil, it steams slowly, infusing the spices into the meat.  It was so good I couldn’t tell you what else was for dinner.  Wait a minute, yes I can.  Roasted wedges of sweet potatoes tossed in what my son described as one of the wing sauces at Buffalo Wild Wings.  A simple salad was all we needed to finish the plate.  It was so good even cold, we sampled it as an appetizer the next day with some of our friends.  I’m sure this celebration of pork will end at some point.  But while it is here I’m gonna enjoy every morsel that comes my way. 

Thanks for taking the time to read!  I’d really appreciate any comments.  It’s the only way I can tell you’re reading the blog!

Your personal chef,

Chef Tad