High on the Hog

Hello, my name is John, and I'm a Porkaholic. Even though it's still days away, I'm already quivering in anticipation of Cochon555, a very special culinary competition featuring a group of top San Francisco chefs, each of who will get an entire heritage breed hog to prepare from head to toe – literally.

Five chefs, five pigs, and five family-owned wineries are being brought together by Taste Network, for what promises to be an evening of porcine perfection. As one of the lucky guests, I'll be helping determine the winner, along with a panel of professional judges, and the top chef will be declared, "Prince of Porc."

Taste Network, a culinary events company that focuses on artisan wine and food pairings and education, has been hosting these Cochon555 competitions across the country to promote heritage pigs and breed diversity in local and national communities.

I'll be covering the event with camera and video recorder in hand, and hope to share the sights and sounds of five whole hogs being used in wondrous and extraordinary ways, but since there's a very good chance I'll have too much pork fat on my fingers to properly work the equipment, I've posted a video from the Boston Cochon555 event below.

This is open to the pubic, so if you're in the Bay Area and would like to join me, the event is Sunday, June 14th, 5:00 PM, at The Fairmont, San Francisco. For more information about this event, or Taste Networks, you can check out the official Cochon555 website. I'd love to see you there!

Cooking Grass-Fed Beef: Episode 1 – Top Round "London Broil"

This video recipe for a London broil is the first in the series of videos I mentioned last week, focusing on cooking various cuts of grass-fed beef. In this recipe, using beef from Normanton Farm's, I focus on the main challenge to using this product – its very low fat content.

Statistics vary, but Grass-fed beef has about half the fat of conventionally raised beef. It's this low-fat content, along with high levels of Omega-3's that makes eating grass-fed beef so nutritionally advantageous.

Because of the lower fat content, grass-fed beef has the reputation for being tougher and drier that regular beef. It is if you don’t handle it properly, which is the whole purpose of these videos. Generally, grass-fed beef cooks faster, probably 25% faster, so it's important to use a thermometer to check for doneness, and not rely solely on time and feel.

For this top round roast, a really flavorful, but very lean cut, there are two great options: a quick, hot, dry cooking method, served medium-rare – or a long, slow, braising method you'll see in the sauce video. Anyway, enough background info, on to the recipe!

The "London broil" has to be one of the most confusing recipes ever. Despite the name, it's not a dish that originated in London. They've never heard of it. It's like asking where to buy fortune cookies in China. It first appeared in America in the 1930's, although where, no one knows for sure.

Adding to the culinary haze is the fact butchers sell "London Broil" as a cut of meat, which it isn’t - it's simply a method for cooking a thick, often tough piece of beef. When you buy a London broil, you could be getting top round, rump roast, flank steak, sirloin, or any number of other cuts.

Mysterious origins and poor terminology aside, it is a very nice way to cook this piece of beef. The meat first gets a marinade, and is then broiled medium-rare, before being sliced thin, and served with the natural juices. By the way, you can also cook this recipe on the grill, or in a pan, as long as you keep it medium-rare. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
grass-fed top round roast
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves sliced garlic
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp dried Italian herbs
salt as needed

Ravenous Couple Gives Chef John Money Shot

The beautiful ribs pictured here are from Hong and Kim who publish the blog Ravenous Couple.

I received a very nice email from them in which they reported great success making and (fortunately for me) photographing the Hoisin-Glazed Ribs recipe I posted a few weeks ago.

They remembered I'd lost my "money shot" when my hard disc crashed, and generously offered up their photos for me to use in the post. Thank you Hong and Kim!

I hope you'll reward their thoughtfulness with a visit to check out their version of these great ribs on the Ravenous Couple blog. I don't want to give anything away, but they did add one very secret ingredient. Enjoy!

Penne Pasta with Vodka Sauce - Alcohol Will Make You and this Sauce More Interesting

Vodka sauce is a very interesting recipe for the simple fact that vodka doesn’t really have a flavor, yet when a small amount is added to a tomato sauce such interesting things happen.

If you believe such respected foodologists as Alton Brown, there are flavor compounds in tomatoes that are only liberated by alcohol, but is that really it? Is it possible there are things that happen when we combine certain ingredients that we simply don't understand, and never will?

This is a fairly typical vodka sauce recipe with one main exception – I use bacon instead of the traditional Italian pancetta. In case you don't know, pancetta and bacon are very similar, except pancetta is not smoked.

In this recipe I enjoy the subtle smokiness the bacon brings and I believe it adds a little extra richness to the dish, which allows me to dial back the cream content. I'm not a big fan of the cream-laden, pale-pink vodka sauces you see sometimes.

One thing with this penne recipe that may seem odd is that I don’t add garlic. There's some garlic in the marinara sauce I use, but I don’t add additional minced garlic at the beginning, as one would assume I might. I just like the taste of this sauce without that "extra" flavor. I can’t really explain why, other than to say just because.

If you've never made this before and want some delicious homework, I suggest trying a version with bacon and then one with the classic pancetta. I'd love to hear what you think of the differences. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 14.5-oz box Barilla multigrain penne pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
4 oz chopped bacon or pancetta
1/2 cup vodka
1 small spring fresh rosemary, whole
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 cups prepared tomato/pasta sauce
3/4 cup water
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese