Kay Tucker's Most Amazing Day
Have you ever seen two people looking this serious over pork bellies?
That is Jasper Mirabile and me working in Jasper's kitchen, creating a wonderful new treat for Kansas City!
Have you ever seen two people looking this serious over pork bellies?
That is Jasper Mirabile and me working in Jasper's kitchen, creating a wonderful new treat for Kansas City!
Thank You!
First of all, I must thank George Richter, CEO of Smithfield Foods, the mother company of Farmland Foods. Jasper and I had the finest pork to work with, hand picked by my favorite pig man!
Second, many thanks to Judy Witts Francini of Tuscany for sharing with us, a
traditional Tuscan recipe for pork belly roll. Jasper and I spent 13 lovely days in Sicily with Judy guiding us through 1000 year old market places and dining with us in the finest restaurants. She will be returning to Kansas City soon for several days, and we look forward to seeing her again.
Now, back to my most amazing day.....
I arrived at Jasper’s Restaurant shortly after the lunch crowd returned to their jobs or home to sleep off a delicious lunch. I was carrying our precious pork, Judy’s recipe and my camera, everything we needed to start, except for the herbs and spices. J
asper had those all lined up and waiting, ready for us to start blending and testing.
It turns out the two of us make a pretty good team. We worked side by side, and in the end, we had 5 beautiful rolls full of fresh rosemary and sage, seasoned with our very own blend we named Sicilian Rub, They will “cure” for approximately a week, then they will be braised with aromatics and red wine.
With the remainder of the pork belly, we took 3 5”x 5”x2” squares of the meat, seasoned each liberally with our Sicilian Rub, stacked them one on top of the other with fresh rosemary and sage between, tied them into a lovely bundle and braised it for a couple of hours….guess what! It was fabulous!
As gratifying as all this is, the part I am really pleased with is Jasper and I have plans in the works for teaching cooking classes together….currently being referred to as Pork 101! We will keep working, continuing to plan, and soon we will release our schedule of classes. How exciting is that!?
Our friend, Judy, will be arriving in Kansas City, around the first of April. We are planning an event at the vineyard, so as soon as I know the details, you will know also.
Goodness!....What a Wonderful Day!
Words From Jasper:
So.........................When Kay called me last month and asked about making pancetta, I was so excited..........I couldn't wait until she brought the pork bellies over to my restaurant.
Pancetta is cured pork belly, the Italian equivalent of bacon. Unlike American bacon, however, pancetta is cured with a variety of herbs, spices, and garlic, and is left unsmoked. Pancetta is usually rolled and tied.
We began the process by making our own "Sicilian Rub" which contains a mixture of Sicilian Salt that Kay and I brought back from Sicily, fresh rosemary, fresh sage, black pepper, sodium nitrate, brown sugar, nutmeg, fennel seeds and cinnamon.
Kay trimmed the pork belly and scored them, I generously rubbed our salt & herb rub on both sides and inserted a fresh stick of rosemary and sage leaves in the middle and rolled like a jelly roll. Kay performed her art of tying the rolled pork belly with butchers twine and I wrapped in cello. I placed in my refrigerator and we will check on it in one week.
On another note, while Kay and I were working, her daughter, Cindy, dropped in to take pictures and as the two of us were cooking, she suggested we do a cooking class together so.....................the rest is history......we are planning a series of classes at Somerset Ridge, our first will be Pork 101 and we hope to do this in early April so stay tuned....it's going to be exciting!
asper had those all lined up and waiting, ready for us to start blending and testing.It turns out the two of us make a pretty good team. We worked side by side, and in the end, we had 5 beautiful rolls full of fresh rosemary and sage, seasoned with our very own blend we named Sicilian Rub, They will “cure” for approximately a week, then they will be braised with aromatics and red wine.
With the remainder of the pork belly, we took 3 5”x 5”x2” squares of the meat, seasoned each liberally with our Sicilian Rub, stacked them one on top of the other with fresh rosemary and sage between, tied them into a lovely bundle and braised it for a couple of hours….guess what! It was fabulous!
As gratifying as all this is, the part I am really pleased with is Jasper and I have plans in the works for teaching cooking classes together….currently being referred to as Pork 101! We will keep working, continuing to plan, and soon we will release our schedule of classes. How exciting is that!?
Our friend, Judy, will be arriving in Kansas City, around the first of April. We are planning an event at the vineyard, so as soon as I know the details, you will know also.
Goodness!....What a Wonderful Day!
Words From Jasper:
So.........................When Kay called me last month and asked about making pancetta, I was so excited..........I couldn't wait until she brought the pork bellies over to my restaurant.
Pancetta is cured pork belly, the Italian equivalent of bacon. Unlike American bacon, however, pancetta is cured with a variety of herbs, spices, and garlic, and is left unsmoked. Pancetta is usually rolled and tied.
We began the process by making our own "Sicilian Rub" which contains a mixture of Sicilian Salt that Kay and I brought back from Sicily, fresh rosemary, fresh sage, black pepper, sodium nitrate, brown sugar, nutmeg, fennel seeds and cinnamon.
Kay trimmed the pork belly and scored them, I generously rubbed our salt & herb rub on both sides and inserted a fresh stick of rosemary and sage leaves in the middle and rolled like a jelly roll. Kay performed her art of tying the rolled pork belly with butchers twine and I wrapped in cello. I placed in my refrigerator and we will check on it in one week.
On another note, while Kay and I were working, her daughter, Cindy, dropped in to take pictures and as the two of us were cooking, she suggested we do a cooking class together so.....................the rest is history......we are planning a series of classes at Somerset Ridge, our first will be Pork 101 and we hope to do this in early April so stay tuned....it's going to be exciting!
Chefs J & K's Braised Pancetta with Sicilian Rub
