MAPLE GLAZED PORK BELLY
With navy bean purée and apple-bacon compote
Serves 6
Ingredients: Pork Belly
4 Tbsp canola oil
1 cup ½-inch dice carrots
1 cup ½-inch dice celery
1 cup ½-inch dice onions
¼ cup ¼-inch dice lemon grass
¼ cup minced ginger
2 cloves garlic
3 lbs pork belly
4 quarts white chicken stock
1 cup light soy sauce
8 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tsp black peppercorns
3 bay leaves
½ cup maple syrup
Chervil for garnish
Method: Pork Belly
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Heat oil in a large frying pan on medium to medium-high heat.
- Add carrots, celery, onions, lemon grass, ginger and garlic, then sauté for about 10 minutes, or until softened.
- Transfer to a hot roasting pan and add pork belly, fat side up. Add stock, soy sauce, thyme, peppercorns and bay leaves. Cover with lid or aluminum foil, then cook in the oven for 4 ½ hours. Remove from the oven and allow pork to cool in the cooking liquid.
- When pork is cool, take it out of the cooking liquid. Save the liquid and refrigerate until needed.
- Place a cooling rack in a shallow pan and cover the rack with parchment paper. Put pork on top of the parchment paper. Put another piece of parchment paper on top of the pork, and then cover with another shallow pan. Put 4 to 5 tins of canned food inside the shallow pan that’s on top of the pork, in order to press it, and refrigerate overnight.
Ingredients: Compote
4 Tbsp olive oil
8 oz Irish bacon, ¼ inch dice
4 Gala apples, peeled, cored and ½ inch dice
2 Tbsp liquid honey
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 cup cherry vinegar
Method: Compote
- Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat.
- Add bacon and apples, then sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, or until apples soften.
- Add honey and maple syrup, then cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until apples are caramelized.
- Add vinegar and stir to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced to syrup.
- Season with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Can be made the day ahead.
Ingredients: Purée
2 cups navy beans, soaked overnight in 6 cups cold water
3 quarts white chicken stock
2 stalks celery
1 onion
2 bay leaves
3 ½ oz bacon
4 Tbsp butter
¼ to ½ cup whipping cream
Method: Purée
- Drain and rinse beans. Place beans, stock, celery, onion, bay leaves and bacon in a saucepan on medium-low heat and simmer for about 90 minutes, or until beans are tender.
- Remove and discard celery onion, bay leaves and bacon. Save the cooking liquid.
- Place beans in a food processor and puree, adding 1/3 to 2/3 cup of the reserved bean-cooking liquid, just enough to ease the pureeing.
- Strain bean puree through a fine-mesh sieve. Season with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Can be made a day ahead up to this point.
Finish Pork:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the pressed pork into 6 portions.
- Pour maple syrup and enough of the reserved pork-cooking liquid into an ovenproof frying pan to cover the bottom to a depth of ½ inch. Place the pan on the stove on medium heat until liquid is warmed through, then place in the oven and heat pork belly for 7 to 10 minutes, basting often with the cooking liquid until warmed through. Remove from the oven.
To Serve:
- Add butter and cream to bean puree and reheat. Reheat apple-bacon compote.
- Place ¾ cup of the bean puree in the middle of each of six warmed plates and top with a piece of pork belly.
- Drizzle with some of the cooking liquid from the frying pan.
- Place 3 Tbsp warm compote on top of each piece of pork. Garnish with chervil.
Chef Rob Feenie, Executive Chef, Cactus Restaurants Ltd.
The driving culinary force behind Cactus Restaurants Ltd., the award-winning collection of 26 casual fine dining restaurants in BC, Alberta and Saskatoon, Rob Feenie is also one of Canada’s most recognized and celebrated chefs.
At Cactus Restaurants Ltd., Chef Feenie leads the culinary team, blending his talent for creating elegant, globally-inspired cuisine with his passion for simple dishes using fresh, sustainable ingredients. Chef Feenie’s innovative approach to cooking has continued to drive the evolution of Cactus Club Cafe’s menu selections and its commitment to sourcing the best fresh, local and sustainable products wherever possible.
Growing up in Burnaby, BC, Chef Feenie first developed a curiosity for international cuisine over countless traditional family dinners at his Japanese neighbours’ home. This early experience was followed by a high school exchange program where he was first introduced to European chefs and techniques. At 20, Chef Feenie attended the Dubrulle Culinary Institute in Vancouver and upon graduating, became a Sous-chef in some of Western Canada’s top restaurants, notably Le Crocodile and Cherry Stone Cove in Vancouver and The Rim Rock Café in Whistler.
While at Le Crocodile he began a series of work and educational trips, or stages, throughout Europe and North America, starting in Alsace with Chef Emile Jung at Au Crocodile and Chef Antoine Westermann at Le Buerehiesel, both Michelin three-star rated restaurants. In North America he worked with Chef Charlie Trotter, at Trotter’s Restaurant in Chicago, and Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Jean-Georges in New York.
In 1995 Chef Feenie opened the internationally celebrated Lumière Restaurant in Vancouver, followed by Lumière Tasting Bar and then Feenie’s, a more casual Canadian Bistro, next door to Lumière, in 2003. Throughout his career, Chef Feenie has secured international culinary recognition, including the coveted Relais Gourmand and Traditions et Qualitè designations, in addition to the Mobil Travel Guide four-stars designation and the AAA Five Diamond Award. In 2009 and 2011, Chef Feenie won the Vancouver Gold Medal Plates competition.
Chef Feenie has published four cookbooks: Rob Feenie’s Casual Classics, Rob Feenie Cooks at Lumière, Lumière Light and Feenie’s. He also starred on New Classics with Chef Rob Feenie on Food Network Canada for five seasons. In 2005 Feenie became the first Canadian to win on the popular television show Iron Chef America by defeating Chef Masaharu Morimoto.
