Moving on to the elimination challenge, the chefs each were assigned two ingredients reminiscent of the medieval era and were tasked with making garden canapés maintaining the theme. At first blush, it seemed that guest judge Hugh Acheson didn’t enjoy anything he tasted but nevertheless there had to be a winner. Jesse won the day with his Wild boar and Mead dishes. Honestly, I think Hugh’s tastebuds must have taken the day off because the flavor combination within each of these canapés was simply amazing and when paired together, was nothing short of ethereal.
His dishes were; Wild boar rillette with beet pickled onions and mead jelly, paired with a mead poached pear with bleu cheese and wild boar bacon. I have to tell you that these two dishes took me damned near all day to make, and I made enough to serve two. Okay, with hubs, that’s basically serving for 20 though! He loved it that much!
My recipes are doubtless a very far cry from Jesse’s. First, there wasn’t a lot of info on the show about the dish (I watched it several times hunting for clues) and second some of the ingredients were not readily available to me. For instance, Jesse did a bold boar confit with a boar shoulder roast, what I had available was a boar leg roast and I hadn’t enough fat to do a proper confit. The only fat I had enough of was olive oil and somehow that didn’t sound as though it would produce desired results. However, I was determined!
For the Rillette:
I 5 lb wild boar leg roast braised and rested (recipe follows)
3 Tbsp softened butter
2 Tbsp reserved fat from braise
2 Tbsp cognac
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 tsp mead (I used Rogue Farms jasmine honey mead)
I braised the boar - seared it, added 1/2 sliced onion, 2 cloves garlic, i can lager beer, 1/2 cup mead and then covered the boar with bacon. Cover and roast in the oven at 275 until very tender, about 4 1/2 hours. Remove from liquid and rest on a board while the liquid cools. Scoop the fat accumulated on the top of the braising liquid and set aside. Discard the remaining braising liquid.
Shred the boar meat as you would for pulled pork, until you have about 3 cups of meat. Place into the bowl of the food processor, with the parsley and reserved fat. Pulse until meat is chopped and fat is incorporated. Add cognac and butter and pulse until the desired consistency is reached - a classic rillette is more like chopped meat than a pate but I found that I enjoyed the texture more, somewhere between the two. Finally, add the mead and adjust salt and pepper. I found it needed quite a bit of salt.
For the Pears and Jelly;
In a small saucepan, place peeled, cored and quartered pear and pour in mead until pears are just covered. Add 1/2 stick cinnamon and 1 star anise and simmer until pears are tender when pierced with a knife adding more mead as necessary during cooking. For me, this took about 25 minutes. Remove pears from liquid and set aside, covered in the fridge. remove star anise and cinnamon stick and discard.
Put one packet of unflavored gelatin into a small bowl (I was unable to find gelatin sheets but this method worked well for me) and strain the poaching liquid atop the gelatin, stir well and place over a small saucepan of simmering water and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. I then poured the gelatin mixture into candy molds I had on hand and set them in the fridge to set completely. However, I thought the resulting jelly looked like a bad 70s cocktail party, so I would recommend pouring the gelatin mixture onto a small flat rimmed pan and cut into cubes when set.
For the Pickled Onions:
1/3 cup white vinegar
2/3 cup water
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 onion thinly sliced
1 beet
Place one whole washed beet into a saucepan of water and simmer until knife tender. remove the beet and peel - I find that it peels very easily under running cold water when removed immediately from cooking water. Slice the beet and place it into a small bowl with the thinly sliced onion. In a small saucepan bring the vinegar, water, salt and sugar to a boiled, stirring until the sugar and salt are dissolved. pour the hot liquid over the beets and the onions, completely covering them. Set aside and allow to steep for about 2 hours.
To assemble, toast sliced french bread brushed with a little olive oil, with a butter knife, spread some of the rillette atop and garnish with the pickled onions and jelly. For the pears, slice the quartered pears in half and place on a wooden appetizer skewer, dollop a little bleu cheese in the center and top with crispy pan fried wild boar bacon, place the appies next to each other on the plate and serve.
It’s too early in the spring here on the prairies to find pea shoots or edible flowers as garnish so yes, I used a brussel sprout leaf! You really should try this and do not leave out the pickled onions or jelly. Hubs took a bite of just the rillette and bread and said, wow this is good, but when he took a bite with the pickled onion and jelly, he said “Holy S%$t, this is fantastic!” Truly a dish where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. It’s a heck of a lot of work but I am definitely including it on the menu for my next cocktail party!
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