SAINT JOHN - The taste of Saint John is a mixture of smoky, sweet and savoury.
After three levels of competition and 250 citizen judges, Crosby's
molasses and wild horseradish hot smoked pork tenderloin has been
deemed the "Original Taste of Saint John." Chef David Irvin is
responsible for the dish, which was served with a side dish of sour
cream and chive profiterole pastry, parsnip chips, buttered chanterelle
mushrooms and dandelion greens.
The Original Taste of Saint John
competition began with a call for recipes from area chefs. The recipes
were then narrowed down to six and judged in a blind taste test at the
Fundy Food Festival in early June. From there, Irvin was selected along
with Saint John Ale House chef Jesse Vergen and Opera Bistro chef and
proprietor Axel Begner to compete for the top spot at Culture Fest held
in Rockwood Park last Saturday.
Each chef prepared 300 servings of their dish for citizen judges at the event.
Irvin
is the lead instructor of culinary arts at the New Brunswick Community
College campus in St. Andrews. A Saint John native, he wanted to
prepare something that incorporated local, accessible ingredients.
"All
of those things ... as far as the produce goes, can be found right
here, sometimes even in your own backyard. I wanted to keep everything
local," he said.
He said he thinks people selected his dish as the taste of Saint John because of the contemporary spin he put on it.
"It
was a little bit out of the ordinary. ... It took people by surprise, I
think, and of course the flavour combos that I had going on. There was
the sweet, the salty, there was bitter, a little bit of sour. There was
a real flavour combination here that worked well," he said.
The
recipe is available for citizens and restaurants alike to include in
their daily dining, although Irvin said he is uncertain about how it
will be incorporated into local menus.
Irvin said it was a great feeling and definitely a boost to have created Saint John's original city dish.
He is a champion of the NBCC-St. Andrews culinary arts program and said he hopes his win will raise the program's profile.
"The fact that dish would be on one of the menus in Saint John really says something about the school I teach at."
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Smoked pork
2 large pork tenderloins
250 ml Crosby's Molasses
125 ml pureed wild horseradish
* Trim silver skin from pork tenders
* Combine molasses and horseradish puree
* Pour mixture over pork, wrap and refrigerate
* Let stand 24 hours
Smoking
* Remove tenderloins from marinade and remove access liquid
* On your barbecue, turn one side to high, leaving the other side off
* On the
high' side place maple wood chips in a metal pan
* Place meat on the
off' side, directly on grill
* Smoking should take about 40 minutes for medium
Sour Cream and Dill Weed Puff
200 ml whole milk
125 ml salted butter
300 ml flour
125 ml chopped dill weed
5 eggs
Filling
125 ml sour cream
60 ml chopped dill weed
Salt and pepper
* Bring milk, butter and dill to a boil
* Add flour and cook for 1-2 minutes stirring constantly (dough will pull away from the sides)
* Place dough in mixer
* Add eggs one by one
* Pipe onto a cookie sheet into desired shapes and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes
* Fill puffs with sour cream filling
HILARY PAIGE SMITH
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL