Making heads or tails

Nowadays it’s not enough for culinary students to learn to cook. Today’s emerging chefs also are encouraged to consider how their food choices affect matters beyond the plate.

Leeward Community College’s culinary program got to the heart of the subject this term by embracing a trend that steps outside standard culinary education: nose-to-tail cooking, wherein all parts of an animal are used rather than just prime cuts.

While nose-to-tail cuisine is all the rage in the culinary world, it is hardly new. It requires traditional skills such as butchering and a lineup of Old World recipes and cooking techniques such as charcuterie, the salting, curing and smoking of meat.

Nose-to-tail cooking is ideal for the locavore movement because rather than having to sell only prime cuts, small local farms sell the whole animal, which provides best prices that help them continue farming.

At Leeward, students finish their two-year program with a special-events class in which they handle all aspects of a fine-dining, multicourse dinner, from research and cooking to marketing, decor and table service. This year’s event, taking place Friday, is a pork dinner that uses a whole local pig and delivers dishes far beyond the usual chops and tenderloins.

The students are mentored by chef Ed Kenney, owner of town restaurant and a champion of nose-to-tail cooking, who has proved that such cuisine is both well received and profitable.

Kenney provided recipes for the dinner that students practiced through the term. Last week he visited to see how they were progressing.

Students presented the chef with their renditions of his recipes for a salumi platter of sausages and liver pâté, trotter (pig’s feet), guanciale (Italian bacon), porchetta (rolled, stuffed pork roast) and a persimmon tart that used pork lard as shortening.

Jeanna Collier, 26, of Honolulu was responsible for the porchetta served with polenta and bitter greens.

"This dinner is something new and I’m looking forward to it," she said. "This wasn’t the first time I’ve heard of (nose-to-tail), but it’s the first time I’ve done something like this. Now I have a deeper appreciation for the whole pig."

With Kenney to taste the dishes were owner-operators from Shinsato Hog Farm in Kahaluu and M & H Kaneshiro Farms on Kauai, which are supplying the hogs.

As one student presented the trotter dish, Glenn Shinsato encouraged her to describe the food with enthusiasm.

"This pig gave his life. Try to sell me something really, really good," he said.

In was in that spirit of respect for the animal that Kenney followed the critique with a demonstration of how to butcher a whole pig raised at Shinsato Farm. Kenney uses 99 percent of the animal and is working on the last 1 percent, which has him pondering pig intestines.

Though the chef discussed how he uses each part, down to making distinctions about the fats from different sections of the hog, he mostly focused on the "whys" of nose-to-tail cooking.

"It tastes better. It pays tribute to the life that was given, and it pays tribute to our ancestors," he said.

The practice is also wildly profitable. In a handout that went to students, Kenney crunched the numbers of serving one pig.

A 200-pound hog costs the restaurant about $500, according to Kenney. Among the cuts from the carcass are two football-size hams that fill 30 orders at $24 apiece, generating $720. Slow-roasted shoulder fills 16 orders at $24 a plate, for $384. Porchetta made from saddle meat fills 20 orders at $24, for $480, while organ meats contribute anywhere from $18 for spleen dishes to $450 in liver pâtés. Add to that list more ham, salumi, shanks, feet, tail, loin, chops, belly and more, and one hog earns $6,018.

That’s an 8 percent food cost and more than 1,100 percent return. Most restaurants shoot for a 30 percent food cost.

"You cannot afford not to do this," Kenney said.

Todd Low, a manager of aquaculture and livestock services for the state Department of Agriculture, focuses on developing Hawaii’s protein industry. Low said Kenney’s efforts are pointing future decision-makers in the food industry in the right direction.

The department’s goal is for local pork to be readily available to the public again, Low said.

"It’s all about supply and demand. If we create more demand, that supply can come," he said.

That’s where restaurants fit in. Chefs create demand when their menus show what can be done with these products.

"Supplying the general public is a huge thing," said Low. "But if we can build up supply and quality, that leads to profits for the farms that would enable them to (generate enough) supply for the general public."

Kenney is enthused by Leeward’s efforts. "When I went to community college, nothing was ever discussed about this. It was about recipes, making the dishes and serving them. This is an evolution of culinary education."

As he tackled his butchering task, Kenney encouraged his audience of white coats.

"Go out and spread the gospel. Ask people, ‘Ever heard of the Shinsatos’? Or the Kaneshiros’ on Kauai?’"

Locally grown pork might not be readily available in Oahu supermarkets, but it isn’t impossible for home cooks to get some. On Oahu, Higa Meat & Pork Market sells numerous cuts, though in larger quantities. Call the market, at 225 N. Nimitz Highway, at 531-3591.

The following Okinawan pork recipes were adapted by Noreen Lam from two locally produced cookbooks, “Chimugukuru: Okinawan Mixed Plate II,” by Hui O Laulima (BKL, 2008), and “Of Andagi and Sanshin,” edited by Ruth Adaniya, Alice Njus and Margaret Yamate (Hui O Laulima, 1988).

Sparerib Soup with Okinawan Soba

2 to 3 pounds spareribs, cut into 2-inch lengths

6 cups dashi

1 inch ginger, crushed

1 tablespoon shoyu

Salt

1 bunch choi sum

4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms

1 to 2 carrots

2 14-ounce packages Sun Noodle Okinawan soba

Pickled red ginger

Cover spareribs with water and bring to rolling boil. Drain and rinse pork. Cut ribs into sections.

Combine dashi, ginger, shoyu, pinch of salt and ribs. Bring to simmer and cook until spareribs are tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Taste broth for seasoning, adding more salt and shoyu if necessary.

Cut choi sum into 3-inch lengths, shiitake in halves and carrots into julienne strips. Add vegetables to spareribs and cook 1 to 2 minutes more.

Meanwhile, bring pot of water to boil, add soba noodles and cook 1 minute.

Drain and divide into bowls. Top with spareribs, vegetables and broth. Garnish with pickled ginger. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (based on 2 pounds spareribs and not including salt to taste): 680 calories, 33 g fat, 12 g saturated fat, 130 mg cholesterol,1000 mg sodium, 55 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 6 g sugar, 46 g protein

Rafute with Bittermelon Tempura and Mustard Miso Sauce

>> Pork:

3-pound pork shoulder or butt

1 cup pork stock or dashi

1 cup shoyu

1 cup awamori

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 inch ginger, peeled and crushed

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons mirin

>> Sauce:

1 teaspoon hot mustard powder

1 teaspoon warm water

1 teaspoon white miso paste

1/4 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup mayonnaise

>> Bittermelon:

1 medium bittermelon

Salt

>> Batter:

1/2 cup flour, divided

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch salt

Cold water

Oil for frying

Black sesame seeds for garnish

Cut pork into four pieces. In pot, cover with cold water and bring to rolling boil. Drain and rinse.

In heavy-bottom pot, combine stock, shoyu, awamori, garlic and ginger. Bring to boil and add pork pieces. Reduce to simmer and cook covered for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, turning pork every 15 to 20 minutes. When pork is almost tender, add sugar and mirin and continue to cook until pork is done and liquid has thickened slightly. Set aside.

To prepare sauce and bittermelon: Combine mustard powder with warm water to make a paste; add miso, vinegar and mayonnaise. Stir until combined. Set aside.

Cut bittermelon into rings about 3/8- to 1/2-inch thick. Remove seeds. Sprinkle with salt and let stand 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.

Make batter by combining 1/4 cup flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt with enough ice water to form light batter. Heat about 1 inch of oil in pan. Test oil by dropping a bit of batter into pan. When batter sizzles as it hits oil, oil is hot enough.

Toss bittermelon rings in remaining flour and then into batter, 3 or 4 pieces at a time. Lift rings from batter and slide into oil. Fry 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Place piece of rafute on each plate with some of cooking liquid. Top with bittermelon and sauce. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds if desired. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (based on 3 pounds of pork with bone in and not including salt sprinkled over bittermelon): 1100 calories, 70 g fat, 20 g saturated fat, 180 mg cholesterol, greater than 4500 mg sodium, 47 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 27 g sugar, 52 g protein

Glazed Miso Pork Belly with Vegetable Stew

>> Pork:

1 2-pound piece pork belly

1 inch ginger, crushed

Salt

1/2 cup white miso

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1 teaspoon awamori or mirin

>> Stew:

1/2 kabocha squash, seeds removed

1 Okinawan sweet potato, peeled

1 6-inch piece lotus root, peeled

8 ounces Hamakua mushrooms

2 cups dashi

1 tablespoon shoyu

1 tablespoon mirin

4 stalks green onions, trimmed

Cover pork belly with cold water and bring to rolling boil. Drain and rinse.

Return pork to pot and add enough water to cover. Add crushed ginger and pinch of salt. Bring to simmer and cook until pork is tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove from liquid and let cool.

In small bowl, mix together miso, sugar, grated ginger and awamori. Set aside.

For stew, cut kabocha into 1-inch slices, sweet potato into large pieces and lotus root into pieces 1/4-inch thick. Trim tough stems from mushrooms and halve or slice larger ones.

In pan, combine dashi, shoyu and mirin. Add vegetables and cook until just tender.

Cut green onions into 2-inch lengths and add to stew. Cover and set aside.

Preheat broiler. Slice pork into 1/2- to 3/4-inch slices. Place slices on broiler pan and broil until lightly brown, about 2 minutes.

Turn over and spread miso mixture over pork. Continue to cook until miso bubbles and browns.

Divide stew into shallow bowls and top with pork belly. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (not including salt to taste): 1000 calories, 83 g fat, 30 g saturated fat, 160 mg cholesterol, greater than 1500 mg sodium, 35 g carbohydrate, 9 g fiber, 16 g sugar, 31 g protein