Rillettes de Tours on this cold, rainy day

It’s just gross outside.

Environment Canada has issued a storm warning with high wind and heavy rainfall. Here is the Environment Canada satellite photo showing the huge storm just off the coast. 🙁

It’s the perfect time to slow bake something and I’m in the mood for making a lot of something which will last the week.

I’m looking back on my Cordon Bleu training and making one of my favourite slow baked dishes: Rillettes

Rillettes is a savoury meat pate. A hearty and robust pate to serve with warm chunks of baguette. Every region in France has its own version, but the one I keep coming back to is the one made in Tours.

It takes about four hours to cook so if you’d like to try this, start early.

Recipe

3 lbs of pork. Chose a fatty, well marbled pork roast; like a blade roast.

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

1 cups of water

Cube the pork and place it into a roasting dish with the rest of the ingredients and cover tightly.

Bake at 250 degrees for about 4 hours, or until the meat is soft enough to fall apart.

Lift out the meat chunks, discard the bay leaf and pull the pork apart with two forks.

Blend the cooking juices together with the pork meat, taste and add more salt if needed, and pack into a terrine, several small crocks, or any decorative container with a lid.

I can never wait for it to cool completely; it’s just too good, but it is meant to be served cool with warm bread and cornichons.

Perfect to sit in my warm kitchen, do some sketching and snack on this yummy pate.

It’ll keep in the fridge for up to a week, freezes very well, and it’s delicious as a sandwich filling.