Homecooking with Akakurobuta

After the Akakurobuta tasting a few weeks ago, they sent us home with a few packs of Akakurobuta. Because I was heading out of town for a few days, I decided to freeze the package and play with them upon my return. We were given two packages, the top one is the pork loin, the bottom one is the collar butt. The fat cap on the loin is pretty huge and the marbling in the collar butt is designed for amazing tenderness and juiciness. Of the four recipes we were also given, I decided on trying the Tonteki from Kingyo Izakaya, as created by Chef Kittaka. If you want to give this a try, here is the recipe from the Wingtat site. First step is to cover the pork with grated onions and garlic. I used more garlic than the recipe called for, but used half an onion as recommended. It's the first time I've tried grating an onion, and it was surprisingly easy. I might do this for future recipes that calls for diced onions. I keep my onions in the fridge to reduce the tears, and it certainly came in handy here.   For Step 4 of this recipe, you have to fry the pork loin in pork fat, so I decided to take this opportunity to take out some of the fat from the edges off the loin. At first glance, doesn't this look a bit like tuna sashimi?   After the marinating process, brush off all the onions and garlic and coat the loins with flour. The little bits of lard in the upper edge has rendered the fat needed to fry these babies up.   I fried them on each side for about 5 minutes, giving them a slight turn at the 2.5 minute mark.   And here is the final product, in all it's glory. We did the sauce in a small pot on the side, instead of in the pan, because I thought my pan was too large. The sauce is really easy, with just five common ingredients (worcestershire , oyster sauce, soy, mirin and stock). You put all the onions and garlic from the marinade and simmer until tender.   This is the final product with the sauce. It was really tender and moist. The sauce was a quite savory and complemented the pork very well. I would definitely make this again. We had it with some takeout roti, but it would be great with some rice.
Akakurobuta is a premium  Japanese style pork that is 100% Canadian, produced in Alberta. The pork is well-marbled and served a strict diet of barley. This creates a whiter fat compared to corn-fed pork. The hogs are raised in small family farms and are free run, resulting in a stress-free hogs. The pork has previously been exported solely to Japan, but now, it's available to Canadian consumers, exclusively at all T&T Supermarkets.
Various restaurants in Vancouver are also featuring their take on Akakurobuta, see my review of the tasting at Kingyo, Damso and Secret Location.