Guanciale

What is it? One of the best pork products yet! I picked it up from Oyama on Granville Island ~ I just cannot resist fatty hunks of pork and since my recent cholesterol test was mindblowingly good (the doctor laughed in surprise at the results), I figure I can give in to the occasional pork whim.
I googled guanciale before I went to write this post. I stumbled across a website called FXcuisine which discussed the magic of the pig jowl along with how difficult it is to find outside of Italy Now I feel really lucky!
Basically, Guanciale is a cure pigs cheek. It isn't smoked and the flavour is pretty incredible and porky. I have already explored several different uses. One was slicing it like bacon and serving with eggs sunnyside up for a lazy Sunday breakfast.

 

Sunday Dinner

Rob was curious about Rabbit ~ having never eaten it, so he brought one home from work. I used a recipe from Bones for Herb-Roasted Stuffed Rabbit and served it with couscous and Carrots glazed with bay, orange and honey.

 

The Verdict? He thinks its tasty but totally not worth the 30 dollars/rabbit they charge at his work.
I made a fantastic rabbit dish way back in culinary school, but despite my best efforts searching through the archives, I cannot find it ~ I think it was the day I forgot to bring my camera to class... It was a fun stroll down memory lane though!