Avera McKennan Volunteer Chef Shares Recipe from Gourmet Guys

SIOUX FALLS (April 20, 2009) - Avera McKennan was among sponsors of the 8th annual Gourmet Guys event in Sioux Falls, which raised $47,000 to benefit The Center for Active Generations, and the services and programs it provides for older adults.

Russell McKnight, director of Creative Services at Avera McKennan, was among the "Gourmet Guys," assisted by Mitch Krebs, assistant vice president for Media and Community Relations at Avera McKennan.

They prepared Pork-Filled Sweet Onions, a recipe handed down by McKnight's maternal grandmother. "As a young boy, I used to help her make this by grinding pork at her kitchen table using a hand grinder. My grandmother was from Northern Italy, within walking distance of Switzerland," McKnight said. The dish is typical of Italian cooking with most of the ingredients, although the northern addition of cinnamon and nutmeg gives it a sweetness not typical of Italian cuisine.

The culinary duo used 120 onions in the preparation of this recipe. Leftovers of the specialty hors d'oeuvres were donated to The Banquet. McKnight shares his recipe for a smaller group below, requested by many at the April 19 event.

PORK FILLED SWEET ONIONS
1 to 1.5 lbs ground pork
4-5 sweet Vidalia onions
1/2 cup of finely ground Parmesan cheese
1 egg
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Tomato sauce and tomato juice
Extra virgin olive oil

Boil the onions for 8-10 minutes, cool, cut the top third of the onion off and separate the remaining onion into cups. Save the water used to boil the onions. Put 1 lb of ground pork in a mixing bowl, add a half a cup of ground parmesan cheese, and one egg to the pork.

Dice onion remains, including the top 1/3 of the onions, in a food processor to a 1/8 x 1/8 inch size and add the onion to the pork. Add salt and pepper, one dash of nutmeg and two dashes of cinnamon.

Thin the pork mixture with some of the leftover onion water so that the entire mixture can easily be evenly mixed together.

Fill each onion cup with the pork mixture. Coat a frying pan with olive oil, brown the filled onion cups face down, turn each cup over and brown the bottoms. Turn heat down low, add a mixture of tomato sauce thinned with tomato juice and simmer for 40 minutes.  Serve.