flat iron medallions

Flat Iron Medallions are the newest cut in the Bow Street meat case.  I'm stoked about these little gems.  The flat iron steak is a well manicured blade roast with all the sinew and fat removed.  It is the second most tender cut in the carcass, after the tenderloin and above all the rest of the loin cuts.  The flavor is pretty intense.  It's got all the iron-y intensity of a london broil from the shoulder but tempered with a decent amount of fat, super-yummy.  We've taken that muscle and rolled two of them into a long roast, wrapped it in bacon and passed it into a jet-net to tighten it up.  From that long roast we cut the juicy medallions in the photo below. 
the one to the right is the flat iron medallion.  It's tasty and tender anywhere from rare to well done. 

on the left is a medallion cut from the heart of the shoulder clod.  for this clod heart medallion, we de-fat and denude (remove all the gristly silver skin from) the entire clod heart and cut it down into a few small roasts which are bacon'd and netted and then cut to medallion size just like the flat iron.  not as tender but more lean than chicken breast, this cut was deemed more flavorful and more tender than the New York Sirloin by the entire tasting pool in a blind taste test.  Pretty exciting stuff... more juicy and tender from rare to medium.
   lastly, a new marinade.  we'll see if this one makes the cut for summer but preliminary tastings were promising.  utilizing our basic house barbeque, we enhanced it with several pounds of maine blueberries which were pureed, uncooked straight into the sauce.  The sweetness of the sauce and the fruit was off-set by a generous dose of authentic italian barrel aged balsamic vinegar.  This blend was applied to some chicken breasts which can be found in the case on Monday morning.  check them out, bright and yummy summer grilling action at Bow Street :)

Caraway brats , chocolate bread, and homemade, scrapple (!!!)

   Apologies for the lag since the last posts, busy life stuff going on.  Since then, a few updates... Caraway brats inspired by some readings on the Thuriner Rostbratwurst which includes that very spice.   You may reconize it from such famous breads as German Rye, a perfect counterpart to the brat with mustard and sauerkraut (amazing).  it's darn tasty in the sausage as well, btw.  on a related note, I just dug into an urn of sauerkraut which I started after harvest in the fall.  the head of cabbage came from the mother-in-law with the wonderfully robust garden and the 6-9 lb heads of cabbage.   The kraut was, needless to say, rather ripe.  It has gotten very tender and increased in sourness quite a bit.  Funky on the nose, but very pleasant stuff, and quite nice raw.
  The last thing I did which really excited my taste buds was to follow this recipe, rather inapproximately as per the usual.  I believe i got results very consistent with the writer of the page and must urge you pressingly to TRY THIS RECIPE!!  The bread nearly made me cry.  Tonight we're having it toasted with butter for dessert, sheesh. here's mine....
http://www.applepiepatispate.com/bread/pane-al-cioccolato-italian-chocolate/

  One more thing,  following in the footsteps of my Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry and even the more specific footsteps of my great grandfather, John, I made PA Dutch Scrapple from scratch (not scraps) for the first time.  I will be working to derive a new recipe to replace the one which he took to his grave with him and continue the lineage of scrapple producing Tice butchers.  cool right?  well I'm excited.  I'd share the recipe but it's not done yet.  Anyway, here's a photo of the frist attempt with which I was very, but not perfectly, pleased.  Not quite organ-y enough if you know what I mean....

new "wandering buffalo" sausage

  I was really short on ideas this week but was self-tasked with the duty of producing a new buffalo sausage recipe utilizing Great Range Bison Meat (http://www.greatrangebison.com/index.html)  .  It was a bit of a struggle to come up with a concept for another buffalo concept and the thinking which followed was, "Must there be a concept?"  Following that line of thought (which turned out to be just another well disguised "concept", I just added spices that I thought would compliment the nature of the meat and let it speak for itself.   We thought of calling it the "uninspired buffalo sausage" but it just didn't have much of a ring.  Regardless, the results were quite tasty and still show the nature of the meat: clean, and lean with crisp minerally flavors from the blood with little to no fat in between.  That was somewhat remedied by the addition of pork.
  The spice bill includes the usual salt, pepper and garlic as well as onion flake, thyme, mustard powder and died ancho chile.  The spices add a slight mid-western flavor to the meat without being overt or masking the meat entirrely.  They should go with a decent variety of foods, but I'll probably have mine in an omelet.  Get your bison on:)

new spice elements from Gryffon Ridge

  We at the market recently acquired some new products from Gryffon Ridge Spice Merchants of Dresden, ME.  While making introductions with the owners we discussed some products I've been after and which they offer.. terrific.  Namely, organic citrus zest.  In this week are organic, granulated orange, lime and lemon zest which quickly found their way into the newest sausage, the Chicken with Citrus and Herbs Sausage.  This recipe includes the aforementioned citrus zests (all of them) as well as healthy fistfuls of fresh parsley and cilantro and a touch of dried dill.  That's not to mention the requisite salt, pepper and garlic which form the base of nearly every sausage in my arsenal.
  It's yet another refreshing and bright tube of meat which recalls the sunny months for those who would prefer to rest in their cozy abodes and await the spring than venture out into the mid-winter cold for snowy recreation.  Yes, we long for lovely weather.  Hate me for loving May Flowers, bring on the April Showers!!  Have some chicken sausage in a fajita and reminisce the sunny beaches and summer barbeques with me, won't you?
  Oh, and find these folks and support their awesome products :)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gryffon-Ridge-Spice-Merchants/159500617427973?sk=wall#!/photo.php?fbid=300838439960856&set=a.159502577427777.34034.159500617427973&type=3&theater

Pork recipe (clearer version)

I have a new food fancy... the pork belly :) The stuff just crossed my mind a week ago and I proposed a purchase to the department manager and he was like, "sure." So now we have some. i really had big ideas for the fresh and lovely, fat-laced indulgence of a muscle cut, but those expectations are proving difficult to fulfill. Regardless, it's delicious and we have some. It may shortly make its way into sausage. anyway, check out the great looking stuff in this video and tell me you're not curious....Secondly, I remade the Green Chorizo but this time around, used chicken for the meat, all natural boneless thigh meat... lovely stuff for making sausage. The thigh doesn't dry out very easily, stays juicy and has a firm but giving texture. The sausage has a fair amount cilantro, green onion, chopped jalapeno lime zest and garlic, with a bit of cumin in the background and cayenne knocking up the heat level. It's got a tingle of heat, but I would not call this an especially aggressive sausage.. perhaps a 1 out of 5 stars. Delicious and sort of refreshing in a spring-ish inspired meat dish manner.

les croissants, les croissants!!

  Yesterday I attempted the previously unachievable croissant-from-scratch.  They really are a royal pain to make, BUT WORTH EVERY BIT OF TROUBLE!!!  I got the book "Tartine" by Chad Robertson, for Christmas and was impressed by the author's approach to teaching the method for his own country loaf.  The book has really changed my understanding of the process and given me a greater appreciation for a great loaf of bread.  I've gotten close to his model a few times but I'm still a step aside.
   Regardless, the latter part of the book describes his croissant method and it really works beautifully.  This is as much a book review as a show-and-tell for my breakfast.  Check it out if you love super crunchy crusts with a springy interior... the author's method is grounded in very old fashioned methods of leavening by basing his breads on wild yeasts in a young, low-acid leaven and sometimes bolstering the rise with a "poolish" of lab grown yeast ripened for hours before innoculating them into the early dough.  The book was written for bread fanatics but is easy to follow for the novice (like me.) 

Here's my croissants from the AM.

Gameday Chili Sausage

  I have to admit off the bat that I don't watch sports.  It's just not my thing.  Don't have a problem with sports, I promise, just never got into watching.  I feel better. 
   Moving on, the news in Sausage Land it the "Gameday Chili Sausage" which was created today to appease the Super Bowl fanatic who obviously cannot throw a good party without a delicious sausage option for snacking.  This chow-dog is an all-pork link laced with the classic chili spices of... well: chili, cumin and tomato (not really a spice, I know.)  There's a touch of garlic, and liquid smoke, salt and pepper and a bundle of paprika for color and spice.  We then threw in a few good fistfuls of green pepper, yellow onion, corn and black beans.  It's authentic, delicious and satisfying.  Big "yum" factor here. 
  Don't hold back with this one... boil and broil them, or pan fry with onions, and toast a good bun.  These are aching to be topped with a pile of grated all-American Cheddar and underlaid with coarse and spicy mustard.  Make it look like a dream, then sit back and enjoy the Big Game!!