Tag: pork

New Amsterdam Market Event: Join a Meat CSA this weekend and eat better!

Leave a comment

Photo courtesy of High Point Farms.

With all the news lately about salmonella in eggs, turkey recalls, and the adverse effects of antibiotics in meat, consciousness about what we put in our bodies and how we treat the environment is growing. Vegetarianism is always one option, but another way to ensure that you are responsibly feeding you and your loved ones the safest and best food that you can is to join a local meat CSA.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Far from the Midwestern industrial farms and feedlots that supply most East Coast supermarkets, CSA’s grow our local economy. They improve the quality of our food supply while also supporting the environmentally-friendly practices, sustainability, and humane animal husbandry.

As many of you know, I joined with my first CSA last spring. A CSA was something that I had always wanted to do, but was always hesitant because I had only heard of vegetable CSA’s. Also, I wasn’t sure if signing up for several pounds of perishable leafy greens a week would work with my schedule and lifestyle. When I heard about High Point Farm’s meat CSA, immediately I knew that this was something that would work with me. It has been a great experience, and the meat is so good and so addictive that I had to get more involved to spread the word!

Each CSA membership to High Point Farms, in Trumansburg, NY, gives you the opportunity to join the food revolution and voice your support for local agriculture and humanely-raised animals. Shares of their Harvest Meat CSA Memberships are still available.

Each share is a mix of Beef, Pastured Pork, and Free-Range Chicken.  The cows graze on grass in the summer, hay in the winter, and are not fed any grain. The pigs are pasture-raised, and the chickens freely roam the farm, feeding on bugs and whatever else nature provides. All animals raised in humane manner, without the use of any growth hormones or antibiotics. Owners Tina and Robert MacCheyne lovingly care for all of their animals. You can taste their efforts in every delicious bite.

Choose to be a part of the Manhattan, East Village distribution starting in December through February 2011. The distributions are every other Wednesday at Jimmy’s 43 on 7th Street.

High Point is also offering cheese shares from a neighboring farm, and an egg share from their own pasture-raised chickens. The eggs are a dream! The yolks are almost cartoonishly yellow, such a rich flavor and color that I find it really hard to go back to supermarket eggs.

For more information go to the CSA Page at www.highpointfarms.net or http://highpointfarmsnyc.wordpress.com/

This weekend, I’m going to be at the New Amsterdam Market, volunteering to talk up the CSA and give you the chance to have some awesome sliders made with their meat. Come and say, “hi,” on November 21st! I’ll be at the Jimmy’s 43 stand (they’re cooking, I’m talking) from 11AM to 4PM. See you there!

Smoked Ribs

Leave a comment


Like spies, every cook has a special touch that they add to each recipe, the divulgence of which might require them to kill you.

Not even blood seems to carry any guarantee of full, honest disclosure — a lesson I learned one Thanksgiving after trying to reproduce my mom’s famous apple cake. I remember faithfully transcribing the recipe over the phone (“3 and 1/2 cups of vegetable oil? Really, Mom? 3 and a 1/2 CUPS?”), and then watching horrified as my cake separated into one layer of oily apple slurry, and another of just oil.

Later, recounting my disaster to my mother, she interjected by saying, “3 and 1/2 cups? That’s crazy! You were supposed to only put in 3 and 1/2 tablespoons!”

Did I mishear my mother the first time? I don’t think so. Do I think she did it on purpose? Yes, I do.

A recent boomerang trip to Texas for my boyfriend’s niece’s baptism yielded a great opportunity for some excellent home-cooked, home-smoked grub. His brother-in-law loaded up the truck with the smoker, and the smoker with mesquite and several pounds of pork and beef ribs.

After four and a half hours of smoking, they emerged toothsome and succulent. The ribs were full of meaty chew and savory smoke. Absolutely delicious.

When asked what the recipe was, he and his wife threw out a nonchalant, “Oh, a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.” From the bits of scant information, it seems like a marinade and a rub was involved. Apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, thyme.

Any more information than that, and they would have to kill you.

Ingredients:

A mix of pork and beef ribs

Special secret marinade

Special secret rub

Special Equipment:

One smoker

Mesquite

One boyfriend’s brother-in-law

One boyfriend’s sister

How to prepare:

1. Get a round-trip ticket to Texas.

2. Persuade boyfriend’s family to smoke some meat.

3. Put on stretchy pants.

4. Pass out in a happy food coma.

Ham Steak with Sautéed Lacinato Kale and Corn Spoonbread

Leave a comment


Yesterday night we had a nice, simple supper. A High Point Farms ham steak, with sides of sautéed kale and corn spoonbread. The ham, moist and flavorful, cooked quickly in a large cast-iron pan over medium heat (it’s true that with pasture-raised pork and grass-fed beef, you should drop the cooking temperature a bit because it is so lean).

What I love most about these meats that we have been getting from our CSA is that in the sausages, bacon, and ham, there are only about as many ingredients as I have fingers on one hand: beef or pork, salt, brown sugar, spices. Nothing unpronounceable, nothing that anyone would have difficulty recognizing as food, and everything tasty.

Kale is a favorite leafy green of mine, both delicious and nutritious. Some people deride it as diet food, but if you add some ham hocks and stew the heck out of it until it becomes rich and luscious, you have yourself some fine eating right there. I like it that way, but I also love it sautéed so that the stems retain a bit of their tangy crunch and the juicy leaves stay springy.

This was the first time that I tried a corn spoonbread recipe and I have to say that it was definitely more like a corn soufflé than a bread. I had been warned before though. It was still good (airy and ethereal), but left me sadly unsatisfied as I was looking for more of the heft and heaviness of cornbread, just not so much so. For that reason, I am only including a link for the recipe here.

If I had to make it again, I might let the corn meal/milk mixture (a lazy woman’s béchamel, if you wish) become much thicker before adding the egg yolks. I think that it would have benefitted from some fresh herbs, dill maybe as I do love corn and dill together. By all means, if you try it, use fresh corn from the cob if you can.