Butterflied Quail in Soy, Molasses and Lemon

Lime & Sriracha Brined Butterflied Chicken

Apple & Sage Brined Pork Chop

We’ve been experimenting with different brines.  This a great way of imparting flavour and juiciness into the meat.

Enjoy

 Lamb belly  

This inexpensive cut is super easy to prepare and tastes great.  Think about all those pork belly dishes you love…same thing but with lamb.  Be sure to call ahead and order as this cut sells out fast.

Chef Jerry has come up with an excellent recipe that is full of flavour.  Serve this dish with your favourite seasonal roasted vegetables. 

Start with:

• 2-3lbs                   Lamb belly
• 1 medium            Carrot (med. diced)
• 1 medium            Onion (med.  diced)
• 2 stalks                Celery (med. diced)
• 2-3 cloves           Garlic (minced)
• 3 sprigs               Thyme (finely chopped)
• 2 sprigs               Rosemary (finely chopped)
• 2                           Bay leaf
• 3 cups                 Chicken Stock
• ½ cup                 White Wine
•                             Salt/pepper (to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 350°f
2. Season lamb belly and brown in a saute pan and reserve after browned
3. Add carrots, celery and onions to pan and saute till slightly browned
4. Add garlic and fresh herbs and continue to saute, 1 – 2 minutes
5. Deglaze pan with white wine and reduce by two thirds
6. Add stock and bring to simmer
7. Pour into oven proof dish and place lamb belly on top of vegetables add bay leaf
8. Cover with foil and place into preheated oven.  Cook for approximately 1 – 1¼ hour or until for tender

This week, we’re showcasing a recipe that uses one of our favourite cuts of pork; the boneless blade eye, also known as capicollo.  It’s cut from the shoulder and is by far the best part.  It has an excellent meat to fat ratio and slow cooks perfectly making your guests think you’ve spent hours preparing this dish, when really it is quite simple.  The end result however, is a taste and eating experience that will knock your socks off!

 Chef Jerry has prepared a recipe with cooking instructions that we’re sure you’ll enjoy making time and time again.

Start with a 3 – 4 lb piece of pork shoulder/capicollo

3 tbsp chopped dill

2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary

4 cloves of garlic, finely diced

2 medium shallots, finely chopped

¼ cup red wine

4 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine ingredients in a food processor and pulse till finely diced.  If necessary drizzle more olive oil until desired consistency is achieved
2. Generously rub herb mix to cover and season pork
3. Let pork sit in the refrigerator in mix for 3 -4 hours to marinate, then bring out and let it rest for about half an hour on counter to allow roast to come up to room temperature
4. In an roasting pan, place roast on rack, or if you don’t have roasting rack, dice carrots, celery and onions (large) and place roast on top
5. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and brown roast for 15 minutes
6. After browning reduce temperature to 300 degrees,  and continue roasting for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour per pound.  Tarp roast with foil to prevent overbrowning
7. When finished, gently remove meat from pan, loosely cover with foil and let roast rest for about 15 minutes before carving to ensure that juices have been redistributed

We held back our best Heritage sows from last year so we could breed them this year with “Boris”. 

Boris’ Harem

Boris is on loan from our neighbour Mike down the road.  He is a purebred Tamworth boar and this is him in action!

Cue the jokes….we’ve heard them all!!   Where can I get a job like that??

When the job is done… there will be approximately a four month gestation period before the new piglets are born.  The piglets should be born around July and once weaned, will go straight out onto pasture.  We plan to have the biggest ones ready for our holiday season.

While on pasture, we will be feeding them with a special diet that we haven’t quite figured out yet, but, we are trying to secure some nuts at a resonable price from a grower in Norfolk County, to pump up the flavour.

We plan to sell some of these pigs as whole or sides to our restaurant clientele, and the rest will be divided between the three of our shops.  We will keep you updated with their progress.

I guess I’m writing this to let all our customers know that we are working very hard to keep our prices as reasonable as possible but never at the cost of our high standards.

That said, we came up with a list of our favourite, less expensive cuts, that offer great value and eating experience.

Our head chef Jerry will come up with a sexy new recipe each week so you can try them at home.

We’re kicking it off with Beef Brisket, a real bang for your buck cut!

Classic Beef Brisket

3 to 5 lbs  Beef Brisket

4 tbsp Olive or Canola oil

1 1/2 med Carrot ( med. diced)

1 1/2 med Onion (med. diced)

4 stalks Celery (med. diced)

4-5 cloves Garlic (minced)

2 cups Red wine, full bodied

4 – 6 cups Beef stock

4 -5 sprigs Thyme (finely chopped)

4 – 6 sprigs Rosemary (finely chopped)

3 ea Bay leaf

Salt and pepper (to taste)

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

2.  Heat oil in a heavy pan until almost smoking.

3.  Season Brisket, browning on each side in pan over medium-high heat.  Remove meat.

4.  Add carrot, onion, celery, garlic and brown (if pan seems dry, add small amount of oil).

5.  Add red wine, reducing to half.  Add beef stock, bay leaf and bring to simmer.  Lightly season with salt and pepper.

6.  Place brisket in pan with stock coming about halfway up the sides of meat.  If liquid is low, add additional stock.  Cover the pan and place into oven.  Cook for 4 – 4.5 hours, or until tender.

7.  When cooked, gently remove meat from pan.  Reduce liquid to thicken, if desired.  Taste sauce, adding salt and pepper to taste.  Strain and serve overtop mashed potatoes, rice or buttered noodles.

Serves 4 to 6 people

Once they’ve matured, we’re sure that this beef will be nothing short of spectacular. You’ll begin to see these beauties in our retail shops and through our restaurant partners beginning in late spring 2012.

We’ve also developed a special new feeding regime for them, all grown on-site at Cumbrae Farms. This will also benefit our Angus program as they will receive the same feed.

We’ll keep you updated!

Roast for approximately 45 mins @ 400-425 degrees F or until internal temperature reaches 165-170 degrees F.

The farm is situated just down the road from our farm in Jarvis, Ontario. They raise purebred Dorset lambs that we’re sure will be a great addition to our selections. The first lambs arrived in the shops this week, they have been on pasture all summer.

Tasting Note – the meat is nicely marbled and has a sweet, mild grassy flavour.

Perfect fall dish. We roasted butternut squash and added ricotta and parmesan cheese to make our cannelloni filling.  Then we crisped up our smoked Guanciale and added that to the stuffing.  We finished it off with a browned butter and sage sauce.

Beef Short Rib Lasagna

Taking our bone-in short ribs, we brasie them in Chianti and San Marzano tomatoes, “slow and low” till they are fork tender. Layers of braised short ribs and fresh pasta. Delicious…

Dishes are available at all stores

These are our Angus & Angus-Charolais cross breeds raised by Cumbrae Farms own Nathan and Rob Pond.

We sampled the hanger steak off the first one and it was fantastic.