Category Archives: Meat

Meet Bradley Ogden and Rick Bayless, Plus Loads More

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Meet Chef Bradley Ogden. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Shop and Dine with Chef Bradley Ogden

On June 9, shoppers at the Marin Farmers Market will get a chance to meet Chef Bradley Ogden, co-founder of the Lark Creek Restaurant Group, and Chef Aaron Wright of the Tavern at Lark Creek in Larkspur.

The two chefs will be at the Star Route Farms booth at the center of the farmers market at 9:30 a.m. to answer questions about the best produce.

That evening, join the two chefs at the Tavern at Lark Creek, when Ogden hosts a dinner to showcase dishes from his new cookbook, “Holiday Dinners with Bradley Ogden” (Running Press), which will be published in September.

The $35 per person prix fixe will include grilled apricot and goat cheese salad; flank steak with sweet oven-dried tomatoes and potato salad; and mixed berry cobbler. For reservations, call (415) 924-7766.

Rick Bayless will conduct cooking demos at Sunset magazine's big "Celebration Weekend.'' (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Rick Bayless Stars at Sunset’s Celebration Weekend

Menlo Park’s Sunset magazine opens its doors, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 4-5, for its annual “Celebration Weekend 2011: Make It Your Own.”

Chef Rick Bayless, Chicago restaurateur known for his prowess with Mexican cuisine and for winning the first season of “Top Chef Masters,” will headline cooking demos each day, 12:30 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.. He’ll be whipping up Mexican-inspired dishes, including Mexican-style shrimp cocktail and “Tropical Beach Ceviche.”

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Porky Fun and a Food Gal Giveaway

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Win some porky goodness and a cookbook autographed by Chef Richard Blais.(Image courtesy of the National Pork Board)

You know it as the “other white meat” and the current darling ingredient of so many chefs, including “Top Chef All-Stars” champ Richard Blais.

Yes, pork.

After all, you’ve got to love a beast that gives you everything from bacon, ham and prosciutto to lard, chicharrones, ribs and juicy loin.

To get you in an even more porky good mood, I’m giving one lucky Food Gal reader the all the fixings for a spectacular piggy feast.

The porky prize package. (Image courtesy of the National Pork Board)

Contest: One person will win a “Be Inspired with Pork Kit,” which is being provided to the Food Gal by the folks at the National Pork Board. It includes an 11-inch square grill pan; a 16-jar revolving spice rack; a pig-shaped wood cutting board; a digital thermometer; a copy of the cookbook, “How to Cook Like a Top Chef” (Chronicle Books), autographed by Blais; and a gift card to a local retailer to purchase some tasty pork to cook up.

Entries for the contest, open only to those in the contiguous 48 U.S. states, will be accepted through midnight PST May 21. Winner will be announced May 23.

How to win?

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Part II: The Meat

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Juicy, tender lamb with the flavor of Madras curry.

Did you know that most Americans eat little to no lamb? Indeed, only 0.7 pounds of lamb are consumed per capita here each year, according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

More’s the pity, since lamb is one of the most succulent and flavorful meats around.

Don’t take my word for it. Try it in this dish of “Lamb Shoulder Steak with Japanese Curry Oil.” The recipe is from “The Japanese Grill” (Ten Speed Press) by Tadashi Ono, executive chef of Matsuri in New York, and food writer Harris Salat. It’s also a perfect accompaniment to the duo’s “Romaine Hearts with Miso-Mustard Dressing,” which I spotlighted the other day.

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Gourmet Jerky, Cookbook Recipes Finder & Curtis Stone

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Krave's Basil Citrus Turkey jerky.

Craving Krave Jerky

When you think of jerky, no doubt it’s of those jaw-breaking, tough as shoe-leather strips sold at convenience stores and gas stations that you reach for only in desperation.

Now comes Krave Jerky, which is jerky you’ll actually want to eat.

The company was launched a year ago by Jens Hoj, former general manager of El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma, and Jonathan Sebastiani, a winemaker whose family started Viansa Winery in Sonoma.

What sets these gourmet jerky products apart is that they’re actually tender, soft, moist and even sticky with marinade. They’re so meaty tasting that you almost feel like you might need a knife and fork to eat them. But rest assured, fingers work just fine.

The jerky comes in eight varieties, including Lemon Garlic Turkey, Sweet Chipotle Beef, and Grilled Sweet Teriyaki Pork. The Teriyaki Pork is the most tender of the bunch, with a candied-salty flavor of  a perfect Hawaiian plate lunch.

The Basil Citrus Turkey is the most toothsome of the bunch with a mild tang. Surprisingly, it also boasts the most calories at 100 per 1 ounce serving, compared to the 70-80 calories of the others. It also has the most sodium at 610 mg per serving, compared to the 140-400 mg of the others. But the turkey has 0 grams of fat, compared to 1.5-2.5 for the other flavors.

Jerky that actually won't hurt your jaw.

A 3.5-ounce package is $7.

But starting today, for a limited time only, Daily Gourmet is offering a deal on Krave Jerky. The new San Francisco-based company offers gourmet food products in special discounts for limited time offers to members, who are notified via email. Among the products that have been offered or will be are jams and vinegars from The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma, and vegan cinnamon rolls by Berkeley’s Cinnaholic.

A five-pack of Krave Jerky will be $28 (includes shipping) on Daily Gourmet.

The company was started by David Rangel, formerly with Microsoft’s Corporate Strategy Group and an executive at Groupon; and Chad Jackson, a software and Internet entrepreneur.

CookBookKarma for Cookbook Aficionados

If you love to cook from cookbooks, take photos of your dishes and post the results on your blog, you’ll be glad to discover the new site, CookBookKarma.

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High on the Ham

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Newsom's prosciutto that's been aged for 15 months.

There is ham. And then there are Newsom’s Country Hams of Princeton, KY.

After all, a family that has been curing hams the traditional way since the 1600s is sure to have the method down pat. Even now, this salt and brown sugar-method has changed little since the family first started selling the cured, slow-aged hams at its Newsom’s Old Mill Store in 1917.

Today, it remains the smallest national ham curing business in the country, and one of the few — if not only — to use this old-fashioned method born of necessity when refrigeration had not yet been invented. The process of making these hams takes about a year. Each ham is hand-rubbed, then allowed to cure for a month or so, before being smoked for days on end. Then, the hams are hung again in the smokehouse for months to develop their intense flavor. After about 10 months, the hams are ready. After 11 to 15 months, the prosciutto is done.

Newsom's Smoky BBQ Ham

“We use old -fashioned methods of using just the salt and brown sugar, and hickory smoke smoldering out of an old iron kettle which fills the whole room from just one small fire, damped with green hickory saw dust,” says owner Nancy Newsom Mahaffey (aka The Ham Lady).  “We smoke for weeks off and on depending on the weather.  We are the last to still do an ambient weather curing process of circulating outdoor weather in and around our hams for the full duration of time from the time they are out of salt as the spring is warming, going through the hot, dog days of summer, and into the fall when they are finally ready for sale.  In fact, our process was born before nitrates and nitrites were even discovered.”

When illustrious chef and food writer James Beard stumbled upon the store in 1975, he was so floored by the flavor of the hams that he went on to use them in his cooking classes and to promote their attributes in his writings. As word spread about these hams, Newsom’s started its mail-order business in 1975 to keep up with the increased demand.

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