Text 24307, 62 rader
Skriven 2007-12-18 21:43:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Recent tastes
=====================
BEEF: Roslind's rancher sister no longer butchers her own beef.
There is local butcher shop about 50 miles from her place whose meat
meets her high standards. Local ranchers sell their best steers to a
small local slaughter house there which pays a few cents per pound
extra for premium animals, while sending the bulk of what they raise
south to the larger places for mass distribution. This butcher buys
from there, and he does so by the side, not plastic wrapped primal
cuts. He has to keep the quality up if he hopes to sell it retail
back to the local farmers who raise beef. Roslind, Raine and the
grandkids were down that way in mid November and came back with
fifty pounds of assorted steaks, pot roasts, stew meat and ground
chuck, all better quality than available in local stores and a bit
cheaper to boot.

I made a stew last week: the stewing cubes were very well trimmed,
completely devoid of gristle or sinew and the package contained a
little strip of suet! I tried out the suet and used the rendered fat
to brown the meat. It was much more flavourful than chain store
meat, almost gamy in comparison and the gravy made from it was
fantastic. More recently we had a couple T-bones: very flavourful
and tender and again they had a richer, meatier, venison-like taste.
The loin has been aged 14 days before being cut into steaks and
frozen.

Now if I could only find a farm source for pork to go with my beef
and chicken!  

ONIONS: Finally, after my episode with those counterfeit Vidalias I
found a truly sweet and mild onion. They were labeled simply "sweet
onion, product of Canada" and they were just a few cents per pound
more than the regular yellow skins. Extremely sweet and mild, so
nice raw in salads and on hamburgers. Because they're milder I can
have a thicker slice on my burger! Which I did as soon as the stew
and steak was gone.

WINE: For some time now I've been drinking Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot and Syraz, mostly from Australia and more lately Chile,
almost exclusively and I had almost forgotten how delightful some of
the other varietals and domiciles can be. My friends Kevin and Lori,
two of the founding members of the YK oenophile society, were all
excited about their latest purchase, a case of Elena Walsh 2004
Pinot Nero from the Alto Adige region in northern Italy and so they
brought a bottle over Sunday. What a wonderful wine! It reminded me
of the Pinot Noirs of Burgundy... light in body and colour but full
flavoured with the taste of summer berries, low tannin and fairly
low acid, and therefore slightly sweet. We had it with blue cheese,
bacon and mushroom burgers (more of that Alberta meat) because
that's what was planned and perhaps a cab or syraz would have been a
better choice for those burgers but the Pinot Nero would be
absolutely brilliant with chicken in a cream sauce, pork or veal.




Cheers

YK Jim


___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR]
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)