This is an easy recipe from Josée di Stasio that is just so delicious and perfect for a winter feast.
4 lbs beef osso bucco, blade roast or cross-rib roast 3 tbsp vegetable oil 3 onions, quartered 6 big carrots in big pieces 4 garlic cloves, crushed 3 cups beef broth 1/3 cup Tamari or soy sauce 2 tbsp tomato paste (ketchup works also, trust me) 1.5 tbsp brown sugar 2 inch piece of ginger, sliced 4 star anis
Preheat oven to 325 F. Salt and pepper your meat pieces. In a Dutch oven, color the meat on all sides on medium to high heat in 2 tbsp of oil. Remove from pot and add remaining oil along with carrots and onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking for about 1 minute. Place meat on veggies, add stock, tamari, tomato paste, sugar, ginger and star anis. Bring to a boil, cover and bake for approximately 3 hours or until meat comes off bones easily. After an hour of baking, turn the meat around and make sure the stock level covers about half of the meat. Enjoy with mashed potatoes!
This recipe is inspired from Gordon Ramsay’s Christmas turkey. We tried it a few times, and we like it better without the apricots. And we like chicken better than turkey! Here are the three parts!
Stuffing
Here is the video for visuals: 1 lb ground pork salt and pepper 1 large apple, grated (in the original recipe there were apricots) about a handful of pistachio nuts, shelled and roughly chopped zest of 1 lemon a handfull of chopped parsley olive oil a lot of fresh sage leaves 2 merguez sausages
Mix ground pork, grated apple, pistachios, zest and parsley together. Add salt and pepper, On a large sheet of aluminum, drizzle olive oil and arrange the sage leaves right side down so they stick to the oil and overlap in two rows so they form a rectangle of sorts the length of 1.5 to two merguez sausages placed end to end. Season. Spread half of the pork mixture onto the leaves, run your finger down the middle to make a groove for the sausages. Place sausages in groove and cover with remaining pork. Wrap foil around the stuffing, twisting ends to seal. Roll package to get a tight and even log shape. IF making ahead, refrigerate at this stage. Place in a baking dish and bake in a preheated oven at 400 F for about 40 minutes. Leave to rest for 10 minutes before slicing to serve.
Chicken
Here is the video in case you need visual cues. 1 chicken (or Turkey, but we prefer chicken) salt and pepper 2 onions, peeled and halved 2 lemons 3 garlic cloves crushed small bunch of parsley chopped 375 gr unsalted butter at room temp. 1 tbsp olive oil 3 bay leaves bacon slices
Preheat oven to 430 F. Prepare herb butter by mixing butter with salt and pepper, parsley, zest of 2 lemons, juice of 1 lemon, crushed garlic, olive oil and parsley. Set aside. Season chicken cavity, stuff with onions, 1 lemon cut in two and bay leaves. Loosen skin on the breast with your hands, being gentle so as not to tear. Do the same with the thighs. Stuff half the butter mixture between the skin and meat and gently massage the butter into hard to reach areas. Place bird in roasting tray (not glass!) breast side up. Spread rest of butter onto bird, season with salt and pepper then drizzle a bit of olive oil. If preparing ahead, cover with foil and refrigerate.
Roast turkey in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Take bird out of oven, and place bacon strips over breast. Lower heat to 360 F and cook until done (use thermometer! it avoids errors), they say 30 minutes per kg, but it always takes more time here! When done, remove from oven, let chicken rest under foil. Remove parson’s nose (the butt) and wings for the gravy. Remove lemon and onion from cavity for gravy and bacon from breast!
Gravy
This has got to be the best tasting gravy I have ever eaten. here is a link to the youtube video in case you need visual cues.
3 sprigs fresh rosemary 3 fresh tomatoes chopped 1 cup apple cider (I never have this in house so I end up using leftover pear wine someone once gifted us) 2 cups chicken broth 1/4 cup walnuts chopped
Drain the roasting pan juices and reserve. Heat up roasting pan on the stove and add all the stuff you took from the roasted chicken- chopped up bacon, chopped up lemon and onion. Add 2 sprigs of rosemary and tomatoes. Sauté for 2 minutes. Add wings and parson’s nose to pan and stir. Pour in cider and bring to a boil, scraping the browned bits on bottom of pan. Reduce by half then add reserved juices. Reduce once more by half. Crush everything with a potato masher to bring out their juices. Pour in chicken broth, bring to a boil and add remaining rosemary. In your gravy boat, place walnuts. Strain gravy into boat and serve.
Some lesser known cuts of meat deserve more attention…
The pear, a very lean muscle from the beef thigh that gets its name from its pear shape, is great for cutting into brochette cubes and marinating, slicing into thin steaks and cooking in butter in a cast iron pan, or… to make tartare.
In fact, the pear is the ideal cut for tartar: lean, not much to trim off, and very flavorful!
A pear weighs about 3lbs, so you can take what you need for your tartare, cube the rest and marinate (no more than 4 hours if using vinegars or alcohol). Here is a great marinade for pear brochettes:
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder
2.5 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Freshly ground pepper
This way, you get two meals out of one cut!
There are many different variations of tartare, but here’s two of our favorites… Both start the same way- Dice the pear by hand with a sharp knife to get the texture you desire.
The first variation is asian fusion tartare: for 1.5 lbs of pear, you will need
1 french shallot
half a bunch of cilantro
1 lime
1 teaspoon grated ginger
3 teaspoons light soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds. Chop the shallot and cilantro finely, zest half the lime and squeeze to get a tablespoonful of juice. Mix lime, soy sauce, maple syrup, sesame oil and sambal oelek together. Add meat, shallot, cilantro and lime zest. Plate and sprinkle sesame seeds. Enjoy with a spicy mango salad!
The second variation is more of a classic Belgian tartare. For 1.5 lbs of pear, use
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon capers, chopped
1-2 french shallots, finely diced
1 tablespoon gherkins (Maille)
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
Worcestershire sauce to taste
1 farm fresh egg yolk
3-4 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise.
Mix all together, season with lots of salt and freshly ground pepper and enjoy with slices of baguette you drizzled with olive oil and toasted in the oven.
Over the last three years, we have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in setting up a vegetable production site including 5 greenhouses. The MAPAQ has generously supported us with hundreds of thousands more, through various subsidies.
It turns out that managing the production of organic vegetables is not very difficult, but many hands are needed for seeding, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, washing, packing and so on. Seasonal labor certainly poses some challenges, even though the federal government has several programs.
The biggest problem is that vegetables are perishable, low cost items, so we need to sell them in bundles (baskets) to make the logistics work. Unfortunately, we have not been able to reach our target of 400-600 vegetable basket subscriptions by a long shot. It just seems that consumers are not really interested in organic vegetable subscriptions and competition for clients is rather fierce. We found that resellers are notoriously unreliable. We really hate to throw out perfectly good veggies!
Right now, the vegetables represent less than 7% of our total business and take up 70% of our time. We love growing veggies, but selling them is a drag. We are currently not planning to grow veggies during the 2022 season. But things may change quickly!
We sell liquid honey that is not pasteurized, ultra-filtrated or blended, so it will crystallize (or granulate) over time. This is a normal process. You can heat up the honey gently “au bain mari” to liquify it again.
We also offer creamed honey. We prime the honey with very fine crystals so that the consistency is more like butter (depending on the temperature). This is the honey that we prefer.
Raw honey is very popular in Europe. Nothing is done to prevent crystallization, so it is honey in its purest form. The granules are course, like sugar.
Spring honey in the making
Most honey on the market is pasteurized, blended and ultra-filtrated, because people generally like liquid honey that stays liquid. For the cheapest imported honeys there are some concerns that corn syrup or another sweetener could be part of the mix.
No pasteurization. We try to heat the honey as little as possible, because heated honey produces HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural) and HMF gives honey a bad taste over time. There is no need for pasteurization because honey contains so little water that bacteria or yeast cannot grow on it. That is why bees use it as their winter store.
No ultra-filtration. Ultra-filtration removes much of the pollen and the taste. Local pollen could help alleviating allergies.
Creepy crawly creatures?
No blending. Flowers bloom during different times of the year, so each honey flow has a unique bouquet. We usually have linden (or basswood) honey which is tangy, spring honey (mostly dandelion) and darker fall honey (clover, goldenrod and asters) available. We have a hard time making pure clover honey were we live.
Mead. We are making mead (honey wine) according to an age-old secret Belgian recipe (merci Charles!), but we are unfortunately not allowed to sell it in Québec. So, you need an invite to taste.
Not all parts of a beef are equally tender. Some parts are only useful for ground beef, some parts make excellent slow roasts. Others are a little less tender, but more tasty. Some parts that are unspectacular on their own can become mind-blowing once smoked or marinated.
The ribeye, tomahawk and ribsteak are ways of cutting from the prime rib, the most delicious and expensive part of a beef. They are the ideal steaks.
The tenderloin is the most tender, but not the most tasty, part of the beef.
The round is less popular, not so tender and contains no marbling. We use it for jerky, smoked meat, etc.
We consider the tri-tip as the best kept butcher’s secret: use our special tri-tip rub for a spectacular eating experience.
Beef cooking basics
The process of raising flavorful and tender beef doesn’t stop when the cattle leave the pasture. Cooking strategy matters. A lot. There are two rules:
If the temperature of your beef changes too rapidly during the cooking process, it can cause the meat fibers to contract, which will make your meat tough.
A rapid temperature change will also cause moisture to be escape from the beef through condensation. Moisture is a key component of beef tenderness.
Before cooking
When thawing beef, always remove the original wrapping paper, cellophane, or butcher paper to prevent the tastes and smells of the packaging from leaching into the meat. It is also a good idea to rinse your frozen beef immediately after removing it from the packaging to remove any ice that may have absorbed the flavors and smells of the packaging.
Remove your steaks from the refrigerator an hour before cooking so your steaks can warm up to room temperature before they are thrown on the grill.
Korean style shortribs
Grilling
For best results when grilling, begin by searing the outside of your steaks to create a crust to lock in moisture. Then turn the grill to low to finish the cooking process on low (slow) heat to prevent excessive moisture losses and protein fiber contraction.
Beef bacon is mindblowing
What determines eating quality?
High quality lean beef requires slightly lower cooking temperatures and slightly shorter cooking times than marbled beef, yet marbling in itself is a poor indicator of quality. Continental beef such as Limousins and Belgian Blues are less marbled. Angus is marbled and Wagyu is extremely marbled.
Age is also a poor indicator of quality. Slow growing animals do not taste better.
Eating quality depends first and foremost on whether a beef is properly finished. Properly finished beef has lots of microscopic fat and a fat cap is present .
Most beeves finish around 750-900 lb carcass weight (500-650 lbs of meat). Males from large breeds such as Charolais, Wagyu or BBB should exceed this range. Females from small breeds such as Galloway or Highland cattle can be butchered at slightly lower weight.
A lot of direct marketed and especially grass-fed beef is butchered at much lower weights (unfinished!). This type of beef is sometimes referred to as baby beef. All we can say is that it is hard to give good advice on how to cook an inferior product.
Dry aging is another very important determinant of eating quality. Direct marketed beef carcasses are usually hung for 2-3 weeks. For dry aging, a fat cap (finished beef!) is important to prevent waste and spoilage.
Some parts of beef, such as the rib primal and New York strip can be aged longer. Water loss during the aging process and enzymatic reactions in the meat are in large part responsible for a more concentrated taste and a more elevated price tag.
We have a quota for producing 500 laying hens and we are allowed to produce 300 broilers per year.
Our laying hens live outside when the weather permits and they eat surprising quantities of grass and bugs. They also fertilize our fields. In nature, birds often follow herbivores to clean out the patties and thus they reduce fly populations and prevent diseases like pinkeye in cattle.
The biggest challenge is predation, even with electrified netting and frequent rotations.
Laying hens on pasture
We have long been conflicted about raising meat birds on pasture. Modern meat birds are highly susceptible to temperature and humidity changes, and virtually unable to walk after 40 days. Subsequently, mortality is unacceptably high, and animal welfare compromised from the start.
We turned to genetics to reduce mortality. We tried to raise (overly) expensive Bresse chickens for a while, but settled on a hardy red meat chicken. Mortality is now very low, but growth is slower. Therefore, it costs about twice as much to raise these birds.
Because our production is limited by law, we are always looking for other small farmers who want to raise these chickens for us.
An old style chickentractor design
We get multiple calls every week from people looking for 100% grass-fed chicken. Sorry folks, but it makes us a little cranky. Before you are call us, please please please understand that chickens are not herbivores. Despite what Steven Gundry says, chickens can no more survive on grass (and insects) alone, than you can! Shame on those who lie to you.
Grass-fed beef is said to have a better composition of omega-3/omega-9, CLAs. It is said to be better for the environment, better for animal welfare and even to sequester enough carbon to mitigate its impact on climate change. On the other hand, grass-fed beef takes much longer to finish, thus ‘wasting’ precious resources and emitting more greenhouse gasses per pound of meat produced.
Since grass is their staple, we do all we can to make the grass grow better: think of timely stand renewal, managed intensive paddock rotations and environmentally sound manure management.
After a pregnancy of 9 months, all our cows calve when the deer fawn in the spring. In the fall our beeves are weaned. They weigh anywhere from 600-800 lbs.
The cows return to the field and eat hay, while the calves spend the winter in a three-sided barn, protected from the elements, eating grass silage (fermented grass) and recycled vegetable cuttings. We try to keep them growing at 2.5 lbs/day, about half the rate of growth of conventional feedlot cattle.
Come spring, these beeves now weigh about 1200 lbs. We need another season of pasturing (with added vegetables) for the beeves to be ‘finished’ and yield an 800 lbs carcass. Those that stay for part of the winter will reach around 900 lbs carcasse weight and they will get better as we go. As the grow, the growth rate goes down, but microscopic fat, marbling and fat cap increases. Finishing beeves is the most important part in terms of eating quality. Read more about this here.
Our grass-fed-and-finished beef takes about 18-24 months to finish, compared to 12 months industry standard for conventional feedlot beef with hormones. No wonder that it is a little more expensive.
Since the environment and climate are among the most important reasons for choosing grass-fed beef, it is within our mandate to improve the efficiency of our grass-fed program. The addition of vegetable cuttings and our quest for top-notch genetics are integral parts of our commitment to sustainable agriculture: improved efficiency means less waste and less GGEs.
The Berkshire breed is known for marbling and the pH and juiciness of the meat.
Compared to other heritage breeds, whose claims to fame are… rather inventive, most of our clients say they had no idea what pork was supposed to taste like, before they tried our Berkshire.
That is certainly true for some cuts, but there is definitely a place for crossbred pigs on our farm as well. Our crossbred Duroc pigs are leaner… and cheaper.
We used to raise Tamworth pigs, but eating quality was mediocre to say the least
Unfortunately, Berkshires aren’t great mothers, and they do not have a lot of babies. So raising them is quite a lot more expensive, especially if one elects to follow humane methods of raising pigs from birth to plate.
We find that raising pigs on pasture is easy and it has only a small impact on taste, costs, animal welfare, the environmental etc. That is, if it is done well.
Raising Berkshire pigs on pasture
For us, doing it right does not mean forcing the animals to be outside rain or shine, year round. It means giving the animals a choice. So we have to ensure a good environment inside as well.
The harder part, and where the more sustainability gains can be achieved, is in the maternity, where ‘natural’ and ‘humane’ do not always go hand-in-hand, and where diseases are usually rampant. On our farm, Berkshire pigs are raised under the best possible humane conditions, without antibiotics, from the day they are born. This is not some vague promise. Our ‘humane Berkshire’ maternity costs are four times higher than for those for a conventional pig. No wonder our pigs are a little more expensive.
Biyearly blood test indicate that our herd is exempt of all major pig diseases and we enforce strict biosecurity measures to keep it that way.
And the hardest part of course is genetics. There is probably more variation within breeds than among breeds, in terms of meat quality and efficiency. Efficiency is important because it limits waste and thus saves the environment and the farm finances. So, for us, it is certainly not enough to raise Berkshires. We want to raise the best Berkshires, and this implies artificial insemination and matching breeding pairs based on DNA samples.
