Revisiting St. Patrick's Day Corned Beef and Corned Swordfish

Normally I'm not a big St. Patrick's Day celebrator. It was one thing when I lived in New York City and all of Manhattan turned into a green boozy, sudsy party. But as someone who's not much of a drinker, it's not one of my top holidays. Nevertheless, if St. Patrick's Day is your thing, be assured that celebrations will be going on (including a parade and Irish Day) and special menus and brews will be on San Diego restaurant and pub menus. So, release your inner leprechaun!

And, with the holiday falling on a Saturday this year, there's more opportunity to get in some St. Paddy's Day cooking and, who doesn't love the essential holiday meal?

That would be, of course, corned beef. Now there's nothing more Irish (or, yes, Jewish...) than corned beef. Several years ago Iowa Meat Farm's butcher Richie Vought taught me how they make theirs. It's perfect with the traditional boiled cabbage and potatoes, but I'm partial to enjoying it in a sandwich.

Not a meat eater? Well, there's nothing saying you can't "corn" fish, especially very sturdy fish like swordfish that chef Tommy Fraioli made at the late, great Sea Rocket Bistro. The brined swordfish is moist and tender, with a hint of cloves and a slightly pickled flavor. And you can add carrots, cabbage, and potatoes to the cooking liquid to add flavor.

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Holiday Treats: Angel's Salumi & Truffles

Seven years ago when I belonged to a book club and it was my turn to host I decided to make a pork loin roast. I had found the recipe on the Food Network and it sounded like the perfect main course for our group. So, I went over to Iowa Meat Farms and consulted with butcher Stan Glen. I was just going to use conventional pork, but he encouraged me to also try a roast made from Berkshire pork, a hog variety long known for the quality and flavor of its meat. To maintain that quality, farmers raise them free range and richly fed like they used to be more than 40 years ago--before pork was touted as "the other white meat." This results in meat that has more marbling, moistness, and tenderness. I made The Barefoot Contessa recipe—it calls for a mixture of rosemary, fennel seeds, lemon zest, garlic, Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper blended into a paste and pressed onto the top of the roast. The conventional pork roast was just fine, but the Berkshire pork version was over-the-top delicious. I never looked back.

So when I heard that Chef Pascal Besset had launched a new business, Angel's Salumi & Truffles in Carlsbad, and was using Kansas-raised Berkshire pork to make his salumi, I wanted to get a taste of it. Plus, I'm awfully fond of truffles.

I spent an afternoon with Besset in his warehouse and retail shop, which will also be where he holds cooking classes. Not only does he use Berkshire pork, but he also uses wild boar, bison, duck, and New Zealand venison for his different salumi varieties. The products are processed in a production facility in the L.A. area, which has three large dry rooms, each holding 43 racks filled with 680 pounds of product. Besset does all the buying and creates the recipes.


So, what does he make?

There's the wild boar prosciutto, very sweet and light, thanks to dried herbs, peppercorns, rosemary, sage, mace, and garlic. This smooth meat is a perfect pairing with dried fruits and nuts, a strong cheese, and craft beer. His duck prosciutto is just what you'd want to include in a charcuterie plate or add to pizza, pasta, soup, or salads. Besset says it's his number one selling product.

Then there's the black truffle pork salami, which incorporates black truffle oil and peelings. It has a heady aroma and would go well with champagne.

The white alba truffle salami uses white truffle puree (which Besset sells to restaurants for making dishes like risotto). Not surprisingly, it has a much more subtle flavor than the black.

Soppressata is one of my personal favorite salumis so I was curious about how Angel's would compare. I loved it. Usually, I'm psyched to get a punch of heat and garlic, mixed with fennel. This one was different, more sophisticated in flavor. I still got the fennel but instead of heat, there were sublime smoky overtones, thanks to his use of Spanish pimentón. Here's something that would pair wonderfully with a Pinot Grigio.

The dried, cured Berkshire Lomo Embuchado was stunning. It's made from the loin, which is massaged with four Spanish paprikas and then slowly air dried. Try this with a rosé.

That's not even all of them. Then we get to the truffle products. Now, I know the disdain people have for truffle products like oil and salts. But Besset gets that and as a chef he's keen to create products that colleagues will want to use and that customers will enjoy. He sent me home with a 500 ml container of white truffle oil, white and black truffle compound butters, and a small jar of truffle "caviar,"winter truffle juice created into tiny pearls that are color enhanced with the use of squid ink. (He also sells truffle juice, truffle carpaccio, truffle salt, and porcini butter.)

Have I had fun with these products. The truffle oil has gone into popcorn, been drizzled over roasted vegetables, and incorporated into salad dressing. I indulge with the truffle butter with its large flecks of truffle in the simplest ways, like spreading on my favorite toasted sourdough rolls or adding to baked potatoes. And that truffle caviar was stunning just topping scrambled eggs.

While Besset sells to restaurants like Sea & Smoke (chef/owner Matt Gordon is a big fan), his products can also be found in L.A. and Irvine, and in San Diego at retailers like Specialty Produce, Venissimo, Bottega Americano, Brothers' Provisions, Major Market, Baker & Olive, and We Olive. The company is also in the process of setting up an online  retail store.



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Corned Swordfish and Cabbage: A New St. Patrick's Day Classic?

So, I write this piece on corned beef at Iowa Meat Farms and get a note from a friend who works with Sea Rocket Bistro. "You know, Chef Tommy Fraioli is making corned swordfish for St. Patrick's Day. Want to try it?"

Hmmm, it sounded both intriguing and a little off putting at the same time. Until I realized that I had grown up with and loved pickled herring. So, really, what's the big deal?

Today, I drove over to the restaurant and watched Fraioli, Sea Rocket Bistro's new executive chef, prepare the dish in its different stages.

First, he pulled out a glistening 10-pound piece of swordfish filet from Catalina Offshore Products. He trimmed it into smaller pieces that will sit for four days in a brine of water, pink salt, sea salt, brown sugar, and pickling spices. (Tough beef brisket, on the other hand, needs to be broken down--think six weeks bathing in brine.)

Fraioli mixes up the brine, brings it to a boil, then lets it simmer. It cools and is poured over the fish.

 
The fish bathe in it in the fridge for the four days. Then, Fraioli explained, it's rinsed off, placed in a pot filled with water that's brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer. The fish cooks for an hour or two--until it's fork tender. Then it's removed from the pot and Fraioli adds sliced carrots, cabbage, and hunks of potato to cook.

The dish is plated and served with a whole grain and Dijon mustard mix that Fraioli is still messing around with. He's going to add some kind of beer to it, probably Rey Knight/Butcher's Brewing's Mucho Aloha Pale Ale, which has cloves and allspice in it to complement the pickling spices.

When Sea Rocket Bistro serves the dish ($16) on St. Patrick's Day, it'll be accompanied by Fraioli's freshly baked Irish soda bread, made with whiskey-soaked raisins, and whiskey butter. He's thinking of making soda bread pudding for dessert.

As for the flavors? Surprisingly delicious. The swordfish is moist and tender, with a hint of cloves and a slightly pickled flavor. I ate it with whole grain mustard and the strong rustic, almost spicy, tones of the mustard married beautifully with the mild fish. And, the vegetables, which also cooked briefly in the pickling liquid, had a terrific sweet salty spice-laden flavor. Altogether, it's a great meal and a nice alternative to heavy and more caloric corned beef. It's really a dish all its own.

In addition to the corned swordfish, Sea Rocket Bistro will be serving a variety of Irish-themed small plates.

Sea Rocket Bistro is located at 3382 30th St. in North Park.

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Wine & Dine San Diego Radio: A Feast for Your Ears

Several years ago, I got my start on radio on The Gourmet Club, later named San Diego Gourmet. Ron James was the host with wine expert Robert Whitley. I came on as a guest several times. Then Ron would call me at the last minute to fill in if they had an open slot. Finally, he just got me a security badge at the U-T, where the show was produced and told me I was the new co-host. It was about the most fun I'd ever had professionally.

Then it ended because the U-T closed down the studio. But, hey, folks, starting March 10 we're back and this time on terrestrial radio, KFSD Radio 1450 AM. Called Wine & Dine San Diego Radio, the show will air every Saturday afternoon from 1 to 2. Ron, of course, is the host. Whitley and I, also joined by David Nelson and Frank Mangio, will be co-hosts. And, there will be a slew of reporters from Ron's Wine and Dine San Diego website calling in to report on items such as new restaurant openings, chef moves, and upcoming events.

Host and executive producer Ron James

For our debut show, we're featuring Jeff Rossman of Terra and his new Mission Valley burger joint Bunz, Hanis Cavin of Carnitas Snack Shack, and Dick Gilmore of Iowa Meat Farms and Siesel's Meats to talk about barrel aging corned beef--just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

If you can't listen to the show live on the radio, we'll be streaming it live on www.wineanddinesandiego.com and have a podcast available. Later on, we're also hoping to have a studio with a kitchen so we can do video. Grand plans, but Ron is a determined guy and I'm a believer.

Join us for the fun, send us show topic suggestions, and even call in. I'm planning on having some segments with chefs that deal with specific cooking issues so we can solve your pressing kitchen dilemmas.

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Anticipating St. Paddy's Day with Locally Corned Beef

When Richie Vought was a kid growing up in National City, he used to visit his dad's workplace, Stan Glenn's meat palace in Chula Vista. Two memories stand out: the hot dogs that Glenn used to give away to kids and the line of wooden barrels in a corner of the walk-in cooler in the back, all holding large pieces of meat brining into corned beef.

Decades later, Vought, a second generation meat cutter (Dad was a meat cutter and Mom was a "butcherette" during World War II), is master meat cutter at Iowa Meat Farms, working under Glenn. And, those barrels? They're no longer wood, instead your basic 32-gallon plastic trash cans, but inside is the beginning of a most delicious corned beef based on years of playing around with the brining recipe to replicate those flavors Vought remembers. Iowa Meat Farms and its sister shop, Siesel's Meats, sell between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds of corned beef a year, mostly around St. Patrick's Day but they do carry it year round.

Corned beef got its name because the beef was preserved with coarse grains--or corns--of salt, going back hundreds of years before refrigeration. The technique could also be applied to pork. Brining has since replaced salt cures, but the name remains. Now, is it truly an Irish dish when paired with cabbage? The website Irish Cultures and Customs provides research that they say shows that it's about as Irish as spaghetti and meatballs; beef was just too pricey and pork was the preferred meat, particularly bacon joints. Irish immigrants to the U.S. found that beef was cheaper than in the mother country. But the newcomers treated the beef in the same way they did the bacon joints, soaking off the excess salt, and then boiling or braising the meat with cabbage.

At Iowa Meat Farms, the process begins with trimming the large brisket of excess fat and separating the two overlapping muscles--the round and the deckle, or point.

The round (left) and the deckle, or point of the brisket

Then they prepare a salt brine that includes sodium nitrate, phosphate, pink salt, sugar, pickling spices, garlic, and water. In go the pieces of meat with the brine into those containers to brine for six weeks. This breaks down the muscle and lets the meat absorb the brine's flavors.

This is one of 10 barrels in the cooler at Iowa Meat Farms, each holding about 350 pounds of meat, and weighted down by water-filled containers.

Once the meat comes out of the brine it's ready for cooking. Here's what you do:

1. Place the meat in a pot, with just enough water to cover. If you want, you can add a few fresh cloves a garlic, but that's really it.

2. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover, and cook until tender. Tender = inserting a fork into the meat and trying to lift it out. If the meat comes up with the fork, it's still not ready. If it falls off immediately, it's done. Vought tells me that it should take about three hours for a two-and-a-half-pound point and two hours for a five-pound piece of round.

3. If you like to boil vegetables to accompany the corned beef, Iowa Meat Farms suggests that you cook the meat first and keep it warm in a low oven, covered with foil. Then layer the vegetables--potatoes, carrots, cabbage--into a pot with the potatoes on the bottom, covered by the carrots and then the cabbage. Then strain enough of the cooking liquid into the pot to cover the carrots. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer, and cook until tender--perhaps 30 to 45 minutes.

The round, cooked and ready for slicing into a sandwich.

The point, also cooked, and perfect accompanied by boiled cabbage and potatoes, slathered in Irish butter. Be sure to cut against the grain.

Alternatively, you can cook the meat in an oven, placing it in a covered roaster and adding enough boiling water to nearly cover the meat. Tightly cover the roaster and place in a 350-degree oven. It should take roughly the same amount of time to cook. This is a good method if you have a particularly large piece of meat.

Now for serving. The smooth round makes for wonderful sandwiches. I pulled out a couple of slices of rye bread, slathered them with deli mustard mixed with horseradish and had a delicious lunch. At the shop, the folks used the point for their sandwiches and they looked equally good.

Vought told me his favorite way of preparing corned beef for his family is to blend together French's yellow mustard, a couple of teaspoons of horseradish, and honey. Then he smears it over the top of the cooked corned beef and runs it under the broiler for about three minutes. You pull it out just as it starts to bubble and glaze. Let it cool, then slice and serve with cabbage, boiled potatoes, and butter.

Iowa Meat Farms will have its first batch of corned beef ready March 9 and they're holding their 2nd Annual Barrel Festival to offer tasting the next day, March 10, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at both their store and Siesel's Meats.


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Iowa Meat Farms: Meet the Butcher on Mission Gorge

When was the last time you bought meat from an actual butcher? It’s so easy to hit the supermarket or Costco and pick up a couple of steaks, a roast or chicken, but how good are they really compared to a shop that specializes in these products?

It had been awhile since I’d been over to Iowa Meat Farms on Mission Gorge Road, but it was my turn to host my book club last week and after seeing Ina Garten (aka The Barefoot Contessa) make a gorgeous roast loin of pork, I thought I’d head over there and pick one up. After all, Iowa Meat Farms is a 25-year staple of San Diego, opened by the Cohn family before they even started Corvette Diner and their other dozen or so restaurants. For the last few years, they’ve also owned long-time competitor Siesel’s off Morena Blvd.

I’m glad I went for a variety of reasons, but the first compelling one was that the recipe from the Food Network website called for a five-pound pork loin roast, bone in, tied and frenched (this is when the meat on the end of the bones is scraped off to create a little “handle”). When I called Iowa Meat Farms to tell them what I wanted in case it had to be ordered, the butcher asked how many people I’d be serving. “Eight,” I said. “Well,” he replied, “five pounds isn’t going to be enough—not with the bones in and shrinkage from cooking.”

That’s important information and not something I’d have gotten had I just picked up a pre-wrapped roast at the supermarket.

So, already I was experiencing a butcher conversion. Then I met up with Stan Glen, Iowa Meat Farms’ meat supervisor. He’s been in the business for 50 years, 15 of which have been with the store. He explained that while they don’t do the kind of butchering that involves an entire side of beef, “We do everything, carry everything and have access to everything.”

I told him my story, but he said that the real reason people should go to a butcher is the quality. “It’s what people who shop here are looking for,” he says. Both Iowa Meat Farms and Siesel’s carry nothing but mid-Western prime and choice beef—no chuck here. Because they’ve found that the quality can vary between slaughterhouses and packing houses, the company has signed on to a branded beef program, which certifies the source and quality of the meat. Their choice beef comes from a certified plant in Grand Island, Nebraska; it’s hand selected and can be tracked back to the source.

“It’s reminiscent of when I was a kid and there were two slaughterhouses in National City,” recalls Glen. “I used to go to them with my dad, who was also a butcher, and he would hand stamp the beef.”

Glen took me into the cooler room—a very chilly 36 degrees, where beef was dry aging.

There were roasts the size of watermelons that would soon be cut for steaks and others that would be some lucky families’ prime rib roast for Thanksgiving.

But, I had gotten there just before the delivery of the Thanksgiving turkeys. Glen said that between the two stores, they’d sell over 3,000 for Thanksgiving. Once the turkeys were gone, 600 choice rib roasts were to be delivered along with 300 prime rib roasts. These would begin the aging process in anticipation of Christmas. Glen expects to sell 1,200 rib roasts at Christmas time.

Ah, but let’s return a moment to the turkeys, since Thanksgiving is approaching. To my surprise, Glen sells both Zacky Farms private label turkeys and free-range turkeys—but doesn’t necessarily recommend the free-range turkeys. “There’s a huge difference between conventional chickens and free-range chickens,” he explains, “but not much in turkeys. The conventional turkeys have more fat on them and are much more forgiving to cooks who only prepare turkey once a year.”

Since we’re on poultry, let’s follow up with the chicken discussion. At both Iowa Meat Farms and Siesel’s, only Sonoma Select free-range chickens are sold.

Glen claims there is a huge difference in flavor and safety between them and conventional chickens. And, he adds that chickens that are marketed as “air dried” are no better than conventional chickens.

“They plunge chickens into hot water to pick out the feathers, then they’re plunged into cold water, which soaks up the water. You get as much as 15 percent water in a conventional chicken,” Glen says. “With air drying, you get the same bird going through the same preparation process, but at the end they let them air dry. They lose some water, but that’s it.”

The free-range chickens aren’t stacked in cages and basically take in the outdoors. They’re given no hormones or antibiotics or animal by-products. They’re fed corn—and maybe indulge in a worm or two. The only trick in cooking a free-range bird is keeping the skin of the bird moist while roasting or grilling. But a little oil on the skin before cooking should keep in from drying out.

I bought a couple of whole chicken legs and was kiddingly talked into a half of a “Baja chicken,” a bird marinated in lemon juice, cilantro, garlic, pepper and a commercial Baja seasoning—reportedly the same one that El Pollo Loco uses. Over the weekend I baked both. I treated the chicken legs to a bath of citron honey from Trader Joe’s diluted with a little lemon juice, along with olive oil, garlic salt and pepper. They baked at 350 for about an hour and were tender and juicy with a lovely crispy skin. More to the point, the meat had flavor.

Then I tried the Baja chicken. The butcher instructed me to bake it at 350 for an hour, but in my oven it took more like an hour and 15 minutes before I got the caramel skin tones I was after. I’m a dark meat eater and thoroughly enjoyed the sweetness and moistness of the thigh and leg. It was especially delicious with the Brussels sprouts I thinly sliced and sautéed in olive oil and garlic, then finished off with a tablespoon of the porcini sage Epicurean butter I bought at the store.

Its dark, woody undertones were a perfect match with the Brussels sprouts.

I ate the leftovers the next night—and, to be honest, wasn’t keen on trying out the white meat, which I usually find too dry. This, to my surprise, wasn’t. Even with reheating, the breast meat was moist and absolutely delicious.

And, how was the pork loin I served last week? Actually, I served two. I bought the conventional pork loin roast but Glen insisted that I also try Berkshire pork from Eden Natural and had me take home a little over a pound to prepare exactly like the conventional pork so I could compare them.

There is no comparison. I made The Barefoot Contessa recipe—it calls for a mixture of rosemary, fennel seeds, lemon zest, garlic, Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper blended into a paste and pressed onto the top of the roast. Both were magnificent and after letting them rest, I sliced them and put them on a platter with sprigs of rosemary from my garden.

Everyone enjoyed the conventional roast, but none of us could get over the sublime flavor and texture of the Berkshire pork. It was an entirely different animal and I don’t think there’s any going back.

“These are free-range pigs,” Glen tells me. “They’re fed better and as a result they taste like pork did 40 years ago before the suits decided we wanted it as lean as possible.”

So, what’s the difference in price? The conventional pork is $4.99 a pound. The Berkshire pork is double that, but to my mind absolutely worth it. It has finer marbling and shorter muscle fibers, which, in turn, lead to more tender meat. Oh, and if you’re in a fine restaurant and see “Kurobuta pork” on the menu? It's not some exotic Japanese imported pork that's the porcine equivalent of Kobe beef. It’s Berkshire pork—Kurobuta pork is just what it’s called in Japan and it means “prized black hog.”

So, let’s say you go to Iowa Meat Farms. What else will you find there? Essentially, it’s a full-service grocery with everything from soup to nuts: Yes, soup, nuts and also produce, cheeses, wines, coffee, jam, El Indio tortilla chips, olive oils, vinegars, mustards, breads. You’ll go crazy trying to figure out which barbecue sauce to choose. Do you dare to pick one of the Beverly Hillbillies or stick with Paula Dean or the Iowa Meat Farms house blend? Or one of the other hundreds of bottles?

Same with the rubs. Go for spicy, Asian, maple and sage, chili cocoa or the intriguing Butt Rub? Or just close your eyes, stick your hand on a shelf and see what you get? There are so many to choose from.

All this, plus the meat—of which there’s a huge selection.

Rich-looking homemade sausages, thick-sliced bacon, dry aged steaks, brisket, pork ribs and chops and butt roast, short ribs, shrimp, salmon, ahi and swordfish. And, this time of the year, you’ll even find turducken. That’s a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken that are each stuffed with a different dressing—Louisina cornbread, apple/cinnamon, and sausage and herb. And, no worries, the butcher will send you home with written cooking instructions.

So, you get quality; you get experience and knowledge. But most of us would assume that shopping at a butcher is a sacrifice in price. Surprisingly, the price is right. “Our starting philosophy,” says Glen, “is how good can I get it? Then we think about cost.”

Iowa Meat Farms is located at 6041 Mission Gorge Road and Siesel’s is at 4131 Ashton St.

Have some thoughts about Iowa Meat Farms, Siesel’s or other markets in San Diego? Do you have a favorite neighborhood market or shop that carries unique or unusual foodstuff? Let me know or add to the conversation by clicking on comments below:

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