Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Siler City to pick up our latest load of fresh beef. I’m doubly excited because we actually have room in the freezer now that the beef freezer is working again. That means easy shopping where you can find everything you are looking for.
Expect all the cuts to be in stock. I’ll even have some oxtail, I think. If it’s not all spoken for. Steaks, hamburger, all that stuff will be fully stocked so plan on coming by between 2-5 on Friday, or 8-5 on Saturday. Lucy will be working the store both Friday and Saturday so come and get your recipe fix from our in-house chef. We’ll be open so there is no appointment needed to shop in the store.
Also, we are going to have our pork sale again this weekend. I’m still needed to make some room in the pork freezer. We have Boston butts aplenty and all the sausage goodness you expect. Plan on coming by and stocking up.
I wrote previously about how we lost power at the barn and in the process lost not one but two of our freezers. One freezer was a backup freezer so no big deal. The other however was our beef freezer in the store. This is one of the two commercial freezers we use to hold the majority of our product.
To say it was a pain in the posterior having this freezer dead is an understatement. We had to cram everything into out backup freezers to get it to fit, which we did. The downside to that is now everything is disorganized and hard to find. Kuddos to Lucy who worked hard to keep everything shuffled so we could find our product as best we could.
The worst part of the freezer being down was not that it happened. No, the worst part is that it took from June 24th to yesterday to get the part in to fix it! A month and a half to get a 2″x5″ circuit board for a major brand commercial freezer. Guess which brand I won’t be buying next time!
However yesterday my friends at Fowler & Sons called me to let me know the board was in. We’d gotten to be on a pretty chummy basis since I’d been calling them about every other day asking when my board would be here. They did the best they could, this was a manufacturers issue. Anyway, I swung by and picked up the board and in about 30 minutes had it replaced. Then it was time to power up and see if it burst into flames or started working.
Powered on and freezing!
I closed my eyes and flipped the switch. If the board blew again, that meant something else was wrong so we’d have to fix that problem, then order another board that would be another 1.5 months. Thank God it powered right up and went to working.
Back in action again
Lucy came right up and with the help of the Princess pulled all the beef from the back and got everything restocked. It was just in time too as I’m picking up a new cow on Friday from the processor. We’ll be back to full speed on beef by Friday afternoon so plan on getting your beefy goodness this weekend.
Chimichurri is a magical sauce that comes from Argentina. It is a beautiful compliment to all things beef and pork. It’s primarily made with parsley, garlic, oregano, cracked red pepper flakes and olive oil for strong and simple flavors. I used it in this recipe to take this burger to the next level.
What you need
For the Chimichurri Sauce:
1 cup fresh parsley washed and dried
5-6 medium cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of dried oregano
1/2 extra virgin oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
For the burgers:
1 pound of Ninja Cow ground beef and 1 pound of Ninja Cow ground pork (alternatively, 2 pounds of ground beef)
salt and pepper
Crusty bread slices or sourdough for the buns
6 slices of thick cut provolone cheese approximately 1/4 inch thick. You can get these cut thick at any grocery store deli
What you do
For the Chimichurri Sauce:
Place the sauce ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the contents down the sides of the food processor as necessary. Cover and refrigerate.
For the burgers:
Gently mix the ground beef and pork being careful not to over compact the meat, which will result in a less juicy burger. Gently form 6 patties with the two pounds of meat.
Generously salt and pepper the outside of the burger (no need to mix seasoning into this burger as that can also reduce the juiciest of the burger. Trust me, this delicious morsel will have plenty of flavor).
Cook in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil over medium-high heat. Wait until the cast iron is lightly smoking with the olive oil. Cook for approximately 5 minutes (120F for rare and 135F for medium) and allow to rest on a plate for 5 additional minutes. Allowing the burgers to rest is key to assuring a juicy burger.
Meanwhile, toast your bread under the broiler in your oven.
Clean your cast iron with a paper towel and reheat until lightly smoking. Using a metal spatula, brown the provolone 2 slices at a time for approximately 20-30 second on each side until the cheese browns and starts to melt. Don’t worry if this gets a little messy. It adds to the experience.
Serve and enjoy!
Left over Chimichurri? Use it tomorrow with Ninja Cow steaks or pork chops. Bon appetit!
The whole chickens at Ninja Cow Farm are absolutely delicious. Everyone knows how to do a beer can chicken, so I wanted to share another way to prepare these delicious birds. Spatchcock chicken is a style of preparing birds to be roasted in the oven. It’s a very simple technique that takes 5 minutes to prepare and it drastically reduces the time it takes to roast a full bird. In essence, you use kitchen shears to remove the spine and lay the bird flat. Here is a quick youtube video showing exactly how to perform this technique:
What do you need
One whole chicken from Ninja Cow
5 oz of Boursin cheese garlic and herb spread
Salt and Pepper
What you do
Spatchcock the bird by removing the spine using the technique above with kitchen shears.
Separate the skin using your fingers along the top of the breasts and along the sides by the thighs. Carefully work the Boursin spread under the skin from the top of the breasts and along both thighs. Simply use your fingers to massage the Boursin under the skin until that bad boy is loaded up.
Dry the skin on the outside. Add salt and pepper. Feel free to spread any remaining Boursin on the outside of the skin.
Place the bird on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet to keep it from sitting in its juices. This will ensure you get crispy skin, which everyone loves!
Roast at 425 for 15 minutes in the middle of the oven and then drop to 350 until the bird reaches an internal temperature is 165 (approximately additional 40 minutes for a 3.5 pound bird).
Tip–the skin of my bird was crisping up quicker than the internal temp was approaching 165. If this happens, cover the bird with an aluminum foil tent, which will slow the crisping of the skin and allow the IT to reach 165.
Now enjoy this delicious and flavorful meal with your family!
The NCF Store recently started carrying a smaller sized brisket. Instead of 7-8lbs the new cut is more manageable for a family at 2 ½ to 4 lbs. This meal fed 2 families, 5 children and 5 adults for under $70. That’s a big crowd when you realize the kids are hitting peak growth and hunger ages. Yesterday, was a typically busy house day. It’s the beginning of the homeschooling year, creating a bit of chaos.
I started watch Big Bang Theory years ago, since then I’ve wanted to make Howard’s Mother’s Brisket. It always appears to be one of those sought after items and much discussed. At 11 a.m. I realized, “Oh no the brisket isn’t in the oven yet. Is it too late?” Usually when I smoke a brisket, I like to keep it at 225 F for 12 hours. This however, was going to be served at 6 pm. OOPS!. As I seasoned the roast I discovered I was out of garlic powder. My mise en place was non-existent. I did what any good cook does and turned up the heat, changed the recipe and crossed my fingers.
In the afternoon, I met up with Erin (our neighbor & NCF’s milker) and run a chicken errand. When Erin and I walked in the door at 5:30pm; Bam the smell hit us. Something amazing had happened while we’d been out, the garlic powder missing was a great accident. Erin was planning to make tostadas for dinner and we both thought the kids would love to have dinner together and pulled beef brisket tostadas just sound AMAZING. I must admit they tasted even better, especially since Erin pampered us with fresh fried tostada shells.
Sorry, there aren’t a ton of pictures of the process as I did not plan on blogging this due to my loss of time management. It is too good not to share though.
Savory Brisket
1 3-4 lb beef brisket
½ tsp onion powder
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 med. yellow onions sliced thinly
2 heads of garlic cut in ½
½ cup Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup high quality no salt beef broth
Pre-heat oven to 285 F
After bringing the roast up to room temperature season both sides with salt pepper and onion powder.
Place in Dutch Oven fat side up with a firm lid ( If no dutch oven is available use an oven safe deep skillet with tight fitting lid.) Or yes a crock pot on the high (about 250F) and be prepared to wait an extra hour or 2.
Lay garlic & onions across the top and sides of the brisket evenly
Pour Worcestershire Sauce over the top of the roast
Pour beef broth on the sides of the roast.
Place lid & place in the oven for 6.5 hours
Once the brisket can be pulled apart gently with a fork remove and rest for 15 minutes before pulling apart completely. Serve warm
As for the tostadas fill that puppy up anyway you like. We topped the shell with refried beans, brisket, onions, lettuce, cheese and fresh tomatoes.
No side dishes needed here, Tostadas are a full meal.
For another application serve it as a pulled apart roast. Remove the fat off the top of the sauce with a turkey baster, remove the garlic & onion, reduce and serve in its own dish. In my house folks a picky about the amount of sauce they use.
One of the downsides of having our brood herd at our leased farm is we don’t get to see the calves born each day. However, the plus side is when we go check on the cows, it’s like Christmas!
This past week we had a report of cows getting out. When Miguel went over to check the cows and the fences, he found two little surprises.
Our first little new calf of this story
We used to see these calves as they were just born so we’d get close up pictures, ear tag them, etc. Now we get blurry shots just before they run away. But you can see this little one is cute! The momma’s are #23 and #25. I don’t know who belongs to who yet but we’ll figure that out later.
Baby Graham, a mirror image of his dad
This little guy is cute. Miguel was even hushing about him. Perfect markings and healthy as he can be. We’ll end up castrating him anyway so no new bull here but he’ll make for a fine steer.
The first of August we moved our finish herd into the paddock near the pond and near the road where we keep our NRCS grazing stick.
Prior to grazing, wide shot.
The paddock had received plenty of rain and was doing well with the summer heat. We’ve had very few truly hot days this summer and plenty of rain and all the pastures show it. This paddock had been accidentally grazed about a month prior so this was actually a regrowth. The grass was about 8-10″ tall as it’s base layer, with the shoots running up to 14-16 inches.
Close up shot of the grass and the grazing stick
We pulled the cows off after a couple of days. We were combining herds (the new red angus cows arrived) and we needed the cows behind solid fencing while we got everyone used to hot wires and each other.
Post grazing, grass is about 3-5″ tall.
After grazing, there was a lot of trampled grass and plenty of material to build thatch and soil.
Post grazing close up
Leaving the cows on the paddock longer didn’t seem to have any negatives but we are sticking with our daily moves as our overall plan. However when the need arises, I don’t think I’ll be as quick to move them as I would have been.
I need to make some room in the pork freezer. Today only I am putting all pork products on sale at 10% off! That includes pork chops, Boston butts, sausage. Everything except bacon. Sorry, bacon is always the first to go.
We are also still having our buy one get one free sale for liver, kidneys, bones, etc. That means if you get pork bones, you get BOGO AND 10% off. You dog lovers need to stop by today!
No appointment is needed to shop in the store today, plus Crystal is back in town so come and ask her how her two months in Mexico was.
Ninja Cow Farm is now carrying a wide arrange of lamb products from High Rock Farm and Thistledown Farm. Dan goes to great lengths to search out small farms that meet his standards. He wants clients to get the best flavor of ethically raised, local meat possible.
Imagine tasty lamb as a burger, now as a fancy cheeseburger. This is a meal to impress friends. The grand total for it should ring in under $25 for 4. I served this decadent slider with a small simple salad and vinaigrette. A great way to introduce your kids to a more complex flavor palate without spending $75 at a nice restaurant that serves lamb.
In this recipe, I’m going to teach you how to make Chevre into a condiment called crema. It is a simple way to use a semi-soft cheese, turning it into a spread.
Chevre Cream
1 small log of Celebrity Dairy Chevre
1/4 cup Simply Natural Dairy Heavy Cream
Slice all rind off of the chevre log. * While some prefer the flavor of rind I’m not a fan. It is not so friendly when melting down into a sauce.
Crumble or cut Chevre into small pieces we want this to melt into the cream quickly.
Using a heavy bottomed pan heat cream over a lo-med heat. Stir often as the fat & sugar content will cause cream to scorch quickly.
When cream is beginning to steam whisk chevre into cream. Whisk until smooth. Remove from heat, serve warm.
Lamb Slider
1 lb of Ground lamb from the NCF store
Salt & Pepper
Bring lamb up to room temperature by setting on counter for 1 hour before cooking.
Separate into 2 ounce patties. Yes they are small but with the bun and added ingredients it will be filling. Theses are sliders.
Season meat 5 minutes before frying.
Warm cast iron pan on med-hi heat, let this heat thoroughly, you want to get a nice crust on the lamb patty.
Add seasoned lamb patties to hot pan, after 2 minutes check to see if the release easily and flip. If they don’t wait 45 seconds and try again.
Remove from heat let rest for 3 minutes. Place on bun & dress to your liking.
These are rich flavors, the best way to not be overwhelmed by them is to add a bit of acid. To do that I added pickled red onion and a garden fresh tomato slice. Ru & my brother added ketchup to theirs. My husband (the short bearded man spotted periodically on the farm) added mustard to his. Lots of ways to dress a slider and none of them are wrong.
For dessert I highly recommend Celebrity Dairy’s Ginger Goat’s Milk Gelato.
Lucy is organizing this afternoon and has found some steaks hiding in the freezer. We currently have ribeyes, NY strips, sirloins, filets, flat irons, and flank steaks all sitting out front now ready for the first ones through the door. She’s open from 2-5 today, no appointment needed.
I also just brought back a new load of pork from the processor as well so we are loaded with bacon, pork chops, sausage and a new product, salted fatback (you Southerners know what that is).
Come see Lucy and get some goodies. I’m leaving to go restock on wine for the store.
I need to make some room in the pork freezer. Today only I am putting all pork products on sale at 10% off! That includes pork chops, Boston butts, sausage. Everything except bacon. Sorry, bacon is always the first to go.
