think outside the box

It has been a while. Again.

In fact it has been so long since I’ve posted that I was unsure whether my fingers could find their way around the keyboard.

The truth of it is, I’ve been swamped. Family, work, other work, foraging from farm to farm, more family, playing with meat, and that whole baby thing, which has really slowed me down. By the time I post this, my wife and I will be 3 days away from becoming first time parents.

Funny thing it is becoming a parent. Your entire life till that moment you are parented and suddenly one day you are entirely responsible for this one other person. Everything you do becomes important to the development of this one child.

To me, this undoubtedly extends to food as well. I now find myself scanning through the market shelves in total defense mode. “You will not come home with me!” I think, sometimes out loud, when contemplating what to bring home for dinner. I am sure by my newly acclimated shopping approach I have warded off many friendly fellow shoppers.

This is routine: I reach for the item. Read. Obscene language follows as I throw whatever it is back on to the shelf, 3 aisles away.

The search for wholesome food is frustrating. Add in the desire for that food to be grown close to home and the chance of you actually eating dinner is next to none.

A couple of weeks ago I embarked on a new journey to find grass fed, if not organic, beef grown here. By here I mean southwest Louisiana. The part of the state where pastures are at a plenty. I was captain Ahab, and the beef was my great white whale. Let it be known to you that these two stories share the same ending. Minus a couple details.

I woke up with high hopes. I thought for sure I would find a couple of butchers who would lead me to a secret cellar where there hung slabs of pristine grass fed beef. Unaltered by all that other shit the rest of the animals eat. I thought wrong.

I did find the butchers and what they showed me was box beef.

Beef out of a box.

This is a slaughterhouse, what the hell are they doing slaughtering boxes?

It did not get better from this point. I went on to another slaughterhouse with a bit of resentment from the first stop of the day.

Never had I been so disappointed in a butcher.

The man did not even know what grass fed beef was. “Why would we feed them grass when they grow “better” with corn?”

By this point I was beginning to realize one of two things. Either I was surrounded by a bunch of country ass meat packers who have never known good beef, or I was about to wake up for real and start this day over.

The later never happened.

I shouldn’t have made the last stop, but I did. I should have just gone back to the kitchen, but I didn’t.

Instead I visited one last place that morning, where I was laughed at when I asked about properly raised cattle. In fact I was told that there would be no way of knowing where the beef they wanted to sell me originated from. Which brings a question to mind, what the hell happens to all the cattle that graze in the pastures of south Louisiana?

The answer to that makes no sense to me. The big time meat packers buy the cattle and move it all to confinement feed lots. Where each head of cattle lives out the last six months of its life being force-fed corn and corn by-products till it reaches desired weight. Why six months? Because the cattle will not live past that without developing disease.

Say it aint so.

Can it get worst than this?  Why of course. The farmers who make a living by selling this cattle to the big companies gets paid less per head if they do not themselves feed it corn prior to the companies buying their animal.

At the end I, like many others searching for the same thing, had to put in requests with small independent farmers who raise a couple of cattle each year. Luckily they still give us some control over what we bring into our homes.

Disappointment does not even begin to express what I felt from this experience. But the lesson I learned will serve forever as a guide to my approach. I am a big supporter of local. Each week I travel the markets. I shop locally and I am very proud of our local products. But when it comes to the food I prepare whether for guest and especially for family, the quality is mostly important.

Local is secondary to good product. I will not be supportive of product that is not raised with integrity, just to say that it is “local”. As heroic as I like to think this is, I am just one chef. One chef, with the desire to use only what is good. One chef, some say, out of his mind.

I will never even make a dent in the system without help.

That’s where you come in.

I trust that you ask for what is good.

I trust that you believe that the system will change.

I trust that you think outside that box of meat.

Corned Beef Cheek Salad

A couple of weeks ago Brian gave me a pair of beef cheeks (somehow there are only two per animal). Great cut of meat, that lends itself best to long cooking techniques. I am a huge fan of corned beef, so I came up with this version of a chopped beef salad. It is time consuming, but I promise you that patience will pay off.

Pair of beef cheeks

1 gallon Water

16 oz Kosher Salt

4 oz Sugar

2 tablespoon Pickling Spice

3 Large Cloves Garlic

Six days later:

Head of chicory

Cipollini

Pear

Corned beef has actually nothing to do with corn. The name came from the salt-water mixture, which is also known as brine. The salt originally used to brine meats, was in large pebble form resembling corn kernels. Hence corned beef.

Inspect the beef cheeks, removing any sinew.  Carefully trim them as to get rid of hanging tissue. Place the beef cheeks in a plastic or glass container with a lid, large enough to submerse them in liquid.

In a pot, heat up water. Add spices and whisk often to dissolve. Chop the garlic and add it to the water. Once the salt and sugar have dissolved allow the liquid to cool to room temperature. This is now a brine.

Place the brine in the refrigerator and cool off completely. Add the brine to the beef cheeks and marinate for 6 days. Place a small plate on top of the cheeks, as to keep them completely submersed.

On day 6.

Remove the cheeks from the brine and allow them to rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

On day 7.

Place the cheeks in a large pot, with 2 tablespoons of pickling spice and cover with water. You may have to place another plate on top of the beef cheeks as they cook to keep them covered. Simmer for 4 hours. Add water as needed to keep them covered.

Remove the cheeks from the cooking liquid. Be careful as you move them, they’ll be falling apart by this time. Allow them to rest for a bit.

You now have made corned beef. Well, corned beef cheeks to be precise, but this method is also applied to brisket. The natural next step is for you to corn brisket, season it, smoke it and steam it for some badass pastrami. But that’s another post.

Whip up a quick mustard vinaigrette. Dress the chicory, or greens of choice. Just don’t go with a wimpy green like romaine. You want something robust. And don’t use frisse either. It’s considered the awkward lettuce. It’s like eating someone’s fro.

Dress the chicory with thinly sliced cipollini, and sliced pear. Shred the beef cheeks over the salad.

Where to find grass fed and organic local beef:

Gotreaux Family Farm

Brian and Dawn Gotreaux

Gofamilyfarms.com

337.273.0383

Gardner Ranch

Stuart Gardner

Stuartgardner65@gmail.com

337.945.7083