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GRIGGSTOWN FARM MARKET NEWSLETTER 03/27/12

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

 

I’m sure you’re all as anxious as I am to be able to enjoy fresh vegetables from our farm.  After all, New Jersey is “The Garden State”, and we should all take advantage of what our home state has to offer.

There are still openings for this year’s CSA so click on the QR code or link to our site for additional information.  www.griggstownquailfarm.com/csa/what-is-csa/

 

 

If you do not have a QR code reader application, download ScanLife to your smart phone.

 

Chuck’s Corner

Simple Precautions to Help Keep Your Kitchen Safe

 

You’ve heard the horror stories: children dumping boiling water down their chest when their curiosity got the best of them, horrible burns as a result of an explosion of hot oil or a grease fire. There’s no doubt that the kitchen is a dangerous place, and if you’re not careful accidents can happen in a second’s time.

Using some of these preventative tips can really help you avoid a bad situation for yourself or your family.

 

 

 

Food of the Week: Muscovy Duck

 

The Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata) is a large duck native to Mexicoand Central andSouth America. A small wild population lives the United States in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and there are feral breeding populations in North America around public parks in nearly every U.S. state and the Canadian provinces. Feral populations also exist in Europe.

 

 

 

Featured Recipe

 

Smoked Muscovy Duck

 

Courtesy of Patrick Di Gangi

 

I dropped in last week to pick up 2 Muscovy ducks and a large chicken pot pie. The pot pie was delicious!

 

 

 

 

 


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Chuck’s Corner

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Simple Precautions to Help Keep Your Kitchen Safe

 

You’ve heard the horror stories: children dumping boiling water down their chest when their curiosity got the best of them, horrible burns as a result of an explosion of hot oil or a grease fire. There’s no doubt that the kitchen is a dangerous place, and if you’re not careful accidents can happen in a second’s time.

Using some of these preventative tips can really help you avoid a bad situation for yourself or your family.

 

For example, make sure you have a working smoke detector in your kitchen.  It’s so vital to have one in this room, and you’d be amazed at how many people never think about it.

Also, make it a rule that the stovetop stays cleaned off.  If you store teapots or other decorative items, these can easily become a fire hazard if you accidentally turn on the wrong burner or start a grease fire.

Investing in high-quality oven mitts is a great way to reduce the likelihood of burns.  Cheap oven mitts are, well, cheap, and won’t protect your hands from hot pots well at all.  It pays to spend more here and get a nice, thick oven mitt.  If you do get burned with a cheaper mitt, not only will you burn your hands but you might drop what you’re holding, which will probably burn and cut your feet badly.

Also, be careful when using glass casserole dishes and lids on the stovetop.  Even if they say “stovetop safe”, they’re still risky.  One small crack or overheating can make them explode, sending shards of glass flying.  Use pots or cast iron whenever possible.

Although it sounds counter-productive, keep your knives very sharp.  You’re less likely to cut yourself with a sharp knife.

As you can see, there are countless ways to get hurt in the kitchen, but by following a few simple safety tips you can really reduce the chance of injury for yourself and your family.

 

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Food of the Week: Muscovy Duck

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

 

The Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata) is a large duck native to Mexico and Central andSouth America. A small wild population lives the United States in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and there are feral breeding populations in North America around public parks in nearly every U.S. state and the Canadian provinces. Feral populations also exist in Europe.

 

 

Although the Muscovy Duck is a tropical bird, it adapts to icy and snowy conditions down to –12°C (10°F) and below without ill effects. In general, “Barbary Duck” is the usual term for C. moschata in a culinary context.

Since there are two varieties with clear phenotypic differences (a wild and a domestic) there are proposals to divide the species into two subspecies. The wild subspecies is known as“Pato Real” (Royal Duck) in most of its natural range and its scientific name is Cairina moschata sylvestris (Stephens 1824), they are a large duck feathers glossy black predominantly in males and mate black in the females, with white spots on the wings, which become more noticeable during flight and also peak blackish. On the face, around the peak, has a few pink or red wattles. Measuring about 76 cm in length. Males are usually in heat release odor of musk.

Of the original wild species, due to the management by indigenous communities, was derived since pre-Columbian times the domestic subspecies known throughout Latin America as “Pato Criollo” (Creole Duck) (Cairina moschata domestica), which shows significant variations: due to the selection and domestication by man, this subspecies was made it heavier and less able to fly long distances to find their food, as does its wild ancestor. Its feathers are less bright and have a greater variety of colors, being very common specimens with belly, neck and face whitish. The colors are not uniform in all individuals: there are individuals completely white or only black, gray, brown and there are else with different combinations of these colors. This domestic subspecies is also known in Spanish as “Pato Casero” (backyard duck) or “Pato Mudo” (mute duck).

All Muscovy Ducks have long claws on their feet and a wide flat tail. In the domestic drake (male), length is about 86 cm (34 in) and weight is 4.6–6.8 kg (10–15 lb), while the domestic hen (female) is much smaller, at 64 cm (25 in) in length and 2.7–3.6 kg (6.0–7.9 lb) in weight. Large domesticated males often weigh up to 8 kg (18 lb), and large domesticated females up to 5 kg (11 lb). One male of an Australian breed weighed about 10 kg (22 lb).

The true wild Muscovy Duck, from which all domesticated Muscovys originated, is blackish, with large white wing patches. Length can range from 66 to 84 cm (26 to 33 in), wingspan from 137 to 152 cm (54 to 60 in) and weight from 1.1–4.1 kg (2.4–9.0 lb) in wild Muscovys. On the head, the wild male has short crest on the nape. The bill is black with a speckling of pale pink. A blackish or dark red knob can be seen at the bill base, and the bare skin of the face is similar to that in color. The eyes are yellowish-brown. The legs and webbed feet are blackish. The wild female is similar in plumage, but is also much smaller, and she has feathered face and lacks the prominent knob. The juvenile is duller overall, with little or no white on the upper wing. Domesticated birds may look similar; most are dark brown or black mixed with white, particularly on the head. Other colors such as lavender or all-white are also seen. Both sexes have a nude black-and-red or all-red face; the drake also has pronounced caruncles at the base of the bill and a low erectile crest of feathers.

C. moschata ducklings are mostly yellow with buff-brown markings on the tail and wings. Some domesticated ducklings have a dark head and blue eyes, others a light brown crown and dark markings on their nape. They are agile and speedy precocial birds.

The drake has a low breathy call, and the hen a quiet trilling coo.

The karyotype of the Muscovy Duck is 2n=80, consisting of three pairs of macrochromosomes, 36 pairs of microchromosomes, and a pair of sex chromosomes. The two largest macrochromosome pairs are submetacentric, while all other chromosomes are acrocentric or (for the smallest microchromosomes) probably telocentric. The submetacentric chromosomes and the Z (female) chromosome show rather little constitutive heterochromatin (C bands), while the W chromosomes are at least two-thirds heterochromatin.

Male Muscovy Ducks have spiralled penises which can become erect to 20 cm in one third of a second. Females have cloacas that spiral in the opposite direction to try to limit forced copulation by males.


 

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Featured Recipe

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Smoked Muscovy Duck

 

Courtesy of Patrick Di Gangi

 

I dropped in last week to pick up 2 Muscovy ducks and a large chicken pot pie. The pot pie was delicious!

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

2 Muscovy ducks

Water

Kosher salt

Brown sugar

Orange juice

Peppercorns

Crushed bay leaves

 

Directions:

I brined the duck with water, kosher salt, brown sugar, orange juice, peppercorns, and crushed bay leaves in a food grade bucket. I placed a heavy ceramic plate on top to ensure that the ducks stayed submerged. Then, I simply put the bucket in a spare refrigerator for 4 days.

I pulled out the ducks, rinsed them well and put them back into the bucket with just fresh water to soak overnight to draw out excess salt.

I pulled them out dried them off, slit the skin on the bottom of the breasts (to let the fat drain) and hung them in stockinet’s to dry for about an hour before hanging them in a preheated smoker at 140 deg with damper wide open for an hour to ensure that they were dry.

Then, I lit a pan of mixed hickory and apple wood and turned up the smoker to get a good heavy smudge going before turning the temp down to 160 deg till the wood smoked out.

When the pan burned out, I replaced it with a second pan to get the deep color I was looking for.

When the second pan burned out, I placed a drip tray under the ducks to catch the fat, turned up the heat to 195 deg, inserted  digital thermometer probe into one of the breasts and let them run all day till they reached an internal temp of 164 deg.

I let them cool a bit before pulling off the stockinet’s to show them off before going into the cooler.  I also got the added bonus of about 2 cups of duck fat.

I filleted one of the breasts off this morning and sliced it up into medallions. I put the sliced duck on wheat crackers with a touch of white wine mustard.  It is absolutely delicious!

 

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GRIGGSTOWN FARM MARKET NEWSLETTER 03/20/12

Monday, March 19th, 2012

 

If you have been to the farm store, you probably noticed the activity in the green houses, that’s because we are starting the planting of our CSA crops.  Here are some of the expected crops for this year’s CSA;

 

 

 

Asian Greens, Arugula, Beans, Beets, Broccoli, Cabbages, Carrots, Cauliflower. Celery, Choi,  Collards, Cucumber, Eggplant, Fennel, Ground Cherries, Kale, Leeks, Lettuces, Melons, Mesclun Greens, Mustard Greens, Onions, Peas, Peppers, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Radishes, Scallions, Spinaches, Summer Squashes, Swiss Chard, Tomatillos, Tomatoes, Turnips, Winter Squashes, Watermelons, Cut Flowers and a variety of Herbs.

Sunday 4/19 we had a great National Poultry Day at the farm!!

Thanks to everyone who came out to visit Beth at the Flemington Farmers Market this Sunday.  Remember she will be there on 4/15.  So stop by the Dvoor Farm open barn from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm to say, “Hello”, and purchase some of the products she has to offer.

 

Chuck’s Corner


 

Well, here we are. The weather is warming up, the CSA crops are being planted, and as a result, we often rush to start our grills.  That wonderful smell of grilled food floods our senses and sends neighbors outside to do the same.

 

In your haste, have you ever thought what should be done to the grill in order to ensure that it’s ready for another full season of grilling? Well, here is your “HOW TO” guide when it comes to grill preparation.

 

Food of the Week: Chicken Parts


The meatiest parts of a bird are the flight muscles on its chest, called breast meat, and the walking muscles on the first and second segments of its legs, called the thighand drumstick, respectively. The wings are also eaten, usually (in the United States) without separating them, as in Buffalo wings; the first and second segment of the wings are referred to as drumette (meatier) and flat when these need to be distinguished, though these are technical terms. In Japan, the wing is frequently separated, and these parts are referred to as 手羽元 (teba-moto “wing base”) and 手羽先 (teba-saki “wing tip”).

Dark meat, which avian myologists refer to as “red muscle,” is used for sustained activity—chiefly walking, in the case of a chicken. The dark color comes from the proteinmyoglobin, which plays a key role in oxygen uptake within cells. White muscle, in contrast, is suitable only for short, ineffectual bursts of activity such as, for chickens, flying. Thus the chicken’s leg and thigh meat are dark while its breast meat (which makes up the primary flight muscles) is white. Other birds with breast muscle more suitable for sustained flight, such as ducks and geese, have red muscle (and therefore dark meat) throughout.

 

Featured Recipe

 

The Ultimate Barbecued Chicken

Courtesy of Tyler Florence

 


Visit our Facebook page to see a video of Tyler Florence demonstrating this recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in News |

Chuck’s Corner

Monday, March 19th, 2012

 

Well, here we are. The weather is warming up, the CSA crops are being planted, and as a result, we often rush to start our grills.  That wonderful smell of grilled food floods our senses and sends neighbors outside to do the same.

 

 

In your haste, have you ever thought what should be done to the grill in order to ensure that it’s ready for another full season of grilling? Well, here is your “HOW TO” guide when it comes to grill preparation.

Step 1, Turn the grill on and close the lid.  Get it super hot and burn off the gunk left from the previous year. Let it run for a good 10-15 minutes and as it heats up, old food and residue will burn off the grill making it easier to scrape the remains.

Step 2, Scrub the grates – Remove the charred residue from the grates with a semi-flexible stainless steel brush. If the grates undersides are greasy, remove them and wipe them down with a wet, soapy sponge. Once you’re finished with the above, be sure to rinse the grates and dry them off.

Step 3, Attack the Burners – Pricier grills often have burner protectors – V shaped metal guarding the gas jets from food dripping. Remove the protectors, and use a putty knife or something similar to scrape the grease off. If this isn’t doing the trick, get some hot soapy water and scrub away. Then, as above, rinse and dry.

Step 4, Attack the Burners Part II – Clean the burners with a stainless steel brush using a side to side motion, not a length wise motion. Are the gas jets open or clogged?  If clogged, use a thin wire (a close hanger may work) to poke a hole through the center of each one.  If the holes are rusted, it’s time to replace the burners. Now, remove the burners in preparation for the next step.

Step 5, Hit the Walls of the grill, also known as the cook box. You want to remove carbonized grease so it doesn’t affect the taste of the food. If scraping it off isn’t working, again revert to dish soap and water.

Step 6,  Clean it up – Make that grill sparkle on the outside as well. Rub it down and wipe away grease with a dedicated stainless steel cleaner and semi-soft sponge. Warm water works too!

I hope the above useful tips help you make the most of the upcoming grilling season. Now, if we can only have Mother Nature cooperate so that the weather continues to improve.  Then we’ll all be enjoying the smell of those neighbors’ grills as well as your own, filling the air with that sweet smell that only grilling food creates :)

 

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Food of the Week: Chicken Parts

Monday, March 19th, 2012

 

The meatiest parts of a bird are the flight muscles on its chest, called breast meat, and the walking muscles on the first and second segments of its legs, called the thigh and drumstick, respectively.

 

 

The wings are also eaten, usually (in the United States) without separating them, as in Buffalo wings; the first and second segment of the wings are referred to as drumette (meatier) and flat when these need to be distinguished, though these are technical terms. In Japan, the wing is frequently separated, and these parts are referred to as 手羽元 (teba-moto “wing base”) and 手羽先 (teba-saki “wing tip”).

Dark meat, which avian myologists refer to as “red muscle,” is used for sustained activity—chiefly walking, in the case of a chicken. The dark color comes from the proteinmyoglobin, which plays a key role in oxygen uptake within cells. White muscle, in contrast, is suitable only for short, ineffectual bursts of activity such as, for chickens, flying. Thus the chicken’s leg and thigh meat are dark while its breast meat (which makes up the primary flight muscles) is white. Other birds with breast muscle more suitable for sustained flight, such as ducks and geese, have red muscle (and therefore dark meat) throughout.

Raw chicken can be frozen for up to two years without significant changes in flavor or texture. Chicken is typically eaten cooked as when raw it often contains Salmonella.

Chicken can be cooked in many ways. It can be made into sausages, skewered, put in salads, grilled, breaded and deep-fried, or used in various curries. There is significant variation in cooking methods amongst cultures. Historically common methods include roasting, baking, roasting, and frying. Today, chickens are frequently cooked by deep frying and prepared as fast foods such as fried chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken lollipops or buffalo wings. They are also often grilled for salads or tacos.

Chickens often come with labels such as “roaster”, which suggest a method of cooking based on the type of chicken. While these labels are only suggestions, ones labeled for stew often do not do well when cooked with other methods.

Some chicken breast cuts and processed chicken breast products include the moniker “with Rib Meat.” This is a misnomer, as it is the small piece of white meat that overlays the scapula, and is removed with the breast meat. The breast is cut from the chicken and sold as a solid cut, while the leftover breast and true rib meat is stripped from the bone through mechanical separation for use in chicken franks, for example. Breast meat is often sliced thinly and marketed as chicken slices, an easy filling for sandwiches. Often, the tenderloin (pectoralis minor) is marketed separately from the breast (pectoralis major). In the US, “tenders” can be either tenderloins or strips cut from the breast. In the UK the strips of pectoralis minor are called “Chicken mini-fillets”.

Chicken bones are hazardous to health as they tend to break into sharp splinters when eaten, but they can be simmered with vegetables and herbs for hours or even days to make chicken stock.

In Asian countries it is possible to buy bones alone as they are very popular for making chicken soups, which are said to be healthy. In Australia the rib cages and backs of chickens after the other cuts have been removed are frequently sold cheaply in supermarket delicatessen sections as either “chicken frames” or “chicken carcasses” and are purchased for soup or stock purposes.

 

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Featured Recipe

Monday, March 19th, 2012

The Ultimate Barbecued Chicken

 

Courtesy of Tyler Florence

 

 

Visit our Facebook page to see a video of Tyler Florence demonstrating this recipe.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

Brine:

  • 2 quarts water
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 garlic cloves, smashed with the side of a large knife
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 6 chicken legs and thighs, still connected, bone in, skin on, about 10 ounces each

 

The Ultimate Barbecue Sauce:

  • 1 slice bacon
  • 1 bunch fresh thyme
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 cups ketchup
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon dry mustard
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon paprika or smoked paprika if available
  • Freshly ground black pepper

 

Directions:

For the brine, in a mixing bowl combine the water, salt, sugar, garlic, and thyme. Transfer the brine to a 2-gallon sized re-sealable plastic bag.

Add the chicken, close the bag and refrigerate 2 hours (if you’ve only got 15 minutes, that’s fine) to allow the salt and seasonings to penetrate the chicken.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.

Wrap the bacon around the bunch of thyme and tie with kitchen twine so you have a nice bundle.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Add the thyme and cook slowly 3 to 4 minutes to render the bacon fat and give the sauce a nice smoky taste.

Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly without coloring for 5 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low.

Cook slowly for 20 minutes to meld the flavors.

Once the sauce is done cooking, remove about 1 1/2 cups of the sauce and reserve for serving along side the chicken at the table.

The rest of the barbecue sauce will be used for basing the legs.

Preheat oven 375 degrees F.

Preheat a grill pan or an outdoor gas or charcoal barbecue to a medium heat.

Take a few paper towels and fold them several times to make a thick square.

Blot a small amount of oil on the paper towel and carefully and quickly wipe the hot grates of the grill to make a nonstick surface.

Take the chicken out of the brine, pat it dry on paper towels.

Arrange the chicken pieces on the preheated grill and cook, turn once mid-way, and cook for a total of 10 minutes.

Transfer the grill marked chicken to a cookie sheet and then place in the oven.

Cook the chicken for 15 minutes, remove it from the oven and then brush liberally, coating every inch of the legs with the barbecue sauce and then return to the oven for 25 to 30 more minutes, basting the chicken for a second time half way through remaining cooking time.

Serve with extra sauce.

 

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Posted in Featured Recipes, Recipes |

GRIGGSTOWN FARM MARKET NEWSLETTER 03/13/12

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

 

Did you hear?

We are now on Twitter!!! @GriggstownFarm

Consider it your hotline to the farm for questions, concerns or just a friendly greeting.  We’ll be expecting to hear from you.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who came out to visit Tim at the Winter Farmers Market at East Brunswick this past Saturday.

Remember that Beth is selling Griggstown products at the Flemington Farmers Market this winter, 3/18 and 4/15.  At that market, you can find Beth at the Dvoor Farm open barn from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm.  Drop by to say, “Hello”, and purchase some of the products she has to offer.

 

Chuck’s Corner


 

Earn a $5 G-BUCK

As we near our CSA season, it would be a good idea to start digging out the recipes that utilize our fresh produce.

After you’ve found them, why not share with us at CustomerRelations@griggstownquailfarm.com.

If we use a recipe in our newsletter,  we will give you a $5 G-BUCK


 

 

Food of the Week: Poussin

 

In Commonwealth countries, poussin (pronounced /ˈpuːsæn/ and sometimes, less commonly called coquelet) is a butcher’s term for a young chicken, less than 28 days old at slaughter and usually weighing 400-450 grammes but not above 750g. It is sometimes also called spring chicken, although the term spring chicken usually refers to chickens weighing 750-850g.

 

In the United States of America, poussin is an alternative name for a small-sized cross-breed chicken called Rock Cornish game hen, developed in the late 1950s, which is twice as old and twice as large as the typical British poussin.

 

Featured Recipe

 

Roast Poussin and Sweet Potatoes

Courtesy of Nigella Lawson

 

This is my almost regular as clockwork Saturday night supper. I find it enormously easy and relaxing to make since all I do is go downstairs, put everything in the oven, and then go back up to Saturday evening TV in bed until it’s ready – and then, frankly, back again.

 

 

If I cook the poussins in the same pan as the sweet potatoes, I cut a couple of slices of bread and put 1 underneath each bird in the tin, so as to absorb the juices and stop them from seeping into the sweet potatoes which, in turn, would prevent them from crisping and browning. But more often than not, I dispense with the bread (you can imagine how good it tastes later though) and just get 2 disposable foil roasting trays about the size of brownie tins each and put the poussins in one and the sweet potatoes in another and reunite on the plate with a little watercress and a squirt of lime juice later. I must have English mustard with. I know it’s a weakness, but not one I’m willing to renounce.

 

INGREDIENTS

2 Griggstown poussins

2 tablespoons garlic or wok oil, divided

1 sweet potato weighing approximately 1 pound

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 to 2 bunches watercress

Maldon or kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Good squirt lime juice

 

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Put the birds into a small baking tin or foil tray pouring over 1 tablespoon of oil.

Cut the unpeeled sweet potatoes into 2 1/2-inch cubes and put them into another smallish tin or foil tray.

Pour over the other tablespoon of oil and sprinkle over the spices, and then toss everything together by shaking the tin.

Cook both the poussins and sweet potatoes in the preheated hot oven for 45 minutes.

Put each poussin on a plate, with a tangle of watercress and the sweet potatoes alongside.

Sprinkle with Maldon/kosher salt, to taste, and spritz with lime juice and go to it!

 

 

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Chuck’s Corner

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

 

Earn a $5 G-BUCK

As we near our CSA season, it would be a good idea to start digging out the recipes that utilize our fresh produce.

After you’ve found them, why not share with us at CustomerRelations@griggstownquailfarm.com.

If we use a recipe in our newsletter,  we will give you a $5 G-BUCK

 

Tags: ,
Posted in News |

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