East Bay Appetizer: Turn Up the Heat!

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Turn Up the Heat!

Whether you favor burgers, salmon, or tofu on the barbie, it’s time to clean your grill and get cooking.

In this newsletter:

● The Local Butcher pops up at the farmers’ market -
Tuesdays through October
● Contemplate food ethics at Mrs. Dalloway's - June 11
● Dine with a chef and a revolutionary - June 14
● Book Reviews: On Fire!
● Recipe: The Local Butcher’s Grilled Lamb Chops
with Chimichurri

Don't miss our Summer issue, where you can learn to harvest and pickle green walnuts.

Cover photo by Robin Jolin

At left is one of the many fire-burning vessels pictured in Franklin Barbecue. Reprinted with permission from Franklin Barbecue by Aaron Franklin & Jordan Mackay, copyright © 2015. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Photo: Wyatt McSpadden © 2015

Aaron and Monica Rocchino's Local Butcher Shop hosts a summertime stand at the South Berkeley farmers’ market.

Sandos, Soups, and Pastured Meat at the Farmers' Market

Meat-lovers favorite The Local Butcher Shop now hosts a summer stand at the Tuesday farmers’ market in South Berkeley. Stop by to enjoy a sandwich, hot soup, stew, or some beef jerky. A selection of frozen bone broth, stocks, and soups as well as tallow soap are available to take home. The market stand is open through October, with the weekly menu posted here.

At their Berkeley store, The Local Butcher Shop offers pastured meat sourced from within 150 miles of the shop. Whole animal carcasses, purchased from local family farms, are cut to order by a team of skilled butchers, and all meat is antibiotic and hormone free. Classes in sausage making, butchery, holiday cooking, and more are available too.

What’s for Dinner: Making Ethical Choices

Meet Paul Thompson, author of From Field to Fork, as he discusses practical ethics with deep implications for how and what we eat. How can we reconcile the ways in which our food choices affect our bodies and communities, while also considering the ethical imperatives of food justice, concern about animals and the environment, and the global epidemic of diet-related disease? Thompson has been a leading scholar in food ethics for over 30 years, working closely with farmers, agricultural researchers, and food system activists. More info here.

Thursday June 11, 7:30pm
Paul Thompson presents From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone
Mrs. Dalloway’s
2904 College Ave, Berkeley

The Chef and the Revolutionary:
A Dinner in Support of Good Deeds

On June 14, East Oakland's Acta Non Verba Farm puts on its first annual summer mixer and benefit. The event at Kingston 11 Cuisine features a five-course dinner prepared by Seattle chef and TV personality Tarik Abdullah, plus special guest Elaine Brown, former chairwoman of the Black Panther Party. The evening includes live music, wine, and a silent auction, with proceeds to benefit scholarships at Acta Non Verba’s summer camp. Cost: $75. Tickets: here Info: here

Acta Non Verba (Deeds Not Words) is an East Oakland urban farm that empowers low-income kids by teaching them to grow and sell food. The farm provides fresh and affordable produce for an underserved population, with profits put into college funds for participating children and teens. Click to read Edible East Bay’s stories about Acta Non Verba and its founder Kelly Carlisle.

Summer Benefit: The Chef and the Revolutionary
Sunday June 14, 6–10pm
Kingston 11 Cuisine
2270 Telegraph Ave, Oakland

Acta Non Verba’s summer benefit features dinner by chef-to-the-stars Tarik Abdullah plus special guest Elaine Brown, former chairwoman of the Black Panther Party.

Kelly Carlisle, an East Oakland native and military veteran, founded the Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm in 2010 to empower kids through farming. Photo: David Fenton

On Fire!

Reviews by Kristina Sepetys

Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto
by Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay
(Ten Speed Press, 2015)

Aaron Franklin is the grillmaster and owner (along with his wife Stacy) of the hugely popular Austin, Texas restaurant Franklin Barbecue. From humble beginnings as a small barbecue trailer on the side of an interstate nearly six years ago, Franklin Barbecue has grown into one of the most celebrated barbecue joints in the country, winner of every major barbecue award. In his debut cookbook, Franklin and coauthor Jordan Mackay explain building or customizing your own smoker, finding and curing the right wood, creating and tending perfect fires, and sourcing top-quality meat. Franklin also shares recipes for replicating his restaurant's smoky, sweet, succulent, crispy-skinned Central Texas barbecue at home.

Feeding the Fire: Recipes and Strategies for Better Barbecue and Grilling
by Joe Carroll and Nick Fauchald
(Artisan, 2015)

Joe Carroll is a pitmaster in Brooklyn, New York, where he tends grill at his restaurants Fette Sau and St. Anselm. While working the barbecue in his New Jersey backyard growing up, Carroll learned that live-fire cooking can be simple and done well on any kind of equipment. His book, part how-to, part cookbook, includes 20 lessons, including instruction for building low and slow fires, properly grilling chicken (leave it on the bone), why American whiskey blends so nicely with barbecued meats (both are flavored with charred wood), and how to make the best sides to serve with meat (keep it simple). Recipes include Pulled Pork Shoulder, Smoked Hot Dogs (as simple as they sound and delicious), Bourbon-Brined Center-Cut Pork Chops, and tasty sides like Charred Long Beans.

How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques, A Barbecue Bible! Cookbook
by Steven Raichlen
(Workman Publishing Company, 2001)

Steven Raichlen is a journalist, television host, and novelist. His barbecue books have been translated into 15 languages and recognized with five James Beard Awards and three IACP-Julia Child Awards. First published more than 10 years ago, this comprehensive guide is considered by many to be the authoritative source on how best to cook foods over a fire (primarily a charcoal grill). Using more than 1,000 full-color, step-by-step how-to photographs, the book tells you all you need to know from how to build a three-zone fire to the secrets of grilling a porterhouse, prime rib, fish steak, kebab, or chicken breast. Includes 100 recipes, one to illustrate each technique.

Purchase this book

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Recipe

Grilled Lamb Chops with Chimichurri
from The Local Butcher Shop

The Local Butcher Shop sources its lambs from two nearby farms.

At Emigh Lamb, located in Rio Vista, Solano County, Martin and Jeanine Emigh run Rambouillet cross ewes with Suffolk/Hampshire rams. After being weaned, the lambs graze free on natural pastures of alfalfa, clover, filaree, and rye grass with no added pesticides or fertilizer.

At Magruder Ranch in Potter Valley, Mendocino County, the Magruder family’s lambs are born out on pasture, where they are rotated to encourage a shift toward perennial California native species. Once weaned, the lambs fatten on a 100% pasture diet of white and red clover, rye grass, fescue, sour dock, plantain, harding grass, and orchard grass, with the occasional thistle thrown in.

Pastured lamb has so much flavor that it needs little seasoning beyond salt. To prepare the recipe below, ask for chops cut to a one-inch thickness.

Grilled Lamb Chops

8 lamb loin chops, 1-inch thick
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil

About 1 hour before grilling, salt the lamb chops on both sides and allow to come up to room temperature. Just before grilling, rub both sides of the chops with olive oil. Grill over high heat, about 4 minutes per side. Stand the chops upright on the bone (like an upside-down T) and cook for another 4 minutes so the heat can travel up through the bone to cook off any remaining rawness. Allow the chops to rest for 10 minutes as you make the chimichurri. Serve the chops with the chimichurri and your favorite seasonal salad.

Chimichurri

1 cup Italian parsley
1 cup cilantro
1 cup oregano
2 garlic cloves
1 shallot
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Finely chop and combine parsley, cilantro, oregano, garlic, and shallot. Stir in olive oil and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Lamb chops at The Local Butcher and a bowl of chimichurri sauce. (Photos courtesy of The Local Butcher Shop.)

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Recipe

Grilled Lamb Chops with Chimichurri from The Local Butcher Shop

Grilled Lamb Chops with Chimichurri
from The Local Butcher Shop