Newsletter Volume 1

I would like to introduce our team; Bert and Alice Jongerden, Allen and Jackie Ingram.

Of course most of you know Bert and Alice well enough, and probably most of you have now gotten to know Jackie quite well from the depots so it’s about time we introduced Allen. He has been working on new suppliers with Alice, and finding great methods of cooking and testing the products we supply to you. Allen has been at work in the food and beverage sector for over 25 years as chef, front of house manager and certified Sommelier. Since arriving in Vancouver in 1995 he has had a chance to work with some fantastic suppliers in the Lower Mainland. You will start to see more of Allen at the depots offering cooking tips, product and supplier information, and generally helping Bert and Jackie out wherever possible. Allen is also an Artisan Cheesemaker.     

Allen Ingram - Executive Chef HOTR Organics

Your new website: Store.homeontherangefarms.com

Many of you have started to use our online store, and we’re hugely excited to grow this site to include plenty of best in class organic and health conscious products. Our goal is to provide you a week’s supply of proteins, vegetables and fruits, eggs, and health products when you arrive at the depot, and better yet have everything ready from an order that you place online for collection. With this goal in mind we want to give you as much variety and highest quality while maintaining a balance of value pricing so that you will come back happy. We work closely with small farms where we know the provenance of the animals, vegetables and the fruit. We want to be sure the farm to fork experience is either certified organic, or follows best practice farming methods that can be explained to our customers.

MMMM. Grass Fed beef, slow cooked over a gas flame BBQ grill…with summer approaching it’s time to clean off the grill for those BBQ parties. We all know that grass fed beef tastes better and is also better for your health, so let’s discuss the perfect grilling technique for this delicious protein.

Season steaks and grill them for 2-3 minutes per side to lock in the juices and get a good set of grill marks. Move your steaks to the other side of your grill where there is no direct heat, and cook for a further 5 or 6 minutes until you get an internal temperature of around 140F, which is a little under medium rare. Most important: Leave for 10 minutes to rest so the juices stay in the meat when you slice into them (slice along the grain). Bon appetit!

This recipe is based on a classic creation from talented American chef Andew Carmellini, and I have adapted it a little for my own tastes over the last 5 years since I first cooked and fell in love with it.

Ingredients: (Serves 6)

For the Ragu:

• ¼ cup of high quality cooking oil (my preference is cold, first pressed virgin olive)
• 2lbs of ground lamb (I use grass fed, and the meat can be from any area but should has the most flavor)
• ½ cup each of finely diced carrots, onions and celery
• 2 tablespoons of organic tomato paste
• 2 cups of red wine (merlot is my preference as the smokiness is great with the lamb, so keep the rest of the bottle to enjoy with the meal)
• 1 cup of canned organic Italian plum tomatoes.
• 3 cups of organic chicken stock
• Stems from a handful of parsley tied together with the 2 bay leaves (fresh or dried), and 4 or 5 twigs of thyme (remove after cooking is complete)
• ½ teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander and fennel
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons of fresh ricotta

Cooking:

1. Heat your oil in a large bottomed pan with deep sides. You can always transfer to a bigger pot once you’re done this first stage if needed.
2. Add your grass fed ground lamb, breaking it apart into smaller pieces so it cooks evenly for 5 minutes. If the lamb sweats a lot of liquid then pour it out and carry on browning the meat.
3. Add the carrots, onions, celery and mix everything together, stirring a few times. Cook over a high heat until your vegetables are soft, which should take a couple of minutes.
4. Add the tomato paste and stir into the remaining ingredients and cook for roughly 1 minute.
5. Add the red wine and stir thoroughly scraping all of the meat pieces that have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Use a wooden spoon or spatula, and try not to burn any meat pieces, they could spoil the flavor. Cook until the wine has evaporated, which can take 2-5 minutes depending on the heat you have your pan at.
6. Add the canned plum tomatoes together with the chicken stock. Then add the parsley, thyme and bay leaves, with the cumin, coriander, fennel, red pepper flakes, thyme, rosemary salt and pepper.
7. Bring everything to a soft boil hen turn down your heat to medium low and simmer, uncovered until the liquid has evaporated, which should take up to an hour and a half. B sure to check the sides of your dish to scrape meat, and avoid burning bits. The meat will darken and the sauce should go a lovely dark orange color. The final sauce will be a magical blend of all the elements we have incorporated. Remove the parsley/thyme/bay leaf combination.

To Finish:

1. Cook a 1lb of gnocchi, or any pasta you have at hand. I like the texture of the gnocchi with the thick sauce, it just works well.
2. Drain your gnocchi carefully so as not to break them. Use a slotted spoon and add them to your sauce in a nice big serving bowl. Add a glug of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of butter and a handful of mint leaves. Then add 1/3 cup of your best parmesan cheese, grated. Add ricotta and serve.

Please pre-order your lamb products today, together with everything else you and your family will need for the coming week. Click here to visit the store.

Thank you for reading our newsletter. We look forward to seeing you at the depot this week!