Attendees are starting to send in their recipes from their delicious dishes that they shared at the SFSR Eat-In this past Labor Day. Our first recipe is for the very popular BBQ Beef from Karen Christensen at Mack Brook Farm.
Crockpot BBQ Beef
INGREDIENTS
1 piece (approximate 3-4 pounds) Mack Brook Farm Brisket, Top Round, Chuck or other roast
1 18-ounce bottle BBQ sauce, of your choice
DIRECTIONS
Trim fat from meat. Salt and pepper the meat and place in Crockpot. You may have to cut it into two pieces. Add BBQ sauce. Cook on low 6 hours.
Remove meat from Crockpot. Slice thinly, and then return meat to pot. Cook on low for
10 minutes.
Note: For a special treat, make your own BBQ sauce using our recipe below.
Cece’s Secret Sauce, Shhhhhhh!
It took some arm-twisting, but our good friend Cece finally agreed to share her family’s secret recipe. Is it the lime juice that makes it so special? Or could it be the rum???
Ingredients
2 teaspoons Mexican hot sauce, one with vinegar and Habanero peppers, use more if you like your sauce with an extra ‘kick’
2 cups Ketchup
2 tablespoons Hot Mustard (Jailhouse, made in Salem, NY, is our favorite)
½ cup light Puerto Rican rum
½ cup light beer
¼ cup honey (we really like organic Honey From the Adirondacks, made in Argyle, NY) ¾ cup light brown sugar
4 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
Juice of 1 lime (about 2-3 tablespoons)
Mix all ingredients in saucepan and simmer for 45 minutes. Pour over meat in crockpot.
Held yesterday at Sheldon Farms in Salem, N.Y., approximately 50 people got together for a Slow Food USA call-to-action to return real food to school cafeterias, both locally and nationally. Our “Eat-In” was a pot-luck featuring dishes built around food that was grown and raised in a “good, clean & fair” manner. Speakers included Carolyn Wells, the chef at NYC’s St. Bernard’s School, who was at Sheldon Farms gathering food to bring back to her school to freeze and use in the winter months and Margaret Lamb, school lunch program director for the Saratoga Springs City School District, who has been successfully bringing fresh and local farm foods to her school system for a few years. Organized by Rocco Verrigni and Pat Sheldon, the SFSR Eat-in proved a great and delicious success.
Watch for recipes of many of the wonderful dishes!
Ric Orlando has been a supporter of Slow Food in the Hudson Valley for some time. We were thrilled when he recently became the chef at New World Bistro & Bar next to the Spectrum Theater in Albany, bringing his Slow food friendly fare to our region. We were even more thrilled when he agreed to host one of our monthly dinners, this past Wednesday, August 5th. He did not disappoint, building a meal around a theme of new York State cheeses, with each dish featuring a significant contribution from a top NY cheese.
To pair with the dishes, the restaurant suggested wines from a NY State winery, Atwater Estates. To make choosing even easier and the evening even more pleasant, Atwater had a tasting station set up at the start of the evening allowing our members generous tastings of each of their gewurtztraminer, dry Riesling, pinot noir and sparkling wines, all quite tasty, with the Reisling, IMO, being the standout of the bunch.
While the attendees were gathering and conversing, waitstaff came around with Four Borthers’ Farmstead Feta, that had been fried and drizzled with Atwater Sweet Reisling Sauce. These were quite delightful and it would have been tempting to just keep eating them as they just kept coming out of the kitchen, but I had seen the rest of the menu and knew to hold back for other goodies.
The first formal course, was a Chile Relleno with Hawthorne Valley Raw Cheddar, local cranberry beans and corn and sauced with Meadowbrook creme fraiche-corn sauce. Not a traditional Mexican chile relleno,it was packed with flavor and style.
A salad of peaches, arugula, roasted beets and Berkshire Blue with truffle vinaigrette followed. The peppery arugula matched well with the controlled sweetness of the beets, the acidity of the peaches and the saltiness of the blue to provide a very satisfying salad
The main course, Fresh Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass on blue potato mash with Nettle Meadows Kunik, roasted garlic and marjoram proved a winner despite some doubts about pairing the fish with the cheese before I was served. The combination worked and worked well. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the fish was pristine and perfectly cooked.
Dessert consisted of a “Pair of Cheesy Sweeties.” These included Old Chatham Sheep’s Ricotta Fritter and Nettle Meadows Fromage Blanc Cheesecake with local honey and burnt plum. Every element of the dessert satisfied. Overall, the meal highlighted the use of cheese in such a way that had this been a contest of Iron Chef America with NY Cheese as the featured ingredient, Chef Orlando would have fared quite well.
Slow Food Saratoga Region monthly restaurant dinners are usually held on the second Wednesday of the month, however, the dates will occasionally vary for extenuating circumstances. Please keep an eye on this blog and your email for future announcements. If you are not on our email list please send your contact information to the contact address on this site. Better yet, join Slow Food USA and Slow Food Saratoga Region! There is a link on the site with which to do so.
Submitted by John M. Sconzo, M.D.,
Co-founder & President Emeritus of Slow Food Saratoga Region.
Photos courtesy of Docsconz the Blog.
On Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2009, people in communities all over the country will sit down to share a meal with their neighbors and kids. This National Eat-In will send a clear message to Congress: It’s time to provide America’s children with real food at school.
Slow Food Saratoga Region will be a part of the national effort.
We will be holding our Eat-In at Sheldon Farms in Salem, NY. Pat and Albert Sheldon have generously offered there farm for this event. The bucolic setting is a perfect backdrop for raising awareness of the importance of making REAL FOOD available in school lunch rooms across the nation.
It will be a potluck and hopefully a well-attended event. We at SFSR know that many of our members may be busy with other traditional Labor Day activities but hope you can make our Eat-In one of those activities.
To become more familiar with the national campaign to make REAL FOOD readily available to our children in school lunchrooms across the nation, refer to:
The only admission for slow food members and non slow food members is a prepared dish to share.
Pot Luck List:
Last Names Beginning with:
A-E: please bring a dessert
F-Z: please bring a savory course
All dishes should feature ingredients that are “good, clean and fair.” The only cost for this event is a dish to share following the outline above. Please RSVP to mail@slowfoodsaratogaregion.com or sheldonfarms@gmail.com
We are asking that you bring your own plates and silverware and beverage. Seating will be provided under cover overlooking the beautiful countryside of Washington county.
If unable to come, we are asking you to go to the sight and if so compelled, to fill out the petition to send to legislators
Thank you all. Have a great summer.
Reminder of our upcoming August Restaurant dinner at New World Bistro in Albany on August 5th. Reserve at:
Chef Christopher Tanner whipped up a fabulous breakfast again for this second annual event. Chef Tanner featured pork that he cured himself from a pig raised at Sheldon Farms. Amongst the house cured items, he included sausage, bacon, pancetta, prosciutto and lardo, all outstanding and the epitome of Slow Food! The breakfast also included the wonderful breads and croissants of Mrs. london’s and eggs and vegetables from Sheldon Farms. Though the overnight provided several thunderstorms, the morning weather held out and was, in fact, quite lovely.
Photos by John M. Sconzo, M.D All rights reserved – Docsconz LLC.
Dear Members and Friends of Slow Food Saratoga Region,
We would like to announce the return of our monthly restaurant dinners. As planned, we will be venturing out from the Saratoga area in order to serve some of our more southerly members as well as spreading the word of Saratoga Slow Food to our neighbors.
The dinner will be held Wednesday, August 5, 2009at 6:30 PM at Ric Orlando‘s New World Bistro www.newworldbistrobar.com/ in Albany. Ric’s New World Home Cooking in Saugerties has been a mainstay of the Hudson Valley for years. A quote from his website reads:
“Global Flavor, Local Pride” New World Cooking Co is the home of New World Home Cooking Cafe and New World Catering. We feature a Global-Sustainable Bistro Menu based on Lustily Spiced Home Cooking from Around the World. We use many organic, local, regional and clean ingredients!
Ric has been an avid proponent of “clean food” and was before it was fashionable. This is evident in his menus from both of his restaurants. Ric has been active in the slow food movement in the Hudson Valley for many years.
To make your reservation for what should prove to be a wonderful night of food, friends and fun, call the restaurant at 518-694-0520.
Reserve early and bring friends. As usual the cost is $35 for members and $40 for non-members, tax and gratuity included. Beverages are not included but will be available.
Mark your calendar for Labor Day. We are planning an Eat-in potluck to be part of the national slowfood effort Time for Lunch
to get Real Food into school lunchrooms. To learn more about this go to:
Oh, don’t miss this one! People’s eyes still glitter and glaze when recalling last year’s Slow Food breakfast in Salem…… Fresh sweet corn fritters with hot maple syrup, house-made charcuterie, and a magnificent tasting menu are in the works for you….. Chef Chris Tanner again joins Sheldon Farms in hosting this mid-summer Slow Food farm adventure for members of the Saratoga and New York City convivia. With tables on the lawn amidst farm fields, Slow Foodians enjoyed the season, Chef Tanner’s food and each other’s fine company… make plans to be part of it this year…. The $20 ticket will seems like a crazy bargain, we promise you. Time is 9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m., leaving you plenty of time for area farm tours… Please call for reservations, (518) 854-7847.
It was a beautiful late spring night for our monthly dinner gathering. And there couldn’t have been a better place to commune with members and friends than the Farm House Restaurant at the Top of the World overlooking Lake George. A full evening commenced with a caravan of golf carts driven by guests to get a tour of the greenhouses, fields and a first hand look at some of our offerings that we would dine on later. We all learned a bit about what it takes to produce much of the produce that makes up the farm House Restaurant menu. While we were all enjoying the great outdoors, our hosts, Kevin London and Kim Feeney, were busy making sure our evening would be a memorable dining and communing experience. And that it was! After an appetizer course highlighted by local cheeses and breads, we were served course after course of simply prepared, just picked vegetables, greens and locally produced meats.
For cocktail hour
Assorted NY state cheeses
Asparagus and la quercia proscuitto
Red beet soup
Dinner
Braised hakurei turnips
Sautéed farm greens
Louisiana white shrimp with anson mills polenta
Macbrook farm beef with spicy greens and shaved pecorino
Kilpatrick farm green garlic with romesco
Grilled pac choi and risotto verde
Elihu farm lamb and Sheldon farm potatoes and argyle cheese farmer yogurt
Lemon tart and hand melon farm strawberries
Almond and Saratoga apple tart
The night was a truly memorable gathering which drew many returning diners as well as a number of new faces.
Thank you all for making this another successful gathering. And thank you, Kevin, Kim and your entire staff.
In lieu of a restaurant, the Wednesday night Slow Food Monthly Dinner Series will feature Chef Dan Spitz cooking at the Saratoga Farmers market Market Pavilion:
It was a beautiful late spring night for our monthly dinner gathering. And there couldn’t have been a better place to commune with members and friends than the Farm House Restaurant at the Top of the World overlooking Lake George. A full evening commenced with a caravan of golf carts driven by guests to get a tour of the greenhouses, fields and a first hand look at some of our offerings that we would dine on later. We all learned a bit about what it takes to produce much of the produce that makes up the farm House Restaurant menu. While we were all enjoying the great outdoors, our hosts, Kevin London and Kim Feeney, were busy making sure our evening would be a memorable dining and communing experience. And that it was! After an appetizer course highlighted by local cheeses and breads, we were served course after course of simply prepared, just picked vegetables, greens and locally produced meats. 
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