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Creminelli Tasting Event


I was invited to attend the unveiling of Creminelli’s new large format line of artisan deli meats. Cristiano has been developing these products for the past few years in order to enter the sliced deli meats category. His patience has paid off marvelously, because these new products are unbelievably tasty. 

I had an interesting conversation with Jared Lynch, one of the founders of Creminelli. He went into detail about the fact that Creminelli is a huge supporter of the certified wellness program. All of their pork is purchased from ranchers who have committed to treat their animals humanely, without antibiotics, and who have committed to feed the pigs a strict vegetarian diet with no unsafe fillers. They say that you can taste the difference in the final product, and I believe it.

Cristiano told me about their new Salt Lake City processing facilities. Up until September 2010, they were operating in a small 6,000 square foot warehouse in Springville, Utah. They now operate in a 48,000 square foot facility near the Salt Lake airport. He told me that although they are not using all of the space at the moment, they will quickly grow into the space. Judging by the fact that they are shipping over 60,000 pounds (!!!) of salumi per week, I’m sure they’ll fill this facility in no time.


It was interesting to hear Cristiano speak. His face lights up with excitement and passion when he talks about his products. He mentioned how lucky he is to wake up every morning work on his passion. He is adamant that his salumi products in the U.S. are even superior to his family’s products in Italy (his brother and father still operate a salumeria in Italy). The superiority, Creminelli says, is due to the fact that the U.S. produces better, cleaner, and healthier pigs than they do in Italy. Superior quality ingredients going into the factory equals superior products leaving.

Cristiano’s family has over 400 years of experience in salumeria. Just like wine, there’s something to be said about centuries of experience in this field.

Here are some of my favorites from tonight’s events.

The Sopressa Salami is heaven in tube shape. Nicely salty with strong hints of garlic and wine makes this one of my favorite Creminelli creations. In fact, the Sopressa recently won a Sofi award.

The Pancetta is tender, fatty, and buttery smooth. Put it in your mouth and it practically dissolves on your tongue. Made from pork belly, it is a tasty substitute for bacon in any dish.

The Felino, according to Creminelli, is the most ancient salami recipe on record. It has a mild, rich flavor. Definitely a favorite of mine and perfect for an antipasto plate.

The Mocetta is made from the beef eye of round, and has a deliciously smooth, tender texture. This is one of Creminelli’s few beef products, and it’s a favorite of mine.

Creminelli’s large format line of products are available at many specialty shops throughout Salt Lake. Caputo’s, Liberty Heights, Whole Foods Trolley Square, and various Harmon’s grocery stores are now carrying these new lines. They have worked hard to price their products competitively with the market.

Cristiano makes, hands down, the best salumi in the U.S. Their pork is humanely treated and antibiotic-free. We are privileged to have him in Salt Lake City, so the next time you’re shopping, consider paying a few extra dollars to get high quality, local, artisan products instead of the mystery meat in a tube. You’ll be glad you did.

For more information on their new product line, click here. 

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Easiest Bread Recipe Ever

I am a nut for crusty bread. I love the crunch that the caramelized brown crust provides. I found a super easy recipe that involves absolutely no kneading. Total prep time for this bread was around ten minutes.

Recipe:
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water 

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the water, thenquickly mix the ingredients with your hand, just long enough to incorporate everything into a mass. It shouldn’t take longer than ten seconds to mix it. If you’re taking longer than that, you’re working the dough too much. I had to add a bit more water (maybe ¼ cup) to get the dough sticky enough.

Once incorporated, add a tablespoon of oil to the bowl (or spray the sides of the bowl with nonstick spray). Seal the bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside for at least twelve hours. Seems like a lot, but you need to give the dough enough time for the yeast to work its magic and for the gluten to develop.

Once the twelve hours are up, lightly pat the dough down, then fold the dough in no more than four times (see the video link at the bottom of the post to see what I’m talking about). Cover the bottom of the dough with corn meal and the top of the dough with a light coating of flour. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees. Yes, 500. It needs to be blazing hot to make sure the dough develops a caramelized crust. If you have a cast iron enamel pot, like a Le Creuset, place it in the oven and allow it to pre-heat as well. Now, a word of caution: my Le Creuset discolored on the outside as it reached about 425 degrees. I’ve been told that they can comfortably go up to over 500 degrees, but you may want to do a little research to find out for yourself. I also covered my lifting knob with aluminum foil to prevent damage.

Once everything is preheated, throw the dough in, corn meal side down, immediately cover, and put it in the oven. The beauty of using the Le Creuset is this: the pot traps in the escaping moisture from the dough, which then circulates around the dough in the pot. This is what develops the beautiful crust on the bread. As the starches heat, they turn into both a gum and sugar, which then caramelizes. This is what gives bread crust texture, color, and wonderful flavor.

If you don’t have an enamel pot, another technique is to get a pizza/bread stone, place it in the oven to preheat up to 500 degrees, and place a pyrex pan filled with water either beneath the stone or to the side. Throw the dough on the pizza stone, and the evaporating moisture from the pan will help increase the humidity in the oven. I’ve done both methods, and the Le Creuset method is much superior, but you can still get decent results with the stone.

Bake until the crust is a very dark golden brown. It’s recommended to cook the bread for about 2/3 of the time with the lid on, and 1/3 of the time with the lid off. My small loaves only took about thirty minutes to bake, so doing the math gives me twenty minutes with lid on and ten with lid off. Ovens vary, so just make sure you start checking on it about fifteen minutes in. But don’t open the oven for at least the first ten minutes as the crust develops. You need to keep every last bit of moisture in the oven that you can.

Once baked, pull out and allow the bread to cool down. This is important and the crust will continue to harden and develop as it cools.

Get some bread and jam or some oil and vinegar, and you’re ready for a treat! Experiment with different additions like garlic, onions, cherries, etc. I think I’m going to try a cranberry white chocolate loaf next.

Check out this video which shows the above process. Especially take note of how little time he spends mixing the dough.

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Saffron Valley: Indian Street Foods

Saffron Valley is a new Indian restaurant in South Jordan that is owned and run by Lavanya Mahate. Lavanya has been operating an online store called East India Pantry, which specializes in Indian spices, teas, and rice. She decided to expand her culinary offerings by starting her own “Indian street food” restaurant, named Saffron Valley.

We were greeted warmly by Lavanya upon our arrival. She is friendly, engaging, and loves to tell you all about their food.

The actual layout of the restaurant is a bit quirky, and I think that service suffers a bit since guests aren’t quite sure what we are supposed to do. You order at the walk-up counter, and they give you a number. A few of our orders were completely forgotten, and we had to remind them. We had to grab the waiter’s attention a few times to remind them to refill our water and soda.

The food at Saffron is based on Indian street food fare. It is presented in a fresh, beautiful manner. We began our meal with samosas. A perfectly dense mixture of peas and potatoes, wrapped in a light pastry pocket. Served alongside was a delicious tamarind sauce.

We also tried the Dahi Puri, which is pastry puffs that are topped with potatoes, chickpeas, and doused in a beautiful yogurt and cilantro sauce. 

For the entreé, I went with the Paneer Dosa, which (I was surprised to find out) is a giant crépe that hangs over the sides of the plate, and filled with a really tasty cheese, peas, and cilantro. I loved the crispy texture of the crépe, but wish that the filling would have been a bit more moist. But the perfectly-spiced lentil dipping sauce and chutney helped make up for this.

I had a deliciously smooth, rich strawberry lasso to help cool my mouth between bites. Which reminds me: you can order any dish according to your desired spice level. If you are a baby, like me, stick with the mild or medium (if you want some extra kick). If you enjoy burning your tongue off (or aren’t a complete baby like me), go with the hot. Some guests next to us ordered some hot dishes that were so spicy my eyes practically started watering just by looking at the dishes.

On this Saturday night, the place was absolutely packed. The mixed demographics of customers dining tells me that this place is legit. Despite the horde of people dining, the kitchen was able to produce the dishes efficiently.

Due to the quirky pseudo self-serve nature of this restaurant, prices are kept lower than what you would find at a normal Indian restaurant. The dishes from the “street food” section are about $5, and are appetizer-size. Main courses range anywhere from $6 up to $11 for the curries and biryani.

Saffron also serves a lunch buffet Monday through Saturday. I can’t wait to come back and try more of the menu! Affordable Indian food at the South end of the valley! Yay!

Saffron Valley on Urbanspoon

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9th South Delicatessen

You ever go to a place where you walk in and immediately feel at home? Where the employees smile at you and actually make you feel like they are glad to see you? For me, that place is the 9th South Deli.


This deli is located in a refurbished home just East of Great Harvest in the 9th and 9th area. The interior is……hip and fresh, but not in-your-face trendy. I guess the best word to describe it is classy.

I walked into the deli about 5 minutes prior to closing time. By the way, they have strange hours–for example, they close at 4:05. When I asked the owner, Kathie, why they had those bizarre hours, she said they did it for people exactly like me: the last-minute walk-ins.

Kathie is an absolute delight to speak with. Even though I was a late-comer, she welcomed me in and told me all about their food. I’m glad she pointed out some of the most popular dishes, because their very busy menu board was a little too much for me to be able to digest. This isn’t your normal deli–they specialize in European deli items. I ended up selecting a knish and a small bowl of their matzo ball soup. She said that I should try the pastrami the next time I came in, because they looked all over the country for the perfect pastrami to offer.

The knish was terrific. A blend of mashed potatoes, potato skins, garlic, a little sour cream, and other delicious items all surrounded with phyllo dough and baked in a large muffin tin. It was crispy and flaky on the outside and full of garlicy-potato goodness on the inside. They serve the knish with a side of mustard. I’m generally not a mustard fan, but their mustard is delicious.

The matzo soup was tasty as well. The matzo balls were in a deliciously rich broth. My only issue with the soup was that it seemed a bit oily. But to be fair, this was my first matzo ball soup, so I have no idea what the proper preparation is.

The deli also has a wide selection of delicious chocolates, including Valrhona, Pralus, and Domori. They also have a wide selection of bottled drinks that are typically only found on the East coast. I found a bottle of Dr. Brown’s cel-ray soda here, and after looking at a few places, I’m sure they’re the only store in the State that carries it.

Check this place out!


9th South Delicatessen on Urbanspoon

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New Burger at Smashburger

Tonight we had a Yelp event at the West Valley Smashburger location. They are launching a brand new burger on January 17th and they wanted us to try it out first and see what we thought of it.

The Sin City burger is either a 1/3 or ½ pound certified angus beef patty that is “smashed” onto their flattop to sear in the juices (although it’s widely thought that searing meat has absolutely no effect on preserving juices), then topped with American cheese, bacon, haystack onions, and their “Smashsauce.” Oh, and I forgot one more small little thing: a FRIED EGG.

I’ve gotta say: this thing is awesome. But in all fairness, you put a fried egg, fried onions, and bacon on a shoe and I’d think it was delicious. But seriously, this is a tasty burger. One of my favorites.

Here’s a shot of Mel smashing her burger:

The next time you have a craving for a burger, make it a point to head over to a Smashburger joint and ask them for the Sin City burger. But do it quick, because word is that they’re only going to offer it on the menu through February.

SmashBurger on Urbanspoon

Recipes

Rondos Recipe

Rondos are a little-known Dutch treat. My wife brought a few home from a friend’s house, and once I tried it, I had to figure out how to make them.

The Rondo is a rich, semi-gooey, almondy pastry that has just a hint of lemon zest. The middle half of the Rondo is filled with almond paste to make it extra gooey and rich.

Here’s the recipe:

250 g all-purpose flour
200 g butter, cold and diced
160 g confectioners sugar
½ egg (about 25 g)
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp baking powder

300 g almond paste (The easiest way is to buy it pre-made. Click here for Amazon link. But you can also make your own using this recipe)
25 g water
17 amarena cherries, drained (I didn’t put these in)
½ egg, beaten
Whole almonds

Mix the flour, lemon zest, baking powder, sugar and ½ egg in a bowl. Add the butter and knead this quickly into a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator until firm (overnight is best).

Preheat oven to 380 F. Mix the almond paste with the water until smooth.

Take dough out of the fridge and give it a short knead. Roll out about ½” thick and cut out circles that will fit into a muffin tin.

Place a dough disk on the bottom of the greased and floured muffin tin and scoop about a teaspoon of almond paste in the middle of the disk. You should have about ¼” of the dough disk edges visible. If you use cherries, you would also place a cherry in the almond paste. Put another dough disk on top. You don’t need to smash it on–just place it firmly. Brush the top with egg wash, place an almond on top, and brush again with egg wash. Bake for about 20-25 minutes (mine took about 17, but my oven runs hot) or until golden brown. Take them out of the molds at once and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

I doubled this recipe and it yielded about 13 Rondos. I used a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. If you roll the dough out a little thinner than ½” you should be able to increase the yield quite a bit. If you make your own almond paste, be sure to blanch your almonds long enough to make it easy to remove the seedcoat. I only blanched them the first time for one minute and it was a tedious experience to remove the seedcoat. Turns out that 2-3 minutes in boiling water is much more effective.

I’m not kidding you when I say that these were one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten. Many of my friends felt the same way when they tried them.

Helpful links:

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Red Rock Brewing Company


I find Red Rock to be just like most other brew pubs: sufficiently adequate. The food at Red Rock is generally pretty tasty, but it always seems to lack any sort of finesse that would set it apart from competitors.

The goat cheese bruschetta was delicious. The bread had a nice texture, and the goat cheese spread was really, really good. I had the chicken schnitzel, which was served topped with gruyere and a delicious demi-glace, but the chicken itself was a bit rubbery. The side of peas was quite tasty, and the horseradish mashed potatoes was the star of the plate.

Denver, our server, was efficient and accurate. She always kept our glasses full and checked up on us frequently to make sure everything was ok.

Overall, Red Rock is a good place to go for a reliable, tasty meal. Just don’t expect to be overly wowed by the food.

Red Rock Brewing Company on Urbanspoon