Niman Ranch Dinner in Iowa

Pete and Paul Marczyk, and baker John Hinman, just got back from Iowa and the Niman Ranch Farmers Appeciation Dinner.

At Marczyk Fine Foods, we’ve worked with Niman since the very first day, through the ups and downs. Nine years ago they hosted 50 farmers, this year it was hundreds. To see this part of the meat industry grow like this is astounding, and good news for farmers and diners alike.  Here is a post from Tina Haupert, a fellow foodie who was there: 

Classic Heirloom Apple Pie
Chef John Himan, Marczyk Fine Foods, Denver, Colorado

Obviously, dessert was my favorite course. Chef John used a blend of Cortland and Mollies Delicious apples from Berry Patch Orchard with Niman leaf lard for the crust. The apple pie was served with a small piece of Prairie Breeze cheddar cheese on the side. Interesting, right? Apples + cheese? Love it!

The apple pie was very special because Chef John was faced with every possible challenge for making it. When he arrived in Des Moines on Thursday afternoon, the Marriott only had nine pie pans for him. No biggie, right? He found 61 more, no problem. But, the night before the event, the machine that rolls out the pie dough broke. So, Chef John (and some of the other chefs), rolled the dough by hand, which was very time-consuming. Then, if that wasn’t enough, as soon as the pies are ready for baking, the ovens at the Marriott stop working!!! (Personally, I would have lost my mind at this point.) Luckily, a nearby restaurant was able to cook the 70 apple pies for the event, but the poor chefs were up until nearly 3:00 in the morning baking them. Their hard work was definitely worth it. I totally wanted a second piece!

At the end of dinner, the chefs were thanked individually for their contributions to the meal. Enjoying all of the courses, I could tell that each of the chefs really cared about the food. It truly exemplified the connection between farm and table.

Read more from Tina here: http://carrotsncake.com/2010/09/niman-ranch-farmer-appreciation-dinner.html

Spotlight on Colorado Milk:

Fresh glass of milk and pie!

Morning Fresh Dairy/Noosa Yogurt.

The Graves family in Bellvue, CO has been in the dairy business for 116 years. These days, the Graves and their 5 children work the dairy daily, providing fresh, non-homogenized milk in glass bottles to homes and businesses like Marczyk’s.
Modern milk is usually homogenized and pasteurized. Pasteurization is a heating process that kills bacteria and homogenization breaks down the molecular structure of the fat cells, which makes the milk more stable and increases its shelf life. Morning Fresh sells cream top milk, whole milk, 1% and 2% milks, chocolate milk, and seasonal eggnog. The taste on all their milk is richer than homogenized.  Heavy cream is their stand-out product - it can be whipped by hand, holds together for days once whipped, and hardly needs any sugar.
And to keep up with the times, they have added Noosa yogurt: an Australian style yogurt in several flavors. Imagine…a thick, not too sour, not too sweet yogurt that our customers swear is the best yogurt we carry. (A yogurt with its own Facebook page?)

“Mad about Mushrooms”

 (Nathan W. Armes, Special to The Denver Post)

Denver Post reporter Bill Porter gets to the heart of the secret mushroom society in Colorado. http://www.denverpost.com/food/ci_15870726. Pete Marczyk recently brought home quite a few VERY LARGE Boletus, sliced and fried them. Meaty, like chicken. For other mushroom recipes go to our Marczyk recipe page.

Buy local. It tastes better.

July and August are two of the best months to buy local produce. We purchase Colorado fruits and veggies whenever possible, as long as the product lives up to our mile-high standards. Our produce hails from Colorado farms such as Munson Farm in Boulder, Ela Family Farms in Hotchkiss, Berry Patch Farms in Brighton and Elaine Granata on the northwest corner of 17th and Clarkson.

Colorado farms sure know their produce. Bob Munson started growing veggies to teach his kids a lesson on earning money. Now Coloradans salivate just thinking of the sweet golden kernels that are harvested by Munson Farm.

Then there’s Steve Ela’s giant, juicy peaches that grace our presence every August. Just wait, Peach Week is coming!

As of last week we now carry produce from Berry Patch Farms in Denver’s northeast suburb of Brighton. They have a farmer’s market inside a barn but also allow shoppers to handpick their crop directly from the nearby fields. We currently offer their rainbow chard, heirloom mixed squash, green beans, Mideastern cucumbers and mini purple onions. All are bright, fresh and colorful.

Our favorite Uptown gardener, Elaine Granata, steps across 17th avenue a few times a week with her bucket of goodies that you can’t find anywhere else: romano beans, fairytale eggplant and mini white pickling cucumbers, to name a few. And if you’ve never heard of yellow filet beans (yet, another Elaine speciality) never fear! We would love to tell you how to eat them. Her crops are fresh picked and as organic as vegetatively possible.

So next time you’re in Marczyk Produce Land, look for the local sticker and taste the harvest of Colorado.

Butchering 101

We brought our cameras along and watched Jimmy the Butcher cut up the hind quarter of a cow. It was quite the learning experience! I wish we could share all of the images with you right here, but they all won’t fit in the blog. For the full story, complete with pictures and descriptions, please visit our facebook page. Here are just a few images to get you started. (Warning: pictures may be graphic.)

This is the hind quarter, which is one of the back legs, from butt to calf, of the cow.

Mmm...that's a good lookin' short loin porterhouse. The Butcher's not bad either.

Here he is cutting the bottom round and the top round off.

Come visit us at the corner of 17th and Clarkson and pick up a steak!

Get the dish on the secret life of Pete Marczyk in this fine interview by Bill Husted of the Denver Post.

http://www.denverpost.com/entertainmentlastold/ci_14978179

Kenny Be tee!

Here is our new t-shirt art from kenny be. This is the B&W version. Crazy.

When we’re not here we’re there

When we’re not here, we’re there.

Check out the guest appearance of Papa Marczyk and Little Bug Marczyk in this killer Telluride ski video! Papa’s in the yellow helmet.

Pie throw down

A few weeks ago, Haji our baker was challenged by Liz Thomas, the baker for Watercourse Foods. Challenged to a pie bake off that is.

The place: Sweet Action Ice Cream on Broadway. The pie: Cherry lattice crust. Liz’s was vegan, Haji’s was decidedly not. The judges: 1 from Sweet Action, 1 from Watercourse, 1 from Marczyk’s, and the pie master himself, John Lehndorff.

And the winner was: Haji’s cherry pie a la Marczyk! Both were delicious, but with a full lard crust and just a kiss of almond extract, there was no way Haji was going to lose this one. Great pictures here.

What sets us apart from the rest?

SPECIAL: We have just eight Scandinavian skin-on pork loins. Come pick one up because this is the last of them until Christmas. A  juicy cut of sustainably raised Niman Ranch pork, with a layer of fat, and then the skin covering all, locking in the juices…we’re the only ones who have this cut in Denver!

ON SPECIAL: lamb loin chops, $11.99/lb. Niman Ranch lamb, raised by families throughout the West. Broiled with a light layer of  mint jelly, salt, garlic and rosemary. Or for lord’s sake just put them in the freezer at this price!

Winter won’t let go, so how about some Niman Ranch beef shanks for stew, or beef cheeks? Braised beef cheek tacos here.