May Day News from Marczyk's
05/01/2008
Happy May Day! May Day customs from all over the world include giving a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime, to the ladies of the French Court; and dancing around the Maypole in England.
Thank you everyone who made our first Burger Night a huge success, we sold a record number of burgers and saw many familiar faces. Hope you enjoyed the 3 salads we packaged: 3-bean, coleslaw, and of course Pete’s Mom’s potato salad. All made fresh here! The new customer favorites to eat with their burgers are the Kettle Chips. Big crunchy chips come in great flavors like Tuscan 3 Cheese, Yogurt and Green Onion, and New York Cheddar.
What’s Fresh Now?
Chickens! Grover, CO farmer Penny Henker has been bringing us multi-colored, fresh eggs for the past few months. Starting Friday, May 9th, Penny will bring us all natural, pastured, free range, fresh not frozen chickens, every 2 weeks. How fresh? Processed on Thursday, brought to Marczyk’s on Friday. They’ll be sold whole, but cut to order at the customer’s request. $4.49/lb, call 303 894-9499 to reserve one. Penny’s fresh birds are a three season specialty—in winter, they can’t get outside and indulge in all the delicious green grass and grubs they eat in the milder months, so the taste is not as rich. The birds are Cornish Rock Broilers, averaging 3.5-4 pounds each. “This is a premium product,” explained Penny. “When I get them from the hatchery, I make sure they’ve been given no vaccines, no shots, no chemicals of any sort. They’re fed a 100% vegetarian diet from us, then all the bugs and grubs they can catch. The birds for Marczyk’s are being raised by Uncle Bill…he always has the plumpest.” We suggest consuming them soon after purchase: so much care has been taken to raise them, waiting to eat them is just…sacrilege. That said, they will be labeled with “use or freeze by” dates. So line up all you locavores, here’s your chance to taste real chicken and help make Marczyk’s supply chain experiment fly!
Kevin has added some great new produce to the case. Leafy greens like colorful and healthy Swiss chard, and long stem globe artichokes, are now all cozy next to the broccoli. You can slice the artichoke down the middle and roast it on the grill - takes a while - or steam it in a big pan in the oven. The stem is just as tasty as the leaves!
New and Special
Hammond’s Candies, Old Fashioned candy made in Colorado. Rootbeer Drops, Horehound Drops, Barber Poles, and my personal favorites, Chicken Bones: peanut butter inside, brittle molasses outside. It’s like a Butterfinger without the orange dye and crappy chocolate coating.
Cheese Special: Our cheese purveyor gave us a great price on one of our favorite cheeses, and hopefully one of your favorite cheeses: Robiola Duo Latte, a soft cow and sheep's milk cheese. It's pungent and creamy, smear it on a baguette. Usually $10.99 each, now on sale for $7.99 each.
Recipe
We served this potato salad to friends the other night. It’s a nice change from the mayonnaise based salad we all know and love. (There are no amounts listed because that is just how Pete is, but it’s easy to figure out.)
Ingredients
- Guanciale-cured pork jowl--you can sub pancetta or bacon cut into lardons or cubes
- New potatoes cut into large one-bite pieces
Dressing
- Minced shallot
- Green onion cut into sturdy rounds
- Grainy mustard to taste, but do not be stingy--and it should be really good mustard
- Good olive oil
- Clean smelling grape seed oil (if you want to lessen the olive-y quality) I use about 50/50
- Red wine vinegar (preferably a rough and rustic Italian variety) to taste
- Salt and pepper
Notes
You want this dish to be homey--not too contrived, and you want the earthiness and zing of the raw shallot and good mustard to come through. You will end up with three fats: olive oil, Grape seed oil, and the rendered pork fat. If you choose to serve this salad warm (good idea) the pork fat is great. You don't need a ton of any of these, but without them the potatoes will taste dry and flat.
Method
No matter which pork product you settle on, blanch the lardons for about 30-45 seconds in boiling water--drain and cook slowly over low heat in one layer until brown and crispy. Reserve lardons and save rendered fat when done. While lardons are lardoning, clean and cut potatoes and cook in well salted water until they are thoroughly done (this is actually a trick from mother Marczyk's potato salad--most potatoes are cooked al dente which is totally wrong for salad--you want the outer layer to almost "melt" into the salad forming its own binder for all the dressing). When the potatoes are done, drain and let them dry for about 2-5 minutes. Combine dressing ingredients including reserved fat, and spoon into the potatoes--taste and adjust. Add lardoons and taste. You want to mix it enough so that the sharp edges wear off the potatoes, but not so much that they disintegrate. The salad will hold warm for about 45 minutes if you keep it in a warm-ish spot.
