Ranchers – Page 2 – OLIVETO RESTAURANT AND CAFE

This Just In: Duck two ways

Liberty Farms duck two ways: pan-roasted breast and Bing cherry-sausage-stuffed neck with arancini neri, parsnip puree, and sugo

It’s a classic, and in Chef Rhodehamel’s words, “old school” preparation where the neck of the duck is used as the sausage casing. It’s hard to get ducks with the neck skin intact, but due to our close relationship with Liberty Farms, we were able to put in a special request for this particular dish. Not only is this a great way to use the whole bird but…hello, crispy duck skin on the outside and that extra layer of fat on the inside makes for an outrageously tasty sausage.

ON THE MENU: NOW

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:11-07:00October 28th, 2014|2014, Events, Sonoma County Poultry Liberty Ducks, This Just In|0 Comments

Grass-Fed Beef: The Season Begins

Three weeks ago, Oliveto got its first delivery from Mac Magruder’s ranch: a 1,187 pound heifer that has yielded about 800 pounds of delicious grass-fed beef.

Chef Jonah has developed a way of working through the animal, cutting off sections as they reach their peak to ensure highest quality and least waste. This meat found its way onto the menu about a week ago, starting with flank and skirt steak, then a ribeye blowout for Mother’s Day. Next week, expect to see sirloin and New York strip.

If you missed your favorite cut of beef this time, don’t worry — we’ll be getting another whole animal at the beginning of June, and expect to see grass-fed Magruder beef on the menu for the next eight months, animals that Mac will be finishing on irrigated pasture.

Mac is the real deal in a world where a “grass fed” label can be misleading. Watch a video here of Mac Magruder at his ranch with his family and animals.

Morels and Porcini are everywhere on the menu alongside peas, fava beans and asparagus. You’ll even find some bing cherries from Hamada Farm in Fresno.

See Chef Jonah explain a bit about his butchering process with one of last year’s Magruder animals here.

Bob Klein2017-09-12T15:47:43-07:00May 15th, 2013|Magruder Ranch, Whole Animal Butchery|0 Comments

Whole Hog Update #3: Nightly Spit-Roasted Leg

Magruder’s Wild European-Berkshire heritage breed

The kitchen is a flurry of activity today as they put their finishing touches on many of the special preparations for this year’s Whole Hog Dinners. This weekend the last of the sausages were made including the zampone and blood sausages.

This year the 2013 Whole Hog menu will feature a roasted pork leg from two different farms. Kicking off the first night, Chef Rhodehamel will be spit-roasting a Red Wattle hog leg from Heritage Foods USA.

The following night, the menu will feature a leg from Mac Magruder‘s great Wild European-Berkshire heritage breed. We’ve been working with Mac’s hogs for the past few years and find this preparation to be one of the very best ways to experience this particular meat.

Thursday through Saturday the menu will feature legs from both producers on alternating nights.

We still have reservations available most nights, but your best options are on Tuesday, February 19th and Thursday, February 21st.

Call 510-547-5356 or reserve online.

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:48-07:00February 18th, 2013|2013, Events, Happened already..., Magruder Ranch|0 Comments

Traditional Italian Butchery Dinners

Two Nights of Special Dinners Celebrating
Local Grass-Fed Beef and Traditional Italian Butchery
Friday, September 7, and Saturday, September 8, 2012

In conjunction with our It’s Complicated: Grass-Fed Beef discussion, Chef Jonah will prepare dishes that celebrate Oliveto’s close relationship with local cattle ranchers and also exemplify whole-animal cooking and Italian butchery. Using traditional techniques such as aging and curing, as well exploring lesser known classic cuts, the menu will offer a special selection of the very best grass-fed beef prepared in ways not often experienced outside of Italy. Please join us for this very special occasion.

All menu items will be offered a la carte and feature Mac Magruder’s beautiful grass-fed beef.

Saltimbocca di Manzo
Beef Heart Crostini with Salsa Verde
Sautéed Beef Liver
Grilled Flank Steak
Carne Cruda

Call 510-547-5356 or reserve online

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:48:00-07:00September 7th, 2012|2012, Events, Magruder Ranch, Ranchers|0 Comments

Update from a midwest friend

Suprise visit from Sarah Willis

Last night we had a surprise visit from an old friend, Sarah Willis, daughter of Paul Willis. Maggie and I met her ten yeas ago when we were out making this video, and we’ve long felt a bond with Paul Willis and family. This was the early days of restaurants thinking about meat as “whole animals,” and the early days of Niman Ranch Pork Company, of which Paul was a founding member.

So, we have brief updates from Sarah:

The number of factory hog farms continues to grow in Iowa BUT, Niman Ranch Pork company has now grown to 700 independent family hog farms. They’re in part heartened by the return of bald eagles. Sarah and Paul were driving near their farm in Thornton, IA and counted 35 bald eagles along the way.

Bob Klein2017-09-12T15:48:06-07:00May 24th, 2012|Ranchers, Willis Farm|0 Comments

Bauer Ranch: Profile

Location: Covelo, CA in Mendocino County

Owner: William “Sparky” Bauer

Sparky is a fifth generation, Native American/German cattle rancher. He runs Angus and Hereford cattle, wintering them up in the mountains and summer pasture in Round Valley (where Covelo is located). All of his herd is grass-fed and grass-finished.

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:48:16-07:00August 24th, 2011|Bauer Ranch, Ranchers|0 Comments

This Just In: Brookside Farm’s Flavor King pluots

We’re reposting this late summer classic from Pastry Chef Jenny Raven because it’s that time of the year again:

Only once or twice a year does a fruit come along that I feel is featured best by serving on its own, without setting it in a composed dessert context. That time has come with the wonderful Flavor King pluots from Brookside Farm in Brentwood, CA.

Upon their arrival, these pluots perfumed the kitchen, drawing Sous Chef Brian Murphy to the three cases I ordered from farmer Welling Tom. Burying his face in the box, Brian came up for air and said, “It’s like putting your face in a bag of mixed Jelly Beans!” He and I also agreed the pluots tasted like bubblegum, vanilla, and Hello Kitty erasers. If all of those things sound bad to you, consider Brian’s analogy: marvelous tropical flowers that seem to have been copied from overblown, tacky plastic flowers. “It’s like nature copying bad art — except when nature does it, it’s wonderful.”

Juicy, sweet, their golden flesh veined with fuchsia — these pluots are so delightful, I feel compelled only to peel off the tart skin and serve them sliced in a bowl to make for a sublime eating experience. Look for them on the menu this Thursday.

Jenny Raven Pastry Chef

Illustration by Jenny Raven

Pastry Chef Jenny Raven2017-09-12T15:48:17-07:00August 17th, 2011|Brookside Farm, Farmers, Ranchers, Suppliers, This Just In|0 Comments

It’s Beef Season

UPDATE: See the revised schedule

It is late spring and this is the time to be eating beef. The steers have been eating plentiful amounts of green grass (from our plentiful rains) and several important ranchers have presented us with offers too good to turn down.

First, Mac Magruder’s 8-month-old veal came in a couple of weeks ago. Then, the huge and delicious 4-year-old steer from Jack Monroe in Covelo. And next week Moira Burke, of Agricola: flora et fauna in Dixon, CA, will send us half of a 22-month Angus. These are all grass fed and grass finished animals.

Three Angus animals: 8-mos, 22-mos., 48-mos. We are first to admit, that’s a lot of meat! But we thought we could do some pretty neat things with them. The animals will all be hanging in our meat locker, aging, and at the appropriate time, Chef Jonah will prepare them for the menu over the next month. Here’s a schedule of these extraordinary (seriously though, this is some exceptionally tasty beef) offerings and events over the next few weeks:

Friday, June 17
48-mos.
Short Ribs
We wanted to get into these without too much aging. Such a fatty cut doesn’t benefit from a lot of age and can end up tasting a bit stale. We are salting these for twelve hours before braising them.

Friday, June 24
22-mos.
Flank Steak & Carne Crudo/Carpaccio — three animals
This will be a rare opportunity to taste the same cut/preparation of three similarly raised and fed animals from the same breed, but different in age. This should be an interesting demonstration on what characteristics are associated with the age of an animal.

Sunday, June 26
22- and 48-mos.
Osso Bucco
Our first of two classics from Milan. With three animals, we’ve got quit a few shanks on hand. These will be cut and braised in the classic preparation.

Wednesday, June 29
22-mos.
Cotoletta
Our second dish from Milan. Tender ribeyes pounded paper-thin, breaded, then fried.

Thursday, June 30
22-mos.
New York Top Loin

Friday, July 1
48-mos.
Bollito
This is THE way to eat mature beef in Italy. All the cuts you’ve been wondering about, in one bowl.

Saturday, July 2
48-mos.
Bollito
Because a good thing deserves repeating

Thursday, July 7
22-mos.
Rib Eye
No explanation required.

Saturday, July 9
48 mos.
Prime Rib
The 48-month steer has a huge rib section. We’ll take the rack and slow roast it (12 hours) and carve prime rib in the dining room, for as long is it lasts.

We’ve got lots of other cuts, so you’ll be seeing corned beef, beef braises, meat balls, pepperoni and other cured meats. We expect you’ll do you’re part.

Bob Klein2017-09-12T15:48:21-07:00June 16th, 2011|2011, Agricola Farm, Events, Happened already..., Magruder Ranch, Ranchers|0 Comments

Prosciutti Tasting Goes Exotic

Oliviero Colmignoli (Olli)â€“the prosciutto-maker with Ossabaw procuitto at the SF Fancy Food Show

Oliviero Colmignoli (Olli) the prosciutto-maker with Ossabaw prosciutto at the SF Fancy Food Show

[see the 2011 Whole Hog menu]

The Duroc is a good pig. Back in the day, people were really happy with a nice Duroc. We still like Paul Willis’s hogs, a mixed breed known as Farmers’ Hybrid. This is a combination of older breeds, having good mothering skills, higher backfat than conventional pigs and a sturdy constitution for outdoor living.

In recent years there has been increasing interest to find the “next big thing” in regards to pig breeds. This has led to tracking down small ranchers working with lesser know breeds, as well as a restored interest and a deeper understanding of breed traits and quality.

You can really taste good pork in cured meats, particularly prosciutto. And some of the breeds now finding attention can be truly delicious. So, for the 2011 Whole Hog Dinners, we’ll be offering tastings of some of these newly re-discovered breeds.

The Ossabaw variety is directly descended from pigs brought by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. A herd of them has lived wild on the island of Ossabaw, off the coast of Georgia, isolated from other varieties of pig, its gene pool intact. It is similar in flavor and cooking characteristics to the Senese pig of Tuscany — lean, slow-growing, with fat that melts at low temperatures. We met Oliviero Colmignoli (Olli), the prosciutto-maker who uses this amazing animal at the Fancy Food show in San Francisco last month. He promised us a prosciutto for this year’s hog dinners, even though it won’t be available in stores or online for a few months. It was the talk of the show, and is extraordinary.

The Olli Salumeria in Virginia, which has created this magnificent prociutto from an Ossabaw hog, also has access to the Mangolitsa hog, a Hungarian variety that was near extinction until recently. It has an unusually high percentage of fat with great flavor, thus making superlative lardo and guanciale. We’ll offer both.

And, not to be out done, Herb Eckhouse is providing us a special “green label” prociutto from La Cuercia his company in Iowa. This organic prosciutto is from an acorn-fed, Jude Becker raised Berkshire hog and has been aged 20 months. Jeffrey Steingarten calls it “the best prosciutto imported or domestic you can get.”

We regret going fashionable on you, but these pigs are really good.

Bob Klein2017-09-12T15:48:26-07:00March 3rd, 2011|2011, Events, Happened already..., Willis Farm|0 Comments

Beef Dinner Sneak Peek

Although this is our first Beef Dinner, it has been a long time in the making. Based on close relationships with local ranchers practicing alternative methods of raising grass-fed beef, Chef Canales has obtained a wealth of knowledge in regards to butchery, aging and cooking technique over the past six years. This, along with the construction of our meat locker, and numerous requests from our customers has finally resulted in the 2010 Beef Dinners.

The menu is still being finalized but two items have been leaked:

Grilled bone-in Rib Eye with duck livers

Smoked manzo brisket

UPDATE: see the FULL MENU

As for wine, beef needs a wine that is still somewhat tight, fruit-driven and full of tannin. Therefore, we’ll be featuring an array of glass wine selected for their tannic prowess, including:

Barolo:
Castello di Verduno 2002
“Vigna Castellero” Barale 1999

Brunello di Montalcino:
“Corte Pavone” Loacker 2000
“Riserva” Canalicchio di Sopra 2001
Casanov di Neri 2001 and 2005

Taurasi:
“Radici” Mastroberadino 2000 & 2003

Chianti:
“Vigna del Sorbo” Fontodi 1999

We are excited to be sharing this event with the ranchers who have made so much of this possible. Moira Burke of Agricola: flora et fauna will be in attendance on Thursday night, Bill Niman will be here Friday, and Mac Magruder & his family will be with us on Saturday. All of these ranchers will be available to chat in the cafe before dinner. Additionally, we will also be serving Highland beef from Larry Walters of Cedarbrook Ranch and Piedomtese beef from Ken Silva.

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:48:35-07:00October 7th, 2010|2010, Agricola Farm, Events, Happened already..., Magruder Ranch|0 Comments