Katz Farm Vinegars and recipes you can use to make great food and more and more at chefshop.com/enews
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Time passes quickly even if life goes by slowly.
Albert and Kim Katz of Katz Farms
Whether you plant the seed, literally or figuratively, it seems it takes forever to grow and then like overnight, like magic, everything blossoms and your feet are up as you rest and wonder how it all happened like it was yesterday.
We make choices to do as much as we can in the perceived limited time, or not. Some make choices to allow more of the things we want to happen happen, and not worry about anything else.
It seems like just a short time ago that we first tasted Albert and Kim’s Chef’s Pick Olive Oil. It was a revelation! From Napa, California – with amazing flavors, with a bent towards Italian in blend, it was exciting!
Over years of harvests, the trees cycled through the normal process of maturation, some years good, some not as good, bitter, mellow, notes of artichoke, and grassy. Yet never once was one year not splendid with vivacious personality that said I am here, deal with me! Eventually becoming its own, like the Napa wines it shares the land with, a Californian.
And then Rock Hill Olive Oil came into our lives. More bitter, more sharp, gutsy if you will. Not shy in any way! It wasn’t for everyone, it was all about taking the very best punch you can get from an olive and putting it in a bottle! It was all about Albert saying, "Love it or leave it, I don’t care, this is what I want." And people wanted it! Not in droves, but in a faithful anticipation every-year-following kind of way.
It was an oil that made you really think of how you are going to enjoy it. When you found its home in your culinary mouth, you were happy.
We learned a boatload about olives from Albert: the trees, the weather, water and more. We learned that having chickens run around your trees made the earth better for the olives and really happy big chickens.
And we learned that olive trees take years to produce a lot of oil and that as they mature, they change in how they present themselves in flavor.
And that being a farmer is stressful, hard, difficult, unpredictable, harsh, unexpected. And like a child, also rewarding for moments at a time, worthwhile, and can bring you amazing satisfaction and emotional highs.
Albert and I became good friends over the last 20 or so years. Over long conversations, mostly on the phone, we didn’t just talk olives, we talked the state of the world, the weather and anything else we could think of. Of course we debated what the olive oil tasted like. What it tasted like to me, or to him, sometimes not jiving, sometimes in sync.
Sometimes the conversations we had, had a little more vinegar than olive oil...yet always good!
The olive oils disappeared from the shelves a couple of years back, as the weather and drought, along with the fires, limited the production to barely enough to supply Chez Panisse and a few others.
And let’s face it, no matter what you farm, farming is tough work, producing jams and honey is tough, too. And as one’s priorities change, one’s passion shifts as the hurdles get bigger.
Albert and Kim are retiring from making their wonderful foods that we have been so lucky to have in our lives.
We still have some of the vinegars and we are hoping that these will continue on...but we are also aware that they may too, disappear.
They are included in this newsletter. We love all these vinegars. Each and every one has a reason to exist.
We are sad and selfishly sorry to see these amazing ingredients go, and yet happy and pleased that Albert and Kim will be able to do their next great thing!
Cheers!!!
Click Here To See Everything Featured in This Newsletter!
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Beets with Goat Cheese & Walnuts
Recipe
Somehow fresh Goat Cheese and Beets just go so nicely together. Something about the sweetness of the beets together with slightly acidic, pithy taste of the goat cheese creates a perfect flavor balance. Add the slight crunch of the toasted walnuts and you have a perfect combination. We made the dish as a vegetable side. But you can add a little more dressing and serve it on a bed of greens or butter lettuce, and you have a side salad. Add chunks of avocado -- to add a little more anti-oxidant punch and smooth flavor.
See the Beets with Goat Cheese & Walnuts Recipe here!
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It’s Vinegar Worth Drinking!
This is an essential vinegar ingredient you always want to have on hand.
Everyone is shocked at how good this is! The usual response after tasting is to check the bottle and then say, "That is nothing like any apple cider vinegar I have had before!"
Last week I was testing a few recipes for Tahini and one included Apple Cider Vinegar.
We test & try ingredients all the time, so our pantry overflows into every available flat space we can find. In other words, the dining room table, the hutch and the floor can get covered in new foods. Sounds great but sometimes it’s just too much.
As a result, some of our favorite ingredients are pushed aside, or literally to the back burner, or even out the door. I don't know how long it has been since I gave away my last bottle of Apple cider vinegar to a “chef-in-need”.
This meant that I needed to re-supply and bring a bottle of apple cider vinegar home. We have 18 vinegars in the pantry! Even though you know every vin is awesome, it's nice to have a refresher - of taste that is.
This Katz Gravenstein Apple Cider Vinegar is a revelation, a vision, a lightning bolt of amazement! Yes it’s just vinegar, but a little sip with just your lips and you can taste the sweetness, the shape, the roundness of the apple; you can taste the apple!
It makes you realize that you don't need to have industrial grade cleaner apple cider vinegar in your body.
I called Albert to ask him why his was so amazing, and though he is never shy to say how much he likes his stuff, he never says it’s his “hands” that make it great. (It is!) What we did discuss are ideas, like the fact that the Gravenstein apple has a natural tart sweet flavor. And that the apple is still a true “breed”.
The one word that describes this vinegar to him is "quaffable". More than five years ago he had some gut issues and nothing was working. So he started drinking his Katz Gravenstein apple cider vinegar; 1/8 cup vinegar with 12 ounces of mineral water. And it worked. He has had no issues since.
The Gravenstein apple has played an important role in the history and culture of California's western Sonoma Valley since the 19th century. This richly flavored cider vinegar is redolent of baked apples, honey and sweet spice, balanced with a solid backbone of acidity. Very versatile in the kitchen.
Suggested Uses for Katz Gravenstein Apple Cider Vinegar:
* First of all - anything pork! Braised pork chops with leeks and apple cider vinegar is a favorite.
* Makes a mean coleslaw or braised cabbage.
* Salad Dressings...simply terrific - just add a teaspoon of mustard, a shallot (finely minced) and your favorite extra-virgin olive oil.
* Perfect complement for walnuts, smoked turkey, and goat cheese salad.
* Makes the best Waldorf Salad.
* Pan-roasted chicken breast with a splash of cider vinegar, sautéed apples and a bit of chicken stock.
About the Gravenstein Apple:
In the Sonoma Valley, Gravensteins hit peak planting in 1945, when over 14,000 acres of the area's gently sloping hills were covered with the trees. Today, there are far fewer, as thousands of acres have been replanted with grape vines - another crop we love, but we still believe in supporting those remaining Gravenstein growers. Slow Food has declared the Gravenstein apple to be a "Heritage" food that should be protected from further encroachment.
The fruit has long been sought after by chefs for its culinary uses and its elegant balance of sweet and tart flavors. Gravensteins' dense texture makes them perfect for sauces and pastries, and they also make the most gorgeous apple crisp imaginable - and some of the best cider around.
And here is where we come in. This cider vinegar is made from hard cider from late-ripening Gravenstein apples when the sugars are high, and then the cider is carefully and slowly converted to vinegar in 55-gallon oak barrels.
A Little Vinegar Lore:
Vinegar's long history includes uses other than culinary. Apple cider vinegar has been a folk remedy used for hundreds of years. Claimed benefits have included: aiding in digestion, lowering blood pressure, helping with weight control, improving memory and even relieving arthritis. Although we can't vouch for any of these, we know folks who've taken to making up an afternoon "tonic" of one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, one tablespoon of honey and one of warm water...who knows what benefits it may bring!
Shop Now for Katz Apple Cider Vinegar - Made from the Gravenstein Apple!
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Agrodolce Vinegar Zinfandel
Katz Farm
No matter what you might think of Zinfandel, this vinegar rocks your socks - and your bits in the bottom of the pan - to make a splendid sauce!!
In Italian, agrodolce means "sweet and sour," and this nuanced vinegar beautifully expresses both. Albert and Kim Katz have long been fascinated with the idea of marrying the sweetness and complexity of wine grapes that have been left on the vine to concentrate the flavors and natural sugars together with bright and crisp acidity.
The versatility of this new elixir will expand the repertoire of every level of cook. This excellent Zinfandel vinegar has a rich, complex sweet and sour flavor - try sipping a bit from a spoon. While the nose combines fruity with pleasantly sharp, the flavor is rich, mellow and winey.
Use this sweet and sour vinegar anytime you'd use red wine vinegar. For a simple salad dressing, add just a drizzle of olive oil, along with salt and pepper. You'll find you'll need less oil with the balanced acidity in Agrodolce than in your regular dressing recipe. It's great for sauteeing, stir-fry and marinades, or try it in our Sautéed Apples, Onions and Mushrooms.
It particularly complements tomatoes, and it's just wonderful reduced and sprinkled over figs, perhaps accompanied by some semi-firm white cheese.
Perhaps the best surprise is that because there is enough sugar in agrodolce vinegar, you can reduce it in a pan to create a wonderful syrupy topping for everything from fruit to steaks!
The Zinfandel grapes that go into this product are harvested late, after their sugars are fully developed. The fermented juice from the grapes is added to oak barrels along with an established vinegar "mother." The finished Zinfandel vinegar has a jammy texture with fresh berry overtones and a tart, crisp finish.
Shop now for Katz Agrodolce Vinegar Zinfandel!
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Red Wine Trio Vinegar
from Katz Farm
This oak-aged Trio Red Wine Vinegar from Katz Farms takes two years to make.
This terrific vinegar is crafted using the traditional "Orleans" Method.
It's a blend of carefully selected vintages of Merlot, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon from the heart of one of the world's great wine appellations, the Sonoma Valley. "Trio" has been crafted to mirror the classic Meritage blends where small lots of selected red varietals are mixed to create wines of great structure and character.?
The finished blend is well-balanced and full-flavored and retains the varietal characteristics of the grapes with nuances of cherry, raspberry and oak.
This vinegar will enliven your favorite dishes and create distinctive dressings and sauces. The Sonoma Trio is a favorite of many of America's top chefs. Try reducing it for sauces for meats or grilled peaches or figs, and use it in your next dressing.
The Making of Vinegar:
Vinegar is one of the original "slow foods" - in millennia past it was used as a beverage, in cooking and as the basis of many sauces.
Over time, art has yielded to industry, and the traditional slow methods, such as the Orleans method, gave way to large "generators," which could produce uniform batches of vinegar in days rather than months or years. This is accomplished by adding heat and oxygen to the tanks along with a considerable amount of agitation, and results in vinegars that look and taste the same year after year, with little to none of the flavor characteristics from the base wine surviving.
The 500-year-old Orleans method relies on quality wine, oak barrels, time, and an artisan's judgment. Specialized bacteria, acetabactors, are introduced into the wine with oxygen creating the perfect environment for the conversion of alcohol to acid. The process is driven by Mother Nature, and it can take anywhere from three to six months. Then, all but 10% of the finished vinegar is drawn off and placed in oak barrels for aging; the remainder is left in the converter to be used as the "mother" for the next batch of vinegar. More wine is added to the conversion barrel and the process begins again.
Shop Now for Katz Farm Red Wine Trio Vinegar!
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Sparkling Wine Vinegar
From Albert & Kim Katz
In the beginning of time, at least for this Katz vinegar, it was named Champagne, as was all vinegar of this type which came from a wine with bubbles. And then Albert had an epiphany - the sparkling wine didn't come from Champagne, France, instead it came from great sparkling Chardonnay wine in Napa/Suisun Valley and voila! - his vinegar was renamed Sparkling Wine Vinegar - and the rest is history!
The result was a vinegar that took off! And Chefs all around the region scooped it up. This is a wonderful, versatile, and full of flavor vinegar.
Champagne or Sparkling Wine Vinegar is considered the lightest of vinegars, and that usually means a bit more acid on the tongue and a light flavor of the base "champagne" remains after production. This delicious sparkling wine vinegar is made slowly, the old-fashioned way, and that means it's full of flavor.
Katz & Co.'s Sparkling Wine Vinegar is made in Sonoma from high quality sparkling wine stock, chardonnay – so technically, it's a 'sparkling wine' vinegar.
It offers crisp and pleasant acidity, hints of vanilla from the oak and subtle nuances of sweet melon and cucumber in the finish. It is perfect for salads with fresh greens, and marinades as well as a cooking/deglazing liquid.
Vinegar is one of the original "slow foods" – in millennia past it was used as a beverage, in cooking, and as the basis of most sauces. Over time, art has yielded to industry, and the traditional slow methods, such as the "Orleans" method, gave way to large "generators," which could produce uniform batches of vinegar in days rather than months or years.
This is accomplished by adding heat and oxygen to the tanks along with a considerable amount of agitation. This results in vinegars that look and taste the same year after year - little to none of the flavor characteristics from the base wine survive to reach these uniform bottles of acid.
The 500-year-old Orleans method relies on quality wine, oak barrels, time, and an artisan's judgment. Specialized bacteria, acetabactors, are introduced into the wine with oxygen creating the perfect environment for the conversion of alcohol to acid.
The process is driven by Mother Nature, and it can take anywhere from three to six months. Then all but 10% of the finished vinegar is drawn off and placed in oak barrels for aging; the remainder is left in the converter to be used as the "mother" for the next batch of vinegar. More wine is added to the conversion barrel and the process begins again.
Shop now for Sparkling Wine Vinegar from Albert and Kim Katz!
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Late Harvest Viognier Honey
Katz Vinegar
A few years ago, Albert set off on a course to make a mead vinegar, combined with one of the many wine options available to him in the Napa Valley. As a chef, honey is an ingredient that he passionately uses in his dishes.
After almost two years, and many trials and tribulations, he decided to experiment and switched to a wine originally from the Rhoné Region but which is now grown in California and Oregon. It was this switch that changed the course of time, or at least it changed Albert's thoughts of how to create this perfect Honey Vinegar.
Starting with Late Harvest Viognier, which is often described as fruity, flowery, and even honey-like, it was a brilliant revelation and ultimately the great combination that made this match heavenly. No longer a mead-based vinegar, it is now a vinegar with honey. The honey is added into the vinegar at a later stage in the vinegar-making process.
When I visited with Albert and Kim and got the first taste of this amazingly perfect vinegar I found it to be full of sweetness, sharpness, and combined with the ever-so-vibrant nuances that the honey has created within it. A vinegar that tests the imagination, inspiring thoughts of chicken, garbanzo salads, and as a way to deglaze a pan of princely perfect scallops. It was love at first sip!
If you don't know what to do with vinegar, this is one that will inspire you and help you understand the joys of both, vinegar and honey as two perfect ingredients. Add this wonderful vinegar to your pantry as part of your kitchen repertoire!
Shop now for Katz Late Harvest Viognier Honey Vinegar!
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Florian French Candied Red Cherries for Baking
from The Confiserie Florian du Vieux Nice, France
Candying cherries for baking is even more complicated since that beautiful red color is very fragile, and can be quickly damaged by heat.
Florian Cherries are made from premium quality fruit and no coating is used after the candying process so that optimum moist texture and natural fruit crunch are achieved.
These gorgeous, candied red cherries are packaged immediately to retain their full flavor. They are of the Bigarreaux variety, and these baking cherries are perfect for a whole host of applications.
Use these candied cherries whole, or cut them in half for cookies and cakes.
Shop now for Florian Candied Cherries here!
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French Apricot Jam
Sometimes unrequited love is worth it.
For many of us, apricots are a “yeah, whatever” or “never touch ‘em” and others can’t wait until May or June when the first of the apricots are ripe on the tree. (This is really a sweet year for apricots.)
A great fresh apricot is like candy. Hard to comprehend when our first taste of an apricot is a dried one, tart and chewy and quite unappealing. So we think, why bother....
So many foods, when you enjoy them fresh, as close to the earth as possible, picked-at-their-peak, can be mind-blowing good. Like a fresh apricot.
And sometimes, those foods can be transformed, placed into a jar and come out just like you want them to be. Freshly delicious!
And that is what we have here. Abricot fruit cooked in a copper cauldron with brown sugar, where time and patience make all the difference.
This jam is by all standards, amazing! It tastes like fresh apricots, though never sharp or sour, it is a spoonful of a sweet treat.
The flavor of apricot, the way a freshly bitten fruit would be, is all there, swelling like a balloon rising, the smoothness of the flavor envelops all the senses, with the right cheek filling more than the left and then the tongue feels the weight of the flavor. And then suddenly you realize the physical being is gone, and all you are tasting is the memory!
And what a memory! It is indeed splendiferous.
And it is indeed spoon-ready, perfect for a croissant, sourdough bread, scone, oatmeal, cheese, pork chop and chicken. And of course crépes!
Shop now for La Trinquelinette Apricot Jam
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Fresh Sweet Washington
Early Robin Cherries
Fresh Early Robin Cherries are early ripening Rainier-like Cherries. They are very low acid, so they taste very sweet. With their characteristic cream-colored flesh, Early Robin Cherries are a new variety, and farmers will not pick them until the sugar brix (a measure of how sweet the cherry is) reaches 17. But, some wait until they reach 20 brix. That is one of the reason they are so amazingly delicious -- and addictive.
amazing!
"Super huge! So sweet, fresh and great flavor! I love them so much. I'll definitely order next year again:)"
-- sayaka
OMG!
"Sweet...delicious...juicy! OMG these are good! Larger order for next year . . ."
-- ben
Preorder Early Robin Cherries now!
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This Week's Recipes |
Cocoa and Chile Rubbed Pork Chops Recipe
This is a delicious rub that uses a bit of sugar to help the meat brown, but cooks over low heat so the sugar doesn't char. The combination of the cocoa powder with the pepper gives a wonderful depth of flavor.
Grilled Avocado with Blueberry Mango Salsa Recipe
Grilled avocado is so good. If you use the big Reed Avocados, then half an avocado per person is more than enough. If you use Hass avocados, then two halves per person will work.
There are two keys to successfully grilling avocados. First, the fruit can not be overly ripe - if too ripe it won't hold it's shape on the grill. Second, make sure your grill is very clean. Also, make sure you have a good spatula available to gently scrap the avocado off the grill when done.
Whole Sockeye Salmon with Garlic & Preserved Lemon Salsa Recipe
This recipe takes advantage of the wild sockeye season. Grilling whole stuffed salmon on the grill is not hard, but it does require that the grill grates be very clean, and well oiled -- or you will have a hard time flipping the salmon over without loosing a serious amount of meat.
This recipe was inspired by the current edition of "Edible Seattle". You can make this with either fresh or preserved lemons. Since lemons and salmon are not usually in season at the same time, preserved lemons are often a great way to go. Their flavor is a nice contrast to fresh lemons. They are strong in taste and you can eat the skins. If you haven't tried preserved lemons before, this is a great way to give them a chance.
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