New Beef

I'm just about finished with the quarter buffalo I purchased last Fall.  A couple pounds of ground and the English roast to go.  If you recall, about half of it came ground and the rest in various cuts.  Pretty early on I just gave up on cooking the cuts with any kind of bravado and stuck them all in the oven low and slow wrapped in foil.  Usually around 8 hours at 215 degrees or so.  Yep, even the steaks.  I know, I know, blasphemy, but that's just where I'm at with my 'cooking'.  I couldn't care less about forethought into meal planning.  Most of the cuts came out pretty tender and quite tasty, but as you can imagine, some of the lean steaks dried out a bit too much.  Everything was edible though, and that's what I'm mainly concerned with.  Anyway, unless or until my situation changes, I decided that I would just purchase ground meat from now on and supplement with the occasional fancier cuts if I so desire.  

This is where the story of our store's very own grass-fed beef program comes in.  We've heard talk of our store owner wanting to raise some cattle on his ranch in Basalt for a while now, and it's finally come to fruition.  Basalt is the next town downvalley from Aspen, so we now have the most 'local' meat you can buy up here.  It landed in our stores for the first time about a month and a half ago.  As you can imagine, I'm super stoked for this program.  Unfortunately, I learned that the owner only had 8 head of cattle ready to go and we just received the last of it.  This was kind of a test run and he's purchasing many more cattle to get the program going to where we can have it on a full time basis starting next Fall.  Coolio.
 

40 one pounders

So in the meantime I had our meat manager package up some 40 pounds of ground chuck to tide me over.  I asked him to make sure he made it on the fattier side of life, and I picked it up this weekend.  I've tasted it already as I've bought some 'fresh' off the shelves to try it out.  Good stuff.  And we have marrow bones for sale too ... I've tried me some of those as well!  I did request some of the offal, but, well, I think they thought I was kidding or something.  That's fine as I can pick some of that up at the Farmers Market when it starts up here in the summer.  But next time they'll know I want that 'junk' for reals.  People there are still surprised I eat meat - remember my whole spiel on how vegetarianism is associated with health?   I guess I don't exactly go around with a club in my hand touting my inner caveman.  Well, here's to good, nutritious, food.  But mostly to food that's easy to cook

Last of the Goat

This one really came out of nowhere.  As in, because of this and the timing of that and blah, blah, blah, I had absolutely no foresight as to these ingredients coming together.  But I'm sure glad they did, as this was one of the better meals I've ever prepared. 

So what's in that colorful bowl?

• Sauteed carrot and some beet (first time I've purchased veggies in months - very spring like day here is the culprit).  
• Goat tongue - simmered all day, then peeled and sauteed with the veggies.
• Sweet potato - boiled
• 3 eggs - whites cooked, yolks raw
• lemon juice and pink salt

Not the best presentation, but man was it good

All washed down liberally with Kerrygold, of course.  Yummers.  This is the first time I've had goat tongue, and I quite liked it.  Reminded me of heart - a meaty flavor and texture with no fat to it.  I'm glad I simmered them all day (there were a couple) as I could see this cut being way too tough if one didn't do this first.  In the very back of my mind this was the one bit of offal that I thought I might slightly, possibly, be squeamish about ... not the finished product, but the peeling of it.  I was fine, but maybe the buffalo tongue will be different as that thing is like 3 pounds.

I mentioned it was a very spring like day here.  There was abundant sunshine with temps in the low 40's.  In fact, it was so nice that I cracked the door open for some fresh air.  Upon telling Mama Aspen Paleo this, who lives in south Florida, she informed me that they had closed their doors because it was soooo cold outside at 60 degrees.  Somebody is getting a little soft, eh