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If you love our Merguez sausages as much as we do, you’ll enjoy this easy recipe for a delicious spicy burger. Made with all the goodness of our 100% grass-fed meats and some moroccan spiciness, it’ll be a hit!

Ingredients
1 lb 100% grass-fed ground lamb
1 lb 100% grass-fed ground beef
2 tbsp merguez spice (Recipe to follow)
4 whole wheat buns
Sliced red onion
Dijon Mustard

Method
Combine the lamb, beef and spices in a bowl. Form into 4 patties and either pan sear or grill burgers till done to your liking.

Toast the buns then spread Dijon mustard on one side. Garnish burger with grilled onions and lettuce before serving.

Merguez Spice Recipe

Ingredients
1 tbsp Cumin seeds
1 tbsp Fennel seeds
1 tbsp Coriander seeds
¼ cup Sweet paprika
1 tbsp Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp Ground allspice
1 ½ tsp Cayenne pepper

Method
Toast cumin, fennel and coriander seeds in a pan over low heat for about a minute until fragrant. Cool completely, grind the toasted seeds to a powder and blend with remaining ingredients. Store in an air tight container. Can last up to 6 months.

Ingredients
8-10 chicken wings
Half cup of Bourbon
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup local honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 crushed garlic cloves (include small bits if you like the taste)
1 tablespoon of fresh ground ginger (include small grated bits if you like the taste)
3 spring onions

Method

1. Thaw chicken thoroughly.
2. Heat the bourbon, honey, orange juice, garlic and ginger over a low heat, do not boil, just allow mixture to blend.
3. Pour slightly cooled mixture (so it won’t melt the bag) into a zip lock bag
4. Add soy sauce and onions.
5. Mix up the marinade in the bag and then add the chicken, making sure to coat well.
6. Keep in refrigerator till you want to cook (at least a couple of hours, overnight is good too)
7. Bake or grill till nice and crispy, making sure to baste regularly with the sauce.
8. Boil any left over sauce on stove-top to reduce (make sure you boil as it’s had chicken marinating in it!) and use as extra sauce to coat post cooking.

Jawad making this recipe with JC Hayward as a food demo on WUSA9
View demo here 

Ingredients
12 oz Lean lamb leg meat
1 teaspoon Extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Ground ginger
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 tablespoon Finely chopped tarragon
1 tablespoon Finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon Finely chopped red onion
1 teaspoon Harissa
1 tablespoon Bulgur wheat
Lemon juice to taste
Sea salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

Method
Chop or grind meat very small, keeping it as cold as possible.
In bowl add all ingredients and adjust to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Cover, place back in fridge for 30-45 minutes before serving to combine interviews.
Serve tartar with side of salad or pita or toasted baguette.
Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds

Whether you’re renown pastry chef (and yes, that includes you if your family and friends can’t get enough of your baking!) or just enjoy some undercover home baking tests. Using leaf lard (unsaturated fat) instead of store bought processed lard, butter or shortening (mostly saturated) is the best way to get superior results – flakier pie crusts, more golden brown batter and fluffier doughnuts, to name a few. It’s also surprisingly easy to render your own from the basic fat you can get from us, your local processor or butcher. Bake away!

Recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s “Charcuterie”

1. Combine the fat and 1/4 cup of water in a saucepan and set it over a very low heat, uncovered, for several hours to render. The fat will liquefy and the water will evaporate, leaving pure fat. Don’t let the fat come to a boil or turn brown, or it will taste harsh.
2. Strain the fat through a sieve lined with cheesecloth. Let cool, then store covered in the refrigerator. The golden brown skin remaining in the cheesecloth can be saved to use as a flavoring for braised cabbage or sauteed potatoes.

Purchase Leaf Lard from our ‘pork & sausages’ section when we have it.

How to use leaf lard in pastry recipes (from SeriousSeats.com)

Wether you have some cubed beef or a roast you want to be creative with, this recipe is super easy and super delicious!

Ingredients
1 lb grass-fed beef, cubed
1 small red onion, diced
2 tablespoons Italian parsley
2 tablespoons cilantro
2 teaspoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method
Combine everything in a zip lock bag
Shake and leave overnight.
Grill on skewers with other vegetables or alone in a grill basket

Ingredients
¼ cup lime juice
2 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp tamari
4 tbsp peanut oil
3 tbsp honey
2 minced garlic cloves
2 star anise
2 pork chops

Method
Mix all the ingredients together (except the pork chops!). Marinate the pork chops for 1-2 hours. Allow the chops to come to room temperature before grilling.  Grill with lid up for 1 ½ minutes on each side. Move the chops to a cooler part of the grill (not over direct heat) and cook with the lid down for about 10 minutes or till the meat is 140-145 degrees.  Remove from heat and let rest under a foil tent for a few minutes.

Ingredients
2 shallots, roughly chopped
1 clove of garlic
Handful of basil leaves
1 tsp Sumac
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 lb Ground lamb

Method
Place roughly chopped shallots, garlic clove, basil leaves, sumac and olive oil in a food processor. Reduce to a course puree. Transfer to a large bowl and combine with 1 lb of ground lamb. Mould into burgers, grill until golden and done to your liking. Great served with humous and/or grilled onions on burger buns or grilled pita.

This is a very simple roast that will easily become a go-to recipe. Serve with your favorite sides.

Ingredients
2-3 lb Grass-fed Beef Roast
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard. 1/2 tsp ground pepper
3 cups Fresh mushrooms
4 Green onions (sliced into 1/2 piecers)
1 Garlic clove
2 tbsp Butter
1/4 Cup flour
1/2 tsp Thyme, crushed
1.5 Cups beef broth
1/4 cup light cream/milk

Method
1. Rub mustard and pepper onto meat.
2. Place meat on rack in a shallow roasting pan.
3. Roast at 275 degrees till 140 for medium rare (1.5-2 hrs) or 155 for medium (1.75 -2.25 hrs).
4. Cover with foil and let stand 15 minutes.

Sauce
1. Cook mushrooms, green onions and garlic in hot margarine until onions are tender.
2. Stir in flour and thyme.
3. Gradually stir in beef broth. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.
4. Stir in cream, cook and stir until heated through.
5. Thinly slice meat across the grain. Serve with sauce atop meat.

If I had known that making mozzarella at home was this easy, I could have saved what probably amounts to hundreds of dollars over the years, and impressed a whole lot of friends!

Of course it’s going to be even easier for you, because I’ve worked out the kinks and you won’t have to spend a whole afternoon searching for citric acid, which was completely fruitless!

Rennet, the other ingredient you may never have used can be found both at Whole Foods (although they only had tablets) and MOM’s organic market. MOMs had the vegetarian liquid version that I ended up using, and it had less ingredients in it so I found that preferable.

Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

Ingredients
1 gallon whole grass-fed local milk
Large stainless steel pot
3/4 teaspoons citric acid (or 2 1/4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar)
3/4 teaspoons rennet
Thermometer
Clean rubber gloves
Bread board
Salt

Method

1. Pour milk into pot. Mix citric acid (or vinegar) with half a cup of cold water, then add mixture to milk. Stir.
2. Heat milk slowly (low to medium) till it reaches 88 or 90 degrees F. Milk should start to curdle.
3. Add rennet, stirring for 30 seconds.
4. Turn down heat to low and leave to allow curd to form, separating form the whey. Should take between 5-15 minutes to become firm.

5. While still in the pot, use a knife to cut curd into one-inch squares.
6. Transfer curd gently to a colander with a bowl underneath to catch the whey.

7. Microwave curd in a heat-safe bowl for 1 minute (I placed it in an oven dish in a 300 degree oven for about 5 minutes instead)
8. Pour off excess whey.

9. Knead curd briefly in a bowl like you would bread dough (wearing rubber gloves if it’s too hot) then reheat in oven or microwave again, pouring off excess whey.
10. Knead curd again, transfer to wooden board and add salt. Continue kneading until it becomes smooth, reheat if you need to, to maintain firmness.
11. Once the curd becomes smooth you will have mozzarella!
12. Create one large ball or several small ones and store in a bowl of cold water in the fridge.

Yum!!