Review of first meat order

Not enough time to read my full ramblings? Read my summary here.
I received my first order from the Farmer's Market. Two other couples and my husband and I shared a 20kg beef pack and an 18kg lamb pack. The ordering process was easy. The confirmation stated that the order would arrive in 2-5 business days and it arrived on the 5th day but they indicated to me that this would be the case.

Wow we are really impressed with the meat and the ease of the transaction. I received the meat and our friends came that night to do the quick divvy up. We deliberately chose items that would divide easily and one friend did a great spreadsheet that helped us allocate the meat via email. I might work on it for this blog for future reference to make it more universal so you can use it too.

So what exactly is the meat like? Well let me first explain as Farmer Dan did to me the difference between free range grass fed and feedlot grain fed. Free range grass fed cattle get exercise and eat less fattening more nutritious feed so they have a leaner more muscular physique this is why Farmer Dan makes this distinction clear by calling his business Gippsland Lean Beef. It doesn't mean that he takes all the fat off his produce which trust me is a good thing, more about that in a future post about fat. Grain fed feed lot animals have a floppier muscle tone, unnatural amounts of fat and a lighter flavour due to the more bland feed.

I was a little concerned about these facts because our tastes have come to expect a very tender and light on flavour meat and I worried that my friends might find that their nearly 15kgs of meat may not be to their liking.

However they were not disappointed and neither was I. The meat is not tough but rather firmer and more dense and still melt in the mouth. The additional flavour is great and needs less seasoning. In order to do the meat justice it is important not to overcook. I unfortunately did over cook the first porterhouse to medium, we like medium rare but testimony to the lovely quality it was still tender and easy to cut with a table knife and chew easily with no toughness at all. It was simply a bit dry in texture for our taste and in my opinion disrespectful to the meat.

I cooked the rump steak perfectly and it was the best rump steak that I have ever tasted.

Here is how I did it. I like the method below because it gives you time to get the vegetables on to the plate and then at the last minute reheat the steak so it is served hot.

Tips for cooking the perfect steak.

Prewarm oven to 110 C and leave a dinner plate inside to heat

Cook steak on high heat for a few seconds back off very high but leave flame on high for 2-4 minutes depending on thickness, basically until the blood rises to the top

Turn and repeat, cook on high heat for a few seconds back off very high but leave flame on high for 2-4 minutes

Place steak on dinner plate and cover with foil. Turn oven off and put steak plate in the oven but leave the door open. Leave for 3mins (or up to 10 mins if you need it to get your vegetables served)

Reheat pan to high heat and flash cook steak on each side for a few seconds only and serve immediately. I learnt this method from a chef at Crown Casino.

The challenge of purchasing this meat is what to do with all the various cuts of meat that I have to admit I previously did not buy because I, like most people did not think about the fact that it is unsustainable to only eat the choicest cuts of meat. For further information look at relevant post here. With the approach of winter it is not hard to find appropriate recipes for the season.

This is what else I have done or intend to do.

We received 10 kgs of Beef:

Osso Bucco - made Osso Bucco

Stewing Steak - made Beef and Vegetable Soup and Thai Beef Coconut Curry

Gravy beef - Guiness Irish Stew

Diced Beef - Italian Beef and Red Wine Ragu

Stir fry - Thai Beef lime and chilli noodles

Schnitzel - schnitzel

Scotch fillet - steak with bearnaise sauce and herb mash

Oyster blade - Madras curry

Porterhouse - steak with red wine jus and vegetables

Eye fillet - steak - haven't tried this yet, the steak is buried somewhere in the packed freezer but I am looking forward to it as I imagine that it will be much tastier than eye fillet I have experienced before.

Rump - made steak with garlic butter and vegetables

Sausages - made Bean Cassoulet, Pasta with chilli, sausage and roquette

Mince - made Spaghetti Bolognese, Mince and rice stuffed vegetables

Many of these dishes can be frozen or stored in the fridge for lunch the next day. So even though some of them are a bit time consuming when you divide the time over several meals it is far more time efficient.

6kgs Lamb

Unfortuntately these packs were not labelled so apart from recognising, cutlets, lamb legs, bbq chops, loin chops there are a few unidentified cuts that will become apparent once I defrost. So I 'll get back to you on the lamb options.

In summary I am delighted and relieved that I can wholeheartedly rave about the quality of the meat available at the Farmer's Market. Best of all I can guarantee that the animals had a great quality of life and were treated with the respect they deserve. See. All this for A$13-$15 kilo delivered to your door. Compare this to the equivalent certified organic meat A$28-$50+ per kilo.

Nose to tail eating

I have another couple of farmers lined up and hope to get out to see them in the next few weeks in the meantime I want to discuss other ways that can help make meat consumption more sustainable and affordable.

Apart from sourcing CICO meat what else can we do to help the environment and our impact on it?

I assert that the pinnacle of healthy eating includes meat in the diet. Being an animal lover I am tempted to be vegetarian but I also have a preference for a natural state of being and naturally humans are designed to eat meat.

However the modern western diet has gone too far and due to factory farming technology and practice the ready supply of meat has increased our consumption to unhealthy proportions. I would wager that a vegetarian diet despite having certain deficiencies is often healthier than the average Australian diet.

However I digress, the objective is to eat meat that is healthy for me and ease my conscience that the animal I am eating has not suffered unduly in it's lifetime.

If we eat smaller portions of meat then we keep the cost down or offset the increased cost of CICO meat, reduce our intake to a healthier level and slaughter less animals.

We can also use more of the whole animal, it's called nose to tail eating.

All the farmers I have spoken to so far have mentioned their desire for consumers to realise that farming is not sustainable if everyone wants to only eat the most choice cut of meat.

If you only want to eat the eye fillet or the porterhouse what happens to the rest of the animal? Currently a lot of animals are slaughtered for the popular cuts of meat and the rest if pulped for dog food or livestock feed. This is why farmers like Dan and the others whom I will soon feature prefer to sell packs of meat that include a bit of everything from eye fillet to sausages. This way less animals need to be killed to feed us and the overall price can come down.

As I have now ordered from Gippsland Lean Beef and will receive several packs of sausages I have been researching recipes. With winter rapidly bearing down upon us I am delighted in my findings.

• French Cassoulet - bean and sausage stew
• Bangers and Mash with Guinness sauce
• Rustic Italian style pasta with sausage, chilli and rocket
• Lasagne with added sausage
• Rice and sausage stuffed vegetables

Offal was never something that I readily accepted from a taste and texture point of view. However recent time in France and with my mother in law in England who is an amazing European style cook I discovered just how delicious it can be. I still haven't taken to brains but liver, hearts and kidney when cooked skillfully I find divine, high in iron and also very cheap.

Pate` is very easy to make and is one of the best ways to disguise liver. Recipe here. There are lots of wonderful seasonings that you can add to pate`, Google for more adventurous recipes. For instance this wonderful Julia Child recipe.

Chicken hearts barbecued on a skewer Brazilian style is surprisingly lovely, see pic above. Recipe here.

I love to cook any offal in this way:

Saute` onion in clarified butter, add fresh chopped rosemary and chopped bacon rashers and cook til' opaque, add chicken hearts or chopped liver and cook until just pink inside. Do not overcook or it will become rubbery. serve with crisp salad with some radicchio leaves is particularly nice.

I also once had an amazing dish of rabbit hearts in a delightful sherry cream sauce at Bar Lourinha in the city in Melbourne. I notice that they are currently serving pork neck, calf liver and oxtail and I guarantee you they all taste delicious.

Let's not forget the steak and kidney pie

We live in such a wasteful society and I find it incredibly sad that we 'waste' an animal's life often before and after death. It's not so hard to limit our wastefulness. Is it?