Rooftop Gourmet

The South End just got a whole lot more convenient… and organic! In order to prevent complete carnivorous and primal weeknight dinners, my continuous trips to the Butcher Shop were typically followed by another stop at a grocery store or market to grab some fresh vegetables. Just recently, Siena Farms from Sudbury opened a year-round Farmstore adjacent to the Butcher Shop.

This almost-one-stop shopping has made my life so much easier! It’s a tiny little shop, about the size of my bedroom closet but they make great use of the space and constantly stock fresh produce that changes with the season and whatever is fresh.

Here is their mission statement about their produce, “Siena Farms’ produce is grown using the traditionally sustainable farming practices of modern organic agriculture; free of chemical herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers. The soil fertility of our fifty-acre farm is built annually through the use of natural composts, cover crops and certified organic fertilizer, which together supply valuable nutrients to the farm’s soil – and thus to your produce”.

The other night, I made my way over after work to find something to make for dinner. They had so much amazing produce that I couldn’t resist grabbing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I picked up some fresh artichokes (which I hardly ever cook due to the annoying prep work), watermelon radish, and some homemade Burrata cheese. So random… I know. I felt like I had just opened my wicker basket on an episode of Chopped and had to make a decent meal out of three outrageously different ingredients.

I stepped into the Butcher Shop and gazed intently into the glass doors, mesmerized like the little girl in the Poltergeist. The wheels started turning and a few light bulbs went off before snatching a couple of homemade venison sausages. It can be quite hard to create a dish around a type of cheese but I felt that the venison sausage could work well with the Burrata.

Whenever I serve a type of game meat, such as duck or venison, I feel that it’s beneficial to balance it with something sweet on the plate. I happened to have a jar of fig jam that I thought would work perfectly with both the creamy cheese and the deer sausage.

After peeling, trimming, and prepping the artichokes, I dipped them in acidulated water to keep them from turning brown. Once they were completely dry, I roasted them in the oven until each and every leaf of the heart was brown and crispy.

I also roasted the watermelon radish which I think is one of the coolest vegetables visually and in terms of taste. From the outside, it’s white and hairy, just absolutely gross looking. When you slice into it, it looks exactly like a baby watermelon! When eaten raw, it has a fruity, spicy and peppery note to it, and when it gets roasted and sprinkled with sea salt, they become buttery and rich.

After caramelizing handfuls of onions, I placed the Burrata on top of the golden brown pile and warmed it in the oven. Burrata is a special type of cheese that I can’t resist buying whenever I see it (obviously).

In terms of how it’s made, it starts off very similar to fresh Mozzarella. When it’s still quite soft, the ball of cow’s milk cheese is actually injected with heavy cream or Marscapone to make it even richer and creamier. So when you slice into it, instead of a firm Mozzarella, the cheese is softer and oozes with an intense, rich, creamy flavor. It’s like the “over-easy” version of a ball of Buffalo Mozzarella.

I roasted the plump venison sausages in the oven gently so that the casings didn’t burst, and the delicious juices didn’t run. The outside achieved that crispy, “pop” and the inside was still moist and medium rare (being venison, it was okay to undercook the sausage slightly). The Butcher Shop added some lovely spices to compliment the game meat, such as what I believe was nutmeg, cinnamon, or clove.

I served the sliced venison sausage around the gooey Burrata, topped with a sticky, fig jam. Surrounding the meat were the crispy chokes, colorful radish, and some refreshing celery leaves.

This whimsical dish was rather hard to muster up a pairing, but I ended up popping a wine that I had been saving for quite some time. The 2005 Francois Gaunoux Pommard La Tavannes from Burgundy France was my wine of choice. Red Burgundy (Pinot Noir) is considered to be some of the most intriguing, complex, and elegant wine in the entire world. It is also extremely versatile when it comes to food pairings.

This wine was somewhat light but had tons of earthy, funky characteristics combined with ripe strawberry and raspberry fruit that balanced nicely with the gamey venison and creamy cheese. The subtle spice notes in the finish rounded out the experience and gave this seven year old wine some serious credibility. The warm ball of Burrata oozed with gooey cream that was stipend by the sticky jam and then mopped up by a slice of crispy sausage.

One amazing bite after another, concluded with a crispy contrast in lieu of a roasted artichoke heart. Surprisingly, a spur of the moment stop in my new favorite, year-round farm stand turned into an incredible meal. How could it not when the produce is this fresh? At least I’ll save money on gas because I won’t be making more than one stop on the way home from now on!

Tags: Burrata, Burrata cheese, Butcher Shop Boston, crispy roasted artichokes, fig jam, Francois Gaunoux, Pommard, Siena Farm, Siena Farmstore, Siena Farmstore south end, venison sausage, watermelon radish

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Game, Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.