Tag: ZINGERMAN’S DELI

new michigan products for autumn

I know autumn officially has arrived in Michigan by the smell of the air. You know that incomparable crispness that makes you question whether the mugginess of summer ever actually happened? That woodsy aroma of just-fallen leaves beginning to dry out? That tinge of chill that has you reaching for jean jackets and warm beverages? That faint wisp of sweetness filling the air from the recent harvest of apples, pumpkins, and squash? In my humble opinion, this is the time when Michigan is at its best.

Coinciding with these new beginnings comes a wave of autumn products hitting the deli retail shelves this month. And, the best news of all, not only do these products highlight fall ingredients and flavors, but they are all produced right here in Michigan. So for all of you foodies out there itching to taste the best flavors of fall, here is my abridged list of must-try products this month.

Kapnick Orchard Apple Cider: There is nothing I crave more on a crisp autumn day than to warm up with a steaming hot cup of apple cider. Fortunately for all of you fellow cider-heads out there, Zingerman’s Next Door will be offering Michigan’s own Kapnick Orchard’s unpasteurized cider all month long. Full-bodied and just sweet enough, this cider is the perfect base for a whole number of creative add-ons. Like your cider toasty and spicy? Make it a chai-der by adding a bag of chai tea. More partial to super-sweet? Add a splash of caramel syrup. Or if you’re a purist at heart, try my personal favorite: Simply steamed with a little fresh made vanilla whipped cream.

American Spoon Apple Butter: As someone who has developed a recent love of jam making, fruit butters are a new product on my radar. Yes, I had tasted a pumpkin butter here or a cherry butter there, but, to be completely honest, I was never entirely sure of what fruit butter actually was, let alone how to use it. However, with the recent addition of American Spoon Apple Butter to the deli shelves, I have developed a newfound appreciation. Most traditional fruit butters are simply fruit and bit of sugar cooked down until they reach a paste-like/buttery texture. What I love about the American Spoon apple butter is the omission of sugar. Apples, cinnamon, and a bit of lemon juice are all that go into these jars and the result is nothing short of fabulous. Texturally, this spread is closer to a finely pureed applesauce, with a flavor that is pure fall at its best. Besides just eating it straight out the jar (which I resort to more often than not) I’ve found apple butter to be a delicious pairing with hearty cheddars, ice cream, or a good chunky peanut butter for an amped-up pb&j.

Great Lakes Cheshire: For a cheese seller at Zingerman’s Deli, there are a million and one cheeses to learn about. Soft, semi-soft, hard. Goat, cow, sheep milk. Pasteurized, unpasteurized. The knowledge is endless and the list ever growing. So you can bet that choosing one must-try cheese this fall proved rather difficult. In the end, I took the simple route and stuck close to home with none other than a Zingerman’s cheese, the Great Lakes Cheshire. As the only hard format cheese in Zingerman’s Creamery’s current repertoire, this cheese is a stand out with a creamy, yet slightly flaky texture and faint notes of citrus and grass. Given its pleasant mildness, this cheese makes an excellent fall snacking cheese on its own or paired with a slice of apple, bold mustards, or a delicate honey. Pair away and enjoy!

Westwind Bread: A true Michigan product, and a bread star that deserves more recognition. Made with Michigan-milled whole-wheat flour (out of the Westwind Mill in Linden, MI, hence the name) and a bit of sourdough starter, this bread is the epitome of a rustic, satisfying wheat bread. Given the limited availability of flour from the mill, this bread is only available at the deli on Mondays and Fridays. But if you have the chance to stop in and pick up a loaf, you will not be disappointed. Not only is it ideal sandwich bread, it’s a perfect vehicle for trying out the other products I’ve mentioned. My personal favorite preparation: toasted up with a smear of farm butter. Doesn’t get much better than that.

I hope that all of you will find as much joy in these products as I have. And, more importantly, that they help you explore the best of what fall and Michigan have to offer.

Cheers!

Living high on the hog

On Wednesday, October 23 at 6:30 pm, the Zingerman’s Deli will host a very special event. Herb and Kathy Eckhouse, founders of La Quercia, have selected Zingerman’s to host the World Release Party for their new Tamworth Woodland Finished Prosciutto. This means you’ll be able to taste their exquisite new prosciutto at Zingerman’s before it’s available anywhere else in the world!

In December 2011, Herb and Kathy began making a selection of woodland-finished cured meats using Tamworth hogs. The Tamworth breed is known for its succulent meat and sweet, nutty flavor. As La Quercia says:

“These heritage breed Tamworth hogs are pasture raised in Missouri at the family farm of Russ Kremer and spend their last three months foraging an Ozark Mountain hillside covered with oak and hickory trees. An estimated 60-75% of their diet consists of acorn and hickory nuts. It is the ideal environment for raising happy, healthy, delicious hogs. When cured, the dark coral meat is nutty and sweet, with an unexpected depth and meltingly tender texture. The forest foraging diet adds a spectacular richness and a creamy texture that will knock your socks off!”

We’ve been fortunate to taste La Quercia’s coppa, their lonza, their pancetta and their delicious spallacia, and all are simply amazing. We’re very excited to be able to share this wonderful new prosciutto with our guests before it’s available in New York, San Francisco, or any of the other food meccas out there!

Please join us for an evening of tasty bits of pork, the unveiling of nature’s magic, and some great storytelling. Herb will share samples of the new Tamworth Woodland Finished Prosciutto, as well as several other prosciutti made from different breeds. Russ Kremer will also be on hand to talk about raising the Tamworth hogs, and the effects that each breed has on the finished flavor profile of the meat.

Menu:

• Prosecco and Labrusca Wine pairings
• Toast Points with Lardo
• A delicious Charcuterie Plate
• Roasted Apples drizzled with Saba.
• Pasta Carbonara using Woodland Finish Guanciale
• Autumn salad of Kale with Prosciutto and Espelette Mustard Vinaigrette

Call Zingerman’s Deli at 743-663-4300, or reserve your seat online!

Don’t miss it!

Join us for a culinary tour of Tantré Farm produce

Join us Thursday, October 10, 7pm at Zingerman’s Events on Fourth for the culinary event of the year! For the 10th year in a row we are inviting local food lovers to help us complete the farm-to-table circle and enjoy the best food of the season with the people who grew it: The folks from Tantré Farm.

The details of the multi-course meal remain secret until the last moment, since Chef Rodger and his kitchen crew hand-select most of the fresh ingredients the morning of the feast! But when you take your seats and see what they’ve prepared, your mouth will water and your pulse will quicken. The menu is inspired and perfectly tuned to the season.

The folks at Tantré Farm work hard year-round to produce an amazing variety of organic fruits and vegetables for the Deli. This meal is our way of saying “thank you.” This feast is always an early sell-out, so sign up now!

Call 734-663-3400 to reserve a seat or online!

Don’t miss it!

*From time to time, we share the writing of our friends and co-workers on this site. Today’s guest post comes from the blog of Zingerman’s Mail Order Managing Partner, Mo Frechette. You can read Mo’s blog here. 

Why is one tinned tuna better than another?

Take two tins of tuna, one from Ortiz, one typical of the supermarket. One smells like the sweet sea, peels off in thick blond chunks and tastes like a fancy dinner out. The other smells like harbor at low tide, spoons out in pulpy shreds and tastes like saltwater. They came from the same animal living in the same ocean. What happened? Here are five buyer’s guide tips to understand what makes one tinned tuna different from another.

1. How are the tuna fished?
Bonito tuna, a common species for tinning, are not big fish. Most are two feet long and weigh about ten pounds. They’re warm-blooded. Taken together that means any bruising or bleeding affects a large portion of each fish and muddies its flavor. That’s rare with Ortiz’s tuna since they are entirely line-caught, classic fisherman style, one at a time on a rod. It’s more common with netted fish—the most common way to catch tuna, where hundred foot long nets drag the tuna in a thrashing bundle up from the sea.

2. How are they stored at sea?
Tuna are stored in a boat’s hold on ice. A more conscientious captain will freight a lot of ice, enough to surround each fish so they don’t touch one another and cool down quickly. After all, no one knows how long they’ll be at sea or how much they’ll catch and the fish starts to deteriorate the moment it’s caught.

3. What happens after they’re cooked?
Cooking canned tuna is more or less standardized: the fish is boiled in salted water for a couple hours. But what happens next is not at all the same from factory to factory. At Ortiz the just-cooked fish sits out to cool in the kitchen, then gets time to chill in cold storage. The two steps take hours and hog up space on the floor and in the refrigerators. Not all tuna makers choose to take it.  Like most food makers who worry about price more than flavor, they cut time out of the equation. What the extra time and care does, though, is critical. It stops the fish from fermenting. Fermenting can be ruinous—a carbonation that makes the tins unsalable—or it can be mild. Even mild fermentation has a flavor that, to my taste, is a sour tang that runs throughout most tins of cheap tuna and mars its sea-sweet origins.

4. How are they cleaned?
Another act of grace Ortiz commits after cooking is to clean its tuna by hand. This is as labor-intensive as it sounds (if you’ve ever deboned and skinned cooked fish you know what I mean). It’s not at all standard practice in the tuna world. The women—and I can say from my experience visiting that 100% of the cleaners are women—work meticulously with paring knives, scraping and cleaning every bruise, every discoloration, every chance for the flavor to head south, leaving only pristine fish to find their way into the tin.

5. What goes into the tin?
Whole chunks of fish and olive oil. That’s it. No flakes, no water. That’s the way you get great tinned tuna. Shredded smaller pieces deteriorate faster and that will show in the flavor. As for olive oil, well, the American tuna industry has pawned off water-packed tuna as healthier but what they failed to mention was that in losing 20% of the calories we lost 98% of the taste. Water leaches flavor from the fish. Ortiz only packs in olive oil, which amplifies the tuna’s flavor and gives it a silky, rich mouthfeel.

Ortiz Tuna is available from Zingerman’s Mail Order and at the Zingerman’s Deli! Isn’t it time to taste the good stuff?

It’s our annual homage to THE FOODS OF España!

This week, the Zingerman’s Deli celebrates the cuisine of Spain with our Taste of Extremedura, a series of delicious tastings, demonstrations, and events that showcase the fabulous foods of this wonderful region!

I. Daily Demonstrations
Monday 9/9 – Friday 9/13, 11am – 2pm
Please join us for samples of Spanish foods on Monday and Tuesday. Then, beginning Wednesday, our guests John and Ana Cancilla will walk us through the Extremedura Region in daily demos of how they use these foods in their own home kitchen. John and Ana will share everything from oils, to figs, to vinegars, to pimenton, and much more.

II. Taste of Spain
Wednesday, 9/11, 630pm – 830pm
What better way to approach a taste of Spain than to bring Spain to you? We are lucky to welcome some special visitors to Zingerman’s who will do just that. John (who has a superb Spanish palate), and Ana will guide us through a tasting of our Spanish products, and they’ll explain the different ways that they use these products. It will be a night of Spanish geography lessons along with the flavors that bring those areas to life.

Menu Highlights:

• Marqués de Valdueza Red Wine (brought in direct from Spain special just for this event!)
• Arroz a la Cubana – a traditional dish of rice, egg and tomato
• Migas – a traditional Extremadura bread dish
• Delicias de higo y datiles with torta – a fig and date cake
• Patatas revolconas – a spiced potato dish
• Tortilla española – a traditional Spanish omelette
• Small Tapas plates – an assortment of Spanish cheeses, olives and meats

Call 734-663-3400 or reserve online!

III. 28th Annual Paella Party on the Patio
Sunday, 9/15, 11am – 2pm
Our  annual September celebration of the fabulous foods of Spain culminates (as it always does) with a two-grill Paella throwdown on the Zingerman’s Deli Patio. There will be a special presentation on Paella at noon, then Chef Rodger and his crew deal the goods: Three kinds of traditional Paella — Chicken/Chorizo, Seafood and Vegetarian grilled over Mesquite right before your eyes. Those in the know will be lined up for the Padron Peppers.

The show is free — the Paella is sold by the pound — don’t be shy! Paella Presentation at noon

Help us celebrate the culinary wonders of Spain! 

Viva España!

*From time to time, we share the writing of our friends and co-workers on this site. Today’s guest post comes from Zingerman’s Deli staffer Maddie LaKind. 

On a recent shift at Zingerman’s Deli, a co-worker approached me with an odd expression on her face. Eyes widened and head cocked to the side, I could tell something had caught her attention, but what?

“Where did you get that shirt?” she asked conveying a slight bit of envy as she examined my t-shirt—a camouflage shirt printed with a goofy cartoon red-nosed reindeer balancing baked goods in its antlers. The large Zingerman’s Bakehouse logo splayed across the back suggested that this particular shirt was a holiday-themed model that debuted at the bakery some years ago.

Casually, I replied, “I actually snagged it out of a bag of old work shirts that was left behind in the break room.

With a slightly disappointed note in her voice she said, “It’s a great shirt,” before heading back to work.

As I walked away from the interaction, I felt a wave of déjà vu rush over me. I’ve had this same conversation before, but with me on the inquisitive end. Suddenly, images of Zingerman’s shirts that I’ve admired among my fellow employees over the years came flooding back to me.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let me explain:

Every Zingerman’s business has a similar dress code consisting of a simple t-shirt that must say Zingerman’s on it in some form or another. Yes, the Roadhouse servers and chefs have their own uniforms, and ZingTrain employees tend to err on the side of casual office attire, but otherwise t-shirts are the most widely-utilized articles of clothing in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses.

Given Zingerman’s 31+ years of existence, you can imagine the range of stories that accompany such a wardrobe. To make it easy, I’ve organized Zingerman’s t-shirt stories into general categories that I’ve observed over the years—mind you this is an abridged list.

• There are the basic purchased shirts, bought at various Zingerman’s businesses (“I bought this shirt while out to dinner at the Roadhouse the other night.”)
• There are the earned shirts, given as a prize or thank you for doing something within the company (“I received my shirt whilst volunteering at Grillin’ for Food Gatherers.”)
• There are the nostalgic shirts, gifts or heirlooms from fellow employees (“This shirt got passed down from Chase, who left and then passed it down to Julie, who left and then passed it down to me.”)
• There are the found shirts, stumbled upon at non-Zingerman’s shops (“I saw this shirt while sifting through a rack at Value World.”)
• Lastly, a notable category, the homemade shirts that embody the creative talents of employees (“I designed this shirt myself”)

Given this complex work attire culture, I began to think about what makes a certain Zingerman’s t-shirt so intriguing or worthy of the awe and admiration I noted earlier. Why do employees care, or even pay attention? Sure, graphics and visual appeal play a big role. Comfort definitely gets calculated in there, as do rarity and exclusivity.

But, what I’ve realized is that like all of the products that fill the shelves of the Deli, the dishes that make up the menu at the Zingerman’s Roadhouse, or the notable coffees, cheeses, and breads that emerge from Zingerman’s businesses, the real draw of these shirts is the stories surrounding them. Whether dripping in Zingerman’s signature ‘muno’ font, emblazoned with quirky illustrations, or simply promoting a tasting or event, the shirts serve as tiny relics of times passed and memories had. Symbols of where we’ve been, how far we’ve come, and where we want to go.

For a piece of clothing as inherently simple as a t-shirt, I’d say that’s a pretty cool thing.