Cassoulet Cookoff and Greenmarket Fundraiser!

During the week of January 13-17, 2009, Jimmy's No. 43 will host a week long celebration featuring the best in Midwinter Greenmarket Sausage and German Beer. We'll call it Sausage and Wheatfest! This event is a collaboration with Slow Food NYC and the Greenmarket's Ed Yowell and part of our unwavering commitment to good, real food!

The closing day of the event, Saturday January 17 from noon until 5 :00 PM, will be dedicated to a Cassoulet Cookoff which will raise funds for the Greenmarket. For a $20 donation at the door you can come in and taste the fun! All proceeds will support the Greenmarket. Local favorite Sixpoint Craft Ales, will be available at the bar for additional charge per beverage.

Here are the rules: Each participant will cook one dish that will include at least one sausage from an approved Greenmarket vendor/farmer.

A few of the cookoff participants include:

Cathy Erway, noteatingoutinny.com
Chef Mark Bello of pizzaacasa.com
Chef Phillip Kirschen–Clark, formerly of WD~50, Jimmy's No.43, and Pegu Club
Melissa Rebholz, Greenmarket supporter and cook at Roberta's in Brooklyn
Kelly Geary, chef/owner of Sweet Deilverance.

For further information visit the Jimmy's No. 43 website.

Try This Fondue!

Anne Saxelby, cheesemonger goddess at the Essex Street Market, posted a delicious fondue recipe on her blog this week. Let's give it a try over the holidays:

Fondue Savoyarde as interpreted by Saxelby Cheesemongers and Anne Beuh:

For one bottle of white wine, you'll need about three pounds of cheese. You will also need the following:

1 clove of garlic, minced till quite tiny
Nutmeg and ground black pepper to taste
3 tbsp corn flour diluted in whiskey, bourbon, or eau de vie

For the cheese we chose:
Rupert (raw cows' milk. Consider Bardwell Farm, VT)
Pawlet (raw cows' milk. Consider Bardwell Farm, VT)
Grafton Classic 2 Year Cheddar (raw cows' milk. Grafton Cheese, VT)
However, there are innumerable other delectable combinations! Experiment and see what frightfully delicious concoction you can dream up!

1. Heat 1/3 bottle of white wine over medium-low heat.

2. Add 1/3 of your total cheese (about 1 lb if you're following this recipe exactly, but you can always make less! Three pounds is a lot of cheese... but we firmly believe in your cheese consumption capabilities.) Incorporate by stirring. Stir often and consistently, or else the cheese begins to stick to the pan!

3. Add a touch of garlic, nutmeg and black pepper to taste and continue to stir.

4. After a few minutes, add 1 tbsp of corn flour diluted in some kind of strong alcohol of your choosing.

5. Keep simmering and stirring for about 20 minutes total, then dig (or dip) in!

You can dip pretty much anything into this mixture and it'll be ridiculously tasty, but we picked boiled potatoes, steamed cauliflower, apples, and bread. Oh yeah, and just to guild the lily, we had some smoked ham from Jeffrey's on the side. When you've gobbled through the first round, just start it all over again till there's no more cheese in sight.

John Taylor: Wannabe New Yorker

Our favorite low country cook and purveyor of old time grits, John Taylor, sure as heck would like to be making food in NYC. He's emailed me, to date, chutney, cassoulet, and confit recipes. Listen up New York! Put your money in a Hoppin' John style restaurant!
Should you need any further convincing, check out this duck confit. (Scroll down for duck confit post)

The Sausage Advisory Board

As part of our planning for the upcoming Midwinter Sausagefest ( Jan 13-17 at Jimmy' s No. 43) we asked our sausage advisory board for their favorites. Here are some responses, condensed:

Karen Page, author of The Flavor Bible: Usinger's in Milwaukee
Sandy Murzin, food educator: DiPaolo's of Little Italy, NYC
Phillip Kirschen-Clark, former secret chef at Jimmy's No. 43: Violet Hill Farms fennel pollen sausage, 3 Corner Field Farms lamb and sheep chorizo, and anything from Salumeria Biellese in Hells Kitchen
Taylor Cocalis, Murray's Cheese educator: Flying Pigs Farm, and Dickson's Farmstand
John Taylor aka Hoppin John: "You mean local sausages as in up north? I don't know any. I make my own."
Lauren McGrath, Rick's Picks Pickles: Tamarack Hollow, greenmarket
Mike Smith, cook: Mazur's Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint

Best Beer Sausages and a Great Beer Link!

Holy pig farm! NYC Tastes - c'mon, you know that blog, don't you? -just named our sausages to their "Best of 2008" list. Kudos, bloggers!

As another treat for our readers... sometimes we come across a good beer link. So, here it is.

Too Much Beer

We have a serious problem at Jimmy's No. 43- too much beer. Kegs of special holiday ales, like Smuttynose Winter, Geary's Xmas, St Bernardus Xmas Ale, Saison Dupont "Les Bon Vieux", and Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale...how I love this time of year!

So I wrote this holiday beer poem, for all (which can also be seen in Time Out New York!):

stop by and visit, with open hands;
show me your empty pockets,
do not be afraid to say
"more beer please , sir"
we will not disappoint any of you weary, hardworking souls.

Happy Holidays!

Zaid the Farmer

Jimmy's No. 43 receives regular deliveries from Zaid the farmer of Norwich Meadows Farm (upstate New York, near Syracuse). He makes the 5 hour drive every week to sell his wonderful, certified organic produce on Saturdays in Union Square and on Sundays in the Thompkins Square Park greenmarket.

Zaid tells the story of Norwich Meadows Farm like this:

10 years ago we took over the farm. It was not being used and a New Jersey developer was planning to divide it. The economy in that area soured [then] he backed out and we were able to buy the farm. We almost lost the farm 3 years ago during the year of major floods. Over half of our crops were washed away. If it wasn't for Just Food and the CSA's it manages, we never would have made it. There is little interest in supporting farmfresh in our area.

Click to find out more about Just Food. Support your local growers- buy at the greenmarket!

My Late Night Snack

1 slice healthy bread (any bread, what is healthy?)
1 slice cheese.

Add a generous dollop or schmear of Schoolhouse Kitchen Mustard, which is not really mustard but a delicious egg based delight... yum!

Thank you Schoolhouse Kitchen!