CM News : More Please!

New Zealand Eve Apples In House

For the past decade or two, New Zealand has dominated the apple scene with some of the most flavorful and interesting varieties; Gala, Braeburn, and Jazz are a few of them. And then something happened: a fluke apple from Minnesota (which is a pretty rough place to grow apples,) the Honeycrisp came through and dominated premium apple markets across the US. Bad news for the Kiwis: it doesn’t grow very well in New Zealand. This year was supposed to mark the first export crop (we booked the first pickings,) and a hailstorm blew in and ruined it all…

So the farmers down there are doing their absolute best to come up with something better. They even hired all of their best marketers to come up with a long list of cute names and color pallets to suit the “experience” of the fruit, which seems to be pretty typical of New Zealand growers. These campaigns have been silly, but the fruit has been quite good.

“Envy”, an apple that just finished up for us, was easily in my top three for 2010. It had incredible balance, rock-hard flesh, and more sugar than any other fruit in the store, which is saying something!

“Eve” is the next in line. Also known as a Mariri Red, this new variety came sprung up from a Braeburn tree, and is promising to be the next big thing.

What else do I know about it? Very little. The growers have been secretive, and I actually found the apple’s parentage off the patent office’s website.

How does it eat? Not half bad! Its’ texture is absolutely perfect with just a bit of sweetness. This is a salad apple if ever there was one.

Has New Zealand beat out the Honeycrisp yet? Nope, or at least not in my opinion; but this is another great variety to try while we wait for America’s best to come off!

Chile & Granola? No Way!

Anderson Trail Natural Soft Granola has introduced a new flavor like no other. Hatch Chile Chocolate Granola tastes like a homemade brownie with the added warmth of New Mexico Hatch Green Chiles. There are so many ways to enjoy this new flavor: mix it with an unsweetened cereal, sprinkled with greek yogurt, on top of your favorite ice cream or as a cookie mix. Anderson Trail is a Central Market customer favorite and made in Ft. Worth, TX.

In December, 2003, Justin Anderson the founder was 16, when he made the granola for his family, friends and teachers at school. The response was overwhelming. His aunt in Colorado urged him to get it out there and share it with everyone. Justin will be at the following stores sampling the product and signing bags:

Dallas - Aug 19, 12-2:30p
Fort Worth - Aug 20, 11a-1p
Southlake - Aug 20, 3:30-7:30p
Dallas - Aug 21, 11a-3p
Houston - Aug 22, 1-4p
San Antonio - Aug 27, 3:30-7:30p
North Lamar - Aug 28, 10a-2p
South Lamar - Aug 28, 3-7p
Southlake -Aug 29, 3:30-7:30p

Flipping for You!

Have you eaten the pancakes at Kerbey Lane Cafe? For 30 years an Austin favorite for food that is prepared with quality ingredients and spiced with a heathy dose of imagination.

The pancakes are so good that many customers were requesting them to be packaged. Central Market has the Kerbey Lane Pancake mixes for you to try them at home. Available in Buttermilk and Apple Wheat. These pancakes will quickly become a family favorite with benefits of being all natural with no trans fats.

Pick up a package the next time you are in our store. Enjoy this Austin Favorite!

Pink Pearl Apples Now Available

One of our biggest oddballs we’ll carry all year will be on the shelf this week: the Pink Pearl apple is an unassuming, pale piece of fruit with bright burgundy flesh!

Discovered in the 60s, red-fleshed apples have been going through testing and breeding programs, and the Hidden Rose has been the top pick of the group. Farmers are currently hedging their bets that this will be the wave of the future; replacing yellow fleshed varieties similar to what has happened with grapefruit. And why not? The red pigment is an excellent phytochemical that has been shown to lower arterial stiffness by 21%, which in turn lowers blood pressure and gives a boost to heart health.

The flavor is most analogous to pomegranate: sharp and a few tannins on the finish. These could work out-of-hand, but I plan to do a little baking with them. They have dense, starchy flesh that will hold up well under heat, and the color should provide an incredible contrast when mixed with a few other varieties.

Last year, these were called “hidden rose,” and grown by a few niche orchards in northern California. This year, however, some of the big boys of organic farming have their first run of production, and quality is significantly better than it has been in the past. This being said, Pink Pearls are intensely seasonal. Give them a shot before they’re gone!

This Week is Fig Week at Central Market!

Fig season is upon us, and we’re ready to bring it in with a bang this week! With five (and maybe more) varieties to choose from, now is the perfect time to give this exotic fruit a shot. Here’s a quick guide on what’s available:

Calimyrnas are a flat green fig that tastes a bit more “figgy” than the others . They are the most popular fig for drying, but work out great in salads or compotes.

Brown Turkeys are the standard fig you grew up on, and perhaps the most useful for cooking due to their massive size. Their exterior color is a mixture of purple and yellow with a dark ruby interior.

Black Missions are another old standby. They’re perhaps the best balanced fig with a nice flavor and excellent sweetness that doesn’t vary much throughout the season.

Kadotas, a yellowish fig, are the hardest to grow of modern commercial varieties, but they’ve stuck around for a good reason! They are easily the sweetest of the bunch with a gooey, honeylike center.

Sierras are perhaps the first successful shot at using modern breeding techniques to perfect this ancient fruit. Sweet as the rest of them, this fig should hold up a good week in the refrigerator, which, for a fig, is pretty amazing.

So what do you do with a fig? We generally just wolf them down throughout the day, but they work phenomenally in salads, compotes, pastries or sauces. When I really want to impress company this time of year, this is what I do:

Stuffed Figs

Ingredients:

10 or so medium-sized figs (Brown Turkeys or Kadotas work well)

10 large slices of good prosciutto or jamon. (Don’t be cheap; this stuff is the star of the show.)

10 sprigs of rosemary

Toasted walnut halves

A small block of dry aged bleu cheese (I like to use St Pete’s)

1. Halve each fig vertically leaving a bit of the stem intact to hold the fruit together. Press the flesh down on either side of the interior to make a little pocket.

2. Fill the pockets on either side with a half of a walnut, and a marble-sized chunk of cheese.

3. Peel the majority of the leaves off each sprig of rosemary, leaving the tip of the sprig intact. It will look like an arrow. Wrap the figs in prosciutto, and use these arrows as “toothpicks” to hold the meat in place. These look sharp on a plate, and add a great undertone to the dish.

4. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes or so; right when the cheese starts to melt and the prosciutto gets nice and crispy.

5. Serve and enjoy.

The 4th Annual No-Holds-Barred Central Market Hatch Chile Recipe Contest STARTS NOW!

Calling all Chile Heads and passionate pepper people! To crank up the heat on our 15^th Anniversary Hatch Chile Festival, Central Market is hosting the 4th Annual Central Market No-Holds-Barred Hatch Chile Recipe Contest through August 29.

From a Flamin’ Hatch Hot Fudge Sundae to Hatch-n-Mac-n-Cheese, nothing is out of bounds. As long as the recipe contains Hatch chilies and ingredients found at Central Market, the sky is the limit! Get inspired by previous winners and our chefs' favorites by clicking here.

New: Recipe entries this year earn the entrant a downloadable $5 off $25 coupon redeemable during the festival through August 31.

Each store’s lucky winner will receive a $100 Central Market gift card and a year’s supply of roasted Hatch chiles.* (And, of course, lifetime bragging rights.) Winning concoctions will also be published online and added to our recipe database. They may even be published in our next Hatch cookbook.

ENTER THE CONTEST HERE

With an online entry form, submitting a recipe is just a click away.

There’s no entry fee, and entries will be accepted through the online submission form from August 6 – August 29, 2010.

The team at Central Market advises that creativity really counts. “We get hundreds of entries in categories from apps to entrees to desserts,” observed Phil Myers, Houston General Manager. “Last year one of the winners was actually a drink that could be used to make a Hatch cockt

ail!”

Central Market finalists will be invited to bring in their prepared recipe for a Taste-Off at each of the eight Central Market stores for our celebrity judges. Each dish will be rated before we crown the best recipe. Finalists will be notified by the store.

Please submit your entry online no later than 4 p.m. Central on August 29, 2010. Central Market will narrow the entries down to the finalists. Each finalist will be contacted by telephone and/or email to compete in a Taste-Off before judges at the Central Market designated on his/her entry form.

*That’s 75 lbs of roasted Hatch chiles, perfect for freezing and eating until Hatch Festival 2011!

Hatch by the CASE at CM North Lamar

It's Time to Get Your Hatch On...

Yup, it's August and August means it's hatch chili time at Central Market. And, for the first time, we're giving customers the opportunity to pre-order their annual supply of hatch chilis (by the case only).

Hot or Mild, Roasted or Fresh, give us a call and reserve a case or two. Here how:

Call Central Market, North Lamar's Catering Department at 206-1024 or stop by to place your order for FULL CASES only (approx. 25 lbs.) of:

Mild ROASTED Hatch peppers: $28
Hot ROASTED Hatch peppers: $28
Mild Fresh Hatch peppers: $25
Hot Fresh Hatch peppers: $25

We're expecting our peppers to arrive between August 11th - 15th, but we hear that the weather in Hatch, New Mexico has been "iffy," which may delay delivery. Don't worry. We'll keep you posted. And, just to be on the safe side, get your orders in pronto.

We'll be roasting until the peppers are all gone and celebrating Hatch for the 15th year from August 18th through August 31st! Of course, fresh and roasted hatch will be available in the store by the pound during the festivities.

Reminder: We are accepting orders for FULL cases only. Call 206-1024 to place your order today!

Round Rock Honey

Round Rock Honey produces a true raw wildflower honey and then bottles it in real glass to preserve the flavor. Never heated or filtered during processing, this honey is said to help seasonal allergies, with varieties labeled to show which area of Texas the hives were in. Round Rock Honey is fragrant and sweet, perfect for drizzling, cooking or adding to coffee or tea. All natural, it's also full of the pollens, trace minerals and complex sugars that often are compromised in commercially mass-produced honeys. A true made in Texas product that is "Good For You"!

Nature's Indulgence Granola

I recently discovered this great tasting granola and would like for you to try it. Nature's Indulgenece is a small company started by 2 mothers in Utah. The granola is made of good ingredients in their most basic and simple forms. No fillers, no chemicals, no preservatives. They hand blend the ingredients, in small batches, to allow for perfect flavor distribution. Oven toasting the granola results in optimal flavor and texture. The flavors are: Vanilla Nut, Nut Berry Maple, Cranberry Almond & Lemon Bluberry. Pick up a bag today!

The Garden State's Best Now Available At CM!

This time of year, New Jersey is in full production, which is something we rarely think about in Texas. California is closer, and their giant farms easily cover all of the food we need down here. Plus, other than the occasional blueberry, when was the last time you ate something from the Garden State?

The reason for this is as simple as population density. Several major US cities are all crammed together up in the northeast section of the country, and they tend to grab up everything that small state can produce. And that’s a shame, because this time of year, their produce is often more tender, more flavorful, and just plain bigger than what we’d get from the west coast.

New Jersey is a major player in the produce industry, growing around 300,000 tons annually of bell peppers, corn, cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, and peaches. They do a great job, and they have to, as their farmland runs $8,000/acre, the highest price in the country.

This year, as Texas supplies start to dry up, we’ve endeavored to bring the best of New Jersey to Texas throughout the summer! For starters, we’ll be starting with cabbage, zucchini, peaches, pickles, bell peppers, and acorn squash this week. Further down the line, tomatoes, hot peppers and lettuce should become available. Give this stuff a shot, California is great, but the fertile soils and unique farming practices of the Northeast make for some really phenomenal produce!

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Posts categorized 'CM News'

New Zealand Eve Apples In House

Chile & Granola? No Way!

Flipping for You!

Pink Pearl Apples Now Available

This Week is Fig Week at Central Market!

The 4th Annual No-Holds-Barred Central Market Hatch Chile Recipe Contest STARTS NOW!

Hatch by the CASE at CM North Lamar

Round Rock Honey

Nature's Indulgence Granola

The Garden State's Best Now Available At CM!

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