All
Seared Duck Breast with Blueberry Sauce
- With a sharp knife, score the duck breasts – skin side only - in a cross-hatch patten. Season them with salt and pepper
- Lay the duck breast, skin side down, in a room temperature large pan. Place the pan on a medium heat and cook the breasts, skin down, for about ten minutes, or until the fat has rendered and the skin is golden brown. Flip the breasts and cook on the meat side for an additional 4 minutes, or until an internal thermometer inserted into the center of the breasts reads 135°F (for medium). Remove the duck from the pan and rest, covered to stay warm.
- Meanwhile, start the sauce. In a sauce pot over a medium high heat, melt the tablespoon of duck fat. Add the shallot and garlic to the pot and stir well with a wooden spoon. Cook for three minutes or until the shallots start to caramelize. Deglaze with the port, then add the orange strip, thyme, and bay leaf. Simmer for one minute before adding the beef stock, blueberries, and balsamic vinegar. Continue simmering for another four or five minutes, until the blueberries have burst and the sauce has slightly thickened.
- At this point the duck breasts should be out of the pan. Drain the duck fat from the pan (save for another use), and place the pan back on the medium heat. Pour the contents of the blueberry sauce into the duck pan, and stir well to get all of the cooked duck bits into the sauce. Whisk the cornstarch and the cold water together, then whisk the slurry into the sauce to thicken. Simmer for another minute – the sauced should be able to coat the back of a spoon. Season to taste before taking the sauce off the heat. Remove and discard the herbs and orange peel. Add the tsp of butter and stir well to emulsify it into the sauce.
- Pour the sauce into a serving dish. Slice the duck breast, fan it out over the sauce, and serve.
Chef Amanda Ray's Yogurt and Harissa Marinated Chicken
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a small bowl, combine the coriander seeds, cumin seeds and caraway seeds. Spread the spices on a sheet tray and toast in the oven for 1 to 2 minutes; you should faintly detect the scent of the spices. Remove the tray from the oven and set aside to cool. Add the paprika and chili flakes to the spice mix.
- Using a mortar and pestle (or, alternatively, a food processor), grind the garlic cloves until they become a paste, and then add the red bell pepper. Season with salt, and then add the spices and the 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil and blend well. When blended, transfer the harissa to a container and top with some additional olive oil. This will keep for 3 to 6 weeks, covered, in the refrigerator.
- In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, ginger, ground cumin, chili flakes, espelette pepper, harissa, olive oil and salt. Whisk until smooth and pour into a baking dish.
- Lay the chicken halves, skin-side up, in the yogurt mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple of hours to marinate. (You can make the marinade the day before and marinate overnight).
- Pre-heat oven to 400°F and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil for easy clean-up. Place marinated chicken skin-side up, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Turn temperature down to 375°F.
- Roast the chicken until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh registers between 155°F and 160°F, 35 - 40 minutes.
Archeologists Love Haggis
This January 25, the gang at ASI Archeology will hold their 32nd annual Robert Burns Day office party and Sanagan’s is proud to be their Official Purveyor of the Haggis. Or is it Offal-icial Purveyor?
Our house-made haggis features offal from our Ontario lamb combined with oatmeal, onion, lard and seasoning in an all-natural beef bung. We are honoured to supply it to ASI and to you for your Robbie Burns celebrations.
Martin Cooper is the Senior Archeologist at ASI and the driving force, all these years, behind the party. One assumes he’s steeped in Scottish ancestry and goes around saying things like “ach” while playing golf in the rain.
“I’m actually Jewish. I have no Scottish blood at all”, he explains, with a laugh, from across the boardroom table at ASI’s office on Bathurst Street. “But when I was growing up, my backyard in North York faced onto the backyard of the Colonel of the 48th Highlanders and every summer he’d have the whole pipe band in the backyard”. Who could resist such an onslaught of Scottishness? While majoring in archeology at U of T Martin, a.k.a. Rabbi Burns, minored in Romantic Revivalist poetry, reading lots of the Ploughman Poet. So once he established the original ASI office above his father’s dental practice in the ancestral Kensington/Annex neighbourhood, it went without saying that they’d whoop it up Scottish style every Burn’s Day. “Even then we’d pipe in the haggis. The piper would have to tune up in the patients waiting room”.
Whatever your Burn’s Day party origin story may be, we can help with the haggis. Just call 416-534-9747 and place your order.
Summer in January
Sittin’ in the backyard, tunes playin’, drinkin’ beer, eatin’ fried chicken. Oh man, can’t you just feel the sunshine and the grass between your toes? That’s what we need RIGHT NOW. We need that taste of summer. We need that culinary thaw. We need that greasy getaway. We need fried chicken!
Admittedly, with all the oil and frying smell and everything, fried chicken isn’t the easiest meal to produce but here’s the thing — while sitting around with a group of friends the other night, I mentioned that I was going to be frying chicken and simultaneously three people exclaimed, “did you say fried chicken?” So it’s worth the hassle.
And really it’s not that big a deal. Here’s my tips for relatively spontaneous, delicious fried chicken.
• Brining the chicken or soaking in buttermilk is great but completely unnecessary if you are using fresh, young chicken like Sanagan’s fryers.
• Whole wings, thighs, drums and breasts, cut in two across their length, (this equals 10 pieces out of one chicken) will all cook in about the same time.
• A wok will contain splattering better than a frying pan. A frying pan, however, will accommodate more pieces at once.
• It’s better to fry in batches than crowd the pan.
• Canola or peanut oil will work fine and minimize odors to but don’t underestimate the extra delectability of pure unprocessed lard like we make here at Sanagan’s
• An instant read thermometer will help prevent burning or undercooking your chicken.
• Observe all common sense safety considerations when working with hot oil or fat, i.e. shorts and bare feet may not be the best idea.
FRIED CHICKEN
1. Cut a fryer chicken into 10 pieces (see above) or use precut chicken pieces. DO NOT dry pieces with paper towel. Leave them moist.
2. Mix 1 cup flour, 2 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. pepper in a paper or plastic bag. For more flavour you can also season the chicken pieces directly, prior to coating them in flour.
3. A couple at a time, toss chicken pieces in the bag to coat. Shake excess flour from chicken and place on rack to “set” the coating. This rest can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes before frying. If, after the set, the flour has been absorbed and is no longer visible as a coating, feel free to do another toss and shake before frying.
4. Slip chicken skin side down into 350°F oil or fat. Cover and fry for ten minutes. Try to maintain a constant oil temperature of 300°F - 325°F. Check occasionally to ensure bottom side of chicken isn’t browning too much.
5. Uncover, turn chicken delicately with tongs, and cook uncovered for 8 to 10 more minutes or until breasts reach an internal temperature of 160°F and thighs 170°F - 175°F
6. Don swimsuit and commence to eatin’.
Lamb Shanks with Sumac, Mint, and Roasted Eggplant
A Trip to Forsyth Farm
It was a grey and cool late summer day when Brian and I drove up to Shane and Brenda Forsyth’s farm on the Bruce Peninsula, just off the wind-swept west side of Georgian Bay. The land around this area is difficult to farm – the soil is rocky and not as rich for produce as the land around southern Ontario, where Shane grew up. As a young man, he decided to move north to start his farm; land was cheaper, and anyways, sheep and lamb didn’t need lush vegetation to thrive. This was back in the early eighties – Brenda found her way to the farm the following year, and they’ve been raising a family and their animals ever since.
Shane and Brenda have about 400 ewes on their farm; each one gives birth about three times every two years. One of the reasons I’ve been working with them for over a decade is because their lamb is consistently flavourful, with a lean finish and firm muscle. When asked what they do to maintain this consistency, Shane modestly shrugs and tells me it’s probably because they prefer to raise their lambs in a more traditional way. He explains:
“In modern lambing, lambs are weaned from their mothers at around 6 weeks, then fed a soy-based formula that quickens their development. I prefer to keep them with their mothers for at least 3 months. Then I’ll wean them off, having them eat as much grass as possible. When they get up to eighty pounds, we’ll finish them with lot of hay, and some dried peas, barley, and oats. This will get their weight up to about 110 lbs or so, that’s when they’re ready for market. Sometimes they’ll hit that weight at 5 months, sometimes at 10 months; it all depends on the animal.”
Whatever age Shane and Brenda’s lambs are, one thing is for certain. They produce some of the best tasting meat I’ve had. It may be the wild apples they munch on (wild apple trees are one of few trees that flourish around this part of Ontario). Or maybe it’s the damp cool air blowing off of Georgian Bay that forces the animals to eat a little more to bulk up. Or maybe it’s the care Shane and Brenda have and bring to these animals, day after day. I like to think it’s the latter, and after having spent the day with them, that care can be seen in how they treat guests as well. (I didn’t tell you about Brenda’s delicious cabbage borscht and fresh rolls – that might be for a different post).
Environment Committee Mission Statement
For 10 years, Sanagan's Meat Locker has proven itself to be Toronto's best-loved butcher's shop. From the beginning we have committed to sourcing all of our meat from small, family-run, Ontario farms, raised in the interest of health and flavour, and we're proud to have brought this consistently high-quality meat to our customers. Now, with our global climate crisis escalating to levels of ever-increasing concern, we must do our part to address our own environmental impact in any and every way possible.
Over the coming months, we will be overhauling a number of our practices in the name of becoming not just the leading purveyor of meats in the city, but also the most environmentally friendly butcher's shop here or indeed anywhere else. Some of these changes will take place gradually, others we intend to complete in a matter of weeks. Our long-term goal is to move away from as much single use packaging as possible, and in order to do this we are encouraging as many of our customers as possible to bring their own containers and shopping bags in order to drastically reduce the amount of plastic waste to which we're a contributor. As of January 1st 2020, we will be introducing charges for use of plastic grocery bags and increasing the price of our vac-pack bags. These charges reflect our costs, and the hope is that this move will encourage our customers to bring in their own reusable bags and containers.
As our business has grown this past decade, it's become clear our customers care deeply about the ethics and quality of their meat, and we are confident this passion will translate over to our upcoming changes.
Roasted Prime Rib
Newsletter Subscriber Contest Rules and Regulations
Sanagan’s Meat Locker’s “Newsletter Subscriber’s Appreciation” contest (the “Contest”)
RULES & REGULATIONS (the “Contest Rules”)
CONTEST PERIOD
The Contest runs from 10 a.m. Eastern Time (“ET”) December 2, 2019 to 7 p.m. ET December 15, 2019 (the “Contest Period’”).
CONTEST SPONSOR
The Contest is sponsored by Sanagan’s Meat Locker Ltd. (“Sanagan’s Meat Locker” or the “Contest Sponsor”)
HOW TO ENTER
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
To enter the Contest, give your name, email address, as well as your consent to receive newsletter and additional promotional material to a cashier or counter service employee at a Sanagan’s Meat Locker location (176 Baldwin St, Toronto, ON or 1513 Gerrard St East, Toronto, ON). Enter by filling out the ballot with your full name, signature, e-mail address, and check box. A completed entry form will constitute 1 entry into the Contest.
Although an email account is required in order to participate, no purchase is required in order to enter the Contest. Many public libraries, retail businesses and others offer free access to computers and a number of internet service providers and other companies offer free email accounts.
All eligible Contest entries will be entered for a chance to win the Grand Prize of a $500.00 gift card to Sanagan’s Meat Locker.
ELIGIBILITY
The Contest is open to permanent lawful residents of Canada who are subscribers to the Sanagan’s Meat Locker e-mail newsletter, excluding: i) residents of Quebec, and ii) employees, officers, directors, representatives, and agents (and their immediate family members or persons with whom they are domiciled, whether related or not) of Sanagan’s Meat Locker.
This Contest is subject to all federal, provincial, and municipal laws and regulations. Void where prohibited by law. Contest Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or suspend this Contest in the event of any accident, or administrative or other error of any kind. Contest Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or suspend this Contest in the event of any accident, or administrative or other error of any kind.
An entrant under the age of majority in his/her province of residence (a “Minor”) must have a parent or legal guardian consent to his/her participation. The parent/legal guardian must provide his/her consent and his/her email address on the entry form, or the entry form will be disqualified. Contest Sponsor may contact the parent/legal guardian to confirm proof of identification and parental consent. If a parent or legal guardian does not provide consent, or if satisfactory proof of identification to confirm the winner’s (or the Minor winner’s parent, or legal guardian’s) identity and personal information provided in connection with the Contest, including but not limited to, the winner’s (or the Minor winner’s parent, or legal guardian’s) name and email address, cannot be obtained, the entry will be disqualified.
All entries must be received no later than 7 p.m. ET on December 15, 2019. Contest Sponsor takes no responsibility for entries that are lost, misdirected, delayed, garbled, incorrect, illegible or received after the Contest deadline. Limit 1 entry per person. Only one e-mail address and account may be used by any person to enter the Contest. In the event that Contest Sponsor receives more than the permitted number of entries, Contest Sponsor reserves the right to void and destroy any entries from that entrant and/or household, and that entrant/household may, at the discretion of the Contest Sponsor, be disqualified from the Contest. Should it be discovered that an entrant is using the aid of computer programs to auto-fill entries, that entrant will be immediately disqualified from the Contest. Contest Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify all such contestant from future contests conducted by the Contest Sponsor without further notice.
Contest Sponsor reserves the right to ask for proof of identification, which must be provided upon request. If proof of age and identification cannot be obtained then the entry will be disqualified. In the event of a dispute as to the identity of a winner based on an e-mail address, the winning entry will be deemed to be made by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address at the time of entry. The authorized account holder is the natural person who is assigned an e-mail address by an Internet service provider or other organization responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the e-mail address in question.
PRIZES
There is 1 prize available to be won (the “Prize”). The Prize consists of:
$500.00 Gift Card to Sanagan’s Meat Locker
The approximate retail value of the Prize is $500.00 CDN.
CONTEST DRAW
A random draw will be held at or around 11 a.m on December 16, 2019 at Sanagan’s Meat Locker’s office located at 176 Baldwin St. in Toronto. There will be 1 Grand Prize draw to fulfill this Contest. The chances of being selected to win a Prize in this Contest depend on the total number of eligible entries received.
ACCEPTANCE OF PRIZE
A representative of Sanagan’s Meat Locker will notify each selected entrant by e-mail within 2 days of the draw. Each selected entrant will then have 7 days following receipt thereof to contact Sanagan’s Meat Locker and provide requested documentation to claim his/her Prize. Notification shall be deemed to have occurred on the date the email is sent to the selected entrant’s email address by Sanagan’s Meat Locker. It is the responsibility of the selected entrant to check his or her email account in a timely manner.
Prior to being awarded a Prize, each entrant selected as a winner must correctly complete a mathematical skill testing question and must sign a declaration and release form (“Declaration and Release”) confirming compliance with these Contest Rules, his/her acceptance of the Prize as awarded; and acknowledging the non-responsibility of the Contest Sponsor,, its affiliates, associates, their respective promotional and advertising agencies, and each of their respective employees, officers, directors, agents, successors and assigns (the “Releasees”), with regard to any injury, accident, damage, claim, liability, loss or misfortune related to any aspects of the Contest, any Prize awarded, the acceptance, use, misuse, possession and delivery of a Prize, printing errors or claims based upon publicity rights, defamation or invasion of privacy, by December 24, 2019 at 4 p.m. ET. If a winner is a Minor, his/her parent or legal guardian must sign the Declaration and Release on winner’s behalf in order for the winner to claim his/her Prize.
In the event the selected entrant does not correctly answer the mathematical skill testing question, or sign and return the Declaration and Release, by December 24, 2019 at 4 p.m. ET, he/she will be deemed to have forfeited any rights to the prize and the Contest Sponsor will randomly draw an alternate eligible entry in the same manner from the eligible entries received, and that selected entrant must follow the same process outlined above. This process, as described herein, may be repeated until the Prize has been awarded to an eligible entrant. All decisions of the Contest Sponsor are final and binding.
The Contest Sponsor will not be held responsible for the loss of prizes due to changes in email addresses, mailing addresses or personal information provided by an entrant in connection with this Contest, errors in completed entry forms, or any other circumstances leading to an invalid, erroneous or incomplete mailing address or e-mail address.
Sanagan’s Meat Locker or its appointed designee shall deliver Prizes to winners.
GENERAL CONDITIONS
By submitting an Entry, each entrant (or Minor Entrant’s parent or legal guardian on his/her behalf) agrees to be bound by these Contest Rules. All entries become the property of Sanagan’s Meat Locker and will not be returned.
Prizes must be accepted “as is” and may not be exactly as shown. All Prizes are subject to availability. The Contest Sponsor, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to substitute the Prize or any portion thereof with a prize of equivalent or greater retail value. Some restrictions may apply. Prizes are non-transferable, non-refundable and have no cash value, that is, there is no cash alternative available. All Prize taxes, if any, are the responsibility of the winner.
Except where prohibited by law, the Contest Sponsor does not make any representation or offer any warranty, express or implied, as to the quality or fitness of any Prize awarded in connection with this Contest. The Prize winner understands and acknowledges that he/she may not seek reimbursement or pursue any legal or equitable remedy from the Contest Sponsor should the Prize fail to be fit for its purpose or is in any way unsatisfactory to the Prize winner. The Releasees shall not be responsible in any way for the use of, or bear any liability whatsoever attributable to the Prize awarded in this Contest.
Each entrant agrees to waive all rights with respect to print and broadcast publicity. By entering the Contest and accepting the Prize, winner hereby consents to the reasonable use by the Contest Sponsor of the winner's photograph, voice, likeness and/or image, contents of the entry form, and the name and age of the winner without any further compensation, in all media nor known or hereafter devised, worldwide in perpetuity, in connection with this Contest and for any future promotional activity.
By entering the Contest, entrants agree that the Releasees shall bear no responsibility whatsoever with regard to any claims, liability, damage, injury, accident, loss and/or misfortune related to any aspects of the Contest, the Prize, the acceptance, use, misuse, possession and delivery of the Prize, participation in any Prize related activities, printing errors, claims based upon publicity rights, defamation or invasion of privacy. By consenting to a Minor entrant’s entry into the Contest, the parent/legal guardian of the Minor entrant agrees to the foregoing on the entrant’s behalf.
By entering the Contest and voluntarily providing personal information, each entrant (or the parent or legal guardian of a Minor entrant) consents and agrees to Contest Sponsor’s collection and use of the information provided by the entrant for the purpose of administering this Contest, and, if consent is given at the time of entry, to provide the entrant with marketing information relating to new and existing products and upcoming promotions of Sanagan’s Meat Locker by e-mail.
Your personal information will not be disclosed to any third party nor will you receive communications from the Contest Sponsor unless your explicit opt-in consent is received, in compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Actand its associated regulations, Canada’s Anti-Spam Law and its associated regulations, and other applicable data protection and personal information protection laws. Each entrant (or the parent or legal guardian of a Minor entrant) agrees to be bound by these Contest Rules. No purchase, payment or financial information of any kind is needed to enter or win the Contest.
Entrants agree that the Releasees shall not be liable or responsible for incorrect or inaccurate entry of registration or entry information which may affect an entrants’ ability to participate in the Contest, including but not limited due to any failure of Twitter or Facebook services, the Contest Sponsor’s websites or any failure of the entrant’s email account, or the entrant's cell-phone carrier during the Contest or any human error, technical malfunctions, lost/delayed/corrupted data transmission, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, line failures of any network or telephone line, computer on-line systems, servers, access providers, computer equipment, software, cell-phone networks or any failure thereof or Internet traffic congestion or virus or any combination thereof, or any injury or damage to an entrant's or third party's computer or cell phone occasioned by participating in the Contest.
Sanagan’s Meat Locker reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to cancel, modify or suspend a contest for any reason, including without limitation in the event of any printing, administrative error, virus, bug, unauthorized human intervention or other causes beyond its control which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness or proper conduct of the contest. Any attempt to deliberately damage any website or to undermine the legitimate operation of this Contest is a violation of criminal and civil laws, and should such an attempt be made, Contest Sponsor reserves the right to seek remedies and damages to the fullest extent permitted by law, including criminal prosecution. Entries are subject to verification and will be declared invalid if they are forged, falsified, altered or tampered with in any way.