The Locally Grown Meal - Leon's Lamb Meatballs and Pate
Ground lamb and chicken livers.
These were the items Leon was given for the appetizer round of our Locally Grown meal. And, as I made the online order for the meat items from Heritage Acres, those two spoke to me (Meat?….Talking?) as possible appetizers.
And, with Leon’s recipes and cooking prowess, it was fantastic!
Anyone who knows Leon, The Local Growers cooking guru, knows he LOVES lamb.
HIs wife, Lori? She’s not a lamb fan, but she was willing to try Leon’s lamb koftas or lamb meatballs as well as the chicken liver pate he prepared.
All meat items were purchased in a frozen state from Heritage Acres. That frozen state, which is how all locally grown meat items are sold, ensures food safety. I brought the items to Leon a good week before our special meal so he had time to thaw and prepare it for cooking.
What About The Meat and Purchasing…
I knew the growers I was purchasing the meats and vegetables from had year-round operations. Heritage Acres by Wadena, has a website and, through that site, has an online store.
Ida Valley Farm by Garfield is at the Alexandria MN Farmers Market and has a Facebook page. I knew they grow and sell micro greens throughout the year to restaurants as well as at the Farmers Market. And they raise root vegetables. I simply messaged them through their Facebook page and made connections for micro greens, rainbow carrots and potatoes.
Once I made my orders, I arranged the day and time to pick everything up and made a trip to Alexandria then Wadena. I just plugged the addresses into my phone’s GPS and followed the route. Easy peasy.
I focus on Heritage Acres for this post since the items used in the appetizers came from this Wadena farm. Heritage Acres raises broiler or meat chickens, laying hens, turkeys and lamb. The lamb dine on succulent grasses and receive a non-GO feed ration which includes oats, corn, minerals and molasses.
The sheep, Katahdin Sheep, are hardy and handle both cold winters and hot summers well, says Heritage Acres owners, brothers Eric and Caleb and their father, Sheldon Munson. The farm is located near Wadena, MN.
Heritage Acres is one of the Local Growers featured on this site.
Check out their website and online ordering at heritageacresmn.com
On to the appetizers!
The Lamb….
The lamb meatballs before Leon cooked them in the wok.
The koftas were lightly spiced and served with a tomato salsa. Leon prepared them in one of his favorite cooking utensils - the wok.
Here’s his recipe:
Lamb Meatballs
-Ingredients:
1# ground lamb
2 green onions, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, smashed and chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp mint leaves, chopped fine
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
-The Cooking Method
Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Form into small rounds, about 1 inch in size. Place on a plate and refrigerate at least 1 hour, but overnight is best.
Before cooking, skewer each meatball with a toothpick and cook in a wok or large fry pan. cook on all sides, but be careful not to overcook. Serve these as an appetizer with a tomato salsa on the side.
The Salsa
4 Roma tomatoes
2 green chili peppers, chopped
1 yellow onion
1 dash of red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp lime juice
-The Method
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until blended. Well season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Note from Leon: Fresh Salsa is always best so I prefer this recipe to serve as a condiment.
Chicken Liver Pate
Leon’s comments on receiving chicken liver in his basket ingredients:
Chicken livers? Well, I’m not sure what there is to do with chicken livers. My mother used to make beef liver and onions for my dad when I was younger. It was one of his favorites, but I’m thinking, not one of mine. So here we have liver of the chicken in front of me…What next?
I poured over my recipe books and came up with something that seems to work quite well.
And it did!
I am with Leon. Liver was not one of my favorites, either, but my husband would often make his own liver pate. When I brought home the leftover pate, well, it didn’t last long. He loved it as much as we did during our appetizer round. This recipe was The Bomb!
Ingredients for the pate
1# fresh chicken livers
2-3 shallots
2 cloves of garlic minced or crushed
1/4 tsp dry nutmeg
2 sticks butter
2-3 springs of fresh thyme
4 tbsp ruby port wine
1 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt and fresh grated black pepper
The relish:
¾ cup of pitted dates very finely chopped
1 shallot diced
1 honey crisp apple finely diced
2 tbsp brown sugar
½ cup dry white wine
1 tbsp orange zest
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
-The Cooking Method
In a small sauce pan add 2 tbsp butter. Throw in the shallots and some of the sprigs of thyme. Cook over medium to high heat, until soft. Then add the garlic, the nutmeg, cooking for another minute or so. Now add in the 4 tbsp of port wine and cook until most of the liquid is reduced.
Now heat a large fry pan to brown the chicken livers in olive oil. I used a wok, but any large pan will do. Once browned, turn the livers over to cook on the other side. Do not overcook the livers. Now add the onion mixture to a food processor until mixed well. Add the cooked chicken livers to the onion mix and blend until the mixture is smooth. Add 1 ½ sticks of butter to the mixture, and blend until all is mixed together. Season with fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt.
Add the patte mixture to a serving bowl, spreading the top surface flat. Then melt the remaining ½ stick of butter, and pour over the patte in the serving bowl. Strip the leaves from a few of the thyme sprigs and sprinkle into the melted butter on the top of the pate. Refrigerate until cooled.
The Relish for the chicken liver patte’:
4 oz. pitted dried dates chopped
4 oz. dried figs chopped
1 small shallot very thinly sliced
1 tart apple like honey crisp or other (diced)
2 tbs. brown sugar
½ c. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. orange zest
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
Include all the ingredients into a small sauce pan. Cook on low heat for about 30 minutes until reduced down to jam texture. Discard the cinnamon stick and the bay leaf. Let cool, then serve with the pate on toast or crackers.
The pate was served on toasted cubes of Pass the Bread’s sourdough. More on Pass the Bread in the future. One thing of note about this sourdough is people who have issues eating gluten are often able to eat it without problems.
I don’t have a lot of pictures of us eating the appetizers because we were so busy munching! It was flavorful and quite tasty. All of the seasonings and herbs melded well with the local meats.
The lamb was tasty and flavorful as was the pate. If mom would’ve served that for my liver intake, I would’ve consumed more of it!
Next article will feature the main meal! Grilled chicken with roasted rainbow carrots and fingerling potatoes plus a salad topped with the micro greens.
My mouth is watering!
We are making plans for another meal whether it’s a small bites meal or soup or stew has yet to be determined. Please message in the comments below if you have suggestions on what you would like to see Leon prepare and if you have local growers I can contact as I source the ingredients.
I hope you enjoy Leon’s recipes. The appetizer round was scrumptious!
And remember to keep it local!
