J&J Grassfed Beef Tacos

Sometimes money is just not enough. For one of their final projects at Cal Poly San Louis Obispo, Jay Shipman and his business partner, Jack Rice, drew up the plans for a sustainable beef business and wrote a grant to get the project funded. They thought it made financial sense, that it was something that would fill a market niche, and the grant organization, SARS, agreed. But life took hold, and the two graduates never put their plan into play. It wasn’t until a few years later, when Jay’s young wife was suffering from the debilitating effects of rheumatoid arthritis, that the plan took flight. By then it was personal.

While conducting research on how to treat her arthritis, an autoimmune disorder, Jay and his wife discovered research that showed eating grass-raised meats and milk, which has a better Omega 3/Omega 6 ratio than corn-fed beef as well as high levels of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), could actually reduce inflammation, prevent chronic diseases including heart disease and arthritis, lower LDL cholesterol and help reduce body fat mass. The problem the couple found, though, in trying to change the way they bought meat, was that there were few grassfed beef options, and those they did find were expensive and inconsistent.

“I grew up on a cattle farm,” says Shipman, “and I wasn’t excited.” This time Jay had personal ownership on raising quality, healthy, grassfed beef to bring to the market—his ideas had changed about what he fed himself, and his burgeoning family. That’s when Jay went back to his college buddy Jack, whose family had been in ranching for a century. Together they became J&J Grassfed Beef.

I first met Jay last summer at the Culver City farmers’ market. I was immediately drawn to the stall, which was sparse, except for a handful of pamphlets, a pristine boxy white freezer, and a young man with wavy, dark blond hair. Jay had the quiet calm of a cowboy and the affable nature of a San Diego surfer, and he talked about the meat in that freezer with pride. It was easy to get excited about all the buzzwords (I had just finished reading Omnivore’s Dilemma, after all): Local, grassfed, no hormones or antibiotics. I brought home a pound of ground beef and made some burgers, and I was hooked.

These days J&J is a real family affair. Jay’s dad, a longtime farmer, helps out on the ranch, and his brother-in-law, Abe, and his wife both help sell the meat at farmers’ markets around the Southland. J&J has two herds of cattle, one that grazes up in Northern California on one of Jack’s ranches, and the other that munches on a mix of grasses down in the Imperial Valley, near the Mexico border. They don’t use specific breeds—their cows are all angus-based, but crossed with other breeds like Charolais and Hereford. They’re moved around the range weekly the old-fashioned way—by horse—and build muscle by eating legumes like alfalfa, which is high in protein, and rye grasses, which is good for the cows’ rumen and full of energy. As the cows move, they fertilize the grasses, making the use of synthetic fertilizers virtually unnecessary. And the grasses they eat are never treated with herbicides or pesticides. This style of ranching, says Jay, eliminates the need for petroleum-based tractors and harvesters and the gasoline that it takes to haul grain all over the place. By pasture raising and finishing the cows, the sun grows the grass, and the cows harvest it.

If their commitment to a natural product weren’t enough, J&J decided to work with a small, local processor, which only runs through about 10-15 animals a week. This helps ensure that the animals are humanely processed and that the beef you’re getting is pure J&J, too. J&J’s beef is then dry-aged, from 10-14 days if it comes form Northern California, and for at least 21 days if it comes from Southern California. And the taste is superlative. Unlike a lot of grassfed beef I’ve found at specialty markets, the meat has great texture and a natural earthy undertone that’s apparent but not overwhelming. It tastes like beef. And it cooks beautifully.

And at a time when financial challenges are making it more difficult to eat your conscience, what really sets J&J’s meat apart from the grassfed beef is that it’s affordable. “We’re a small business, and I’ve got three kids,” Jay told me on the phone recently. “We know how expensive it can be. We’re trying to educate people on the value of roasts. At $5 a pound, you get a cut that’s flavorful and tender, a nice piece of meat. A flatiron steak, at $13 a pound is a great cut for value, too. It’s great for guests.”

J&J is at the Culver City Farmers’ Market every Tuesday, and they start this Sunday at the Atwater Village Farmers’ Market, every other week, until business picks up. You can also find them at Santa Monica on Saturdays, or join one of their CSAs, which they’ll tailor to your family size and meat consumption. If all goes well, maybe we’ll see them at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market soon, too, perhaps with a little nudging of the organizers on the corner of Selma and Ivar.

Until then, enjoy this super-easy (and very tasty, might I add) recipe for taco meat using a cross-rib roast from J&J. This 1.25 pound roast cost me just $6.90 and fed Neal and I a complete dinner with leftovers for a couple of lunches, too. Make your own tortillas and salsa and you’re talking a yummy, kid-friendly, healthy meal for the family for under $10!

J&J Grassfed Beef
www.RangelandBeef.com

Grassfed Beef Tacos
from Jay Shipman, J&J Grassfed Beef

1 cross-rib or chuck roast
1 jar salsa
1 cup beef broth

Place Roast in a crock pot and add ¾-jar of salsa and beef broth.

Let simmer for 5-8 hours depending on your schedule. If needed add a little water to keep meat moist.

Shred the meat and serve over salad or with tortillas and taco makings for a quick taco/burrito night!

Note: If you don’t have a crock pot, don’t despair! I made the tacos pictured above in my Dutch oven. I seared the beef in a little olive oil first, to create a nice brown crust, and then added the salsa and broth. I cooked, covered, at 275 degrees for about 2 ½ hours and the meat was just falling apart. Moist and delicious, these were some of the best tacos we’ve enjoyed in ages. And we love tacos. We topped ours with fresh corn, more salsa, a little crème fraiche and refried beans.

Smoke-Roasted Sage-Crusted Pork Loin with Mostarda di Frutta

I must have been about five the first time my family went camping. It was in New Jersey. But it was nothing like the New Jersey of suburbs and highways and brick and concrete. There were acres of trees in every direction surrounding our campsite and a shallow, clear creek that ran alongside it. Across the road there was a lake and a waterfall.

It’s easy to love camping for the proximity it puts us in to striking natural beauty. It takes us out of our constructed lives, so that we eat and sleep and play by the sun. And regardless if you’re the kind of camper who prefers to reach your outdoor destination by foot or by car, every camper knows the smell of wood smoke. It wraps its fingers around each person sitting around the fire, weaving its way into the fibers of your clothes, working into the follicles of your hair. It infuses your food, from pancakes to burgers to potatoes, with a sweet, earthy smell that is unmistakably simple and natural, like the family hearth from another time.

Unfortunately, we can’t all always be camping. But it’s easier than you think to recreate that wood fire smell without setting your house on fire or spending big bucks. Alton Brown created a smoker on Good Eats using two terracotta planters, a hot plate, a pie tin and some wood chips. An ingenious device to be sure, but I live in a small apartment in Los Angeles with a balcony that barely fits my small gas grill. So I opted for a small, perforated stainless steel smoking box and a bag of untreated hickory chips (though any hardwood: apple, chestnut, walnut or mesquite, for example, would do).

Deciding what to cook was much harder than deciding how to cook it. Poultry, lamb, beef, pork and game all lend themselves to smoking. The trick with this style of grill smoking is to keep it simple. On my little gas ‘cue you can’t escape the flames or vary the temperature much—the low setting is hot and the high setting is hotter—so I knew whatever I was going to make shouldn’t call for cooking over super-low heat for hours and hours.

I finally settled for a variation of the Smoke-Roasted Sage-Crusted Pork Loin with Quick Mostarda di Frutta from June’s grill-devoted issue of Gourmet. It was surprisingly easy and utterly delicious. The leftovers were great on their own, as sandwiches and could have easily been doctored with some eggs for breakfast. And better yet? If you made the mostarda and rubbed your pork with the seasoning paste ahead of time, you could pack it all into your cooler and have an amazing treat for your next car-camping trip (not recommended for backpackers). Cook on a grate near the fire, but not directly over it for that slow-cooked, smoky flavor.

Smoke-Roasted Sage-Crusted Pork Loin with Mostarda di Frutta
adapted from Gourmet Magazine

Note: If you are cooking on a charcoal grill, you can use natural hardwood charcoal for fuel. Cook when the flames go out, though cooking over lower heat will take longer but the results will be delicious.

For the Pork
¼ c olive oil
¼ c coarsely chopped sage
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 2/12 lb pork loin
Kosher salt

For Mostarda di Frutta
1 ¼ cups water
4 tbsp dry brown mustard
½ c distilled white vinegar
¼ c packed brown sugar
1 2/3 mixed dried fruit (I used plums, pears and apricots)
Kosher salt

Equipment
Grill, smoking tin, soaked hardwood chips

Soak a ½ cup of hickory wood chips in water for 30 minutes. Drain and put into your smoking tin. Place on hot grill grates. As the chips heat up they’ll begin to send smoke through the vents.

While the grill is heating mash together oil, sage, fennel and garlic with a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, use a wooden spoon and a bowl. You are trying to make a loose paste.

Rinse your pork loin and pat dry. Season with Kosher salt and pepper then rub all over with seasoning paste.

Turn your grill down to its lowest setting and place your meat on the grates. Put lid on and cook until done, 145 degrees for medium rare, 150 for medium and so on. Remove finish roast and let rest for 20 minutes, covered with foil.

While the pork is roasting, whisk together water and mustard until smooth.

Bring vinegar and brown sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Simmer over very low heat, stirring frequently until thickened, about 10 minutes.

Add mustard mixture and stir in thoroughly, then add dried fruit. Simmer again until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with pork.