Current news releases—Eat Drink RI is not the source for these items—please follow any links for more information.

Preppy Pig BBQ, Named Rhode Island’s Best BBQ By Thrillist, Announces Brunch At Their Warren Location

Lots of restaurants offer Brunch, but no one is doing it quite like Preppy Pig BBQ in Warren. Beginning Sunday, November 6th from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., a brand new brunch experience begins. Known for its easy, low and slow lifestyle, BBQ has barely crossed into the uncharted New England waters and owner Patrick Boylan DeSocio is doing it right. With custom smokers, quality meats and sides, and a dedicated staff of barbecue enthusiasts, Preppy Pig has received local, regional and national recognition, and for good reason. The menu is classic, authentic and brings people together – just the way a good BBQ joint should.

Brunch at Preppy Pig will feature savory favorites such as Briskets & Gravy with sausage gravy over homemade buttermilk biscuits, a Pulled Pork Benedict on griddle fried cornbread with beef fat potato hash & dressed arugula, and a Monte Cristo Sandwich with house cured ham or bacon, topped with pulled pork, melted Swiss cheese, and caramelized onions on a sweet Portuguese bolo. Also, Preppy Pig is collaborating with the enormously successful PVDonuts to create the Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich. Slow smoked pork, housemade apple butter, and Vermont sharp cheddar will be sandwiched between their maple bacon glazed donut. Of course, no brunch is complete without some boozy beverages to get the day started. Preppy Pig has a full liquor license and will feature a Bloody Mary con Carne.

“We have been working incredibly hard since opening Warren in June and Jamestown in September to assemble the best possible BBQ team around, and we are finally there! I couldn’t be happier with the way things are coming together for us. I have to tip my cap to our amazing staff and the hard work they are putting in to get us to the next level!” said Patrick. “We are more than excited to put this BBQ brunch together and see where it goes. BBQ is always an adventure and we sure are enjoying the ride. Please come on over to our Warren location and saddle on up . . . you won’t be disappointed!”

Enjoy Brunch at Preppy Pig every Sunday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m beginning on Sunday, November 6th.

Sons of Liberty Spirits Co. Releases Gala Apple – a Celebration of Fall in New England

Rhode Island Craft Distillery Recognized for World’s Best Flavored Whiskey Extends First-Ever Seasonal Line with All-New Apple Flavored Whiskey

Sons of Liberty Spirits Co. is proud to announce the newest addition to the first-ever seasonal line of whiskies with Gala Apple.

Gala Apple joins the first U.S. craft whiskey to ever take home World’s Best honors from Whisky Magazine’s annual World Whiskies Awards – Pumpkin Spice Whiskey, in Sons of Liberty’s family of seasonal whiskies.

“We launched the first-ever seasonal line of whiskies in 2012 with the idea that brewers had been crafting seasonal beers for so long, why not bring that concept to whiskey?” said Sons of Liberty Owner, Mike Reppucci. “Being a New England distillery, the seasonal flavors harvested here are awesome to work with and we love pairing those flavors with our whiskies to create a drink appropriate for the season.”

Sons of Liberty utilized more than 9,000 fresh Gala Apples from two Connecticut orchards, Blue Hills Orchard and Drazen Orchards, for its inaugural release of Gala Apple. The apples were brought to New England Cider Company where the apples were shredded into a sauce-like mash called pumice. This mash of apples was then pressed to extract as much juice as possible from the fresh fruit. The Sons of Liberty crew brought the delicious juice back to the distillery where they blended it with a barrel-aged whiskey they made specifically for this release.

The finished product begs to be enjoyed on a cool, New England fall night. The crisp, subtly sweet apple notes pair perfectly with the whiskey to create a drink that is fit for the season. With no artificial flavors added, Gala Apple lacks the sweet, saccharin taste of common flavored spirits and delivers a natural pairing of local seasonal produce and single-malt craft whiskey.

Gala Apple is now available throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

DEM Continues to Promote Growth of Local Agriculture with Latest Grant Awards

Funding supports specialty crop production, sales in Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) today announced $225,524 in grant awards to five local groups working to grow the state’s agricultural sector. The grants, funded under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, support efforts to grow the marketplace and increase local production of specialty crops. USDA defines specialty crops as fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, and nursery crops, including floriculture and turf grass.

“Agriculture is an important, diverse industry poised for growth in Rhode Island,” said DEM Director Janet Coit. “We’re pleased to announce these awards that support our local growers and their businesses as well as increase consumer understanding and demand for Rhode Island’s specialty crops. The work these grant recipients are doing is vital to ensuring the continued viability of agriculture in Rhode Island, and we are proud to be a partner. Kudos to all!”

Grant recipients include:

Farm Fresh Rhode Island – $50,000

Funding supports creation of a farm-to-institution advocacy group focused on increasing use of local specialty crops in school, university, and hospital cafeterias.

Southside Community Land Trust – $25,750

Funding supports creation of a food hub that will collect specialty crops grown at urban farm sites in the Providence area and distribute to Rhode Island’s low-income communities.

Northeast Organic Farming Association of Rhode Island (NOFA/RI) – $20,800

Funding supports NOFA/RI’s efforts to train and provide technical assistance to local organic farmers. Available trainings will include advanced grower seminars and on-farm workshops where organic techniques will be reviewed. Participating farmers also have access to an advisor to support them in producing high-value organic crops.

RI Organic Farm Market – $29,730

Funding supports RI Organic’s market and “Farm Share Baskets” program. Through this program, RI Organic delivers locally sourced, organic and non-GMO specialty crops to Rhode Island residences.

University of Rhode Island – $21,851

Funding supports the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences’ efforts to increase production of African-origin vegetable crops on Rhode Island’s urban farms. Efforts also include educating urban growers and providing community workshops on these crops.

Additionally, DEM received $77,393 under USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program to support its buy local campaign, “Get Fresh, Buy Local.” The funds will be used to help increase consumer awareness and demand for specialty crop products.

Rhode Island is experiencing significant growth in its agricultural and local food sector. The state’s food system now supports 60,000 jobs, and Rhode Island is one of a few states where the number of farms is on the rise, now standing at more than 1,200 farms. The state also leads the nation in the percent of its farms selling directly to the public. Green industries in Rhode Island account for more than 15,000 jobs and contribute $2.5 billion to the economy.

For more information about the Specialty Crop Block Grant awards, visit USDA.gov.

For more information on DEM programs and initiatives, visit www.dem.ri.gov. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RhodeIslandDEM or on Twitter (@RhodeIslandDEM) for timely updates.

Disclosure: Preppy Pig BBQ is a client of Eat Drink RI Marketing Services

All the ingredients needed to create corned beef

One of the quickest and easiest ways to change the flavor of a food is to brine it. Essentially a heavily salted liquid with aromatics, a brine can add flavor to meats and fish, turn vegetables into pickles and, in the case of this month’s Charcutepalooza challenge, alter the profile of beef brisket into the popular March meal: corned beef.

When I was growing up, at some point in mid-March, there would be a pot of boiling water on the stove with an oddly pink piece of meat in it, along with some potatoes and other vegetables. Corned beef, so named because the large salt crystals used to brine the brisket resembled kernels of corn, the very Irish-American dish, was always served around St. Patrick’s Day in our Armenian-American home. I never really cared for it and when I no longer lived at home it wasn’t something I ever considered cooking for myself.

Around ten years ago I learned about brining from the same person it seems as if most of the world learned it from, Alton Brown. O.K., maybe I’m exaggerating, but it did seem like Brown brined a turkey on Good Eats and suddenly every home cook was trying it. In the days before I could easily find pasture-raised chicken, turkey or pork, brining made a world of difference in the flavor of supermarket meats that had had all the taste bred out of them. Now that I’m fortunate enough to buy really excellent local meat, I don’t brine as much as I used to, but it’s still an excellent technique for older chickens or very lean cuts of pork like chops or loin.

Charcutepalooza

Or in the case of beef brisket, because you can turn it into corned beef that actually tastes delicious and not at all like something displayed in a huge pile in a supermarket refrigerated display once a year. A brined brisket can also be smoked and steamed into pastrami perfection, but to paraphrase Brown, that’s another article.

The corned beef you’ll see below started like most of my corned beef and pastrami creations of the last few years, with a good size, pasture-raised, 100% Angus brisket from Blackbird Farm (I work with the farm, but certainly wouldn’t work there if I didn’t love their beef). My brine is a combination of ingredients from a few different sources that I’ve played with over the years. When I began to assemble everything, the photograph you see above came into my head and I had to make it (see last photo for exactly what’s what). A few people who’ve seen the photo already have asked why the pink curing salt is still in it’s bag and not in a bowl. That’s because I have a crawling 1-year-old and while it may be an adventure if she gets a hold of a peppercorn or juniper berry, the nitrite should be kept secure (and then I thought the red pepper flakes and tiny mustard seeds were probably a bad idea to let loose on the floor as well). So after making the brine and submerging the brisket for about seven days in the refrigerator, I then had (uncooked) corned beef.

It’s been over twenty years since I’ve had to endure the Dadekian mid-March corned beef. In the meantime, I married an Irish-American girl whose family loves a boiled dinner. So now I happily “corn” a brisket a few times a year and the other night we had a Dadekian mid-March corned beef dinner, complete with boiled potatoes, carrots and onions. My mother-in-law made soda bread so I made rye. Hopefully, my Irish-Armenian-American daughters Brigid and Moira will look forward to it each year.

Notes:

My photos this month reflect a close-up look at brisket and the striations in this heavily used muscle (kind of the breast of the animal). When cutting brisket, be it corned beef or pastrami or just cooked as it is, it’s recommended to slice across the grain, to get a piece where all those muscle fibers are short and easier to chew.
Also, like my bacon, the brisket never leaves a refrigerator or stove-top, so pink curing salt is not a necessity here. However, if you don’t use pink salt your final boiled corned beef will be more of a gray color than the vibrant red we’ve come to know. I’ve had to get pink salt online at The Spice House. There is now a locally available source, Persimmon Provisions in Barrington, Rhode Island.
Fittingly enough, I’ll be at Claddagh Farms on St. Patrick’s Day this year, at the Cochon & Charcuterie Workshop given by @Podchef, Kate Hill & Dominique Chapolard. There is a waitlist for the main workshop, but space is still available for the prequel day slaughter.
Thanks again to Mrs. Wheelbarrow and The Yummy Mummy for the Charcutepalooza fun.