Homestead Cooking at It’s Finest

May 16th, 2012 the Sunburst Market on Montgomery held it’s first Summer Pasture Dinner. It is the first of four planned dinners taking place over the Summer.  The first dinner was held at Apple Hill Farms located on the old Plott Family Farm in Waynesville, NC.  The theme was homestead cooking and this was not your typical down home cuisine.  With easy tunes from Caleb Hensley playing in the background, a fire pit blazing, there was good company and great stories.

This night was started with wine and a “Shine Cocktail” from the Spring House, and hors d’oeuvres  of Ash-Roasted Potatoes, Sunburst Trout Caviar and Creme Fraiche as well as Annie’s Bread with Dark Cove Goat Cheese, and Asparagus.

The menu then moved on to a family style setting meat and three with local chicken and dumplings, greens, carrots, and salad. The best was the dessert, a twist on traditional strawberry short cake. A molasses cake with strawberries, creme and shine.

Chef Clay and Travis plating the first course.

Family Style Homestead Cooking

Dessert

The next Summer Pasture Dinner is June 20th at Sunburst Trout Farms and is already sold out, but tickets still remain for our July 25th Dinner at Sunburst Beef Farm – Please no vegetarians!

Click here for more pictures from the dinner.

WNC Chefs Challenge 2012 Heat #2

May 15th was our Second Heat in the WNC Magazine’s Wine and Food festival Chefs Challenge. While we were not as successful as our first heat we are already planning for next year! The secret ingredient of the night was Blueberries, and it was definitely a tasty evening.

Here is a recap of the event.

Dish #1 – Team Sunburst

Grilled green tomato with bacon crab and avacado relish, saffron risotto, crouton and Blueberry Buerre Rouge.

Dish #2 – Team LAB

Gorgonzola Blueberry puffs, citrus blueberry cream, bacon candied cashew, blueberry lavosh.

Dish #3 – Team LAB

Blueberry ginger short ribs, braised in Pisgah Blueberry Ale ginger ale tempura friend blueberry -spicy shrimp roll, sesame glazed asparagus.

Dish #4 – Team Sunburst

Blueberry roasted pork loin, spring vegetable mac and cheese, Lusty Monk asparagus, and pickled blueberry.

Dish #5 – Team Sunburst

Baked blueberry cream cheese turnover , vanilla ice cream, blueberry caramel sauce, and chocolate covered blueberries.

Dish #6 – Team LAB

Blueberry chocolate strudel, blueberry white chocolate ice cream, candied blueberries and caramel.

Here’s to next year!

WNC Chefs Challenge 2012 Heat #1

April 10th, 2012 was our first heat in this years WNC Magazine Wine and Food Festival Chefs Challenge. We competed against the Red Stag Grill from the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Asheville. It was quite an evening with amazing food and great competition. The secret ingredient was Crooked Creek Corn, a varietal that has been around since the 1800s, and is what makes Troy & Sons Moonshine (we were lucky enough to be able to use this in our dishes!). In the end Sunburst won by a narrow .04% margin! Our next heat is against the winner of the LAB vs The Magnetic Field on May 15th.

Here is a recap of the event…

Dish # 1 Vidalia Onion and Crab Bisque with a Cornmeal Cracker. Team Red Stag

Dish #2 Seafood Scrapple with Molasses Mustard and Pickled Cabbage. Team Sunburst

Dish #3 Shrimp Sausage and Pimento Cheese grits with Tasso Gravy. Team Red Stag and the #1 dish of the night.

Dish #4 Rosemary Roasted Venison Lion with Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Grits with Crispy Cornmeal Vegetables. Team Sunburst and the #4 dish of the night.

Dish #5 Moonshine Pie with Apples, Troy & Sons Moonshine, Sweet Bacon Grit Cream. Team Red Stag and the #3 dish of the night.

Dish #6 Cornmeal Stack Cake with Troy & Sons Moonshine Caramel. Team Sunburst and the #2 dish of the night.

Our Winning Team from Left to Right ~ Chef Charles Hudson, Chef Becky Gaddis and Chef Clay Hughes

See everyone May 15th!

Caviar from Canton to Kilkinney

We are excited for our friends across the pond in Kilkenny, Ireland, they have just produced their first Trout Caviar! We met the Kirwin’s, Mag and Ger, from Goatsbridge Trout Farm two years ago when they came to our part of the world to see how we processed trout and made Trout Caviar. Then our R & D Chef Charles went there to help them harvest their first roe.

Fast forward to now and they are harvesting and selling their delicacy to restaurants in Ireland. They even received rave reviews from the most delicate of palates at at Bord Bia showcase in Dublin recently.

To learn more about the Goatsbridge Trout Caviar click on the links below.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0307/1224312918060.html

http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/russian-buyers-take-bait-as-irelands-first-trout-caviar-goes-down-a-treat-186228.html

Congratulations to Mag and Ger on their new venture!

Sunburst Market Isn’t Just for Trout

In January we decided to have a cooking demonstration at the Sunburst Market on Montgomery in Waynesville. We started out with what we knew, Trout. Our soon to be family chef, Clay Hughes, took the helm and showed us all how to prepare an amazing trout dish. It was so successful and delicious we decided to do it again in February. This time using our local beef supplier, Sunburst Beef. Sunburst Beef is a century farm located down the road from us in the Bethel area of Waynesville. They do a mixture of grass and grain fed cattle, and we carry both year round at the market.

Owner Vicki Hyatt of Sunburst Beef

For this demonstration Chef Clay made ”Clay-vanna’”s Meatball Recipe, homemade gnocchi, and marina sauce.

Clay-vanna’s Meatballs

1 lb Ground Beef Round 90/10 or 85-15 (Preferably Sunburst Natural Beef)

3/4 cup Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs

1/2 cup Chicken Broth or Stock

1/4 cup Heavy Cream

1 Whole Egg + 1 Egg Yolk

1/4 cup Parsley (finely chopped)

3 large cloves Garlic (minced)

1 tbl Salt

1 tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Optional – add 2 cups of Braised Short Rib or Oxtail meat (cleaned and chopped)

Mix all ingredients by hand or in a “Kitchen-aid type” stand mixer until thoroughly combined

Form into desired shape by hand or cookie scoop….

Cook to a minimum of 160 degrees fahrenheit

Enjoy with your favorite pasta and marinara sauce!

The Finished Product

Here  is a link to the gnocchi recipe he used that night.

Enjoy some of the other pictures from the evening.

Caviar and Potato Chips

Chef Clay Putting it Together

It’s Been a Whirlwind

It’s been a few weeks since I have posted a blog, but it has been a whirlwind! Here is a recap of all that has been going on and what’s upcoming so you don’t miss anything.

On October 28th we had our Grand Opening Celebration for the Sunburst Market on Montgomery.

The celebration was such a great success we decided to have a monthly gathering with samples, wine and good company. Come in to sign up for our weekly Market newsletter to find out about our monthly gatherings. The newsletter will tell you about lunch that we started serving at the Market on November 2nd. The first week it was Trout Pasta Salad and Trout Chowder with an Annie’s Bakery Roll, Yum!

To keep the momentum going for the new store we also had our ribbon cutting with the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce on November 10th.

The Farm has also been busy. We were a part over the weekend of the Highlands Culinary Weekend where we had a live trout demonstration with Chef Johannes from Old Edwards Inn.

We have even more going on as the Holidays draw near. Be sure to like us on our Sunburst Trout Farms Facebook page as well as our Sunburst Market on Montgomery Facebook page to keep up to date on all our exciting happenings, Holiday specials, and next Market gathering.

Sunburst Market on Montgomery

It is amazing what you can do in less than a week. At Sunburst we opened a retail store in Downtown Waynesville! On Friday October 7th we got the call that we were the new lessee’s of a retail space on Montgomery St in Waynesville, North Carolina. Waynesville is where most of the Sunburst Family calls home and only 15 minutes and 10 miles from the Farm.

The space is great, but with many spaces that have not been used for a while it needed a little Sunburst Love.

Everyone pitched in to paint and clean and rearrange.

By Thursday October 13th things were really coming together. We had picked up our coffee, which will be the Sunburst Market Blend made by Smoky Mountain Roasters in Waynesville. We had also found out Sunburst Beef will be bringing grass and grain fed beef starting October 25th and we also have a candle made by Hazelwood Soap Company being created especially for the Sunburst Market coming in the next week or so.

Then on October 14th we opened!

Our First Customer!

We want the Sunburst Market on Montgomery to be a place to not only get your favorite Trout, but to also be a community space where you can come and get a cup of coffee, read a paper and chat a bit.

Our Shop Girl Katie!

Come shop with us Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm and be sure to like us on the Market’s own Facebook Page.

Join us for our Grand Opening Celebration October 27th from 3:30-6pm and then again November 10 at 11am for our ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce!

Creating Local Love

Saturday September 10th the benefit for Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) happened at our Sister Restaurant Canyon Kitchen in Cashiers, NC. A week or so ago I did a post leading up to the event, and now that the event has happened here is a recap.

We started our night being welcomed into the beautiful setting of Lonesome Valley. Lonesome Valley was a working farm from the 1940s until the mid 1980s. It was of course the birthplace of Sunburst Trout in 1948. The weather was perfect and so was the venue of a previous farm and eating dinner in the Jennings Barn that is Canyon Kitchen.

As everyone gathered over a, now legal, truly Southern cocktail, Troy and Sons Moonshine and Cheerwine. Called Moonwine Sparkler. We all got to know each other a little better. It was a truly intimate evening.

It was then time to be seated, and everyone had assigned seating so you could get to know someone new. I was fortunate enough to sit with the Haye’s, Ashley and Chef Adam from the Red Stagg Grill.

When we sat down at the table we were served family style, as Canyon Kitchen likes to do, our Snacks. Goat Cheese Gnudi Lobster Mushrooms and Sage Brown Butter, the mushrooms were foraged by one of the kitchen staff in Highlands. Berber Pizza with Fig Relish, Caramelized Onions and Benton’s 25 Month Prosciutto. Double Deviled Eggs, and Nana’s Corn-Pickled Okra.

We then had three Entrees. The first was the Lime-Fennel Pollen Cured Sunburst Trout with Heirloom Tomatoes and Sorrel Wood Roasted Tomato Essence.

The next course was Rhubarb Glazed Lamb Belly with Butternut Squash and Judion Bean Ragout and Collard Green Kim Chee. A side note the Rhubarb is an heirloom variety grown by the operation manager at Sunburst Trout.

The last Entree was a Cocoa Nib-Porcini Rubbed Carolina Bison Rib Eye with Lyonnaise Creamer Potatoes, Short Rib Sauce and Chili Braised Tuscan Kale.

The last course was dessert and it did not disappoint. Spiced Raspberry Shortcake with raspberries from a local berry farm in Waynesville, NC, with Vanilla Creme Fraiche. Almond Chocolate Bar Crunch. As well as Pack Square Cheese with Honey Crisp, Black Walnut and Tulip Poplar Honey from Busy Bees Honey.

The meal was amazing, the Chef was amazing, the company was amazing and the organization we were celebrating is AMAZING!

Join us this Thursday September 15th from 3-6pm at Ingles Brevard to see ASAP at work. With a cooking demonstration with Sunburst, Appalachian Ratatouille.

Appalachian Ratatouille

A Taste of Local Event

We are yet again partnering with Ingles Markets and other local farmers to bring you a Taste of Local Event. This time we will be at the Ingles in Brevard cooking an Appalachian Ratatouille.

Sunburst will be sampling dip with Annie’s Natural Breads and jam from Imladris Farm. CL Henderson Apples will be  providing the apples for the Ratatouille, and Empire Distributing will be serving up wine to compliment the dish. We love being a part of these cooking demonstrations throughout the year, they really give a true sense of how to shop and cook local.

We hope you can join us for this fun event Thursday, September 15th from 3-6pm. We will sample dip, bread and jam from 3-4pm then do a cooking demonstration from 4-4:45pm. We will sample again after the demonstration until 6pm.

Appalachian Ratatouille

by Chef Charles Hudson
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 Medium Yellow Onion (0.5#), Peeled & Diced

6 Cloves Garlic, Peeled & Diced

2 Small Eggplant (0.5#) Peeled & Diced

1 Large Tomato (0.8#), Peeled & Diced

1 tsp. Kosher salt

1 Cup Cool Water

2 Tbls. Olive Oil

1 tsp. Dried Thyme

1 Med. Zucchini (0.35#) Seeded & Diced

1 Med Y. Squash (0.35#) Seeded & Diced

1 Small R. Bell Pepper (0.25#) Seeded & Diced

1 Small G. Bell Pepper (0.25#) Seeded & Diced

1 Gala Apple (0.35#), Cored & Diced

1 Golden Delicious Apple (0.35#), Cored & Diced

2 Tbls. Olive Oil

1 tsp. Kosher salt

¼ tsp. Ground Cloves

¼ tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/8 tsp. Ground Nutmeg

Fresh Ground Pepper

Procedure:

This is a 2 pan procedure

Combine 1 tsp salt with water

Soak Eggplant in water for approx. 20 Min

Drain & pat dry on clean towels

Heat 2 Tbls. Olive Oil in heavy bottom sauce pan over medium heat.

Add Onion & Garlic & cook until soft & slightly brown (5-7 min)

Add eggplant & cook for approx 5 min

Add tomato & thyme, cook for another 8-11 min.

After the tomato & eggplant mixture has cooked for about 5 minutes begin cooking the zucchini mixture.

In a large sauté pan heat the remaining 2 Tbls. Olive Oil over medium high Heat.

Add Zucchini & squash, cook for about 2 min.

Add Apples, Peppers, & remaining Dry Spices

Continue to cook until apples are fork tender (about 4 min.)

Combine apple mixture with eggplant mixture.

Lime Basil Grilled Trout Fillets

Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 Sunburst Trout Fillets
Juice of 1 lime
One Handful of Fresh Basil Leaves (about 1 oz)
2 Cloves Garlic Chopped
¼ Cup Olive Oil
1 tsp. Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1 tsp. Fresh Ground Pepper

Procedure:

Make Marinade: Chop basil & mince garlic, Combine with lime Juice, Olive oil, Salt & Pepper
Add marinade to fresh trout fillets
Marinate Fillets for at least an hour before grilling

To Grill Trout:
Preheat Grill to medium high to high heat. Remove fillets from Marinade, & place on a well oiled pre-heated grill.
Start flesh side down for about 3 minutes then flip to skin side down & cook 2-3 minutes.

Local Love in Lonesome

Local Love in Lonesome a dinner to benefit ASAP.

Every year there are a few special dinners held to benefit the organization that benefits so many, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project or ASAP. The last of the these dinners was held at Knife and Fork in Spruce Pine, NC was from all accounts a spectacular event! Our sister Restaurant Canyon Kitchen located in the breath taking setting of Lonesome Valley is to hold the next dinner on September 10th to support ASAP.

It is such an honor to be a part of Sunburst, Canyon Kitchen, and Lonesome Valley and therefore able to help to benefit ASAP. ASAP’s mission from their website is to “create and expand local food markets that will preserve our agricultural heritage, give everyone access to fresh, healthy food, and keep our farmers farming. Our mission is to help local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food.” Sunburst is a direct benefactor from all that ASAP does, from the Asheville City Market to conferences to local food events where Sunburst is very often spot lighted, even a Family Farm Tour to teach our children where their food comes from.

The next dinner to benefit ASAP will be held at Canyon Kitchen at Lonesome Valley and the theme is Local Love in Lonesome. The invitations are being sent out and yes I took the pictures and yes that is my daughter on the front(4th generation of Sunburst)! Chef Fleer has even given me a teaser for the dinner, here is an excerpt from it….

This is a celebration of intersections.  We’ll find ourselves at the crossroads of growing seasons, as summer wanes and cool fall nights begin to set in.  We can still expect to see an abundance of tomatoes and late season sweet corn.  But we can also expect to see those heady fall mushrooms like lobsters, black trumpets and boletes all foraged here in the Highlands.

The dinner at Canyon Kitchen will also represent an intersection of the Highlands-Cashiers agricultural community and the greater Western North Carolina community that ASAP supports.  You can expect to see Canyon Kitchen’s immediate agricultural community of Jackson and Macon counties represented as well as representation from our broader locale.

 Additionally, with a more global sustainability stroke, we are enlisting support for this benefit dinner from several of the best producers from Canyon Kitchen’s “all organic, sustainable or biodynamic” wine program.

I know I am ready for the September 10th dinner!

Tickets are $100 per person and can be purchased by calling 828-743-7967 or email kristen@lonesomevalley.com