Lindy & Grundy at Artisinal LA or How I Won Pork and What I Did with It

** photo by Val of Trippy Food

I attended Artisinal LA this past weekend and the most compelling demonstration had to be the Lindy & Grundy demo. I met the two butchers while dining at Test Kitchen a few weeks back and been anticipating their shop opening soon. Although I never saw my grandmother in action, she was a pork butcher and I come from a long line of people who enjoy their pork.

Growing up American meant anonymous packages of meat bought at box supermarkets. Growing up Chinese meant accompanying my relatives on their errands which inevitably involved buying freshly slaughtered meat, or at least chickens. I may be a little bit more American than Chinese these days as I speedily grab packages from supermarkets. But there is no denying the flavor of fresh meat, especially organic meat.

Lindy, Tim, Grundy and Chef Christian Page of the Daily Dose as MC

I didn’t attend the first day where Lindy & Grundy gave away the pig’s head. They joked they looked for a two-headed pig to no avail. Watching them butcher 1/2 of a pig took what seemed about 20 minutes. Grundy later told me the record was 19 seconds or something insanely crazy like that. And I thought she was being super fast!

I loved the idea of knowing where your food comes from. Lindy & Grundy are focused on bringing meat from local ranchers. They plan to have “meet the rancher” nights, sausage making classes, a smoker to make bacon and a small kitchen. Can we say charcuterie?

Later I would win a picnic roast and it took me probably 20 minutes to cut it up into bite-sized stew pieces. My hand still hurts two days later. Maybe I need to borrow a knife from the gals.

Since I am a stir-fry home cook with an oven I never use (I don’t bake), I found myself wondering what the hell am I going to do with this pork? I decided on a stew. Except it didn’t thicken so we’re going to call it soup.**

The Minty’s Pork & Vegetable Soup

• picnic roast, cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
• 5 carrots
• 2 medium onions
• 2 chayote squash
• 2 Mexican squash
• 4 celery stalks
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1/2 head of cabbage
• 1 pound of Brussels sprouts
• 3 oz. ground beef
• chicken stock
• 2 tsp canola oil
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs worcester sauce
• 1/4 cup sake

Spices

• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 3-4 grinds of pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground celery seed
• 1/2  tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 4-5 small bay leaves

Combine all the spices with soy, worcester, sake, canola oil. If you have time, let it marinate with the pork an hour or two in the fridge. If you have no time, dump everything in the wok like I did. After you’ve browned the meat (15 minutes) along with the ground beef, let it simmer with the chicken stock (with equal parts water) and vegetables. Put the more tender veggies in 30 to 45 minutes in.

I let this simmer on low-heat for about an hour and half.

The next day, I portioned some out and added a handful of porcini mushrooms and green onions to some barley. It made an even better soup.

Today, I ate it with quinoa and a side of kimchi.

Tomorrow…ah, let’s see what I do with it tomorrow. Maybe some noodles!

** If I had added cornstarch or flour to the mix, it would have thickened into stew. I most likely had too much liquid in the pot. That’s all right, I love soup.

 

Lindy & Grundy

(opening in December)

801 N. Fairfax

Los Angeles, CA 90046

Follow them on Twitter