Tri-tip is an easy, inexpensive cut of meat to prepare.  It is typically 1.5-2.5 pounds and is from the bottom sirloin.  The tri-tip is full of flavor because of excellent marbling and very tender as long as you don’t over cook it. If you are going to take this steak beyond medium then you should probably marinate it.  Below is an easy recipe…just in time for your Labor Day cookouts!

GRILLED MARINATED TRI-TIP ROAST WITH RED ONION COMPOTE
1 Whole Trimmed Tri-Tip roast
1 cup Basic Meat Marinade
1 cup Ginger People Ginger Hickory Sauce

RED ONION COMPOTE
4 medium red onions, peeled, halved and sliced
1 TBL olive oil
1 TBL kosher salt
2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
2 TBL Tomato paste
5 TBL Brown sugar
5 TBL red wine vinegar
1 TBL dry mustard
1 bottle of beer

1. Place tri-tip roast and marinade in bag and refrigerate overnight.
2. Heat oil in large saucepan. Add onions, salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until they just start to caramleize, approximately 8-10 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook another 3-5 minutes or until the onions are caramelized. Add brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, and beer to the onions. Reduce heat to low, place lid just off pan to create a small vent, and continue to simmer slowly, about 30 minutes or until mixture is cooked and has a thick, sauce-like consistency. Stir contents every 10 minutes to prevent sticking. Transfer to a bowl and cool to room temperature.
3. Clean and heat grill. Sear roast on all sides over high direct heat. Transfer to indirect heat with wood chips and cook approximately 45 minutes or until desired doneness. (We recommend medium rare.) Baste with Ginger Hicklury sauce the whole time on indirect heat, turning every five minutes or so.
4. Remove from grill, let rest about 10 minutes and then slice thin against the grain Serve with room temperature onion compote.

Have you ever had Posole Verde?  At any time of year, it is delicious…and our MOST REQUESTED recipe!  Here’s a little history of posole and the Cook’s Fresh Market Recipe follows.  It makes A LOT so plan a party to serve it or share with your family and friends. 

Mexican-style soups are light and full of fresh flavors.  We serve it “straight up” here at CFM every Friday, but it’s also fun to top it with some of the traditional toppings of shredded cabbage, diced avocado, radishes, onions or cilantro.  Also goes well with tortilla chips, tequila and a cold cerveza!  Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Cook’s Fresh Market Posole Verde    (Makes approx 3 gallons)

32 oz hominy
1 pig’s foot
1.25 gallons rich, homemade chicken stock
3 bay leaves
1 TBL Kosher salt
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tsp dried oregano

2 TBL Olive oil
3 oz bacon, diced fine
1 quart onion, diced
2 cups carrots, diced
2 cups celery, diced
1 cup poblano chile, diced
3 TBL minced garlic
4 TBL jalapeno chile, minced
2 guajillo chiles, toasted, soaked, pureed
1 TBL chile powder
1.5 TBL cumin ground

1.75 pounds roasted green chiles, skinned, seeded, diced (hatch or anaheim)
2.25 pounds chicken breast, diced fine or ground
2 quart rich homemade chicken stock
1 quart tomatillo puree (fresh roasted or canned)
2 cups diced tomato, canned
salt and pepper to taste
hot sauce to taste
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Bring stock with hominy, pigs foot, bay leaves, salt, thyme, oregano to a simmer.  Cover and cook over leow heat until very tender and hominy is starting to split, approximately 2+ hours (dried hominy will take longer).  Remove pig’s foot, remove meat, dice and add back to cooked hominy.  Remove bay leaves and thyme sprigs.

Heat olive oil in soup pot; add bacon until cooked half way.  Add onion, carrot, celery, and poblano.  Partially cover and cook until vegetables are tender, stirring often.

Add garlic, jalapneo and cook one additional minute.  Add guajillo puree, chile powder and cumin and cook one additional minute.

Add green chiles, ground chicken, stock, tomatillo and tomato.  Bring to a simmer.  Add cooked hominy with diced pig feet and broth.  Simmer 45-60 minutes.

Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, hot sauce and lime juice to taste.  Finish with cilantro right before serving.

Serve with shredded lettuce and/or cooked cabbage, diced onion, limes, and fried corn tortillas on the side.

The bakery here at Cook’s Fresh Market is one of the first things you see when you come in to the market. Faces lights up and smiles abound when people see the whole cakes, tarts, pies and tortes, cookies, brownies and breakfast pastries. Truly a sweet tooth’s paradise! Would you like to meet our baker and pastry chef, Brian? Here you go….

Q: What’s your favorite dessert to eat? A: Brownies with ice cream.

Q: What’s your favorite dessert to make? A: Ice Cream! Flavor? Vanilla

Q:  Favorite beverage?  A:  Milk…oh, wait…really it’s freshly pureed and strained grape juice!

Q:  Dessert with milk, coffee, wine or another beer?  A:  Milk please!

Q: Did you have a career before you went to culinary school? A: Accounting and I hated sitting behind a desk all day. I went to the New England Culinary Institute and that’s where I met my mentor, Brent Kimbrough.

                                                                             
Q: Favorite baking ingredient:  A:  Honey

Q:  Favorite Cookbook:  The Flavor Bible, In the Sweet Kitchen, Hamelman’s Bread

Q:  Love or hate to “decorate” cakes?  A:  Don’t mind it at all

Q:  Biggest baking disaster?  A:  In culinary school someone put salt in the sugar bin and I used it to make a 30lb batch of buttercream. 

Q:  Favorite thing to cook at home?  Vodka penne with a piece of fried chicken on the side.

Q:  Favorite thing to cook for a date?  Chicken Fra Diablo or Marsala. 

 Personal Info:  Single, 2 yellow labs named Ranger and Caspian, astrological sign is Cancer

There are four basic food groups:  milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles. 

 -Anonymous

That being said, we will explore some of the different brands of chocolates we carry in the market.  We have lots to choose from so we hope to see you soon for your favorites!

BISSINGER’S       This company has been making chocolates in St. Louis since 1927, but originally they started in 17th century Paris.  They have three chocolate shops in St. Louis with one being a “chocolate lounge” featuring confections, desserts, savories, wine and gourmet coffee.  Currently we carry their Caramels and Chocolate Covered Cherries.

VOSGES    These are some sexy chocolates! Katrina Markoff, personally chooses every spice, flower and chocolate that is flown into our Chicago kitchens.  The infusions of rare spices and flowers combined with premium chocolate give a delicate balance of flavor, leaving you with a layered and lingering sensation of spice and chocolate, a true haut-chocolat experience.  On the back of each box she explains how to enjoy an exotic candy bar:  Breathe, See, Smell, Snap, Taste, Sense…aaaahhhhhhh!  Currently we carry the Black Pearl Bar (wasabi, ginger, black sesame seeds), the Woolloomoolloo Bar (macadamia nuts, coconut, hemp seeds), Naga Bar (curry powder, coconut flakes), and the FAMOUS Bacon Bar. 

CHOCOLOVE       These are sooo sweet they even come with a love poem inside!  Choose from Raspberries in Dark Chocolate, Toffee and Almonds in Milk Chocolate, Orange Peel in Dark Chocolate or Decadent Dark Chocolate. 

CHOCOLATE SANTANDER     The only single origin chocolate produced in Colombia and one of South America’s most special, takes its name from the State of Santander, Eastern Colombia. The privileged terrains of the Andean mountains of Yariguies, yields Colombia’s best cacao known by its exquisite and delicate flavor.        We carry 36% cacao milk chocolate, 53% cacao semi-dark, 65% cacao dark, and 70% dark. 

VALRHONA   Chocolate from France.  We carry the Les Grands Crus line, flawless and perfect for melting or baking.

“So noble a confection, more than nectar and ambrosia, the true food of the gods.” Dr. Bachot, 1662

We love Chocolate! 

Cakes, cookies, brownies, bars, dark, white, milk chocolate…you can find it all here at Cook’s Fresh Market.  Below are some facts you may not have known about this delectable bean…

The cocoa bean was discovered over 2000 years ago, in the tropical rainforests of Mesoamerica.  It played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies.

In 1521 with their conquest of Mexico, the Spainards discovered the Aztec custom of drinking chocolate.  When the Spanish brought cacao home, they doctored up the bitter brew with cinnamon and other spices and began sweetening it with sugar. They managed to keep their delicious drink a Spanish secret for almost 100 years before the rest of Europe discovered what they were missing.

Sweetened chocolate soon became the latest and greatest fad to hit the continent. Because cocoa and sugar were expensive, chocolate became the symbol of wealth and power.  By the 1800′s, solid chocolate candy was being mass produced and more affordable to the general public. 

In 1894, Milton Hershey founded the Hershey Chocolate Company in Lancaster, PA.  And the rest, as they say, is history!  America’s (and the world’s) love affair with chocolate continues to grow with every generation!

Next blog…our favorite chocolate bars!

Cook’s Fresh Market has a well-kept secret….Bill Roehl, our butcher. (But please….DON”T keep the secret! Spread the word!)

He can be found on a daily basis behind the meat counter or in the refrigerated meat processing room…scraping, sawing, cutting, slicing.  To pull him out of his “meat cave” to get him to answer some questions was quite the feat, but I managed!  Hope you enjoy the interview:

Q:  What is the strangest request you have recieved…more than once?  A:  Kangaroo Meat!  We used to be able to get it more easily, but now Australia has limited the export of it.

Q:  If you are making your wife dinner, what is it?  A:  Cheerios

Q:  Beef, pork, lamb or poultry?  A:  Sausage 

Q:  Favorite activity after work?  A:  Camping, working in yard/garden, hanging with wife and dog, drinking cold ones

Finally!  We are excited to get our blog up and running because we’ve got lots to say!  We will be posting several times a month, highlighting what’s new in the culinary world and our market, how-to’s and recipes, health related information, contests, special coupons, bios of outstanding employees, customers and more! 

Today’s topic…catering!  Did you know that Cook’s Fresh Market is a one-stop catering shop?  Not only do we do fantastic boxed lunches with our delicious salads and sandwiches, we also offer breakfast deliveries, hot entrees, and OF COURSE, our delicious bake shop items! 

Celebrate Summer Birthdays with a Fresh Strawberry Tart!

There are many reasons why you should consider Cook’s Fresh Market over other “corporate” caterers. First…do you know we bake our own bread for sandwiches?  No preservatives!  Secondly, we use Boar’s Head Deli Meat and Red Bird All Natural Chicken.  Put our bread and these high quality fillings together and you’ve got yourself a might tasty sandwich!  We also make if very convenient to place your order…you can either call, fax or email your order to us.  See our website for details.  We are happy to take last minute orders and do our best to fill them as quickly as possible. It’s still best to call ahead 24 hours, but we are happy to take any orders the day you need them.

In addition to downtown ‘corporate’ catering, we have a large selection of hot and cold hors d’oeuvres and bountiful appetizer platters.  Have you tried our House Smoked Salmon? What about our Spicy Chorizo Stuffed Dates?  You will “WOW” your guests with these items…and have them asking for them time and time again!

Many of our clients have a standing order for Birthday Celebrations.  They order either a large cake or a variety of desserts for delivery on or near the 1st of each month to celebrate the birthday’s of the month in the office.  Great idea!

It is always nice to prepare food for your guests…if you have the time.  If not, give us a call and we’ll put a menu together that will please everyone’s palate!  You can find our catering menu here:  http://cooksfreshmarket.com/catering.html, but don’t let that limit your imagination.  Our professional chefs can accomodate most requests, with enough notice!  Here’s to hosting tasty events!

Cook’s Fresh Market, downtown Denver’s quality corner market, is locally owned and operated by husband and wife team Kristi and Ed Janos along with butcher and partner, Bill Roehl.

Located on the corner of the 16th Street Mall and Glenarm Street, Cook’s Fresh Market caters to downtown residents, workers and visitors supplying fresh and prepared foods in all forms and fancies.

The owners of Cook's Fresh Market

Stop in for a quick breakfast, a healthy lunch or an incredible valued bistro dinner.

Shop for convenient prepared foods, scratch baked goods, groceries, vegetables, fresh fruit, office snacks, gift baskets and much more!

Visit our website at: www.cooksfreshmarket.com