WINE • DINING • FOOD • WINE • DINING • FOOD • WINE • DINING • FOOD • WINE
Les Croucher’s Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks
Villagefood By Annabelle Chapple
Up and at ’em for meat men
Michael Carroll, Rayners Gourmet Meats owner. MICHAEL Carroll’s alarm sounds at 4am most days and by 4:30am he’s at his Brunswick Street store tidying shelves and cleaning windows. When his two employees, Les Croucher and Shane Patton, arrive he prepares stove-top espresso, then the trio list the duties of the day ahead at Rayners Gourmet Meats. This has been the 66-year-old’s routine for 41 years. He was in his twenties when he started work at the almost century-old butcher shop and in 1990 he became the first person outside the Rayners family to own the store. On any given day up to 100 customers can breeze through the butchery. The shop also supplies around a dozen restaurants across the city, including 1000 fresh beef patties each week to its neighbour, DA’Burger. We caught up with Michael on ham-smoking day, a 13-hour ritual that results in a genuinely smoke-rich (he says many butchers now use synthetic spray) and succulent ham. Village News: These must be in hot demand at Christmas time? Michael Carroll: December’s a crazy month. We do unbelievable hours at
Christmas. We’re here at 4 o’clock in the morning and sometimes we don’t get home until 8pm. I did just under 1000 hams last year at Christmas. And what’s popular the rest of the year? Overall we’d sell more beef than lamb. Through winter we sell heaps of beef cheeks, oxtail, osso bucco, lamb shanks. It’s become trendy.
Your service is old-fashioned too: you’re always grinning at customers. How do you stay so happy? We’re all pretty happy. It’s just part of the job, I suppose, but of course you enjoy seeing the people too, they become your mates. A lot of nice people come in the shop so it’s a pleasure.
GOSSIP
The founders of popular New Farm eatery Pablo are conquering fresh territory, opening The Priory across the river this August. Amy and Michael Bates’ cafe will be housed in the new Trafalgar Lane development and serve breakfast and lunch daily, plus dinner on weekends. Shop 4, 855 Stanley Street, Woolloongabba villagenews June 2016
olive oil plain flour beef cheeks red wine diced fresh shiitake mushrooms diced canned tomatoes fresh thyme leaves garlic chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
RECIPE
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Dust the beef cheeks with flour. Sear on both sides for a few minutes until lightly browned. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the wine to the frying pan to deglaze. Add the mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Cook until the mixture is simmering. Place the beef cheeks in the slow cooker. Pour the mushroom mixture over the meat. Cook on the lowest setting for 6-8 hours. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with mashed potatoes or polenta. Serves 4
Do you think people come here because they know they can get those old-fashioned cuts? They do … but we get a cross section. We get a lot of the young trendies who want everything quick and easy and we get a lot of the old people too, especially a lot of the older Italians and they want it how it was done 30 years ago. I love a leg of lamb with the fat left on it to bake in it but a lot of people now like all the fat cut right off. Whatever they want, we give them.
Jocelyn’s Provisions has moved after 20 years to make way for a hotel development on James Street. The new shop is just a few doors up from the original, next to Porter’s Paints. After the closure of Vespa Pizza at Newstead in March, there’s some good news for loyalists: owner David Shakespear is eyeing off a couple of New Farm sites to reopen his famed pizzeria.
28
1 tablespoon 50g 1 kg 1 cup 200g 400g 1 bunch 1 clove to garnish
Experience the style and sophistication of Thomson’s Reserve, recently awarded a Chef’s Hat by Brisbane Times Good Food Guide 2016. Be part of the creative process with our
TEST KITCHEN EXPERIENCE.
Enjoy 5 courses for $85pp and discuss the innovative cuisine directly with the chefs - a must for all foodies! Bookings essential on 3226 8888
The New Inchcolm Hotel, 73 Wickham Terrace, Brisbane
www.inchcolm.com.au