Late Summer Kabobs and Lefthand-Sawtooth Beers
Although there’s no chill in the air just yet, the telltale signs of fall—stronger evening winds and shorter days—are beginning to show. While there’s still time, we’re doing our best to soak up the summer bounty, integrating seasonal produce into our lunch and dinner menus.
Among the offerings is a Marinated Summer Vegetable and Beef Kabob, which we pair with a Nitro Cream Ale from Lefthand-Sawtooth, a Longmont, CO-based brewery that we spotlighted recently on our Tumblr. As for the Kabobs, they feature all natural grass fed beef, heirloom tomato, onion and summer squash, and are served with a roasted red pepper coulis.
The term “all natural” is thrown around quite a bit, but grass fed is a certifiable concept. Civil Eats writer Kathryn Quanbeck went into detail about the advantages of grass fed beef, specifically its “superior quality and flavor.” But why, exactly, does it taste so much better than conventional beef? According to Quanbeck, a grass fed diet and accompanying “rotational grazing patterns contribute to low caloric intake and high activity, which means that grassfed cattle take a longer time to reach their slaughter weight,” and age is crucial to taste. Quanbeck explains, “If the cow is too young, its meat will lack flavor. If the cow is too old, its meat can be tough.”
Furthermore, grass fed beef has health benefits for consumers, according to Dr. Steve Atchley, who gave his two cents in a Time article on the explosion of grass fed farming in the U.S. Atchley, a cardiologist who launched his own organic food company, says, “Any feedlot-fattened animal has a much higher level of saturated fat than a forage-fed steer,”
And those heirloom tomatoes? They’re tasty enough to eat on their own, as the Amateur Gourmet discussed in a recent post featuring an easy recipes for an heirloom tomato salad with chunks of homemade croutons and ricotta salata. But when grilled and added to kebabs, their flavor is just as hard to resist.
Tags: grass fed beef, heirloom tomatoes, kabobs, Lefthand-Sawtooth Brewery, summer menu
