Black smallgoods to sate even the squeamish
After six years selling wholesale, San Jose Smallgoods last year entered the SA retail market with a store in the Adelaide Central Market.
The company’s products from prosciutto to black chorizo are national award winners, with the care and attention to detail starting with their pigs in the paddock and ending with customer service in store.
San Jose business manager Pascaline Marchi tells InDaily FOOD some of the secrets behind the smallgoods success.
What’s hot right now at San Jose?
Hot right now of course is Delicious Food Award Medal Winner 2013- our wonderful Black Berkshire Jamon – totally free range, SA farmed heritage Berkshire pigs. Some celebrity chefs, who have lived in Spain, have even come looking for it.
Also popular, though less well-known, is our tasty Black Chorizo – a unique version of the Spanish Morcilla or Portuguese Murcela (some also think it is like a blood pudding).
Our Black Chorizo is something even the squeamish at heart will delight in. It consists mainly of pork meat but also has the traditional pork blood, though without any rice, buckwheat or flour to retain the blood (totally gluten free like all San Jose products) so the blood cooks out as it would in a good steak.
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You won’t find offal or lashes of pork fat either. Instead traditional red onion adds to the taste which is finished with our unique blend of herbs, spices, seeds etc. Our Black Chorizo is an excellent match with seafood, poultry and a robust red wine.
Where is it being supplied from?
All San Jose pork products are made exclusively from South Australian female pork from various regions of this state.
Our Berkshire Pigs are raised in open spaces (free to move and forage) near the Coorong in SA by a caring farmer that knows each pig individually.
This ‘good life’, we believe, is reflected in the superb quality of the pork. In addition, we have used Berkshires that were almost part of the family in McLaren Vale and often got out into the nearby vineyards. Perhaps this is why we think the Jamon is so good.
I understand your products are all hand-crafted. What are some of the traditional processes which make artisan smallgoods stand apart from others?
Artisan smallgoods are the products of care and passion. Authentic smallgoods in the European tradition are made exclusively from pork and (sorry boys) it must be female pork only (much sweeter and no boar taint). All work is done by hand, from the careful deboning of fresh pork to remove gristle, glands and excess fat, to the selection of different cuts for various salumi products. Each product has its unique recipe, flavoured with special herbs and spice mixes created from scratch with real ingredients.
Items are encased in natural casings (no artificial casings allowed) and hand strung in various nets or tied to hold their heavy weight from weeks to months or even years. Once spiced, salted, cured (and perhaps smoked and fermented) all salumi needs time to naturally air dry and mature. Correct temperature and humidity control is essential as is the wonderful bloom (white/ blue mould) that must be present to aid the maturing process. This is different to the commercially produced heat treated (cooked) smallgoods produced en masse in Australia. Once ripened, artisan smallgoods have a full aroma and the taste is immediately discernible- sweet, full flavoured and delicate.
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Do you have any goods which have a modern take on a traditional item?
Dried beef in forms such as jerky has been around for some time.
At San Jose however, we produce an aromatic air dried beef popular in modern Italian cuisine, known as Bresaola. Our Bresaola is award winning. More recently we have made a new product- Wagyu Bresaola, from full blood Wagyu beef from our state’s South East. This is export grade wagyu and is multi award winning. We are also producing Wagyu Biltong.
What tips or simple recipes do you have for using prosciutto and/or other smallgoods?
There are so many ways to use quality Prosciutto and Salumi items- where do we start?
San Jose Premium Prosciutto is such a tasty, quality product that it holds its own without the need for embellishment- simple cressini sticks or crusty bread will allow the flavour to shine through. Of course there is the rockmelon (Prosciutto wrapped around it), or figs (Prosciutto and gorgonzola cheese- melted in oven) and even the Brazilian pineapple with the prosciutto wrapped around and finished with a light squeeze of lemon juice. Most recently presented for the Delicious Food Awards, at kitchen by Mike in Sydney- a wonderful pickled watermelon skin was extremely tasty with our Black Pig Jamon.
Black Chorizo with Scallops and sherry cream mustard (optional) and amaretti mash (optional)
Black Chorizo – Blanch Black Chorizo in boiling water for 4 mins. Remove and cool under cold running water or refrigerate for 20 mins to firm up.
Slice chorizo into even rounds. Fry in a dry hot non- stick frypan for a minute each side or until cooked through.
Meanwhile also fry some fresh scallops (remove roe) in small amount of butter for several minutes until ready. Dish up by placing each scallop on top of a chorizo slice (2 per person). Serve with mustard sauce and amaretti mash.
Mustard Sauce– in a small pan, place tablespoon of mustard (of choice), heat until bubbles and add a dash of sherry (or brandy) stirring continuously add ½ cup of cream and heat through. Serve with scallop/ chorizo.
Amaretti Mash– soak 2-3 amaretti biscuits in milk. Cook potatoes and mash with butter. Blend soaked amaretti with mashed potato mixture and serve with chorizo and scallops.
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