Travel Notes: Atlanta Peachtree Road Farmer's Market

Last month I headed to Atlanta for my sister-in-law’s college graduation, it also gave me an opportunity to check out the food scene, and see if there was anything interesting to bring to our Savory Pantry customers. In terms of food this trip exceeded my highest expectations.  We packed a lot in during a 4-day trip and I wanted to share some of my favorite stops and things I loved most about this trip to Atlanta, GA. Today I will start with all the good finds at the Peachtree Road Farmer’s Market.  

Peachtree Rd Farmer’s Market, 2744 Peachtree Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30305

This Farmer’s Market was the perfect size and had a wonderful variety of products.  The Peachtree is known as the largest producer-only farmers market in the state.  What does this mean you ask?  Well everything at the Market has been grown, raised, or made by the seller, which helps keep the pricing down.  Some notable highlights:

The Little Tart Bakeshop Grant Park, Atlanta, GA www.littletartatl.com or 404-348-4797

Everything obviously looked good, but I decided to with the Bacon Cheddar Scone and I was not disappointed.  The French-style bakery focuses on baking with local products and likes to lean towards the savory side of pastries.  Oh and I also picked up their lemon tea cookies, so crisp and the flavor was buttery and lemony, it was perfect for a late-night snack in the hotel.   

Doux South, Decatur, GA www.douxsouth.com

Doux South Pickles has great packaging.  It's fresh, clean and with the glass jars you could see the freshness of the product inside.  I tried the Drunken Tomatoes they were good.  A nice person at the booth, said they are perfectly blended for bloody Mary’s, which I could imagine.  I also tried the Little Rock Caviar, I’m a northern girl, so this was my first time having this delicacy and I loved it.  It is a mix of black-eyed peas, sweet red and green peppers, onions garlic, Worcestershire sauce and vinegars.  (Hopefully you will see them soon on the shelves of The Savory Pantry).

Two other notable finds at this market, was Banner Butter and Verdant Kitchen Ginger.

Banner Butter, Atlanta, GA, bannerbutter.com or 404-401-3735

Banner Butter sells small batched butter that is naturally cultured in Atlanta, GA, using grass fed, hormone-free cows and the freshest ingredients for their flavors. They let the cream set out before churning, so that the natural cultures start to grow.  I’m really not sure how to say this, but IT’S THE BEST BUTTER I HAVE EVER TASTED!! Clean, fresh, not waxy, all good components to a great butter.  My only heart break was that I could not buy it to bring it back home with me!

Verdant Kitchen, Savannah, GA, www.verdantkitchen.com or 912-349-2958

"Our roots are in the sandy loams of the Coastal Low lands of Svannah, Georgia. Live Well & Eat Well with our delicious farm to table products based off our organic ginger crop."

Verdant Kitchen, is all about ginger! Most of the ginger that we eat or that is used in products made in the USA, comes from China, Indonesia, Brazil, and Peru. Verdant Kitchen is one of the very few that grow the root.  They then take these roots and make delicious products, including Ginger Candied Pecans, Ginger Syrup, Crystallized Ginger and Bare Ginger.  The woman that was at the booth, was very knowledgeable and let me try everything… The ginger was spicy and warming but wasn’t overpowering.  We are hoping to have this product grace our shelves soon!

Food in the News

Follow along as we keep up with the latest trends from our favorite food authorities.

• Wines with lower alcohol content becoming more popular for their lower price points and fewer calories. NPR
• Jewish Deli Food makes a comeback with the foodie set.  The New York Times

• Protein Bars utilize cricket flour - yes that kind of cricket!  Edible Brooklyn
• Sure the commercial is obnoxious but we can't deny how much we love using the Veggetti
• Toast made from artisanal breads and topped with specialized spreads have some saying "mmm!" and others saying "hmmm?"  The New Yorker 

Recipe: Grilled Sundried Tomato Pizza

Pizza on Friday was a regular occurrence during my youth. Sometimes we would buy it from a local pizza place, but most of the time my mom would make homemade pizza.  We loved it, especially in the summer because she hated to turn on the oven, so she would use the grill. Grilled Pizza, has been a family tradition for 20+ years and is probably one of my most favorite meals.

There is just something about the crust with a grilled pizza... it's crisp on the outside and the inside is nice and soft.  I also love the fact that you can make them personal sized, so everyone can pick their own toppings.

This type of pizza is perfect for a party. My favorite house party I gave was a grilled pizza party. I set the table with all different sauces, cheese and toppings.  My guests picked what they wanted and when the dough was ready on the grill they added it to the pizza.  It was interactive and fun!

Friday is coming… Get ready and grill!

Grilled Pizza

• 14 oz favorite pre-made dough (room temperature)
• Olive Oil
• Mozzarella (I used Smoked Mozzarella)
• Favorite toppings (I used La Medina Pomodoraccio Semi-Sun-Dried Tomatoes from our shelves at The Savory Pantry) 

1. Preheat your grill on high (make sure the grates are clean)
2. Take half the dough and stretch it to the thickness you like your pizza, if you like really thin pizza I recommend using a rolling pin.  
3. Add pizza directly onto the grates of the grill and shut lid, at this time turn down the temperature to medium.  The bottom of the pizza will start getting brown and releasing from the grates (about 5 minutes), once the bottom half is light brown(or a bit on the dark side if you like a nice crunch), flip the pizza dough.  
4. Brush with olive oil then add sauce, toppings, and cheese. Shut the lid and turn your grill to low. (For the pizza in the pictures, I made an impromptu sauce with a few semi-sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic in a food processor and topped with whole sun dried tomatoes, smoked mozzarella and basil.)
5. Check it after 5 minutes.  If the bottom is brown and the top is not melted yet, shut off the grill and close the lid for an additional 3 minutes. 
6. Slide your pizza from the grill to your plate and enjoy!

From The Maker's Mouth: Elki Gourmet

A longtime staple of The Savory Pantry, Elki Gourmet occupies alot of real estate on our store shelves!  We caught up with Giovanna Norde to get a peek behind the scenes of one of our favorite brands.

Elki is a family owned business, and that familial culture seems to reverberate throughout the company!  Your customer service and support is extraordinary.  How do you manage to maintain that personal touch in the very competitive world of specialty foods? Thank you so much, customer service is very important to all of us at Elki.  We are known industry wide for our hands on customer service, something that is a continual priority for us.  We know that we are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year because of our wonderful customers!  We are honored that they continually look to ELKI for their specialty food needs, we never take that lightly.

What has been your biggest challenge in bringing your products to market? Our biggest challenge is fine tuning our new products so that they have the perfect balance of texture, color and layering of flavors.  It always takes a little longer to get new products to market, we won’t introduce anything until it is absolutely perfect! 

What is it about what you do that you love the most? I love the specialty food industry, I get to work with the most wonderful customers, yourself at the top of that list!  No two days are the same and the excitement when introducing new products to the market is the best!!

What is your favorite Elki product and your most creative way of using it? Oh boy, that’s a tough one, I have several “favorites”.  Our new Caramelized Sweet Onion & Balsamic Crostini Spread is wonderful.  We sourced the onions from Belgium for that perfect taste and consistency, it made all the difference in the world.  I use it as a base on a flatbread and then top it with thinly sliced fresh pears and goat cheese.  I pop it in the oven and baked it until the cheese is softened.  It is amazing!  I’ve made some fantastic pasta dishes by using a combination of ELKI products.  I’ve used the bruschetta’s with the tapenades mixed with hot pasta and topped with fresh herbs and cheeses, thinned our whipped mustards with olive oil to make salad dressings.  The combinations are truly endless, I have so much fun experimenting!

What is your mostmemorable meal? Being in the specialty food industry we get to travel to some of the best cities and dine at the greatest restaurants, as a result I have been fortunate to have several memorable meals.  I love getting fresh sushi as that is something I don’t make at home.

What is your favorite food or food trend? I personally love the shelf stable “open and eat” trend that we are seeing more and more of.   I love that I can get high quality products in a jar ready to use for a quick meal or an appetizer with absolutely no prep work involved.  By the time I  go to the store and buy all the products to make one of our bruschetta’s or pesto I would spend a lot of money and then have to go home and spend more time making it.

What is your biggest (food) guilty pleasure? Being a total “foodie” I have several!  I love the savory flavor profiles, flatbread pizzas are one of my favorites.  I’ve been using our new Crostini Spreads and adding different artisan cheese’s and our grilled vegetables as toppings, delish!  Any of our pestos, bruschettas, tapenades, grilled vegetables and crostini spreads can be used with flatbreads and pasta, experimenting is half the fun!

What's next for Elki? We have several exciting things “in the hopper” so to speak!!!  We will continue on our path of creating the finest products with high quality ingredients for our loyal customers!

Recipe: Easy Bruschetta Mini Pizzas

Homemade pizza doesn't have to be complicated to be delicious.  With a pre-made crust and a jar of Elki bruschetta, you're just a few steps away from enjoying a fresh baked pizza, made to order.  We used pepperidge farm puff pastry dough to create these 2 mini pizzas.  Sure, it comes in a rectangular sheet, but after it thaws you can reshape it on a floured surface however you like. 

For a twist on the classic margherita pizza, we used the Elki Artichoke Tomato Bruschetta.  The bruschetta spread functions as both a sauce and topping, making your pizza building even easier.  Next, we threw on some fresh water mozzarella before baking and finally topped the cooked pizza with sliced tomatoes and fresh basil leaves.

For our second pizza, we used the Elki Artichoke Lemon Pesto.  You could really just use this spread and keep it simple, but we went ahead and added feta cheese, and chopped chicken breast pieces.  (This is a great opportunity to "clean out the fridge" and get creative with toppings!)  A great pizza for someone who isn't fond of red sauce.

We hope you'll take inspirations from our mini pizzas, and create your own with a variety of topping and bruschetta spread combinations!  One mini pizza is perfect for a single entree or slice them for a shared appetizer.

Easy Bruschetta Mini Pizzas

• 1 Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough thawed as per package instructions
• Elki Artichoke Tomato Bruschetta & Elki Artichoke Lemon Pesto
• 1 small chicken breast, cooked and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• Fresh water mozzarella
• Feta cheese
• Fresh Basil
• Fresh roma tomatoes, sliced

1. Preheat your oven to 400.  Once the dough has thawed (on the counter 45 minutes), prepare your work surface with a dusting of flour.  Divide the dough in half to form 2 balls. Roll out with a rolling pin.  Turn up edges around each pizza to forma small crust.
2. Place the 2 pizzas on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick all over with a fork.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.
3. Remove the pre-baked crusts from the oven and spread each with the Elki Artichoke Tomato Bruschetta & Elki Artichoke Lemon Pesto. 
4. Top the Artichoke Tomato pizza with fresh mozzarella.  Top the Artichoke Lemon Pesto pizza with feta and chicken.  Return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven.  Top the Artichoke Tomato pizza with fresh tomato slices and basil leaves.