Homemade Pasta and Meat Add Argentinian Flavors to Market

Each week among the fresh vegetable and food stands at the Riverdale Park Farmers Market, is Old Pioneer Kitchen, a stand that sell fresh and processed meat products for farmers market customers to take home with their vegetables and make a full meal.

Grace Brock, of Vienna, Va., creates relationships with local farmers in Somerset, Flat Rock and Shebeen, Va. to find the freshest meat to use in her sausages and meatballs, in addition to the marinated steaks she sells.

Inspired by recipes from her Argentinean grandparents, Brock creates spice blends to use in her meats – including three variations of Argentinean sausages, Mexican chorizo, three variations of Italian sausages, Italian meatballs, and British bangers.

She also sells marinated steaks – some with teriyaki and fajita marinades that are pre-produced, and others with her homemade burgundy pepper and lemon herb.

Her variety of breakfast sausages and bacon are also popular – and her buckboard bacon often sells out, like it did Thursday.

Each week, Old Pioneer Kitchen processes 150 to 200 pounds of meat on Mondays and Tuesdays– including beef, pork and turkey. Brock spends the rest of the week at area farmers markets selling their products. She also sells homemade pastas, after partnering with a native Italian chef from Richmond, Va.

She's been selling their products at the market for four years, and Brock said, she'll try to make new products if her customers ask for them.

The British bangers came from a request from a customer, and she's working on a bratwurst to sell next year.

As a Mexican food connoisseur I love chorizo. The paprika heavy, spicy meat is perfect by itself, with rice or in shrimp jambalaya.

Brock suggested a few recipes to try including a Mexican Country Rice recipe available on her website. One classic recipe is simply known as chorizo and huevos, or eggs, and is commonly found in South American countries or in Mexico.

Chorizo and Huevos

Ingredients:

• 2 chorizo sausages, sliced or take skin off and crumble
• 1 clove of garlic, sliced
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp. of olive oil
• a few sprigs of cilantro

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat.
2. Add garlic and sauté over medium low heat, trying to burn.
3. Add chorizo, and sauté. The sausage will break apart a bit and natural fat will expel from meat.
4. Once slightly browned, add beaten eggs and cook to scramble. The paprika from the sausage may give the eggs a reddish tint, but it's good.
5. Add sprigs of cilantro on top. Serve hot, with tortillas or over rice.