Eat alfresco with Al'FreshCo

I love eating and cooking with local, seasonal produce; I am all for supporting our local growers; and I am a bit of a fan of the funny and cheeky Alastair McLeod (chef/TV personality; you may recall his name from one of my previous posts). So when I read about his new business venture, Al'FreshCo, that focuses on promoting exactly these things, I knew I had to check it out.

 

The Al'FreshCo market stall at the Jan Powers Farmers Market in the Brisbane CBD
 http://alfreshco.com.au/

As its banner suggests, this company offers a private catering service; sells pantry staples created using local produce; and has market stalls which offer various lunchtime goodies, again made with fresh ingredients sourced from local producers. At the moment, its market stalls are only at the Jan Powers Farmers Markets in New Farm (the fortnightly Saturday Powerhouse markets) and on Queen Street, in the Brisbane CBD (markets are there every Wednesday, but Al'FreshCo will only be there every fortnight). I went to the City markets two weeks ago to see what was on offer that day, and ended up spending almost $30 at that one stall!

The day's menu
 

After much deliberation, I ended up choosing the Sausage Turnover and the Croque 'Madman'. Just for the record, I'm not a greedy glut; I bought the food to share with my sister :P

 

The sausage turnover was made with free-range Leyburn pork, flavoured with fennel, and served with a little salad side of rocket, pickles and zucchini, along with some lovely (presumably) homemade BBQ-esque sauce. I think it's fair to say that it's the best sausage roll I've ever tasted: the pastry was nice and flaky, the meat actually looked and tasted like real minced pork (unlike the heavily processed meat we typically see in commercially available sausage rolls), and it was, on the the whole, quite flavoursome. Fennel and pork go so well together; I wonder why I've never tried this combo before? I love incorporating various herbs and spices into dishes, so I think I'll pinch this flavour idea of Alastair's :) 

 

I wasn't sure if the sauce was for drizzling over the salad or to dip the sausage turnover in, so I ended up doing a bit of both. The sauce didn't taste, or look, like store-bought BBQ sauce - indeed, it was by far superior - and it had a bit of zing to it. I wonder if it's one of the bottled home-made sauces that he sells at his market stall? If not, I'd love to have his recipe for it!

 



 

The Croque 'Madman' was a made-to-order item, and was composed of shaved ham, gruyère cheese, dijon mustard and an organic egg (you can choose runny or cooked) sandwiched between two slices of sourdough, the whole of which is then lightly toasted between a sandwich press. Just so that you're aware, while its title suggests it would be somewhat similar to a croque monsieur or madame, it's actually more like just a nice toasted ham, cheese and egg sandwich, since the egg is inside as opposed to on top of the sandwich, and it is in want of that cheesey béchamel sauce, which is characteristic of the French classic.

 

 

The last thing I bought from the stall was a jar of their Green Manzanillo Olivada, which is essentially like an olive tapenade. It is made with a combination of chopped green manzanillo olives, garlic, capers, currants, the ever-so-popular verjuice, lemon juice, and olive oil. I'm not overly crazy about olives, but I love chutneys, pickles, and relishes, and an olivada sounded like it would fit in nicely. Alastair offered me a taster of it, and it was indeed sufficiently tasty to encourage its subsequent purchase. The man himself suggested adjectives of "delicious" and "amazeballs". Readers, why not visit the stall and try it out for yourself to see if you agree with this description? ;)

 

I love it simply spread on toast - yum! Just remember to sit the fridge-cold olivada out at room temperature for a few minutes before using, so that the olive oil reverts back to its liquid form. According to Alastair, the olivada can keep for more than a year in the fridge after opening, since the contents are submerged in oil; but hopefully it won't sit undisturbed for too long that I'll have to think about its longevity past a few months!

 



Oh, and just make sure you go early to beat the busy lunch hour crowd!

It was great to see Alastair McLeod helping out there at his stall too. His presence in itself serves as effective advertisement for his market stall. He kindly agreed to pose for a photo for this food blog of mine (sorry, Alastair; I decided to cut myself out of the picture afterall!).

I'm so excited that Alastair has taken on this direction and that Al'FreshCo will be here to stay in the farmers markets. The food is a bit different to the usual ready-to-eat fare that is available in the markets, and more importantly, it is a business with an aim of supporting local producers, which is something that should be in our collective interest as a community. Afterall, local produce + less distance travelled + less storage time between farm and markets = fresher food for consumers, right? I, for one, am certainly looking forward to the changing menu every fortnight.

The next market appearance of Al'FreshCo is this Wednesday in the city, so come along and check it out!