Source Farmhouse Brewery keeping it local and tasty in Jersey
Source Farmhouse Brewery
Colts Neck, NJ
sourcebrewing.com
The weather has been a little strange with some temps hitting 60 degrees on some days. It’s tough to plan some outdoor activities but one of my favorite things to do is to enjoy the casual and comfortable atmosphere of Source Farmhouse Brewery in Colts Neck.
They have a great layout and most importantly they are big on local ingredients in their local beers. They are currently serving three great brews made in Monmouth County. A great gift idea for your friends and family is a gift card from Source Brewery. Enjoy a cold beer while supporting local business.
There’s nothing like a cold beer! Beer is a major accompaniment with many of the dishes listed here in this cookbook. In looking for the right brewery that supports our Jersey heritage and agriculture as well as looking for high quality beers with a wide array of selections, Source Farmhouse Brewery was the choice that made the most sense to me. New Jersey boasts many micro-brews that are good, providing good products but Source Farmhouse Brewery takes it a step further.
They are a farm to glass brewery making a tremendous effort in serving up brews that are made from produce directly from Jersey Fresh farms. I love the concept and the commitment that Source Brewery makes.
Owner Phil Patracca and his wife Keri built and renovated an 1894 dairy farmhouse and converted it into an aesthetically beautiful and efficient brewery. They’re in farm country in Colts Neck and the brewery fits into the backdrop of Colts Neck like a general store postcard.
They have a great story to tell as well. Phil was a Chief Product Officer for a global biometric company. He developed a beer dispensing technology at home called Fizzics. He takes the product to the TV hit show Shark Tank and walks away with a $2,000,000 deal from Mark Cuban and Lorie Greiner. Phil finds Greg Taylor who has a Masters Brewing Degree from Doemens Academy in Munich Germany, which in the beer world is the equivalent of getting a law degree at Harvard.
They leave Fizzics and along with Keri open up Source Farmhouse Brewery in Colts Neck. I’ve been to Source Brewery a few times and the beer is outstanding. Brew Master Greg works hard in incorporating many flavors from Jersey produce and creates beers that are crisp, fresh and delicious. The farmhouse at Source is perfect for the gathering of friends and family.
The first floor tap house, a substantial outdoor German Biergarten and backgrounds are family friendly and the backgrounds are pet friendly too. The mezzanine and rooftop terrace are adults only.
Usually, the restaurants and establishments in this book provide me with a recipe to share with you. Source Farmhouse Brewery doesn’t serve food so I decided to create a dish that I wanted to pair with Source’s great lager. Greg, with his authentic German training knows how to make a wonderful German lager.
I have had the pleasure of going to Germany several times. From Munich to Herzogenaurach to Frankfurt and Bonn, I enjoyed the beautiful landscape, architecture and history but the bier halls were my favorite part of each trip. At every German town and city, I had the pleasure of visiting, whether on business or pleasure, I would enjoy a stein or two or three of Germany’s finest biers. So, between my passion and love for German bier and cuisine and Source’s Brew Master Greg’s German bier education I came up with the following recipe.
I wanted to create the flavors of Germany while utilizing the Jersey Fresh ingredients we’re privileged to have here in New Jersey. Source uses the same cranberries that you’ll find in your Ocean Spray cranberry cocktail grown proudly in South Jersey. I use those cranberries and Jersey apples in my recipe. I knew I wanted to pair this pork tenderloin with German red cabbage and warm German potato salad. Enjoy the dish and get over to Source Farmhouse Brewery with your family and friends and have yourself a nice cold beer! Raise a glass to me while you’re there. Thanks!
Big Joe’s Source German Pork Tenderloin with Apple Cranberry Chutney with German Red Cabbage and Warm German Potato Salad serves 4-6
Big Joe Note…read all the notes before you prepare this meal so that you can adequately prep and time out your dinner service.
Ingredients:
2 lb Pork tenderloin
Rub: Can be prepared ahead of time and left overnight in the fridge to marinate.
1 ½ Tbl of Brown Sugar
1 Tbl of Nutmeg
1 Tbl of Coleman’s Dry Mustard
1 Tbl of Fresh Sage
1 Tbl of Fresh Thyme
Salt and Pepper (generous course)
Apple Cranberry Chutney:
1 ½ Apples (Fuji) diced (sprinkle with lemon juice to hold color)
4 Cups of fresh Jersey Cranberries left whole
1 Cup of Orange Juice
2 Tbl of Honey
¾ Cup of Brown Sugar
1 Tsp of Cinnamon
1 Tsp of Ginger
¼ Cup of Cider Vinegar
Pinch of cloves
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Take pork loin out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Prepare rub…Salt and Pepper the entire pork loin first. Mix all rub ingredients in a bowl…generously rub pork loin so that the entire pork loin is covered…let rest or you can cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge overnight to marinate.
Place tenderloin on a rack and put in a 425-degree oven. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 140 – 145 degrees. After cooking, let it rest uncovered for 10 minutes.
Make the Chutney. In a large saucepan add orange juice, honey, vinegar and brown sugar. Over medium high heat, stirring constantly brings to a boil once boiling add the cranberries, apples , ginger, cinnamon and pinch of cloves. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a rolling simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally. Should reduce nicely in about 25 minutes…cook more if you want it thicker…let rest and serve warm over pork.
Once pork is rested, slice into ½ inch slices of pork on a plate and serve chutney on top of the pork.
Big Joe’s Authentic German Red Cabbage
This is the real deal. I have had this recipe while on my visits to Germany. Like any other recipe, some regions of Germany or individuals vary this recipe by an ingredient or two but I think this recipe represents the true German Red Cabbage that’s both sweet and sour and is going to go great with our pork loin. I thought I may add a little caraway to this dish to add a “rye bread flavor” to the mix and I was almost beheaded at the thought of using a Mediterranean spice in a German dish. Oops! So, no caraway. Just a note this takes time to cook, over two hours, so if you have time you can make this a day ahead and it will taste better as the flavors will have blended.
Ingredients:
1 Medium head of Jersey Fresh Red Cabbage (very thinly sliced suggest using a mandoline slicer cuts down cooking time)
1 Medium onion (sweet or Spanish is good) finely sliced
1 Large Jersey Apple Fuji or Red Delicious peeled cored and diced
¼ Cup of Cider Vinegar
1 Stick of unsalted Butter
2 ½ Tbl of Cherry Preserves or Red Currant Jam
½ Cup of Vegetable Broth
3 Whole Cloves
1 Whole Bay Leaf
1 Tsp of Sugar
Generous Salt and Pepper
1 Tbl of All Purpose Flour to thicken
2 Tbls of Water
Directions:
In a large Dutch oven, over medium high heat add butter, when melted, add medium onion, cook until almost caramelized, add apples, sauté’ for about 5 minutes, then add cabbage and continue to sauté’ add the bay leaf, sugar and cloves, salt and pepper. Stir and sauté’ for 5 minutes. Add the preserves/jam and cider vinegar, stir and sauté’ for 3 minutes. Add broth then bring to a boil. Keep at a boil for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Simmer for at least 2 hours. Check on cabbage every half hour stirring mixture. At about the 1-hour mark, taste and if necessary, add more vinegar, spices etc., also at this time mix water and flour, making sure there are no lumps. Add the flour mixture to the dish stirring generously then cover and continue cooking.
Big Joe’s German Warm Potato Salad
German potato salad is a great side dish. It’s simple and pretty easy to make. As with all “authentic” recipes there are variations. This is my pretty close “authentic” take on a dish I think you’ll really enjoy. This takes about an hour to make and can be made ahead of your dinner day of. I don’t recommend you make it the day before because it shouldn’t be refrigerated until stored for leftovers. Trust me, you’ll love this and there’s a good chance there won’t be any leftovers.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
5 Medium to large Red Skin potatoes, peeled and large diced
5 Slices of thick sliced bacon (I like Applewood smoked)
1 Medium white onion diced
3/8 Cup of white vinegar
¼ Cup of sugar
3 Tbls of water
2 Tbls of Fresh parsley (I like Italian leaf parsley)
Salt & Coarse ground pepper to taste
Directions:
In a large pot place peeled potatoes filled with cold water so that potatoes are covered. Add salt to water and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes for 10 – 12 minutes or until tender to fork. Remove potato drain and set aside. In a large frying pan cook bacon until crispy and brown.
Drain bacon on paper towels and set aside. To the bacon grease add onions, cook over medium heat until they start to caramelize, to that mixture add vinegar, sugar, water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes while stirring. Add potatoes to the frying pan with half of the cooked bacon and half of the parsley mix thoroughly. Cook for 5 – 7 minutes making sure that potatoes are covered in sauce. Transfer to a warmed serving dish and sprinkle the remainder of bacon and parsley on top. Serve warm. Enjoy!
The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.