Joseph's Classic Gourmet Market

My friend Gloria and I were talking about food the other day, after she made the Asian dumpling recipe I posted up to Cuisine Diva on Wednesday. She mentioned a great gourmet store near her, Joseph's Classic Market, and wondered if I had ever been there.

I did a quick search on the Internet, and found their website. Joseph's Classic Market has three Locations; Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach and Boca Raton.

Hours of Operation

• All three Joseph's Classic Markets have the same operating hours.
• Monday through Saturday 8 AM to 8 PM
• Sunday 8 AM to 6 PM

My husband and I went to the one in Boca, which is on Military Trail, just past Glades Road.It's just down the street from where the old King's Market used to be. I really miss King's Market, but now have a new favorite gourmet specialty market to go to.

• Joseph's Classic Market
• Town Center Plaza
• 5250 Town Center Circle
• Boca Raton, FL 33486

The Boca store is the newest location, which just opened in June, 2009. It it is a small, compact store that contains a lot of gourmet goodies. The store is divided into 7 main sections:

• Fresh produce
• Meats
• Prepared foods
• Deli
• Bakery
• Wine
• Cheese

To Go Food
Joseph's Classic Market had a terrific selection of ready made food. I had been recipe testing all week, and didn't feel like doing much cooking during Labor Day weekend. My husband and I also had two long bike rides planned for the weekend, a 77 mile ride on Saturday, and a 62 mile ride on Monday. I knew we would be pretty pooped after doing those rides, too tired to even go out to dinner, so we picked up some of their prepared to-go food to have on hand for the holiday weekend.

Here's what we got:

• Chicken piccata
• Eggplant Parmesan
• Green beans almandine
• Potato croquettes
• Rice balls

All of the to-go food can also be ordered ahead of time through the Joesph's Classic Market catering department. Items on the catering menu can be ordered in half trays, which serve 8 to 10 people, or full trays, which serve 16-20 people. They also offer Dinner-for-two-to-go which consists of your choice of entree, vegetable, potato, salad and dessert for two people.

Gourmet Ingredients
I also purchased a lot of gourmet ingredients, some of which will be kept in the pantry, for future meals, and some of which will be eaten right away. Some of the items I got included:

1. Jar of anchovies packed in olive oil - I'm thinking I'll use a few fillets to make a real Caesar salad dressing, and I also want to try making puttanesca sauce for tossing on al dente spaghetti.
2. Garlic paste in a tube - great, concentrated flavor, in a convenient tube. Can be used to make a variety of sauces and dressings.
3. Black olive paste in a tube - same thoughts/uses as the garlic paste.
4. Mario Batali's Alla vodka pasta sauce - my father's side of the family was Italian. I have very rarely come across a jar of pasta sauce that doesn't end up in the shopping cart. Look in my pantry and there's always at least 3 varieties/brands of tomato/pasta sauce in there.
5. Inglehoffer stone ground mustard - a nice grainy mustard. Not sure what I'll use it for, but there was an entire section of gourmet mustard's at Joseph's Classic Market. I showed great restraint in only placing one variety in the shopping cart.
6. Jar of green peppercorns packed in vinegar - I'm thinking it's time to try to make steak au poivre, or maybe chicken au poivre, since I don't really eat red meat anymore. The majority of steak au poivre recipes I've read call for dried peppercorns. But I saw an episode of Diner's, Drive-in's and Dives, where they used fresh green peppercorns, that looked to die for - YUM!
7. Jar of capers - I'll use the capers in the puttanesca sauce. I also sprinkled a few capers on the chicken piccata that we got to go. Chicken piccata already comes with capers, but I really like capers, and always like to sprinkle a few extra on top.
8. Can of whole, peeled, Italian tomatoes in sauce - also for the puttanesca sauce.
9. Bundle of fresh basil
10. Bundle of fresh fennel
11. Japanese style panko bread crumbs - I've got some zucchini in the refrigerator that is telling me it wants to be turned into fried zucchini sticks.
12. Orzo pasta - for an orzo pasta salad.
    
13. Mini penne pasta - too cute
14. Mini farfalline pasta - again, I'm a sucker for anything a  bit different from the usual noodles you find at the grocery store.
15. Fig preserves - to serve with cheese and crackers.
16. Spiced ginger preserves - also to serve with cheese and crackers. Too bad I'm not a wine drinker, would be good with a platter of cheese, crackers and fruit preserves.
17. White stilton cheese with mango and ginger
18. Double cream champignon - soft, ripened cheese with mushrooms

What are some of your favorite gourmet ingredients that you like to cook with?

Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Cuisine Diva