Stock. Yep, so glamorous. So this is the result of a chicken carcass and a turkey carcass cooked for two days on the woodstove until this was all that was left. Carcasses + water and that's it. None of the "add carrots and onions" and so on. Just water and carcasses. But when you add the carcasses DO NOT fail to add the skin and fat. First of all, those are not unhealthy fats but even you're adverse to the them, they're where a huge amount of the flavour hangs out. So, cook the stock with all of the bits intact and then toss them after. And you can skim off the fat once it' cooled but again, that's going to impact the flavour. Of course, this not only made for the most delicious, "just add a pinch of salt and you're good to go" stock but also left us with chicken stew and dumplings, many meals for the faithful farm dog, and some love bone ash that's great for the garden and greenhouse. Just be sure you have an epically large stock pot for the cooking. It makes a huge difference to have lots of water and a long, slow simmer.
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I love it when my plants work together. Here we have a gooseberry (all harvested) and a grape (eaten by deer fruitless) holding up a massive Hokkaido squash. Even though this year has been soooo hot it's been unpleasant, the produce is loving it. I've never had so many cucurbits growing so early.
In addition to the Hokkaidos, we have some pumpkins and more cukes than I know what to do with. And while relish and dills are great suggestions... I recently cleaned out my cold room and really need neither of those, likely for years, actually. So far we've been living off cucumber salad - cukes sliced thinnish, sesame oil, rice vinegar, water, and a bit of sugar. Topped with some gomashio. Delicious. I am a breakfast person. I know there are a lot of non-breakfast types but not me; love it. When I can't have tea and toast, or just want a change, oatmeal is my go to. My oatmeal is a simple kind of thing - bring old fashioned rolled oats slowly to boil. If it looks too dry, add a bit more water, if it's too wet, just keeping on stirring. Once the oats are cooked, put them into your bowl. Top them with some jam (or marmalade, swoon) and a splash of cream. Cheap, fast, filling, good for you and the leftovers make a great lunch. Enjoy. Once upon a time, I was a strict vegan. Like super strict, checking if there is milk protein extract in the salad dressing I was buying (yes, ironically I was buying something so easy to make). That lasted for a couple of years. And then, for a much longer time, I was vegetarian. I found veganism too difficult and too full of garbage, to be honest. I bought a lot of packaged things then and just didn’t like all of the garbage I was generating. Yes, you can do it with little garbage. I didn’t know how then. I was also a full time student who was also working. And I got tired of beans. Anyway, I’m vegetarian and mostly vegan when I’m eating in a restaurant. I don’t aim to alienate those hosting me when I’m eating at someone’s house so I pretty much eat whatever’s on offer. A compromising of my principles? I suppose. I suspect though, if more people ate the way my family does the fast food industry would largely be out of business and farmers wouldn’t be cramming as many cows as they can into feedlots to maximize sales. Oh, and we eat a lot of the undesirable bits. Not the offal - yet - but the tough cuts that no one wants. I have learned to braise in the past few years and there is nothing like those tough, undesirable cuts after cooking low and slow for 8 hours. The other cuts just don’t have the same flavour or ooomph! I was talking with a beef/cow farmer about the flavour of meat and how that’s gone out of our cooking. The first flavour should be the cow or the pig or the chicken - the marinade, the braise, the sauce, the gravy should enhance that flavour. That was the biggest shock to me when I switched from grocery store meat to growing my own. There was a flavour that I just couldn’t believe. Anyway, at some point I’ll explain why I’m no longer vegan and why I think veganism (and definitely vegetarianism) is (generally) just as hard on animals as factory farming but for now, here’s what’s on for tonight. So, I've started with an assortment of ribs. There are both beef and pork, short ribs, back ribs, side ribs, and even some riblets. To these I have added brown sugar and three onions, chopped. And then things start to go a little crazy... In here I've got homemade ketchup to which I've added a small jar of homemade hotsauce and one of homemade beer mustard (yes, I am that person). In goes red wine (lots) and apple cider vinegar. That sauce is added AFTER I sprinkle the ribs with italian seasoning, cracked black pepper, cracked whole allspice, smoked paprika, chili, and Himalayan Pink salt. Oh. And a whole head (yes, head, not clove) of the best garlic ever from the Dirty Hoe Gastro Farm. Where is the meat from you ask? A friend and I bought a couple of weaner pigs (not weiner pigs) from Karma Creek Farm/ Root and Vine Acres (so delicious). They were raised up at her house and butchered for us. The cow was raised by another friend.
So, to this deliciousness more wine and some water were added. In the dutch oven, I added Worchestershire but none to the flat pan. I don't make that and I wondered how much of a difference it makes. We shall see. The shallow pan was covered with foil, the lid placed on the huge dutch oven and into a 250* oven they went. Yes, 250*F. They cooked low and slow for about an hour and then it was raised up to 275* where they will braise until about 5:45, or just before our friends show up to share this feast with us. I'm pretty sure I won't be buying bags of tortillas anymore. You may have already known how easy these delicious little morsels are but I did not. Today though, I was buying my seasonal sack of white flour and I was going to buy tortillas when I realized I can get two bags of tortillas for the price of one 10kg bag of flour. Health stuff aside, that seemed like glaringly bad economics. But wait, I told myself, maybe they're hard to make. Fortunately, I knew I had an emergency package of tortillas in the freezer. If these ones bombed, I would grab those and carry on with supper plans. Well, supper was just ok but the tortillas rocked. I'll let you in on the secret. Let's start with the flour. Although I have a wonderful assortment of organic, local, whole grains, I opted for white flour. Why? Well, let's just say that the white flour pay off the brain gets makes a homemade experiment much more likely to be accepted. I use unbleached, no additive white flour - but it's not organic, I confess. So, I dumped flour into my food processor (about two cups), added some baking soda (maybe a teaspoon and a half), and a generous pinch of salt. You really need the baking soda or they won't puff up right. I zipped that up for a second and then dropped in some lard. I was thinking of adding something like a tablespoon but definitely added more than that, probably two tablespoons or more. And then I zipped that up. I basically figured if I made a pie crust but not flaky, I'd be close. So, I added cold water a little at a time while zipping until I got a pie crust kind of looking ball. When that happened, I turned it onto a floured board and kneaded for a few minutes to give it a bit of a bread-like quality. I rolled it into a log and broke it into a bunch of pieces (that I should have rolled into a ball but didn't) and rolled it out. I put them one at a time in a hot, dry pan and watched them puff up a bit (sorry, no pic). I gave them just about a minute and then flipped them. They were delicious. So delicious that this is all that's left: But, since it's Spring Break, I'm mostly home and we can make another batch tomorrow. Maybe one white, one half kamut, and one corn. Yum!
Here is the recipe written out halfway logically. In your food processor or a big bowl add 2 cup flour 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt Mix. 2 Tbsp shortening, butter, or oil (could be melted because you don't need a flaky quality like pie crust). Mix. Add enough water (might as well use warm) to make a stiff ball. Turn out on floured board. Knead for a couple of minutes until smooth and elastic. Roll into a log and break into equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball (I bet that would make them look better), turn out on a floured board and roll until uniform and thin. Place in a hot, dry pan and watch it bubble up. Flip it over when it's started to brown the underside (about a minute but could be more - depends on your heat). Cool and eat. I suspect you could stack them and they'd cool really soft but I didn't try that. |
AuthorI'm a 40-something writer and smallholder living in the wilds of BC with my family, our small herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats. Archives
August 2017
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