Freezers Full

Two porkers arrived back from the butcher on Friday morning. Two porkers, minus 2 legs and a side, as they are being cured for ham and bacon respectively.
Thank goodness they were much smaller than our previous pigs. Still, we had our work cut out (scuse the pun), transforming the meat into suitable sized portions.

Luckily, our friend Sophie was here to help.

She's been such a trooper, grating nutmeg as if there was no tomorrow, peeling pistachios, sausage guider and linker, de-boning, slicing chops and dicing for stewing meat....

This time I asked the butcher to mince the meat from two shoulders. I have a meat mincer on my Kenwood food processor, but for such a quantity it is much quicker if the butcher does it.

We made three types of sausage. A Belgian style bratwurst with white pepper, salt and NUTMEG ! A curried sausage and a mild chorizo (see mixture in photo above)

 Belgian braadworst (Bratwurst)

We have acquired a sausage stuffer (see red contraption in photo above). It can handle 3 liters of minced meat at a time and it does a fantastic job. Again, much better than my Kenwood version.

And here they are drying for a few hours. Allegedly, this helps to tighten the sausage and skin together. I believe it worked. We've had some for dinner the other night and they were absolutely stonkingly tasty and firm.



Wait ! I'm not done yet !

This is my sous vide cooker. And what's in there is this :

Our own homemade luncheon meat or mortadella-esque Bologna sausage, with pistachios, pink and green peppercorns. No artificial colouring or flavour enhancers added. Only good quality meat, herbs and spices and pistachios.
We stuffed these on Friday and left them to settle in the fridge till Saturday. Then they went in the sous vide cooker for 3 hours at 60°C. Very nice they are, but next time I'll probably use less salt than what was stated in the recipe.

With that out of the way, it is high time to get the chicken and duck run electrified. The ultrasonic sensors seem to have helped so far (touch wood), but I'll be more relaxed with extra precautions.

In between, I have been sorting through my craftroom too. Moving furniture and folding fabrics. Neatly. A long way to go still, but we'll get there in the end.

Have a lovely week.
Patricia xxx...x

Ossobuco Milanese

My first ever encounter with ossobuco was on my first visit with the parents of my first 'serious' boyfriend. Lots of 'firsts' in that sentence. That was 36 years ago (where has time gone ?). My then boyfriend's mum, Nadine cooked this delectable, succulent, fall apart meat dish. 

When finished all four of the family where looking at my plate. "Don't you eat the marrow ?" Ready to pounce. "Oh, you eat that ? Okay, I'll eat it too then. " That's when I was completely sold.

It's been on the menu regularly since then in my own home, whenever I can get my hands on veal shin, that is. And that was a while ago now, until Sophie gave me some, from their own rosé veal the other day.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 to 4 disks of veal shin (2 to 3 cm thick)
• flour to coat the meat (seasoned with salt and pepper)
• olive oil (a glug)
• 50 gr butter
• 1 or 2 carrots, peeled and chopped finely
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped finely
• 2 celery sticks, washed and chopped finely
• 1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and grated or finely chopped
• 5 sage leaves
• a few sprigs of thyme
• a few shavings of unwaxed lemon peel
• 200 ml dry white wine
• 200 ml veal or chicken stock
• seasoning and chopped parsley for finishing

Preparation

• Give the meat a dust bath in the flour. I usually do this by putting flour and seasoning in a freezer bag, drop in some meat and shake it around while closing off the bag with your hand. You don't want to give yourself a dust bath, do you ?
• On the hob heat the olive oil in a deep and wide enough frying pan to place the meat in one layer. Brown the meat crusty on both sides. Put them on a plate and set aside.
• Turn down the heat and melt the butter. Add the vegetables (carrot, onion, celery) together with the lemon zest, garlic, thyme and sage. Sautee until soft.
• Turn the heat back on high, place the meat on top of vegetables and pour in the white wine. Let it bubble until the wine has reduced by half.
• Add the stock and return the heat to the lowest setting, cover with lid and simmer until the meat is tender.
• Adjust the seasoning with salt and black pepper.
• Sprinkle over the chopped parsely.

Serve this with creamy polenta, risotto or plain rice. We went for cappellini.

A year or so after the first visit with the boyfriend's parents, his mother made this again. It seems like we came full circle. He broke it off with me after that.

Oh well, I added a great dish to my repertoire and I've since met my wonderful husband, Bert. 

Patricia xxx...x

Warning ! Meat !

This was Tuesday, at our friends, Sophie and Ruud's place.

They had decided not to keep their two calves till next spring, which would mean they'd had to feed them all winter at an extra financial cost. The calves had been weaned and were grazing over the summer months. The meat of such calves is called rosé veal.

The actual slaughter is done by the local butcher, but I wanted to give them a hand with de-boning and cutting up the meat. Ruud and Sophie have helped us so often and given us so much over the last few years. It was totally my pleasure. To top it off they are both exhausted after a full spring and summer looking after their homestead and growing veg for the local pubs and restaurants.

At the end of the day, I took home the bones and pulled a fantastic stock.

I picked the meat off the bones , which got divided into 1.5 kg meat for veal croquettes which Sophie likes to make and more than 1 kg went for a veal terrine in aspic. 

Which is basically the meat with stock and extra gelatin.

When firmed up completely, slices can be cut and eaten between a sandwich or roll. A chunk of it would go well as part of a ploughman's lunch.

The lesser meat I kept for the dogs.

The fat that surrounds the kidneys (suet) I rendered down to tallow, excellent for frying chips/French fries.

Everything is now packed and ready to deliver the goodies back to these dear friends.

From experience I know that keeping and butchering animals is an Herculean task, and to move all the meat in one day needs an army of people ideally. And then there is the clean up ! 

Heh heh (that's a contended sigh in Dutch/Flemish), I think I missed my calling. I should have been a butcher. ;-)

Have a grand weekend !

Patricia xxx...x

A Broiler Cull

Last Tuesday these chickens (below) were more than ready to be culled. Broilers they call them. To be honest, I don't think we will get them next time. They are over bred and I feel for them. It doesn't seem natural to me (and it probably isn't) that they grow so fast and can hardly take two steps before they have to sit down again.

They were from end of May and in normal circumstances they get slaughtered for meat between the 5 and 7 week mark. Ours were about 10 weeks old.

Anyway, we had a friend, Ruud, to assist us to do the deed. No fussing with an axe, no stress for the chickens or for any of us. A quick snap with three fingers and done.

My brother got stuck in and he urged his kids to come along. They need to know where their meat (that they love eating so much) comes from. My sis-in-law wasn't too sure about all that, but they saw, got bored and played in the straw and hay that's stored in the shed, before coming back to the house and played Lego.

My hat off to my sis-in-law, as she hadn't ever done or witnessed anything like this before, but also got stuck in, plucking the chickens.

They then got brought into the kitchen where my mum showed me how to remove the guts without damaging the gallbladder.

The bile can spoil all the meat. Great care was taken to remove gallbladder from the livers too.

Livers are for our own consumption. The heart and stomach for the doggies.

The chickens got washed thoroughly, inside and out.

Some by my mum,

and some by my SIL, Joelle.

I then proceeded with taking the legs, wings and breast meat off. The volume was just too much to place them in the freezer whole.

Joelle vacuum packed and Bert placed everything in the freezer.

A huge stock pot was filled with carcasses and water and boiled till the left on meat fell off the bones.

My mum then picked all the bones into a pile for the dogs and a pile for us.

The stock has been further reduced and can be used for a myriad of dishes.

It was a whole day's work, but I love the fact that we did this as a family, together.

Patricia xxx...x

Mammoth Task

Last Wednesday we had to collect the pork at the butcher's. The meat from our piggies.
The largest of the two was sent off to the man who is going to turn the meat into salami, sausages, bacon, etc, etc.
For the 'smaller' one I asked the butcher to brine the two legs, so they will be collected just before Christmas. Pete (the butcher) minced one of the shoulders for me and the other, just boned, so that I could cube it for stews.
The heads were already in the freezer. Freezers full !! Of course, we have the lamb, that we acquired a few weeks ago, in there too.
I got Bert to ask Pete to just halve the saddle lentghways. I would do the rest. Pete almost got in a panic. He doesn't seem to trust my abilities of cutting meat. "But what will she do with it ?" Bert, in all his wisdom said that I was going to take the tenderloin off and things like that. "Yeah, I get that, but what with all the rest ?"
What, indeed ? Luckily Pete had the good sense to cut the belly off the back too. So, in effect the pig was quartered lengthwise.
When Bert brought in that first part, I broke out in a cold sweat.  That is not the meat from our pig ! That is from a friggin' dinosaur !
After wiping off the perspiration from my forehead and palms of my hands, I set to work on the loin.
Halved it, to just after the ribs. The rib side for chops and back ribs, the other side gave us 2 nice loin roasts. Oh, and of course I took off the tenderloin.

These loin chops measure 32 cm (1 ft ?), weighing about 600 gr !

That is Bert's hairy hand, not mine, thank you very much.

That was Wednesday.
On Thursday morning it became all too obvious that our two chest freezers wouldn't cope. I took out one of the heads and cooked it for, yes brawn.
By mid afternoon, the freezers were stuffed to the brim. Bert hurried to Kenmare to buy an extra one.
Due to lack of suitable space anywhere else in the house, it is now in his office of all places. Only temporary, I can assure you.

Thursday was the longest day, ever! (Just like this post, I guess). My hands sore, muscles achy. It is a good workout, butchering a pig.
I rolled pork belly with herbs for porchetta. Made and cooked meatballs, large and small.

Fat rendering down while I was working my way through and continued with that job on Friday, when I also finished the brawn.

There is so much clean meat coming off the head, that I can't justify not using it.

This time, I opted to put the meat through the food processor. In Flemish we call this kind of brawn "kipkap".  Nothing untoward has gone in. Just tender meat, onions and parsley, cooking liquid and seasoning.

I used the weekend to make yet another batch of brawn, the head taking up too much space in the freezer.

Bert so deserves a silver medal for manning the vacuum sealer, for being the knife sharpener, freezer stuffer and tidy up-er here and there. 

The gold medal is mine, all mine !

Patricia xxx...x

Poached Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (preferably free range or organic)
• 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 3 celery stalks, washed and cut into 4
• 1 large carrot, washed or peeled, quartered
• 1 fennel bulb, washed and quartered
• a handful of parsley stalks
• 4 bay leaves
• a few sprigs of thyme
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 1 tbsp black pepper corns
• 1 tbsp coarse sea salt

Method
It is dead easy.

The carrots here are hiding at the bottom. You'll just have to take my word for it.

• put the chicken in a cooking pot, large enough to contain all ingredients plus water
• arrange all other ingredients around and over the chicken
• cover with cold water
• bring to the boil
• turn down the heat, and let it simmer ! for about 1 hour.

• take the chicken out of the stock straight away and transfer to a plate or shallow dish.

• Drain the stock through a colander and use it for soups, sauces, gravy...The vegetables are for the chooks.
• Pick the meat off the bones while still hot/warm. It'll come off easier than when it is cold.

Use the succulent meat for salad, sandwich, soup, ragout, chicken pie

Skin and cartilage  for the dogs

Discard of the bones. Bin or compost.

And there you have it. Simple and doesn't take a lot of effort. You'll get quite a few meals out of this.

Patricia xxx...x

A Lamb for the Freezer

Yep ! You know what's coming. Vegetarians, vegans look away now.

You've still got time.

This is the third year that we buy a lamb from a friend of ours.  We order it in springtime and it is ready end of November. It is very good value, I find, 100 euro (slaughter and cut, included).

But, I've learnt my lesson. I don't want 200 (slightly exaggerated ) chops. I want legs, shoulder for stew or curry, minced lamb for kofte, a loin roast, some ribs and 16, yes, only sixteen cutlets. 

So, this year I asked for the lamb to be just halved. Isn't it strange that 'people' just assume Bert (the husband) is going to cut up the lamb ? Erm ... that will be me. Bert will be hiding out in his office, babysitting the dogs.

It can be daunting to start. But if you have experience in cooking meat that goes beyond a steak or a chop you should know which part of the animal is what. If you don't, the internet is full of good info on this.

 Leg, shoulder and belly

 Cutlets, loin roast and tenderloin (tenderloin is suitable for meat skewers)

The ribs

 I boned the shoulder and cut into cubes for stews. The legs will be roasted and the shanks, yumm, I'm sure I'll find a good recipe for these.

The meat that wasn't too cleanly cut or cubed, plus the belly, got minced.

I cooked the bones in a large pot of water. The 'nice' meat that came off is for shepherd's pie. The not so nice meat was for the dogs. They also got a bit of the stock, but most of it is now in the freezer to add to stews, soups or gravy.

The piggies will leave us this Tuesday, but I promise not to post any butchering on this blog, unless there is a huge demand.

I am now about to take the Christmas decorations out from under the stairs and see if I can make this place feel festive in some ways.

When will you put up the decorations ?

Patricia xxx...x