Salad ( pronounced ” sah – lahd ” ) with cute, little tomatoes and some avocado from Maroc.
Chops. Shallow fried in lard.
Potato cakes. Yesternight’s mashed pots ( buttah, creme fraiche ) with added chives. Also added, a fresh- from-the-chook’s-bum egg and it all went a beautiful yellow. Shallow fried in lard and unicorn tears.
And chard. You know, cook the hard bits first. Then add the leafy bits with some stock. Cover and uncover to reduce.
I spent a good few hours figuring out the right treatment for a whole lotta pig skin. I’ve read that every breed is different with regards to crispy, crunchy crackling. After many attempts, I settled in on high heat for a spell, then turn the oven down low to puff and crisp. This routine worked perfectly with crunchiness at a maximum and saltiness at a suitable level and satiability at a medium. I did the skin deep fried in lard and it came out looking good, but hard as a rock. I salted before, then placed on a roasting rack for my high-low process Dinner is soon and all I can pallet is a brisk, veggie stir-fry. That crackling, when done right, is a meal to fence a paddock on. It keeps you energized, ready for more productivity on your farm.
Yeah, so some of my best friends are Lebanese. Yeah so he’s not all that great at ping-ping. And so he needs to use the hand break to move a car with a clutch stopped on a hill. But we love him. And we love his mum. When she comes to town, you learn how to cook for many, hungry people.
She cooks dish after dish of Lebanese yummidom that makes you sit back in your seat, loosening your buttons while giggling or singing. I’m not sure why I have a fear of leftovers, but tonight I tapped into my inner Lebanese mama and cooked a whole lotta meatballs. The kids munched and munched. We giggled. We sang. I think I’m going to arrive here again. Food, it ties a room together.
Perfecting pork crackling, some pork/beef combo waiting for some garlic-onion-ginger treatment, a little ground pork waiting for its moment to shine, cauliflower waiting for cheesy melty goob … these are the ingredients I work with. Full now, tomorrow brings a full day of what to do with the leftovers.
My daughter, Lucy, LOVES steak frites. Since we have our fair share of steaky, beefy yum at our hands, steak frites is a dish we are familiar with.
These babies were “mo-jo”-ed. Which means sliced in half and then cut into thick wedges. They were then smathered ( I know, not a word, but they were smothered and smacked ) with lard that was melted briefly in a small copper pot. Then in a high oven to bubble and crisp. I turned down after they were well on their way and got the steak going. While the steak rests, the chips finish up, get out of their lard bath and dust up all salty like.
And we eat. And we let steak juices meet frites fluff. And you dream of the cheese and cappuccino to follow.
Very tickled, I’ve managed to make cappuccino given one, stove- top pot and some fresh milk. A little patience with the beans and a some freshly, whisked milk makes for a latte sans les trois Euro prix. Oh how I’d love to pull the Folgers Challenge on my neighbor. Foamy UHT with beautifully brewed discount Arabica. But instead, I start each day with a foamy bang with mediocre equipment. When you
love coffee, these are the lengths you go to.
And this is what you get.
Stir-fry was a lovely yum-filled evening but for a veal nub waiting in the wings.
You can see amongst the Robert and the Antifragile, sometimes work mixes with pleasure.
The boys hit their limit quickly. Otto totally dug the soba deep fried in bacon fat. Go bacon fat! Brent ate his share and let the kids finish what was left.
But there are more beings interested in our calories.
… And these chicks
Veal nub devoured, stir-fry gone, we shower and sleep and wait for brighter days involving more at-our-reach ingredients. Please, people resist the temptation to Eat Out. That is all.
This is a ” quasi ” – mumble. The girls and I tucked into a portion of this veal steak yesterday with amazing velocity. It was incredibly tasty and now we cook the last nub for a little after dinner gouter.
I’m not frequent with the sugar consumption so when we were gifted a big box of dark chocolate , Lindt flavor discs, we took no pause before tucking in.
The flavors were
– chocolate
– caramel
– cherry piment ( that’s French for spicy )
– orange
Oh and they were good. Oh they were lovely.
My ranking:
Caramel ( my ab fav )
Cherry Piment ( Brent’s nemesis chocolate )
Orange
Chocolate
I had to bite two cherry piment to get this picture; the first one was blurry. I’m loving chocolate photography.
Girl On Grill Action 