We got ourselves a big arse pig. It was a pastured pig. An older pig. A pig noir. A pig that was big. Big pig legs. Big pig chops. Let’s just say it was big.
This is one chop held by a man hand.
And this is future bacon
And here is … I don’t know what that is, but it looks delicious. We’ll get the black hairs off, don’t worry.
Here is our big arse leg for drying
Here is a very attentive retriever
Here is my healthy lard
I let Fremont look after the duck stock. The five carcasses have acquiesced to their fate as a structure for winter soup. Our wood burning stove is the closest I can get to a slow simmer. The Siamese helps out from below.
I think I’m going to need a bigger pot.
I somehow skipped the “now eat your liver” childhood reminiscings. I loves me some fatty duck liver, but that seems more like a culinary drug than liver. With our latest beef boxes, we now have some baby beef liver as well as cow liver.
If you can find it, baby beef liver goes for quite a price in France so it’s great to have some available for our customers and try a little on the side.
We tried cow liver and baby beef liver side-by-side. Brent did a light fry in butter with a pinch of salt.
The baby beef liver had a mild odor raw and a nice flavor when cooked. The cow liver was stronger on smell before cooking ( it smelled like liver ) yet a mild taste after its hot butter bath. To my surprise, both were edible and dare I say, “yummy.” I think next time I’d like to try a little treatment I’ve done with fresh foie gras that does a quick hiss each side, remove for sauce making then finished up in the oven to temperature ( but not overcooked ).
Brent tried his morning bubble-n-scramble with cream and salsa. That was nice on the ol’ taste buds.
Cow liver is very good for you. I think I’ll start playing around with this little vitamin goldmine.
And it tastes great! Go us!
I fried my patty in lard and topped with salsa, creme fraiche and avocado.
Slow roasted pork leg, fresh, lovely tomato salsa with probably a clove too much garlic with some thick cream and Chicharrones. That’s all I have to say on this. Excuse me while I take a little culinary “me time.”
The lovely things that go along with cooking a big arse pig leg is hot, fat Chicharrones. Crackling to some. “Crunchies” to our kids. I suppose technically, Chicharrones are deep fried pig skin ( like making confit but with pork skin ) but if you could appreciate the thick layer of Gascon pig fat this skin is roasted on, it becomes semantic. Please note, when you pull a strip of Chicharrones out if the hot oven, it will be hot.
Trying my best to avoid TheMan’s Wheat, I got ahold of some Soba noodles for the kids. Soba is buckwheat. Buckwheat is neither Buck nor wheat. I suspect I’ll learn more about its properties very soon. In the meantime, the noodles were a total hit ( I had to tell Lucy to drop her fork so I could grab a shot ). Served with a dash of olive oil ( I’m trying duck fat next time or tallow ) and a few spritzies if soy sauce.
We followed with a quick, quick chocolate custard that will soon find itself as a fudgey-pop. But look at those yolks! Tell me which two are farm eggs. If you could only hear the thud they make as the yolk drops from your fingers.
Girl On Grill Action 