HARD TIMES !!

Lunch today

Dairy prices are down, venison keeps falling, electricity is up and the courier companies are screwing us left, right and center, so here at Back Yard Farmer we are not wasting anything. We have worked out using almost everything from the garden and are now working on using every part of the back yard chickens, starting with what we always discarded, the feet. I have often eaten chicken feet, mostly in some Asian restaurant, and the very best I had was on a recent business trip to Qingdao, China (along with an assortment of scorpions, tasty bugs and larvae like things – the food of the future). Strange how Chinese food does not taste as good in restaurants outside China. The same goes for Italian food, I suppose, unless one cooks oneself, so, here is Mrs BYF’s version of chicken feet – delicious although the cook was a bit squeamish to start off with.

Zampe di Gallina

Chicken Feet Arrabiata (Arrabiata means angry – so this is quite hot)

4 chicken wings or any other part of the chicken that is not dry white meat, skin on

6 to 8 chicken feet, nails removed (I had to do that myself, Mrs BYF baulked)

1 piece of fresh ginger just bigger than a thumb finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 large red chilli or as much as you can take, finely chopped

1 litre of chicken stock

small handful of parsley and sage finely chopped

4 table spoons of olive oil

1 cup of wine, red or white

Pre heat the oven to 200 deg

Use a cast iron pot with a close fitting lid, big enough to take all the chicken. Heat a tablespoon of oil in the pot and brown the chicken pieces well on all sides. Remove and add the feet, cook on medium high for a few minutes. Remove the feet. Add the rest of the olive oil to the pot and add the chilli and garlic. Cook until the garlic is soft but not coloured. deglase the pot with the wine, cook until the wine bubbles. Add the chicken, feet and all to the pot, and cover the chicken with the stock. Bring to the boil on the stove, cover the pot with the lid and place the pot in the oven. Cook for 3 hours, twenty minutes before serving, add the parsley and sage. Eat with polenta.

Do not forget to enjoy this dish with lots of red wine! ENJOY!

Porchetta – Roast Pork Leg

We were given a lovely bit of pork – free range of course! It was quite a big leg and I had to trim it quite a lot to make it fit the pot. I do have roasting trays big enough for large pieces of meat but my present oven is not wide enough for them.

PORCHETTA (leg only. In Italy one sees the whole pig roasted to perfection)

The pork will roast for a few hours so arrange the rosemary and sage twigs, a handful of bay leaves, one lemon, two whole garlic (skin on), for the pork to rest on, in the bottom of the pot. Drizzle generously with olive oil

Score the skin of the joint deeply, right down to the meat

Ingredients for paste :

1 handful of fresh rosemary

1 handful if fresh sage

3 peeled cloves of garlic

4 or 5 fresh bay leaves

3 tablespoons olive oil or more

salt and pepper

Pre heat the oven to maximum heat. It must be really hot so heat it for at least 20 minutes

Meanwhile, put all the paste ingredients in a mortar and pound vigorously. Add olive oil to make a rough paste. Cover the skin with the mixture forcing it between the scored pieces of skin. Rub salt on the skin to help the crackling process. Put the meat in the pot or pan, on top of the sage, rosemary, bay and garlic. and put it in the center of the hot oven. Roast the meat at the high heat for about 25 minutes or until you have golden brown crackling, then turn the heat down to 170 degrees and cook for 3 hours or until the meat is soft enough to break away wit a fork.

The flavor and aroma is wonderful and the leftovers are even better. With friends and family present when the pork came out of the oven, on the excitement, I forgot to photograph the finished product so you will have to take my word for it that it was perfectly crackled all over!

Today we ” killed ” the pig

There is a saying in Italian “Cu si marita e cuntentu nu iornu, cu mmazza nu porcu e cuntentu n’annu” – Marriage gives you happiness for one night, but the pig gives you happiness for a whole year. There must be more recipes for salami and sausages than there are Italians on this planet, and every Italian is convinced that his / hers is the best. My believe is, as with all my cooking, that the simple recipes, using very good quality ingredients, are the best, allowing the enjoyment of the foods without having to camouflage it with unnecessary ingredients and processes. Sausage and salami making is one of my great passions which I practiced for many a year. Traditionally the pig is killed once a year and every bit of the pig is used and the saying is that only the toenails are discarded. The way I eat sausages, fortunately, allows me many sausage making days during the year. Not having a pig to fatten in the back yard (only because Mrs Back Yard Farmer does not allow me to) means that you need to find and befriend a good butcher in the area as quality ingredients of the correct cut and animal are of utmost importance.

This week I made Sacicce di Manzo (Beef Sausages), Salcicce alla Cacciatora (Pork Sausages) and a few Salamini. For dinner on sausage making day, I traditionally serve some spiedini (skewers) using the various types of sausages produced on the day. The picky eaters (grand kids) could not get enough of the skewers so I consider the day a success!

SALCICCE ALLA CACCIATORA

4 Kg heavy smoked bacon

4 Kg veal topside

2 Kg lamb or venison leg

4 Kg pork leg

4 Kg pork shoulder

2 – 3 Kg pork back fat (Depends on the fat content of the meat)

100 g balck pepper

220 g salt

Half a bottle of good red wine

All the meat should be without bones. Grind all the meat through the coarse grid on your mincer. Mix well after adding the salt, pepper and wine. Let it rest for 12 hours in the fridge. Grind again and fill the skins.

The way to cook these is either on the open fire or in a pan, using one cup of water and one tablespoon of vinegar.