Thursday, May 28, 2020

Pork shoulder - Rosemary, mustard and garlic

PORK
There seems to be a lot more pork around in the stores and less beef lately. We also spotted some frog legs in the store... so I guess when they said there's no interruption in the supply line and we would have to be less picky when buying meat the store they meant it. :P So, we got this pork shoulder and made it into some of the best pork we ever had! This made marvelous pulled pork sandwiches as leftovers when thrown in with some barbecue sauce into the slow cooker the next day! We did marinate it overnight and used fresh rosemary cut from our bush in the garden!

here's the original recipe we modified: https://themom100.com/recipe/fall-apart-roasted-pork-shoulder-rosemary-mustard-garlic/
the marinade

Pork shoulder with garlic poked in

Ready to marinade overnight!

All cooked!

Fall apart goodness pork shoulder!

Ingredients:

12 cloves garlic
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons coarse Dijon mustard
1 6 to 8-pound boneless pork shoulder

Directions:

1. Combine 4 cloves of garlic, rosemary sprigs, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil and dijon mustard in a magic bullet or blender. Blend until a thick paste forms.
2. Wash your meat and place in a roasting or cooking pan. Poke slits in the meat with a knife.
3. Insert remaining garlics into slits.
4. Slather with the marinade. We also placed some rosemary sprigs on top.
5. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight to marinade.
6. Preheat oven to 450 F and place meat (remove plastic wrap!) in there for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, reduce heat to 250 F and cook for 6 to 8 hours until internal temperature of meat reaches at least 180F.
7. Remove from oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes. Slice meat into desired thickness pieces and serve. We served with smashed baby potatoes, but any sides would go wondrously with this. 

What we liked:

The flavor! This is a great recipe!

What we didn't like:

It does take a while to cook - so budget a whole day! Start in the morning. Although, it requires minimal attention, and the marinade is quick to make!

What Kaspian thought about it:

He liked a lot actually! 

Next time:


Clam Chowder - super easy and yummy!

We were in the mood for soup and have been meaning to make this clam chowder for a while, but ya know, life gets in the way, so this week we finally just did it! and......Yum!
This was slightly sweet, and overall delicious soup which is so quick and easy to make. We used our Dutch oven to make it and it turned out quite marvelous indeed! We also just made some frozen Pillsbury biscuits to go with this and they went SO good together - would highly recommend. The one thing that you might want to add is some green onions to sprinkle on the top, that would really add to it, but it's not necessary!

Here's the original recipe that we modified:  https://damndelicious.net/2015/04/25/easy-clam-chowder/print/


Ingredients:

4 slices bacon, diced - I would say do more if you can, this wasn't quite enough, but we used thin bacon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or a couple of sprigs of fresh (we used from our garden!)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1.5 cups chicken stock
2 (6.5-ounce) cans chopped clams with juices
1 8 ounce clam juice bottle
2-3 bay leaves
4-5  medium sized golden potatoes, peeled and diced into cubes
1 cup half and half (we used 1/2 milk and 1/2 heavy cream)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate, leave the bacon fat in there.
2. Add butter to the Dutch oven. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in thyme until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, clam juice, chicken stock, bay leaves, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the potatoes.
5. Bring to a boil; cover with a lid and reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes
6. Stir in half and half and clams until heated through, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
7. Cook for another 10 minutes
8. Serve garnished with bacon and green onions if desired. 

What we liked:

It was absolutely delicious!

What we didn't like:

Nothing, it was great!

What Kaspian thought about it:

He actually loved it! All the children did. We almost didn't have any left overs!

Next time:

Green onions to garnish. 

Monday, May 18, 2020

Salmon Faverolle chicks hatching

















We had 4 chicks hatch in the incubator sucessfully! 

Chiciken Katsu Curry

Tadaa!
I know it's been a while, but here we are. Trying to make it through Zoom Distance Learning school. Wohoo last week of it!
So, we love Japanese food, and have finally gotten around to making the Japanese Chicken Katsu curry. It was our first time making it, but even with that it was totally delicious!
Here's the original recipe: https://www.japancentre.com/en/recipes/301-japanese-chicken-katsu-curry




Ingredients:

curry sauce:
1 box S&B (4-5 cubes) Japanese curry
1 large onion
1 large potato
1 carrot
2 tbsp butter
800 ml water

chicken katsu:
80 g panko breadcrumbs
4 tbsp plain flour
4 chicken breasts
1 egg, slightly beaten
vegetable oil for deep-frying - we use canola

Directions:

0 - Cook rice - we use 4 cups of calrose rice and 6 cups water and cook it on the sushi setting in the multi-cooker.

1. Chop the onion, potato and carrot into small chunks.
2. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a large pan. Add the onions and carrots. Sautee until softened for a few minutes.
3. Add in the cubed potatoes.
4. Add in the approx 800 ml of water. Cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Add the whole packet of S&B curry and melt it all in, stirring constantly.
6. Let it cook for 5-10 minutes, lightly simmering while stirring.
7. Turn the curry off and let it sit, with the lid on.
8. Flatten out the chicken breast pieces between two pieces of plastic wrap. We use a meat beater tool to flatten it out.
9. Season your chicken breast pieces with salt and pepper before covering with flour first and then raw egg, then panko breadcrumbs.
8. Heat up the oil in a separate pan and fry the chicken on both sides until both sides are golden brown and chicken is cooked.
9. Slice the cooked chicken katsu into strips and lay over a bed of rice before adding the curry sauce.

What we liked:

This was surprisingly easy to make! Such a fun yummy and warm dish to create!

What we didn't like:

Nothing, it was great. The medium hot spicy was not at all spicy. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He liked it actually! So did all the kiddoes. They loved the chicken strips most of all. Although Astrid loves plain white rice with her meals too. 

Next time:

We would like to use the air fryer to fry but not sure how well it would turn out. The crispyness is kind of crucial.