In the early days of our farm one of our customers was married to a man from Denmark. His family made a liver pâté that was delicious. I asked the customer for the recipe which she shared. Her mother-in-law sent it to them in Danish, the son translated it, and the customer shared it with me. This is that original recipe. I have made edits to it here.
Continue reading “Danish Liver Pâté”
Aliens
With all the talk about weird objects being seen from the space station, secret UFO departments at the Pentagon, and other strange things in the sky, we decided it would be wise to scour our property for evidence of aliens before our cows are abducted.
Climbing to the top of the barn, we were stunned to find that someone had indeed left a message for us.
February Challenge – Organ Meat
I can hear it already – “What do you mean organ meat? You mean, like liver? And why do it the 2nd month of the challenge? Can’t we wait until later in the challenge?”
Organ meat has to be included sometime. It is a legitimate meat that local farmers will sell. It includes the odd pieces – heart, liver, tongue, kidneys, brains, ox tail, chicken feet, pig feet and hocks. (Ox tail, chicken feet, and pig feet and hocks aren’t technically organ meat, but we will allow them for this challenge.)
We have scheduled organ meat in February because that is traditionally when our family eats heart (Valentine’s Day). (And yes, we have eaten rabbit at Easter and would consider reindeer at Christmas!) Rather than have just heart this month we have included all organ meats.
What are ways to prepare these items?
- The feet and hocks make good stock that can serve as the foundation for soup or for the liquid to cook rice in.
- Heart and tongue I tend to boil and slice and serve as part of dinner or in sandwiches.
- Chicken hearts I saute with onion, celery and/or mushrooms in oil. Once the onion is limp or the celery is soft, then I turn it to low and let it simmer with the lid on to make sure that the hearts are cooked. I have several young children that like this as their birthday meal.
- Sliced kidneys or liver can be soaked first in milk. If I soak them, I do it for 30 minutes, change milk, soak them again for another 30 minutes. For the kidneys this reduces the urine smell/flavor.
- Kidneys – I have made steak and kidney pie. More recently I have made Tom Clack’s Deviled Kidneys from Shannon Hayes The Grassfed Gourmet. It is sliced kidneys in a spicy ketchup sauce that is then served with bread or over potatoes or rice. (Recipe to come later in the month.)
- Liver
- This can be ground or finely chopped and mixed in with other meats.
- Before we moved to the farm, I always would cook liver with onions. We would sometimes serve it as a sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce and mayo and call it a Real Man’s Sandwich!
- One of my early farm customers gave me a recipe for Danish Liver Pâté. Her in-laws were from Denmark. Her mom sent the recipe in Danish to her, her husband translated it into English, and she gave it to me. It is raw liver, blended with milk, egg, flour and seasonings, which is then baked and served on crackers or bread. This is now my main way to serve liver.
- A similar recipe adds sausage and omits the milk and egg. My children like this a little better. Lots of things taste better with sausage!
- If you have a good way to make something with some other organ meat, make it and include it in the comments.
Again, the rules are that this made from organ meat grown local to you. Comment below by March 3, 2018, with what you made, how you liked it and how you would make it differently next time.
Organ meat is on sale for $3.75 / lb through March 3, 2018.
Christmas Traditions
Christmas is a special time for many people. The Farmer has very pleasant memories of going to Grandma’s house for Christmas. Besides playing with the cousins, The Farmer loved Grandma’s nut tray, cracking shells and enjoying tastes that he did not get at home.
As an adult, The Farmer wanted to shape Christmas to his own liking, and since The Farmer’s Wife was willing, a unique format for our meals has developed.
Dried Beans
Many of the pole beans we grow can be eaten as a dried bean. This means that you don’t harvest the bean when it is young and green. You let it grow full size.
As the beans mature, the seeds inside the pod get much larger. The pod drys out in the wind and sun, leaving the bean’s seeds as the part of the plant that is eaten.
After-Thanksgiving Turkey Soup
After-Thanksgiving Turkey Soup
Ingredients
1 leftover turkey carcass (from a 12- to 14-pound turkey, or whatever size you have)
Vegetables - Use mixture of vegetables, perhaps the ones below, to equal 4 cups
3 medium onions, chopped
2 large carrots, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
- Or include other veggies - broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, greens, squash, sweet potato, potatoes, green beans
1 cup butter or oil or fat
1 cup all-purpose flour (or 1/2 cup cornstarch or 1/4 arrowroot powder dissolved in 2 cups cold water or cold broth)
2 cups half-and-half cream or milk or cream (or 2 cups broth)
1 cup uncooked long grain rice (if you cook this separately and add it as you serve each bowl, then you can increase your veggies up to another 4 cups)
2 teaspoons salt, opt.
3/4 teaspoon pepper, opt.
Instructions
- Place turkey carcass, including bones, meat, and skin, in a soup kettle or Dutch oven or 8 qt. stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 3 hours. (This makes a nice turkey bone broth.) Let cool. Set aside 3 qt. broth. Remove carcass. Remove meat from bones and cut into bite-size pieces; set aside 2-4 cups.
- In a soup kettle or Dutch oven, saute the onions, carrots and celery (and other veggies) in butter, oil, or fat until tender. Reduce heat; stir in flour (or other thickener) until blended. Gradually add 1 qt. of reserved broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
- Add cream, rice, salt, pepper, remaining broth and reserved turkey. Bring to boil, reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until rice and veggies are tender. Stir about every 5-8 minutes as it has a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pan. If it gets too thick, add more broth, water or milk.
- Any remaining broth can be added to any remaining turkey and frozen for use another day.
Notes
16 servings (~6-7 quarts)
Whole Chicken – Part 2: Chicken Soups
Recently we talked about how to thaw and cook a whole chicken. So the chicken is cooked. It can be eaten as is. The meat can be used in casseroles or stir-fries. Or it can be used in soups.
Our 2 favorite chicken soups are Chicken Corn Soup and Hearty Vegetable Chicken Soup. Enjoy!
Chicken Corn Soup
This is a family favorite from my growing up days in southern PA. In August we would purchase corn to blanch and freeze. In the winter we would use the corn to make this soup.
Ingredients
- 1 Whole chicken about 5 lb, can be whole or frozen
- 1-2 onions diced
- 1/2 celery head chopped
- Water to cover chicken
- 2 bags frozen corn may use 2 cans of corn
- 1 bag egg noodles
Instructions
- Place the chicken, celery, onion and water in a Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken; cool.
- Put 1/2 stock and cut-up chicken in 8 qt. stockpot. Add corn. Bring to boil. Add stock if it is too thick. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. (This can simmer as long as you want.) 10 minutes before serving add egg noodles, and add stock so that it is on the runny side.
- Add salt at the table as needed/desired.
Notes
We vary this by using other starches in place of the egg noodles - rice, barley, potatoes, alphabet noodles or rivels. Rivels are just 3/4 cup flour added to 1 beaten egg. (Place the flour in a bowl; mix in egg with a fork just until blended. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls into boiling soup, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until rivels are cooked through.) Rivel recipe
Hearty Chicken Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 1 roasting chicken about 5 pounds, can be cut up or can be whole frozen chicken
- 2-4 celery ribs sliced
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2-1/2 quarts water
- 1 can 14-1/2 ounces stewed tomatoes Or equivalent diced tomatoes
- 4 medium carrots sliced
- 2 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
- 1 medium turnip peeled and cubed, can substitute 2 potatoes
Seasonings - use ones you like - We especially like oregano.
- 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh parsley opt.
- 3/4 teaspoon each dried basil, oregano and tarragon opt.
- 3/4 teaspoon salt opt.
- 3/4 teaspoon pepper opt.
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder opt.
Additional veggies
- 2 cups fresh broccoli florets
- 2 cups frozen peas optional
Instructions
- Place the chicken, celery, onion and water in a Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken; cool.
- Remove meat from bones and cut into bite-size pieces; return to pan. Add the tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, turnips, seasonings; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add broccoli and peas if desired; simmer 15-20 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender. Yield: 16 servings (about 4 quarts).
Notes
Other veggies can be added. Diced tomatoes can be used in place of stewed tomatoes. We add salt and Parmesan cheese at the table. Original recipe
Sty Guy
Our second son is currently working on his Ph.D. in mathematics. But his humble roots include being a pig farmer. He loved his pigs like some kids love their dogs. He would play with them and ride on them.
Back in those days, we had sows that we would breed to raise a litter of piglets.
Now we buy our piglets in from farms which raise their pigs outdoors. Know why is this important? Continue reading “Sty Guy”
The Allure of Garlic
Have you ever thought about trying to grow something in a garden? Garlic would be fairly easy to start with.
Why garlic?
- Here in the Northeast garlic is planted in the fall after Columbus Day. This means that you are not waiting for a wet spring to end or for snow to melt before you can plant it.
- Garlic doesn’t take a lot of space. Several cloves planted 6 inches apart will give you several heads of garlic.
The High Cost of Home Preservation
Preserving food is work.
We like to put up food each year. Here you see (clockwise from upper right): dried apples, beets, beef, apple sauce, and green beans.
Preserving food is easier with some specialized equipment, Continue reading “The High Cost of Home Preservation”