Braised Bones

Was going to make pork soup, but I've never just had the pork bones braised, and they had all this really nice looking meat and tendon and marrow stuff going on. In addition, both of us had long work days today and were unlikely to sit down for dinner before 8 or so, and probably would not want to fuss with an elaborate dinner. So I decided to have the bones a bit more paleo style (assuming our hunter-gatherer ancestors had a convenient plug for a crock pot), and just threw them into the slow cooker (see first post pic) with some bay, peppercorns, and water and braised them all day. Results below. Pulled the bones out and put them on a plate (broth and trimmings will be lunch tomorrow, served over millet) with nothing else. Phil looked very suspicious that this plate of bones would make a meal, but none of us are complaining now. Marrow and meat and good fatty connective tissue is really satisfying.

Eating notes: Use a chopstick to get as much marrow as you can out of the bone. It's really good and a crime to waste.

Deconstruction of a Chicken

Chicken tomato stew tonight (chicken, tomatoes, onion, mushroom, peppercorns, bay and spices to taste; cook all day on high so the bones really soften and release everything they can). Tomorrow's lunchtime leftovers will be the last of the chicken. So a four pound chicken works out to the following:

Initial dinner for 2
2 chicken and rice lunches
Chicken pizza for 2
1 chicken and rice lunch and 1 chicken skin lunch
Chicken stew dinner for 2
Chicken stew lunch for 2

I looked at the $17 price tag on the chicken and thought "yowzers." But the bird has given us the main course for 12 meals. Not bad. Arigatou, chicken-chan.

Veal Cheeks Braised in Tomato

Rehearsal night last night, so easy crock pot dinner - except that I chunked the veal in the pot and forgot everything else! So thanks, Phil, for doing the actual cooking. As it turned out, we still needed to pull it out of the crock pot and put it on the stove for a half hour for it to be edible for dinner, and then I let it simmer a couple of hours more so it would be really good for leftover lunches.

Instructions (or; what I *should* have done): Put veal cheeks in crock pot with one can of tomatoes. Cut a medium onion and a large waxy potato (red, Yukon gold, etc.) into 1" cubes and add. Add some carrots and celery, cut into 1" pieces. Throw in 4 whole cloves of garlic and spices to taste. Cook on low all day.

Updated with photo.

Winter Stew

I was out of the house for most of Sunday, so dinner was something I could throw in the oven and allow it to stew. One of the cuts I ended up with from the last batch of cow that I split with Courtney was a 2 1/2'ish lb arm roast, so that seemed like a good idea for a winter stew-thing. So, the day decided to crank up to a nice seasonable 60+ F and sent my goat willow into paroxysms of attempting to bloom. It's going to be very annoyed when it starts snowing in a few days, again.

Pot roast

2 1/2 cow arm roast
2 med onion
3 ribs celery
3 carrots
4 cloves garlic
28 oz can tomato
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 t oregano
1 t thyme
1 T mustard seed
1 t fennel seed
1 t celery seed
1/4 t cayenne
1/4 bunch parsley
12 oz bullion
1-2 T lard
flour
salt and pepper

Chop onion, celery, carrot and garlic, coarsely. This roast had a gorgeous bone with what would end up as about 2 tablespoons of marrow to savor. But anyway. Coat meat in seasoned flour and brown in dutch oven in lard. I cut the roast into 3 sections to brown in two batches. Remove to platter. Throw veggies and garlic into dutch oven an sweat over med-high heat for 10 minutes. Add tomato and juice from can along with spices, bullion and meat. Stir. Add parsley on top. Cooked in 235 F deg oven, I am not sure what I was actually trying for, but that seems to be where I pulled my finger off the temperature control. This would probably work well in a crock pot, I don't actually have a functioning one, so I tend to do these types of dishes in the oven.

I guess this was in the oven about 4 hours. I reduced the liquid some over the stove and broke the meat up into smaller bits; I didn't share the marrow, cook has his privileges. Served with pasta and a green salad of no real great description.

Serves 6'ish

Slow-Cooked Lamb Shanks

Rehearsal day for me so it's a crock pot recipe. No pics, sorry. This is adapted and shrunk from an About.com recipe.

Braised Slow-Cooker Lamb Shanks
Serves 2

2 lamb shanks
1/2 red onion
1-2 t Bulldog Worcestershire* (or use regular Worchestershire)
dash salt
2 garlic cloves (would have used more but that was all I had)
1-1/2 c beef stock
1 10-oz can diced tomatoes and chilis
1 T mixed Italian green herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, etc.)
1 t ground allspice
1 bay leaf
fat for browning shanks (I used bacon grease)
*Bulldog is an inexpensive brand of Japanese Worcestershire sauce. It's quite different from my standard Lee & Perrins. But if you use regular it will be fine.

Brown the shanks on all sides.

While they are browning, thickly slice both the onion and garlic. If any of the mushrooms are really big, halve or quarter them. Separate the onion and scatter the onion rings at the bottom of the crock pot. (You'll put the garlic and mushrooms on later.)

When the shanks have browned, pour the Worchestershire over and turn the shanks to coat. Put the shanks and any sauce in the crock pot. Lightly salt the shanks. Arrange the garlic slices over. Put in the mushrooms.

Mix the stock, can of tomatoes and chilis (including juice), and spices. Pour over the shanks. The tomatoes will kind of coat the top of the lamb; that's fine.

Cook the heck out of it - all day on low, or until tender.