Mega Cook-a-Thon!

There were a number of food processing things I'd had on my mind, but week after week it seemed there were other things that took precedence. Finally this weekend, nothing seemed to be in the way. I devoted the day to cooking. There were two things that were motivating this event.

• I had a bunch of chicken fat I'd accumulated over time that really needed to be processed into schmalz and gribenes or it would get rancid.
• I had the leftovers from a rather sad incident where I'd purchased a pork shoulder thinking it was boneless only to find it was bone in! This was prior to my getting all my knives sharpened. It was a horror show, and I had a mangled piece of boneless pork, the the bone with a lot of meat still on it to do something with. 

So today I was making said schmalz (rendered chicken fat for cooking), a pork stew from the boneless pork piece, and New Mexico red chile from the bone. 

NM Chile Video Special

Ingredients

The process

 (had to do a work around as Blogger said my file was too big!)

And the end result

Making Schmaltz and Gribenes 

Every time I cook with chicken, I cut off the fat and excess skin and freeze so I have enough to make schmalz and gribenes. 

It is actually much easier to cut the fat and skin into the small pieces that will allow for rendering in a time effective way when it is frozen

The rendering must be done under a medium low heat for a LONG time

But then it gets to where most of the fat has been rendered out and the remaining bits start to brown. Now one needs to pay closer attention.

At this point you add some onions which give schmalz its distinctive flavor

You cook it more until it reaches the right point of browning and before it burns

Then you drain and separate the schmaltz from the gribenes.

 Pork Stew

Marinating - Pork with fresh Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Garlic and Salt

 Mix these well together with hands and let sit at room temperature for a number of hours

(Note, as someone who is a 'grandparent' it is a requirement to give the most obscure instructions related to anything requiring measurement like amounts or times - "Dear, you let it marinate until its ready.")

After the mysterious marinating period is done, brown the meat

 

Saute your aromatics - Onion Carrot, Celery

 Add some homemade tomato confit for depth

Add some black and white peppercorns 

 Now in goes the meat and the flavorings from the marinade.

Deglaze with red wine then add beef broth and salt to taste

 

Then into a 375 degree oven for an hour and half (Ha! threw in those specifics just to throw you off guard!)

 After that time most of the liquid is cooked down

 I add more beef broth, then take out the meat and strain the fluid

 When I serve it, I will put in some parboiled potato, carrot, and daikon, then cook in the oven for another 30 minutes.

We Evoke The Spirit Of Shirty

 Once upon a time their was a young girl. This young girl loved soft things. Her mother wore a velour sweater. The young girl would come to her mother and cling to the sweater, rubbing its soft cloth through her hands. Sadly, the mother found that having a young girl continually clinging to you for the comfort of your sweater an inhibition to doing daily life. She finally acknowledged she would have to divest ownership of the sweater. She gave it to the young girl. The young girl was ecstatic. Being a VERY creative girl, she gave it a name that evoked all the comfort it provided her. SHIRTY, the avatar of comfort. 

Fast forward 45 years, I bought some shirts, some chamois cloth shirts.

I took one feel of the shirt. I took the shirt to Wife. She felt it. We both immediately said the same thing aloud.

SHIRTY!

Had Shirty been reincarnated? Who is to know. I do wonder what will happen if I am wearing this shirt and see the, now grown, young girl and she feels it. Will I get to keep the shirt? Or will Shirty want to return to her true love.

Charleston Mini Navel Gazing Post

We scheduled this trip to Charleston because we were undergoing an enforced hiatus in our international travels while I got a new passport. We've not done a whole lot of trips like this where we just go for a few days so I was curious to see how we would react. 

We Can Get Into It Quickly

I was happily surprised that we fit right into our travel groove almost immediately. We actually hadn't done that much research on what was there. But I think our travel persona has become such a part of who we are now that we can figure out whatever we need when we get somewhere without a whole lot of preparation. This includes figuring out how to provision our rentals, finding places to eat, getting around the place, and focusing our daily activities.

The Importance Of Walking

The downtown part of Charleston is ideal for walking. We absolutely had no need for a car between Uber and walking. And we walked a ton each day we were there. It had us wistful that our relocation dreams didn't pan out. Someone asked me if a city like Charleston would be a relocation opportunity. Sadly the areas that is best as a walking city, is not really designed for daily living. For example there is a sparsity of supermarkets and pharmacies. Also because of the heavy architectural preservation rules, affordable housing is scarce too.

 Nice To Not Have To Totally Reacclimate

One nice thing about such a short trip is we didn't have this huge catch up period after we came back. We hadn't been gone that long! And it wasn't that hard on our bodies. Now, that doesn't mean we're about to give up our international mega trips. But I can definitely see our balancing them with shorter trips like this. 

Figuring Out The Eating

You will remember my initial post about the sticker shock associated with dining. We figured it out. We found numerous places where we could have good dining experiences that were way more reasonable. I think that gives confidence that if we do this type of trip, we will be fine from a gastronomic standpoint. 

All in all this was a very good experience and has opened our minds to other alternatives for indulging our travel passion.