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.