2016 finally begins with snow on the ground. The holiday season is over, but we'd like to share a couple of cooking experiences which may be of interest to our readers.
As most blog readers know, our favourite holiday meat is goose. To end 2015, we decided to take a different path to cooking goose. Our Slow Food event for Terra Madre last month was based on deboned quails. We decided to use what we have learned to debone our goose and effectively create what the french call a "ballotine".
The results were amazing. By keeping just four bones (2 leg bones and 2 wing bones) we were able to create a "ballotine" that still resembled a roasted goose and yet had no carcass. Cutting this large bird in half proved impressive and very easy to serve. We'd recommend everyone at least try this once with a roasted bird. There are ample videos on YouTube; in particular, we would recommend those published by Chef Jaques Pepin.
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| A "re-constructed" bird; "ballotine" of goose |
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| Always impressive to cut a boneless stuffed bird in half. |
For New Year's eve, we decided to draw on the Polish side of the family for a different cultural tradition: Bigos.
Since arriving at the farm, we have been practicing and promoting on this blog home made sauerkraut. Yet once made, what is the best way to enjoy this great food during the Winter season? Our answer is Bigos; also known as a Polish hunters' stew.
Bigos is a national Polish dish, yet its roots are in Lithuania. In 1385, newly crowned king Wladyslaw Jagiello, originally from Lithuania, introduced the concept to his court and featured it as part of his hunting parties.
The concept is simple, yet we're certain that for every Polish family in North America, there is a different version of Bigos. In fact, we would not be surprised if something similar can be found in many North Eastern European countries and tradition.
Basically Bigos is a combination of sauerkraut and meats. To this are added onions, mushrooms, and sometimes tomatoes and cabbage. The essential meat to this meal is of course Kielbasa (that wonderful garlicky Polish sausage).
For us, we decided to use local meats to add to our Bigos. This included pork loins (which we braised in white wine), pork belly (bacon can also be used), and smoked pork chops (Kassler) which were added to our Kielbasa. Locals can source great meats for this meal at the Country Corner Market in Welland (this includes Kassler and Kielbasa).
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| New Year's Eve Bigos |
If you have home made sauerkraut at hand, we highly recommend making Bigos. There is nothing heartier as this wonderful Winter stew and every element of it reflects our own local Ontario food culture, since our climate is so similar to northern Europe.
Finally, on the farm, it is now time to tackle our barn project.
Before much can be done structurally, we actually have to clean up a horrendous mess. This is an accumulation of "stuff" which existed in the barn when we moved in, plus a large amount of our own things. "Stuff", lots of stuff, we've not even yet bothered to sort through from our various moves over the past 10 years.
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| The barn: a mess that needs to be sorted through |
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| Progress is slow, but things are looking up. |
