Salt to taste
3 whole duck legs
1 lbs stew lamb, cut up
3 lbs sausage
3 cups duck or goose fat
4 cups white beans
3 carrots diced
3 celery stalks diced
2 leeks
2 onions, chopped fine
1 23oz can San Marzano tomatoes
12 cloves garlic
2 sprigs thyme, rosemary, sage and parsley (each) wrapped in cheesecloth
2 cups white wine
1 cup Demi-Glace or very rich stock
1 tbsp Ras el Hanout*
1 bay leaf
2 tsp thyme
* Ras el Hanout ingredients:
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1⁄2 tsp cloves, ground
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
The day before cooking, sprinkle the duck legs with salt in a bowl. Soak the beans in a large bowl, covered with 2x the amount water, overnight.
The following day, soak the legs in cold water for 10 minutes. Drain. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat 2 cups duck fat in a heavy skillet and add duck legs, and cook slowly for 2 hrs. Meanwhile, drain the beans and cover with fresh water, adding cheesecloth bouquet and 6 cloves of garlic. Cook over medium flame for 1 hour, or until beans are Al Dente. Drain. Remove cheesecloth and garlic. Heat 1 cup duck fat until melted. Add chopped onions and remaining garlic and sautéuntil lightly brown. Add celery and carrots and cook slowly for 15 minutes.
Brown sausages in a skillet. Remove from skillet and cut into bite-size pieces. Heat oil from sausages and add lamb pieces. Brown on all sides. Remove and combine with sausage pieces. De-glaze the pan with 2 cups white wine. Add 1 tbsp Ras el Hanout, tomatoes and Demi-Glace to deglazed wine mixture and set aside.
In a heavy pot, add drained beans, carrot/onion mixture, wine/tomato mixture, bay leaf, 2 tsp thyme and all of the meat. Cover pot and place in the oven. Cook for 1 1⁄2 hrs. This dish is best served the next day when flavors have had a chance to meld together. Serve Very Hot.
I based this cookie recipe on Heidi Swanson’s Cookies
These cookies are Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free & Sugar-Free!
2 cups blanched almond flour (you can grind almonds to a fine flour in your own kitchen)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 cup organic chunky peanut butter (if the oil has separated, pour off oil and use thick peanut butter)
¼ cup chopped organic peanuts
1/2 cup maple syrup or agave
1/3 cup shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate larger bowl combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the flour mixture over the peanut butter mixture and stir. Drop by heaping spoon onto cookie sheet (sprinkle with sea salt chunks if desired).
Bake for 8-12 minutes – Makes 2 – 3 dozen cookies.
I was in the parking lot of our local grocer yesterday when a hunter/butcher friend of mine called out to me.
We got instantly excited as we anticipate the upcoming meat processing week. It is mostly deer and pigs, but it could also be turkeys, cows, or sheep.
Together we share several pieces of equipment (at this point, I am not even sure who really owns what): we have a sausage stuffer, several meat grinders, a pulley, a scale, Cryovac and a dehydrator. Add string, butcher paper, Cryo bags, spices, garlic and lots of sharp knives and we have a fully operational meat packing plant!
We slaughtered our two pigs on Wednesday and will package them up on Sunday – perhaps have a pig roast Sunday night. We have put off doing it because the weather has been so warm but it is time and it is getting costly to keep the pigs. It is a lovely fit; venison and pork go well together for sausage making, as there is so much fat on a pig and none on a deer.
<<We had two pigs this year and here I am hanging them for three days before we butcher them. Our pigs were smaller this year as we did not get them until August. They were Berkshire Old Spot heritage breed.
So we grind up the deer meat – three-parts deer meat to one-part pork shoulder or scraps to one-part pork fat, add spices and herbs, and we are on our way to stuffing delicious sausage.
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- Salami
<<We made three types of sausage this year, salami, bacon and head cheese. It is a satisfying project that makes me drool thinking about it!
It is a joyful time and we all vie for who has the best recipe, eating skillets full of sausages as we go (although this year I will not be eating, as I am still on my no animal protein diet and feeling pretty good about it!).
Salt to taste
* Ras el Hanout ingredients:
