Jiao zi with leftover duck

I have no idea if these count as actual jiaozi (which are a form of Chinese dumpling). I am calling them jiaozi because the pre-made dumpling wrappers we had in the freezer were wheat-based dumpling wrappers from some Asian grocery store (not sure which one, they have been in that freezer for years…) I combined:

Leftover smoked duck meat (shredded and finely chopped)

A splash of soy sauce, a sprinkle of brown sugar, and a few grinds of pepper

and mixed this with a coconut-oil sauteed mixture of:

Shredded and chopped green cabbage

Finely chopped button mushroom stems

and a few sprinkles of powdered ginger and powdered garlic.

I mixed in a couple tablespoons of cornstarch (dissolved in water) to try to make sure the mixture would stick together and not fall out of the dumplings if they came open in cooking. They didn’t, so I’m not sure the cornstarch was needed, but if it was, it worked. Then I wrapped the mixture in the afore-mentioned dumpling wrappers. These are the kind where you rub a wet finger along the edge and then pinch the sides together to seal the dumpling closed.

I cooked the jiaozi like potstickers: in a cast iron skillet on high heat I first fried them briefly in beef tallow; then I added about a cup of water and a not-very-tight-fitting lid and let them steam until the water was gone. I tried cooking them in coconut oil as well but we agreed the beef tallow was better (though coconut oil smells better when you’re cooking.)

Those are five-year-old fingers reaching for one in the photo above, so yes, they were good.

Whole duck on the Pit Barrel Cooker

I have struggled to cook a whole duck successfully. First I tried a modified version of Julia Child’s recipe: modified in that I cooked the duck the way she described, but I didn’t do all the other fiddly stuff on the side like taking the membrane off orange slices. In my opinion, having tried several other Julia Child recipes in the past, either Julia Child never actually cooked anything, or whoever wrote her cookbooks got the recipes wrong. Julia’s duck was a disaster, and in hindsight her instructions had us cooking the duck for a stupidly long time and at insane temperatures.

This time I tried cooking/smoking the duck on/in our pit barrel cooker. We have used a Pit Barrel Cooker* for years; it’s not perfect but I like it. This is not a recommendation, because I don’t know what you like, but I’m happy with it.

I rubbed the duck in oil and a spice rub, fired up the charcoal, and hung the duck from the rebar. It was supposed to take 3 hours. After 2 hours the breast meat was registering 190 degrees (it’s supposed to be 140) and the skin was very nicely browned. However, I found that there was still a pretty thick layer of fat under the skin. This is supposed to render out at the initially high cooking temperature, which clearly didn’t happen. I put the duck under the broiler for 5 minutes or so which successfully rendered the fat and crisped up the skin.

Despite being technically overcooked, this duck turned out really well. The meat was certainly not tough and chewy but was instead relatively tender and flavorful, the skin was (reasonably) crispy, and overall it was a very good experience. In the future I will probably try starting the duck under the broiler first, to get the fat bubbling, and then hanging it in the pit barrel cooker to finish — and watching the temperature more closely.

* A pit barrel cooker (whether sold by the company of that name or from some other source) is basically a steel barrel with air holes in it and a lid. You light a charcoal fire in the bottom and hang meat on hooks from a piece of rebar across the top. The idea is that as the fat from your meat drips on the charcoal, it makes smoke: not wood smoke like in an actual smoker, but enough so you get at least some smoky flavor. Meanwhile the meat cooks through convection as heat rises from the charcoal.

Modified Mutton "Biryani"

This is a sort-of approximation of a real biryani which is modified for cooks who are lazy time sensitive and who don’t necessarily have all of the ingredients on hand for a traditional biryani.

What is “Mutton”?

While the definitions change depending on where you are, in general “mutton” refers to meat from a sheep that is 2 years of age or older, meaning it has gone through at least one breeding cycle. “Lamb” is generally from a sheep that is around a year old or younger, and does not yet have its permanent incisors. The term for a sheep that is mature but between 1 and 2 years of age (and thus has likely not been through a breeding cycle) is a “hogget”. There is a very wide variation in grass-fed lamb or mutton, based on whether the animal was standing in lush pastures eating a salad bar of grasses and hay, or whether it was walking miles each day over scrub land looking for grass to eat. Neither of these methods of raising sheep is “better”, but if you’ve only tried range-raised lamb (or mutton) and it wasn’t to your taste, try some lamb from a local farmer who sees the animals every day instead of turning them loose on open range for the season.

Source: Anchor Ranch Farm

Materials

2 pounds of boneless mutton stew meat

2 cups of basmati rice

2-4 yellow or sweet onions (depending on size), sliced thin

plain yogurt, or milk

lemon juice

powdered or fresh ginger

minced garlic or garlic powder (not salt!)

butter

Ghee or lard (real lard, not the packaged stuff full of preservatives)

fresh cilantro, chopped

spices: salt, black pepper, nutmeg, mace (or more nutmeg), dried or fresh mint, cinnamon (stick and ground), cloves (whole), cardamom (pod or ground), ground cumin, ground coriander, bay leaves, turmeric.

You need the salt, nutmeg, cardamom of some form, and cinnamon. Cloves are a nice to have. For the rest, if you have to you could substitute a basic curry powder. Make sure your curry powder is salt-free or make sure you balance the curry and any extra salt you add. If you happen to have garam masala, use that.

A big heavy pot with a lid

Aluminum foil

Another pot

Optional: dried raisins or craisins, nuts, prunes, something like that

Method

Marinade the Mutton

First, marinate the mutton in plain yogurt mixed with ginger and garlic powder for a few hours, or overnight if you can. If you don’t have plain yogurt, make a mix of milk (we always use local raw milk), a couple tablespoons of lemon juice, some salt, and powdered ginger and garlic, just enough to cover all of the mutton. You could grate fresh ginger instead of the powder, if you have it, and you could use minced fresh or dried garlic. Here is a photo of the mutton in the marinade:

Carmelize the Onions

Put some lard (or ghee) in the bottom of your big heavy pot and put it on medium heat. Add salt and the sliced onion and carmelize, stirring occasionally. How much salt depends on what you want it to taste like. The browner the onions get, the more flavor they will have, but the closer you get to burning them. If you have other things to do besides watch onions cook, just go until they have some brown bits in them, like the photo below.

Once the onions are sufficiently carmelized, add one cinnamon stick, a few cloves, dried or fresh mint (if you have it), 3-5 cardamom pods or a few pinches of ground cardamom, 2-3 bay leaves (if you have them), a few pinches of mace (if you have it, otherwise use extra nutmeg), and either a garam masala mix OR about half a nutmeg (ground), ground black pepper, several shakes of ground cumin and of ground coriander, and several shakes of cinnamon. If you want, add a bit of chili powder. Turn up the heat and cook and stir the onions with the spices for about another minute. The most important flavors here are the carmelized onion, the cardamom, nutmeg or mace, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cloves. I don’t like giving spice measurements because it depends on how strong you like the flavors and how old your spices are. Try roughly equal parts cumin and coriander, slightly more than that of cinnamon, even more than that of cardamom, and a whole heck of a lot of nutmeg, maybe 50:50 with mace if you have it. As mentioned, you could substitute out some of these for a curry powder mix if that is all you have, just read the ingredients.

Simmer the Mutton Until Tender

Add in the mutton along with its marinade. Add chopped cilantro, or parsley if you don’t like cilantro, or some other green herb that reminds you of cilantro or parsley (we used papalo). Stir everything to combine. Add about 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add extra salt to taste. I like to add chicken bouillon, not really for the weird stuff and the chicken flavor but for the MSG. I know, OMG, I thought you were about natural food, MSG is extracted from….seaweed, and L-glutamic acid is in a whole bunch of different kinds of natural foods. Hey, you do you, leave it out if you don’t like it. If you cooked the onions in lard and not ghee, consider adding a couple tablespoons of butter, for flavor. If you cooked the onions in some kind of hydrogenated vegetable oil, pack up your backpack and go to the principal’s office right now.

Turn the heat down, put the lid on, and simmer the mutton for several hours, stirring occasionally until it is tender. The cooking liquid should be bubbling but not popping boiling hot bubbles in your face. When done, you should be able to cut a piece of mutton in half with a wooden spatula. If the meat is not that tender, keep cooking, and add more liquid if necessary.

Prep the Rice

Meanwhile, rinse your rice (most rice has arsenic in it — which is probably not a big deal if you have a healthy immune system and you rinse it), then soak the rice in a pot of water, at least twice as much water as rice. (You can change out the water before cooking if you’re that kind of person.) When the mutton is close to tender, add to the rice pot a few tablespoons of butter, a pinch of salt (if to your taste), a jigger of lemon juice, some extra cardamom (pods or ground), and a healthy dose of turmeric. You can do without the turmeric if you want, it’s mostly to color the rice yellow, because saffron is really, really, really expensive. Bring the rice mixture to a rolling boil for just 2 minutes. Drain the rice (a mesh strainer is helpful but not strictly necessary.) Yes, you are wasting most of the flavorings since you only boiled the rice for 2 minutes. You could save the liquid and use it later as a base to cook another batch of rice.

Finish the Mutton, Steam the Rice

Take the lid off the mutton and crank up the heat, stirring while you reduce the cooking liquid until it’s still there but you can see the mutton above the top of the liquid. It’s better to err on the side of a little extra broth so you make sure there is enough liquid to finish steaming the rice. Then reduce the heat to low. Spread the parboiled rice evenly over the top of the mutton. Decorate (optionally) by sprinkling something like dried cranberries over the top.

Cover the cooking pot tightly. One way to do this is to seal it with aluminum foil and then put the lid on top of that. Steam the rice like this for around 30 minutes before checking to see if the rice is done.

Make a Raita

When the rice is steamed the biryani is done. It is best served with some kind of a raita, such as plain yogurt mixed with minced cucumber and chopped, fresh mint. By which I mean, ignore complicated raita recipes and chop up half a cucumber and a handful of mint, then mix it into a cup or so of plain yogurt.

Remember to take out the bay leaves and whole spices or at least warn people to watch out for them. Or don’t.

Source: Anchor Ranch Farm

Easy Not-Made-From-Scratch Meat Buns

You can of course make the dough used in these from scratch. However, we must not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Only God is perfect; if you, dear reader, are not a Divine being, you must accept that “good enough” is the best you can do, most of the time. Given the choice between making these meat pies at home and buying something from the frozen aisle, this recipe is quick and easy and at least more natural and healthier than the frozen option.

This is loosely based on a recipe showed me many years ago by a kind lady from Vietnam.

You need:

1 cylinder/package/container of your choice of pre-made biscuit or croissant dough

A handful of fresh mushrooms (your choice, but standard cremini work fine)

One small shallot (or a small piece of onion)

A couple tablespoons of butter

1/4 pound of ground pork

Fennel seed, rosemary, salt, black pepper, sage, marjoram (or thyme)

Brown sugar

Green peas (canned is fine, or use a substitute)

A skillet

A baking sheet and oven

To make the meat pies:

Dice the mushrooms and the shallot - chop it finely, or as much as you feel like working.

Put the butter in a skillet on low-medium heat and add the mushrooms and shallot. Cook slowly until the shallot is translucent and the mushrooms are cooked down and browned.

Add the ground pork and a good pinch of salt. Turn up the heat to medium-high and cook until the pork is mostly cooked through, stirring to mix. Break up the pork as small as possible. If you have one, try using a potato masher to break up the chunks of ground pork.

When the pork is mostly cooked but not browned, add the herbs and black pepper. The mix is equal amounts crumbled sage and crushed fennel seed; add more of either if you want a stronger flavor. Add a pinch of rosemary or to taste, the same with marjoram or thyme. You could substitute crushed red pepper flakes for black pepper if you prefer some added spice. Stir well while the mix continues to cook for a few more minutes and the pork starts browning. Taste, add more salt if needed, then turn off the heat and add brown sugar to taste, maybe a spoonful. Mix well. Taste, add however many peas you want and mix again. (Any other soft green vegetable also works. Leftover cooked greens would be a great substitute for peas.)

Let the mix cool until you can work with it.

Meanwhile, prep your pre-made dough per the instructions on the package. Once you have each piece separated and on the baking sheet, cut or pull it apart down the equator. Put a tablespoonful of your pork mixture in the middle of the bottom half, put the top half of dough over it, and crimp the edges together using the tines of a fork. Or your fingernail.

Bake as directed on the package. Enjoy the meat pies hot or cold.

Grilled Sweet-Glazed Pork Belly

Source: Anchor Ranch Farm

Pork belly is an under-appreciated cut of meat in the United States because of the increased popularity of bacon since the social buzz campaigns of the Noughties. I blame Muscles Glasses.

I mean, bacon is wonderful, but so is the uncured pork belly. Also, you can make bacon out of a lot more than just pork belly. Shoulder bacon is, I think, for example, a better choice for bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.

Pork belly is more popular in Asian cuisine and we have featured several ideas from Asian-style cooking for how to prepare pork belly, including Red-Braised Pork Belly (Dong Po Rou) and Chashu Pork Belly. However, those are relatively complex recipes which require a lot of time in the oven. This is a faster (somewhat) version that uses a grill.

Materials

1 pork belly roast, skin off (skin on roasts are better used for some other method)

Soy sauce and honey or sugar-syrup

A grill. A propane grill would be easiest but charcoal is possible

Grill tongs

A fire extinguisher

Method

Slice the pork belly into strips a half inch or less in thickness and about 3 inches long.

Mix a marinade of soy sauce and honey or sugar syrup. Proportions are up to you but don’t skimp on the sweetness, go light on the salty, and use enough liquid to cover the belly strips. Add other ingredients for additional flavor: garlic, red pepper flakes, onion, orange juice (if you need more liquid), brown sugar, perhaps other spices — whatever you like.

Pork belly strips in marinade. Source: Anchor Ranch Farm

Marinate the pork belly slices in the marinade for at least an hour. A good way to cover the meat without wasting a pile marinade ingredients is to put everything into a resealable plastic bag. Close the bag up almost all the way and submerge it in a pot of cold water until just the very top of the bag is exposed (so the water doesn’t go inside). The water will push the air out of the bag, creating good contact between meat and marinade without having to drown it. Close the now mostly vacuum-sealed bag and let the marinade do its work.

When ready to cook, take the meat out of the marinade and drain it but save the marinade. Start a two-zone fire in your grill and lay the strips of pork belly over the hot zone, working quickly. This is where a propane grill is nice, because the fatty pork belly will cause flare ups and it’s very nice to be able to turn off the flame. If using a charcoal grill, make sure the coals are all the way over on one side, don’t use a lot of coals, and make sure there is plenty of open grill top away from the flame. Close the lid of your grill.

Pork belly on the grill “hot zone” (easier on a gas grill where you can turn on and off burners as needed, but possible with charcoal also.) Source: Anchor Ranch Farm

Keep the lid closed to minimize flare ups. If when you start a grease fire, move all the pork belly off the flame, turn off the gas if possible, close the lid and wait for the fire to go out. If you only have a charcoal grill and you don’t feel completely comfortable handling a grease fire in your grill safely, take your pork belly to a friend’s house who has a gas grill so you can turn the heat off.

Once the pork belly gets some color on the first side (flare ups help with this), flip it once to the other side. This entire step will only take a few minutes.

Pork belly moved off direct heat to the grill’s “cold zone”. Only the burner pointed to in the photo is on. Note long sleeves of natural cotton fiber to protect from sizzling pops of pork fat.

Once you have some good color on the pork belly strips and and enough char to feel like you’re grilling, move all your pork belly strips to the cold zone of the grill. They don’t need to be spread out, you can put them in a clump or a pile away from the flame. Take your reserved marinade and brush or drizzle it over the strips. Then close the lid and let them cook with indirect heat. For better results let the pork belly strips cook in indirect heat long enough until they get soft. We left them for only about 10 minutes and that was not long enough; some pieces were chewy. Try waiting 30 minutes or more. You’re not going to dry out the fatty pork belly, just be careful to keep it away from the direct flame so as not to burn it.

Vinegar-based quick pickled (1 hour or so) vegetables are a great enhancement to fatty meats, especially in hot weather. Save the vinegar brine for future picklings!

When your pork belly strips are the desired texture and softness, take them off the grill. We made sliders with brioche buns and a quick cucumber pickle (julienned cucumber, vinegar, salt, sugar, coriander seeds, one hour) but this would be great in a rice bowl as well.

Roasted Fresh Pork Hocks

You need fresh pork hocks, not cured. Put them in boiling salted water with other aromatics (bay leaf, onion, pepper) as preferred and turn down the heat to a slow simmer. Simmer the hocks, covered, for 90 minutes. This step can be done ahead of time.

Preheat oven to 400.

Score the hocks in a diamond pattern all over and sprinkle with salt. Put in a roasting pan with rack and roast in the oven for about 90 minutes, turning every 30 minutes or so. If the skin is not crispy, finish under a broiler for a few minutes, turning frequently and watch carefully to prevent burning.

Serve with mustard, sauerkraut, potatoes, and lots of other sides. This is a very rich dish, of course, the best part is the crispy fat and skin and you’ll want lots of sides and condiments to accompany it.

How I pan sear lamb loin chops

This is so easy it doesn’t really require a recipe.

Bring the chops to room temperature and season them with salt and pepper on both sides. Do this at least an hour before cooking. You want time for the salt to soak into the meat so you don’t just have a salty crust on the outside. A lot of chefs recommend using koshering salt for meat because the flakes make it easy to use. I stopped using koshering salt because my understanding is that it is quite pure. That sounds good for the intended purpose, but our bodies require a lot of other trace minerals besides salt. So we use a colored mineral salt (the natural color comes from other trace minerals which are mixed into the sodium chloride deposits where it is found.) Sea salt would also work. Anyways, use whatever salt you like.

When you are ready to cook the chops, bring a cast iron skillet to medium-high heat with a couple tablespoons of homemade cooking lard in it. Grass fed lamb chops have a fat cap but not much marbling so bringing extra fat to the pan helps. Natural lard works well with the lamb flavor. You want a good coating of melted lard on the bottom of the pan but it shouldn’t be sloshing: we’re searing with extra cooking fat, not frying.

Once the lard is melted and hot but not smoking, sear the chops on one side for about 2 minutes until they start to brown on that side. If this takes longer than 2 minutes turn up the heat. Flip the chops over and after a minute or so your pan is probably starting to get too hot, so turn the heat down to medium-low and let the heated cast iron continue to cook your chops. You want the lard popping though, so adjust heat as needed. After the 2nd side has browned, turn the chops onto their edge so that the fat cap starts to brown and render in the cooking lard. After that browns a bit flip the chops on to the other edge (this is where the T-bone is exposed) and sear that for 20 seconds or so.

I use a probe thermometer to check doneness. However, most thermometers aren’t all that accurate, so you kind of have to know what works with your setup. Lamb is medium at 140F and medium-rare at 130F, but my probe thermometer will read 140F when the meat is still bloody. Regardless, the meat should still have some give, some squishyness to it, when you remove the chops from the pan. The standard is to cook lamb to medium, but personally I think that is too much. I think our lamb chops are best medium-rare, and I like to err on the side of more rare and pull the chops off the heat a bit early to make sure the inside is still a nice pinkish red. I definitely recommend trying grass fed lamb chops the rare side of medium rare if you haven’t yet.

After you remove the chops from the pan, drizzle the lamb-flavored lard from the skillet over the chops. Then let them rest about 10 minutes before serving and eating. If you like the flavor of lamb, I think you will enjoy these.