Smoked goat with chili sauce and cabbage

We had a fundraiser for Heritage Farm last week. We needed to raise money to pay L&I fines for alleged interns that were learning on the farm. The intern/apprenticeship arrangement is deemed wrong by the state because there are no taxes being filed for the intern/apprentice. Here's how the relationship usually works: all over the country there are young and old people alike who want to experience the farm life for a multitude of reason, they are willing to trade their labor for a learning experience or maybe sometimes a plain old experience. There's no degree at the end of the season. But one can come out of the arrangement with bundles of practical experience. that is basically it and everyone enters into the agreement of there own free will; there's no coercion. Big agribusiness is funneled loads of money to destroy our environment and these little farmers are working on a sustainable system with no hand outs and passing on there knowledge for free. And it is not just an "intern" that benefits it's the whole society. There's no value placed on farmers in our popular culture. They're usually deemed rubes, but these small time farmers, in my experience, are soldiers for the most just causes, they protect our food system and provide a healthier citizenry and society. The farmers in this country are aging at a pretty quick clip. the average age of a farmer is over 50 and who's going to replace them as they start to retire? It is important for this knowledge to get passed on. The apprentice system is invaluable.

So, we had a little party. I made a smoked goat, fresh pasta with pea and mint sauce, pickled beef tongue, liver pate, pickles, the best coleslaw ever, potatoes with garlic scape pesto, deviled eggs and lots of fresh bread and farm butter. The party was a pretty good success.

With the leftover goat I made pretty nice stew with chili and cabbage. Cara, you will recognize this. I've made this a few times with pork. But this was the best.

Smoked goat with chili sauce and cabbage

leftover smoked goat
stock made from the goat bones
dried chilis with seeds and stems removed
cabbage
radish
1 large onion
6 cloves garlic

Prepare the goat as in earlier "cabrito" post. After everyone has had their fill, separate the meat from the bones. Put the bones in a huge pot, cover with water, and simmer for 12 hours. Strain stock and cool. Remove fat and discard. Put one gallon of stock in pot and reduce by half. Then add the dried peppers with the onion and garlic. Puree this mixture and pass through a chinois. Add the goat meat and stew until very tender. You may need to add more stock to adjust proportions and to correct it for being too salty from the cure that the goat was in. Cut the cabbage into rough squares and add to pot and cook until very tender, also. Garnish with radish, cilantro, and mint.

cabbage with cockles

Jared (probably the best farm intern ever) had to leave the farm. I miss him. He was only twenty but he was my peer and buddy and sous chef. I don't think I ever told him, but I really enjoyed cooking with him. We had an easy collaboration. He'd have an idea for dinner, maybe a dish, and I would add elements to make it more of a meal, then we would cook together. He might chop things and watch a simmering pot while I showed him how to clean the clams. It was an easy collaboration as I said because I was teaching but I wasn't bossy or pushy; we talked about the objective and completed it. It worked well. Of course, we bickered the whole time like aged sisters.

Jared worked so hard while he was here. I always felt like an old lazy person next to him. He was up before everyone doing chores and most days the last to quit. Maybe twelve hour days six days a week. And then he had the energy for all his other pet project;painting on drift wood, making beer and the worst dandelion wine ever, hunting bull frogs for me to cook, biking to the beach to collect horsetail for bio-dynamic preps. His motivation was inspirational.

Christina was always saying that he would make a great farmer one day. He has that certain awareness that I see in all the old timers around here. An ability to really see what going on around them. I just hope he stays on this path and doesn't get distracted by all the crap of this life.

Anyways, we collected clams a few weeks back. Jared was a natural and got tons, way more than me. I made asian inspired dish of sauteed green cabbage with them. It was delicious.

Cabbage with Clams and purple Basil

1 small head of green cabbage chopped into squares
10 large clams like cockles or butter clams
2 small mild hot peppers such as anaheims sliced into rings
3 cloves garlic
1 small white onion julienne
2 Tbs bacon or chicken fat
Juice of the clams
1/2 cup puple basil flowers if not available use the leaves

Collect clams from beach and soak them overnight in sea water with corn meal

Use a oyster shucker or a butter knive to open the clams. Do this over a bowl to collect the juice which will be used later. Seperate the clam into its body parts.

Sautee the onion in the bacon fat for about five minutes and then add the garlic and pepper and cook for a minute or two add the cabbage and cook slowly until soft. When mostly cooked add the clam juice

In a separate pan sautee the clams very quickly until just cooked and add to the cabbage

Toss with basil and season with salt

Fried Clams with spinach and sweet and sour red onion puree

Not everything comes from the farm that I am cooking with. of course, I have to succumb and buy some things from the store but what is really neat are all the things that I can forage.
I am picking mushrooms constantly. Well, one variety, which is the only one I can identify for certain. Today I found one lonely asparagus in a field far from any gardens. Was it wild? I am not sure. I ate it right there in the middle of the field surrounded by goats and their poop. I hope I don't get sick because that sure wasn't sanitary. Stupid health department would put me in jail if they had their druthers. Anyways, it was lovely. Then there is the ocean. I have gathered seaweed and clams for these two recipes. I dug cockles and butter clams and picked sea lettuce. the people on the beach said cockles were no good, but I kept saying the French eat them and I thought they were pretty good anyways, despite the French. I prepared them in a beer batter and served them with a sort of spinach pudding, lets say, and a sauce of pureed red onions with butter, honey and vinegar. The seaweed went with mussels (I didn't forage them but they were from a local farm, Westcott Bay) Swiss chard and farm butter.

(Have I mentioned the butter here? We make it from raw cream all you have to do is beat it, pretty simple. We have a special mixer that sits on top of a gallon glass jar but one could use a hand held or stand mixer. The key is raw milk though. Unlike regular store butter this actually tastes like something. I think it cultures as it sits on the counter. It develops some really cheese-like flavors. Everyone around here spreads it like cream cheese.)

Fried Clams with Spinach and Sweet and Sour Red Onion Puree

For the Spinach

½ White onion medium dice
tbs. Butter
1lb Spinach
2 tbs. Apple cider vinegar
2tbs. flour
1 tbs. Honey
¼ - ½ cup Milk
2 Heritage Farm fresh eggs separated and whites beaten to stiff peaks
Sauté onion very slowly in butter so it starts to sweeten. (10 min.). Add vinegar and honey and reduce until completely absorbed by onion. Blanch spinach in boiling water until wilted (15 seconds) and put in ice water to stop the cooking. Squeeze out as much moisture as possible there should be about a cup and 1/2 . Put this mixture in a high speed blender with the part of the milk, onions and egg yolks and flour. Blend until very smooth It should be a somewhat thick consistency which can be adjusted with the milk. Fold in the egg whites and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes in a greased and floured 9" baking dish. Let cool and then cut into rectangles. Reheat to plate up.

Red Onion Puree
1/2 red onion sliced
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
4 tbs butter
Cook the first three ingredients until the onions are tender and then puree in a high speed mixer adding the butter until very smooth. It should have a good balance between sweet and sour. It can be adjusted to your licking

For the clams
Cleaned clams taken out of the shell and separated into foot, lips and body. (To clean the clams let them sit in sea water and cornmeal overnight, open them with an oyster shucker or a butter knife. Separate it into it's major body parts. Slice the foot into along the tube to make one flat piece for frying. Slice out most of the guts from the body and rinse everything to get the last of the dirt out.)1 bottle beer
flour
oil for frying

Mix beer into flour to make a batter about a pancake consistency. Coat clams with plain flour and then into batter and then into hot oil (350) and fry until golden. It should only take 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper assemble like my picture.

Steamed Mussels with Swiss Chard and Seaweed Butter

For the Mussels
One Shallot
!/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
2 tbs. Bacon fat

Saute shallot in bacon fat on high heat with cleaned mussels and vinegar; cover pot. Cook until shells open. Strain cooking liquid and take mussels out of shell.

For the butter: Collect sea lettuce from the beach. Dry in oven at 200 degrees. Blend in food processor with butter -- 4 parts butter to one part seaweed.

To assemble in restaurant fashion: Saute diced swiss chart stems in a couple teaspoons of bacon fat. Add cleaned mussels and a few tablespoons fresh cooking liquid, a bit of fresh cream, and then finish by swilling in a few pats of seaweed butter.

Creamed Swiss Chard with Hazelnuts

We're still cooking with greens. 'Tis the season. I put together a very easy recipe for Swiss chard that has many variations. This is a very light version of creamed chard and should only take, maybe, fifteen minuted to prepare.

1 bunch Swiss chard
1 small sweet onion or a large shallot
toasted hazelnuts
1 ½ tbs. red wine vinegar
2 tbs chicken fat
small pinch chili flakes
a bit more than a ¼ cup cream
salt and pepper to taste
a few drops hazelnut oil

1)Separate chard into leaves and stems. Small dice stems (cut length ways then turn 90 degrees to finish the dice as you would celery)then tear leaves into smallish pieces
2)Small dice the onion
3)Warm fat on medium high heat, and when hot saute the onions until soft (3-4 min.), then add chili flakes and chard stems and cook for another minute.
4)De-glaze with vinegar and quickly move into step 5
5)Add chard leaves and season with salt and pepper. The leaves will start to wilt quickly and release some liquid at this point add the cream to make a sauce and finish cooking the vegetables.
6)Top with chopped hazelnuts and drizzle of oil

I served this dish with a fried egg. It would be very nice with smoked trout, grilled salmon, a pan roasted chicken breast with crispy skin, or grilled steak. Currants and pine nuts would be a good addition minus the hazelnuts. You could leave out the cream and make quick, fresh tomato sauce to stew the chard in (later in the season, of course). Or try using coconut milk and a little fish sauce for a thai version if you dont want to be local.

Icicle Radishes with Chicken Jus

This is our beautiful chicken palace and our lovely hens. Here they are seen frolicking in the open pastures of our farm. Don't they look happy. Such nice birds and with gorgeous eggs. Their was a nasty rooster, though. So I got my killing stone out and made chicken jus out of it for this recipe. An elemental sauce of pure chickeny goodness. I should also note that I ate my first chicken testicles and I have to say quite awesome. Maybe, kind of like sweetbreads, but creamy and I think tastier.

1 bunch icicle radish and the greens

1 bunch purple top Milan turnip

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

2 tbs. honey

3 cups chicken jus

Chicken jus is a very rich, brown chicken stock that has been reduced to a glaze or glace in fancy French cooking terms. You could substitute a rich chicken stock if you didn't want to go to the trouble of making chicken jus, but it's not that hard and is a very versatile sauce.

For the chicken jus

5 lb chicken bones or wings or a combination (the more meat the better, but the bones are less costly)

1 small onion

1 bulb garlic

1. Cut chicken into small pieces with a cleaver
2. Brown the chicken in the oven in a roasting pan at 425° or brown on the stove top in heavy bottomed pot at medium high heat. I prefer to do it on the stove top because you can get the bones more thoroughly browned. But in both methods I am looking for a lot of color which is going to translate to flavor.
3. When you think the bones are about a third done add the garlic and onion to the pan to also brown. The overall color should be getting pretty close to burnt, so don't be afraid to cook the heck out of it.
4. When everything is nice and golden (am I stressing there needs to be a lot of color and your kitchen might get smoky and greasy) if browning in the oven put the bones in a pot and cover with water and make sure to get the fond out of the roasting pan, that is all the browned bits at the bottom. Do this by pouring water into the roasting pan and scraping up all the caked on stuff. If cooking on the stove top just pour water over to cover scraping up the bits in the bottom of the pot.
5. Reduce on high by half. It is OK to boil vigorously. I cover with water and reduce a total of three times to get as much flavor out of the chicken as possible.
6. Strain through a very fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. Skim the fat off the top or even better do the stock the day before and chill to remove the fat.
7. OK, now that the chicken jus is ready we can cook the vegetables. First clean the radishes and turnips reserving the greens from the radish. Use a vegetable peeler to get off any root looking parts or dirt, but the skin is OK by me.
8. Put vinegar and honey in a pan and reduce by half then add the chicken jus and bring to a simmer
9. Add the cleaned turnips and radishes and cook until tender and sauce is reduced and coating the veggies
10. Add the greens and wilt slightly and season with salt add cracked pepper
11. Serve on a platter to your very special guests and they will love you for making radishes and turnips taste so good

"korean food" american style

In trying to create local food here on the farm I find myself running into a dilemma: normally my pantry is stocked with ingredients from around the world. I usually stock soy sauces, sesame oil, seaweed, chili pastes, fish sauce, miso, Thai curry paste, coconut milk, crab paste, exotic vinegars and countless other flavors to experiment with. It's simple to create a complex dish by using a little crab paste, for example, to add a bit of umami that is lacking from a dish of sauteed baby bok choy. I love Asian flavors. But how do I create an Asian inspired meal without these ingredients. I can't make miso on the fly and the only spices I'm allowing myself right now is dried chili, coriander, mustard, and pepper. So this is me trying to create the experience of Korean bar-b-que. I fried and also grilled some fish to wrap in spinach leaves and I made a bunch of assorted salads in an attempt to emulate the fabulous banchan of a Korean meal. And with the kimchi I have been making I was able to add a bit of authenticity.
The next door neighbor, Mark Marankovich? gave us a buch of halibut and some really nice rockfish, so I grilled the rockfish on skewers and fried the halibut for the meat to use for the lettuce wrap. For banchan I had grilled potatoes with chili sauce (slice and cook the potatoes in the oven and then when cooled grilled them 'til crispy and golden while brushing with chili paste. I normally use a white miso vinaigrette for this dish, but chili was a good alternative), sauteed green garlic with a scallion and leek dressing, kale coleslaw, radish and parsley in apple cider vinegar, pok choy sauteed in kimchi juice.These dishes, except for the kimchi, don't really have a counterpart that I was "riffing on", I just tried to create some salads that could work together and along with the fish. The green garlic dish is sauteed green gralic dressed with a very fine puree of leek and scallion seasoned with apple cider vinegar, honey and emulsified with egg yolk. The radish and parsley dish was a very good condiment and could easily dress chicken or grilled steak. It is chopped parsley, diced radish with apple cider vinegar diluted with water and sugar to season. Very simple but actually the best dish.

Spinach wrap of Pan Fried Halibut with Green Radish and Parsley Banchan

For the halibut
1 lb halibut cut into small sizes for frying
1 cup rice flour
1 cup Ap flour
1/2 cup beer to make a loose batter
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt to taste
1 1/2 cup oil to pan fry the fish

I made some concessions to my local farm cooking by using oil and rice flour, I know.

1) Heat oil to medium high in a small enough cast iron skillet so the oil is about 1/2 an inch high
2) Mix all the ingredients except the fish together to make a loose batter
3) Dredge the fish in flour and then coat with the batter
3) Fry to golden and crispy

Radish and parsley with apple cider vinegar

1 Bunch of radishes small dice
1 cup of parsley chopped fine
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

Mix the radish and parsley together in a bowl and then make the dressing by mixing the vinegar, water and sugar and then toss with the parsley/radish mixture. Let rest for a few hours to draw out the water from the radish and for the flavors to meld. This is kind of a sweet and sour mix so adjust to your liking.

I also missed a week. There was a recipe but I had some technical difficulties (the problem of living on an island) but I will try to post it, so I don't prove myself a liar.