Bone Broth

Bone Broth - is it stock or broth? From what I can gather it is probably a stock, but the generally accepted term is Bone Broth. So what is it? It's the product of a long cooked stock using bones, preferably a mix of gelatinous bones and marrow bones. By long cooking, I mean at least 24 hours on a very slow simmer. This is to ensure that you get as much goodness out of the bones as possible. There's lots of information on the web, so I won't go into all that in this post.

We sell both broth and the bones to make your own. The broth I make usually has a combination of bones - chicken, pork and beef. I use a chicken carcass and chicken feet, pork trotters, pork back bones and beef back and leg (marrow) bones. I usually do this for 24 to 36 hours. I don't add any vegetables to my broth, just the bones - soaked in the water with added apple cider vinegar first, then some bay leaf, salt and pepper. Sometimes I throw in a teaspoon full of dulse flakes. The pork trotter and chicken feet are excellent to use to make your broth gel. Pork makes a very bland flavoured broth so is excellent to use where you want to add other flavours in the final dish.

If you are feeling poorly - getting a cold, tummy upset or just feeling off, a cup of warmed up broth with some added garlic, ginger, turmeric and chilli can really help! Other wise, I just use my bone broth in things - if a recipe calls for stock OR water I use bone broth instead. 

Some options are below, but please put any more in the comments:

• Any Soup
• My Asian Style Pork Meatballs (just scroll down a little way after clicking on this link)
• Cook Rice in broth
• Curries and Stews, instead of water
• Baked Beans
• Congee - Rice Porridge, but it's so much nicer than how that sounds. 

Congee with Egg and herbs

I use brown rice usually, but it's traditionally done with white. I use a slow cooker so that I can put it on at night and all I need to do in the morning is chop up my herbs and make the accompaniments, plus fry or poach an egg. It's a good way to feed a few people, because it does make a fair bit of rice porridge.

Ingredients

1 cup of brown rice

4 cups bone broth

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon dulse flakes

some dried sliced shitake mushrooms - about a handful and crush them roughly in your hands before adding.

Put all ingredients into the crockpot, on low and cook overnight. OR place all ingredients in a pot and cook on very low on the stove for several hours. If using white rice, it will take about 1 1/2 hours, brown a fair bit longer. You want a very well cooked rice and the broth will be quite thick.

Accompaniments

chopped coriander

chopped shallots

chopped ginger

chopped chilli

soy sauce

fish sauce

Kimchi is also good with it.

I make up a sauce of soy and fish sauce, chopped chilli and garlic - this way if you want a little chilli, you can just spoon the sauce without the chilli but it will still have the chilli flavour. My brother does white vinegar, which some chilli and coriander chopped into it.

Serve in a bowl with the egg on top and then add your accompaniments. 

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We will have bones and bone broth at the coming markets this weekend - 18th and 19th March, Yeppoon and Rockhampton. 

Pork Packs and Beef too!!!

Well our quarter pig packs seemed to generate a bit of interest and we sold a few last weekend. This does take some planning, as we need to make sure that we send enough pigs to the butcher to supply the market customers, as well as the potential quarter pack customers.

We currently have enough pigs to do a few packs for the next market (18th and 19th March) so if you are in Yeppoon or Rockhampton and would like a pack, please email me to order one. The pack in this photo had loin chops and belly roast as their selection.

This pack was 10kg's and had two decent sized roasts - one leg and one shoulder, both bone out. About 6 loin chops, a bag of collar steaks, a bag of diced pork, a good sized belly roast, a pack of bones and a trotter. This is really good value and I don't think you'll find true free range pork any where any cheaper, at $13/kg packed weight. If you were one of the customers to get a pack, please let me know what you thought of it and whether it's worth it. If you email to order one, please let me know whether you would prefer loin chops or loin rack roast, and either belly roast or spare ribs. You will get bone out leg and shoulder roasts, collar steaks and diced as a standard.

The photo below was an example of our Sow Butterfly Steak.  Sows have an end date - we have some that have regular farrowings, and then we have some that don't. These lazy girls get very fat and are usually still quite young so we thought we'd turn a few into a budget range of pork cuts. Any feedback on the sow meat will be gratefully received - good or bad! I enjoyed our collar steak and have a roast to cook one night this week. We won't be doing these every time, but will have bacon to try next week, and hopefully we'll also have some fresh salami made out of the rest of the sow. I don't think you'll easily find free range, ethically farmed salami, so if you enjoyed the ones I was handing out last weekend, how about adding some of them in your selection for next market.

Now that we are back to regular twice a month markets, you can place an order any time for a pork pack and we will deliver it at the next opportunity. Please keep an eye on Facebook or here though, because we will have to play with dates a little bit in April/May because our son Benjamin is getting married the first weekend in May so we won't be able to do the markets that weekend.

While we are talking quarter packs. Would anyone be interested in a quarter beef pack.  We would do this similar to a 1/4 pig pack - 1/2 the hindquarter and 1/2 the forequarter. This will give you a mix of steak, mince, sausages, roasts, diced. Price will be $15/kg based on the packed weight - this is roughly equivalent to $10/kg on the dressed weight. For those that are confused, a lot of places sell 1/2s and 1/4s based on the dressed weight, which is the weight after the animal is killed, so includes all the bone etc that then gets thrown away. We've worked out our price based on packed weight so that you only pay for what you get. A 1/4 pack will be around 40-45kgs. I may be able to do 1/8 shares, but will need to confirm this with the butcher. 

Comment on this post if you have any questions or orders, or email me direct at dawsonvalleyfr@bigpond.com

Thanks for your support.........you are supporting a local farmer when you support us........

March Markets

A reminder to all that we have the markets in Yeppoon and Rockhampton this coming weekend - 4th and 5th March respectively.

Ummmm....Bacon

We will have our incredibly tasty pastured pork and our tender and delicious grassfed/finished beef. We won't have goat for this weekend, however we will have it next market, which will be on the 18th and 19th of March.

We had quite a lot of interest in the pork packs and I'll post some photos over the weekend on Facebook to give an example of what you will get in your pack. However, if you would like to order one for the next market, I will need to know by SUNDAY night. Please talk to me about it at the markets this weekend!!! It's very good value at $13/kg for the pack and this price will hold for any orders RECEIVED before the end of March (first weekend in April delivery).

For all those people that ordered a pack, please collect from the market closest to you!

Our butcher informs me that we have some salami in his freezer, so we will bring them along this weekend. For all purchases over $50 you will receive a free salami. One of our customers (a chef with a German wife) says that its some of the nicest salami he's had in Australia. I think it's nicer now than it was before it was frozen! It will also be on sale separately.

Some other exciting news!!!!! Dingles Cafe and Bar will be featuring our pork, bacon and sausages on their menu when they open in the next couple of weeks. Have you heard about them? They'll be in the old Restoration House building at 116 William Street. Check them out on facebook.

Something new we are going to trial this month is Sow Meat. We will have a selection of fresh and smoked products utilising sows. The sow this month is a younger one that had one litter and is probably about 3 years old. We will be selling this considerably cheaper than our usual pork so who's game to give it a go???

Hope to see you this weekend!