Brined Chevon Roast & Pizza Sauce

The other day I took inventory of the deep freezer. We're going to be harvesting meat soon, and I need to make room in the freezer for it. Besides meat I store bulk grain in my freezer, also my shredded mozzarella cheese, frozen eggs, and unbaked pies. I add peaches, blueberries, figs, strawberries, elderberries, raspberries, and tomatoes as I harvest them. Now it's time to start turning those into jelly, jam, and sauce.

I decided to pull out the frozen tomatoes first and begin pizza sauce making. While I was in there I grabbed a small chevon roast and decided to brine it after it defrosted.

The next day I put the tomatoes in a colander to drain.

I started freezing tomatoes when I learned that peeling frozen tomatoes is easier than the boiling water and ice dunks. Now that I have my Roma Sauce Maker (photo of that here, plus the recipe for my pizza sauce) it's even easier to simply run the tomatoes through it to remove the seeds and peels. I drain out the tomato water from defrosting first, however, to save on sauce cook-down time. I save it for things like - well, you'll see.

Next I made the brine for the roast. I use the "all-purpose brine" from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (a must-have book for home meat processing.) I scaled it down for my small roast.

• 1 quart water
• 1/4 cup canning salt
• 2 tbsp sugar

Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar. Add meat and optional seasonings as desired.

My optional seasonings were a big handful of fresh cut rosemary and a small handful of fresh garlic. These made a nice bed for the roast in the brine. Brining time was about 4 hours.

After lunch I drained off the brine and discarded it. That's not something I would ordinarily do, because my frugal nature requires that I use and reuse everything I can. But the brine was used for soaking raw meat which meant it wasn't safe to use again.

I saved the rosemary and garlic to add to the roast for cooking. I also added one cup of my tomato water and put it in the slow cooker on high for about two hours, then low until it was done. Fresh baked bread and steamed carrots rounded off the dinner.

Here's the embarrassing part. The finished roast was beautiful and I honestly meant to get a picture. But it had been smelling so good all afternoon and we were so hungry that I forgot about a photo until it was too late.

And the pizza sauce? It's still cooking down in my crock pot, but it smells might good too. When it's thick enough I'll can it.

People often ask what goat meat tastes like. I don't think there is any way to correctly answer that question. It doesn't taste like beef, pork, mutton or lamb, or venison. Each kind of meat has it's own incomparable flavor. I've heard rabbit, snake, and alligator meat all compared to chicken, but I've had them all and no, they don't taste like chicken! Heck, even turkey doesn't taste like chicken. The only answer is that chevon is a red meat and that's what it tastes like.

Now we can look forward to some good soup from the leftover stock and meat scraps. The bone will be saved for broth.

Brined Chevon Roast & Pizza Sauce © Oct 2016 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Fiesta Cornbread

This is an easy, one-dish meal using lots of homegrown ingredients. Just serve with a salad.

Fiesta Cornbread

For the cornbread

Preheat a 10" cast iron skillet at 425°F (220°C) with 1/4 cup of your favorite fat or oil.

Mix:
1.5 cup cornmeal (I used homegrown, home ground)
0.5 cup unbleached white flour (makes the cornbread less crumbly)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp chili powder
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk, yogurt, or kefir

Pour into hot skillet and bake till half done (about 10 minutes).

Recipe note: Baking cornbread in a preheated cast iron skillet is the Southern (best!) way of making cornbread. This technique makes a delicious cornbread with a crispy crust. If you use a regular baking pan, add the fat to the batter.

For the topping

Brown in another hot skillet:
handful of chopped onion
handful of chopped green pepper
ground meat (ours is usually chevon)
salt & pepper to taste

Have ready:
canned chili beans (can use any cooked dry bean. Leftovers are good here)
grated cheese
chopped fresh tomato

Remove half-baked cornbread from the oven. Top first with beans, then browned meat mixture, then the cheese, lastly the tomato. Finish baking (until inserted knife comes out clean).

Slice into wedges and serve immediately.

Recipe note: I like to preheat the beans before spooning them onto the cornbread batter. I find cold beans slows the baking of the top of the cornbread.

For those of you who would prefer precise amounts for the topping ingredients, I apologize. This is one of those recipes where you just use what you've got to taste. More or less of any topping ingredient is absolutely okay!

Fiesta Cornbread © Oct 2016 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Slow Cooker Ribs With Barbecue Gravy

We've been so busy with outdoor projects lately that by the time evening chores are done, I've been too tired to cook. Sandwiches are okay, but with the weather getting chillier, a nice hot dinner can be a real comfort. With a little planning ahead and my slow cooker, that hot meal really hits the spot when we're tired to the bone. This rib recipe was super easy and used mostly homegrown ingredients. The only thing I didn't grow or make myself was the sorghum syrup.

Sometimes called sorghum molasses, it isn't actually molasses, which is a byproduct of the sugar extraction process. Sorghum syrup is made from juice pressed from the sorghum plant and then cooked down much like maple syrup. It's a traditional Southern food item: sorghum syrup and biscuits, or sorghum syrup and cornbread, yum! Strangely, I can rarely find it on the grocery store shelves! Mine came from Golden Barrel.

I was introduced to Golden Barrel products when we went up to Lancaster County, PA five and a half years ago for my son's wedding. Their retail outlet carries things I like to keep in my pantry: molasses, syrups, cooking oils, also light and dark sugars (including organic). I occasionally see some of their products locally, but their online prices are excellent too. (It's also nice that my son's in-laws live in that area so that I can send a shopping list when they go visit!).

Anyway, enough about sorghum and shopping lists. On to the recipe.

Slow Cooker Ribs With Barbecue Gravy

• Ribs, mine were home butchered chevon ribs so I don't know the weight! Everything was divided and frozen to make servings for two, which fit nicely in my crock pot.
• 1.5 cups "V-8" style tomato juice
• 1/4 cup sorghum syrup
• handful of chopped onion
• 3 or 4 chopped garlic cloves, (or to taste)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 rounded tablespoons flour

Place ribs into the crock pot. Mix remaining ingredients with a whisk and pour over the ribs. Set crock pot temperature according to manufacturer's directions for the time you wish to eat. Cover. Turn the ribs occasionally. By the time they're done they'll be falling off the bone tender.

We ate our ribs with baked sweet potatoes (home grown) and cole slaw (not home grown.) The sweet potato topped with butter and drizzled with ...

You guessed it, drizzled with sorghum syrup!

Slow Cooker Ribs With Barbecue Gravy © November 2014
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/