Mmmm Monday: Lamb Soup

Over the last few weeks we've been asked if we could post more lamb related recipes on this blog. It seems that some of you might be interested in purchasing and eating lamb, if you only knew how to prepare it. We want to encourage you in your lamb eating! So, here is a recipe for some yummy soup. There are two parts; how to make the stock that will form the base of your soup, and the recipe for the soup itself.

Lamb Stock
* soup bones or other left over bones from a lamb carcass
* water to cover bones
* 1 medium sized onion
* 2-4 large carrots
* the bottom 5 inches of a whole bunch of celery (not the individual stocks)
* peppercorns and salt (to taste)
* coriander and rosemary (to taste)

1. Thaw out your soup bones or other bones and place in a large stock pot or other large pot. Completely cover the bones with water.
2. Begin boiling on high.
3. As you begin to boil, add the onion (do not peel, or cut), the carrots (again, no need to peel or cut) and the celery. The purpose of these vegetables is to infuse flavour and nutrients into the stock.
4. Add in your peppercorns, salt, coriander, and rosemary.
5. Once you have achieved a rolling boil for about 10-15 minutes, reduce heat to med/low and let simmer until stock reaches desired thickness and taste.
6. Once your desired thickness and taste is achieved, strain the stock into another large pot. Discard vegetable remnants (they make great chicken feed or compost!). Pick up the bones, one at a time, and pick them clean- adding meat to your stock and discarding fat, cartiledge and bone.
You now have the base for a delicious lamb soup! It can be stored in a jar in the fridge for later, frozen, or used immediately.

Deal for Local Readers! Many of you are no doubt thinking that you don't have time to make lamb stock. That's probably true! It does take a while. For those of you who live local to Hill Giant Farm, we have an offer you don't want to miss. We have 2 1L jars, and 2 500ml jars of lamb stock left over from this evenings supper. We have canned it up and are willing to sell it for $4/1L of $2/500ml to the first people to email us at hillgiantfarm@gmail.com. Please let us know how many jars you would like, and what size. Thanks!


Lamb Soup
* lamb stock
* 2-3 carrots peeled, cut
* celery, chopped
* onion, chopped
* yellow pepper, chopped
* small yellow zucchini, chopped
* 2 potatos, peeled, chopped
* green beans, chopped
* rehydrated lentils
* 4-5 cloves of garlic
* coriander, rosemary and sweet basil to taste
* salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring the lamb stock to a gentle boil.
2. Add in the vegetables, garlic and spices.
3. Let boil for 15 minutes or so.
4. Reduce heat and let simmer until desired consistency is achieved.
I usually stop a number of times throughout and test the broth, often topping up the spices. You should do so as well. Lamb soup is a unique, delicious, and extremely nutritious addition to any meal.

Thinking about eating more lamb? Hill Giant Farm is taking orders for our 2012 Spring lambs. Pasture raised lamb. Here's how it works (available to those in Southern Ontario, only)
You email us at hillgiantfarm@gmail.com to let us know you are interested.

How much does it cost? Customers of Hill Giant Farm purchase the whole lamb and are charged $6.90/lb for hanging weight. 

What does hanging weight mean? This means that you pay for what the carcass weighs whole, after it is butchered, but before it is broken down into individual chops, roasts etc. In other words, individual pieces are not weighed and charged. This way you pay a flat rate for all the prime (rack) and secondary (shoulder) cuts. It is the most economical way to purchase meat. On average, the hanging weight of a carcass is in the range of 50lbs. 


Is there anything else I need to know? Yes. Our lambs are butchered at a government inspected facility only10 km from our farm. There is a $45 butchering charge. For that fee, the butcher will custom cut, wrap and label the meat to your specifications, with a guarantee that it has been done safely and humanely according to government requirements. 



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Mmmm Monday: Chickpea Masala

Over the last couple of weeks the pace of life has really picked up at the farm. You may have noticed, as our blog posts have dropped as a result of the hectic pace. But, we haven't forgotten about our blog- and we're still making and eating delicious, nutritious and easy food at Hill Giant Farm. Because R is vegetarian, M has picked up some pretty tasty vegetarian meal/side dish ideas over the years. One of our favourites is Chickpea Masala. Masala is a common vegetarian dish in Indian cuisine and can be made as spicy or as mild as desired. You'll find our recipe, and some ideas on how to make it more or less spicy, below.

Chickpea Masala

3 Tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, pressed/minced
2 Tbsp ginger (fresh would be tasty, but dry will do just fine too)
2 tsp each coriander, cumin and garam masala (garam masala can be bought in most grocery stores and Clubhouse makes a lovely version for a reasonable price)
2 tsp chili powder (if you want it spicy, if not, skip it)
1/2 cup tomato paste (or 1 small can of pizza sauce and 3 Tbsp of flour)
2 tsp packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cans (19 oz/540 ml each) of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp lemon juice

1. In a saucepan, heat oil over medium-heat high heat cook onions and garlic stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add ginger, coriander, cumin, and garam masala (chilli powder too if using it). Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. The smell is absolutely delicious and will stay in the house for the evening!
3. Stir in 1 cup of water, tomato paste, brown sugar, salt and chickpeas. Scrape up any brown bits and put them back in the pot. Reduce the heat and simmer until it has thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Stir in lemon juice.


The total prep time is approx. 30 minutes. When you serve it, add a dollop of plain yogurt to the centre of the bowl. This will enhance the fragrant flavour and will cool the spice nicely. It's really a delicious dish. We hope you try it and love it. Let us know!

Mmmm Monday: Oatmeal Pancakes

As the Spring arrives and the weather warms up the trees will begin to run with sap. It's the time of year when freshly collected, freshly evaporated maple syrup becomes available at small maple syrup festivals all over Ontario. Yum!! If you've never had fresh, real maple syrup, we encourage you to splurge and get some this year. You won't regret it. It's absolutely delicious! The problem is, you can't just sit down and eat a big bowl of syrup. We have a solution, one of our favourite recipes here at Hill Giant Farm- oatmeal pancakes. They're simple, they're fast, they're nutritious and they're delicious. The recipe is found below.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup milk
1 tsp honey, sugar, or syrup
1/4 cup white flour
1/4 whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup walnuts (optional)

In a large bowl, combine oats, plain yogurt, milk, and honey/sugar/syrup. Stir in flours, baking soda and salt. Add beaten eggs and mix well. If using walnuts, add them now. Your batter should be fairly thick. If not, add a bit more oatmeal or flour.

Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Spoon batter onto the griddle- about 1/4 cup per pancake. Cook until the bottoms are browned and the bubbles on top start to pop (about 3 minutes). Flip and cook until other sides are browned (about 2 minutes). Add additional milk if the batter becomes too thick.

Serve hot with: maple syrup, apple sauce, blueberry sauce, fresh fruit, jam, fruit curd, or any other topping you desire. Not able to eat the whole batch? No sweat. These pancakes are delicious cold with jam spread on them and rolled up. An easy lunch to send with the kids, or for yourself.

Nutrition Facts (per 1/2 cup of batter)
Calories: 150
Fat: 2 g
Fibre: 4 g
Protein: 5 g

Enjoy!

Mmmm Monday: Della's Pastry and Three Star Chicken Pot Pie

Last night we had M's parents over for supper to celebrate their anniversary featuring roast chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots and fried mushrooms. There were of course leftovers which means it was time to make Three Star Chicken Pot Pie. The recipe(s) are below. It's a two for one deal today!

The first thing you need to do to make Three Star Pot Pie is whip up a batch of Della's Pastry. This recipe makes enough for 3-4 pies. You can freeze any extra pastry, thaw and use it in the future. Or, you can cut the recipe in half if you think that's too much work. You can use this pastry dough for whatever you like; meat pies, fruit pies, tarts, dumplings, new culinary experiments, anything.  It's a very simple recipe to make, only takes 10 minutes, and is a guaranteed way to impress your friends and neighbours.

Pastry Ingredients

Della's Pastry
5 1/2 cups of flour                           1 egg
1 lb shortening                                 1 Tbsp white vinegar
pinch of salt                                      Cold water

Begin by placing 5 1/2 cups of flour in a mixing bowl. I usually use my Kitchenaid mixer to avoid wrist strain. Add 1lb of soft shortening. I prefer Tenderflake as it is easily mixed with dry ingredients. Begin mixing the flour and shortening together. Next add a pinch of salt and continue mixing.

In a measuring cup break and beat 1 egg. To the egg add 1 Tbsp of white vinegar. With the egg and vinegar still in the measuring cup, fill it to the 1 cup mark with cold water. Begin to pour this liquid into the flour, shortening and salt. Mix well. The dough should be damp and elastic when it is properly mixed.


Tip: To make clean up easier, place a tea towel on your countertop/table and a cutting board on top of the tea towel. This way when you're done you can pick up the tea towel and cutting board and your work area is primarily clean.

To make your pie shell, transfer some of the pastry dough onto the well floured cutting board. Sprinkle flour over it and apply flour liberally to your rolling pin. Begin rolling the dough out in the direction of all four corners. Roll your dough until it is the thickness that you like for a pie crust. Place the pastry into your pie pan and trim the excess off.
Three Star Chicken Pot Pie

We began with the following items (as leftovers)
* roasted chicken
* mashed potatoes
* a small amount of cooked carrots
* a few fried mushrooms
* gravy

To make our pot pie we took pastry for a double crust 9 inch pie. We placed one crust in the bottom of the pie pan. We layered the leftover mashed potatoes, carrots (cooked) and mushrooms on the bottom crust. Next we broke the chicken into medium chunks and evenly spread it on top of the potato mixture.

3 Star Chicken Pot Pie ready for eating!

 In a medium saucepan we boiled 3 stalks of celery (cut) and 1 can of peas until the celery was soft. We drained off the excess liquid. In a small saucepan we sauteed 1/3 cup of onions in butter. Once the onions were translucent we added salt and pepper to taste, 1/4 tsp of poultry seasoning*, and our leftover gravy. Once this was warmed all the way through, we removed it from the heat.

We poured the celery, peas, onions and gravy over the chicken and potatoes. Finally, we added a top crust and crimped the edges. We baked it for 30 minutes in a 425 degree oven. It was delicious! We hope our delicious experiment in using up leftovers will inspire you to make similar recipes. Bon apetit!

* Pre mixed spices speed things up. Our poultry seasoning is made up of; thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg.

Mmmm Monday: Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Casserole


Saturday R and I processed a batch of roosters. All together we dispatched 6 roosters in just over 2 hours with the help of some courageous friends. The final product was 6 birds for the freezer weighing anywhere from 3.5-6lbs. Just the right size for a meal! Just to be sure the quality was excellent (which of course it was!) we cut one up into pieces and roasted it over the open fire using a masala sauce. Delicious! The meat was moist and tender and it was by FAR the freshest chicken I'd ever eaten. Not surprisingly, I've still got chicken on the brain. So, our first segment of Mmmm Monday will feature one of my all time favourite chicken recipes.

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
8 pieces of chicken- cut up
2 heads broccoli
1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1 cup of cheese (any hard cheese will do)
1/2 Tbsp curry powder
 bread crumbs

Steam the broccoli and place in a 9x13 pan. The bright green of the broccoli is a sign of the high vitamin D content. Using a skillet or large frying pan, brown the chicken until it is tender. Cut it into bite size chunks. I prefer using breast meat as it is easier to cut up. Place chicken on top of broccoli and set aside. Mix the condensed soup, mayonnaise, 1/3 cup of cheese and the curry powder together. You should be able to spread this mixture over top of the chicken and broccoli. Place bread crumbs (buttered tastes yummy but unbuttered is healthier) on top and cover with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 1/2 hour. The smell is incredible! Enjoy.