WHAT ARE YOU EATING TODAY?

[moose eater]

Hey Moose,
Cullen skink is a classic winter warmer in Scotland, haddock it self is very popular over there.
Cod would be very popular here. Boring white and flaky usually comes encased in batter and is rather bland.(codling) its either in batter/breadcrumb or smoked, usually for a reason. Halibut is a fine bit of fish, I wouldn't see that often, expensive as well.

Sounds like your building some really nice flavours man, i wouldnt call for the acidiness either from the juice.. Chicken thighs are fantastic, full of flavour and always retain their moistness levels compared to the breast or leg I find.. When making curries the thighs is all I use (meat based)
Feels like Christmas reading those ingredients, I can only Imagine the aromas escaping from the kitchen.
Are you all hands on when it comes to food Moose? Would her goodself be allowed into the kitchen when your in the mode, maybe a helping hand with the condiments or afters..Rounding the evening of with pecan pie sounds perfect, Keto or not..

I have a strange relationship with oysters, my good woman has no issues scoffing down a half dozen of them when we are out, I usually drown them with lemon juice and hot tobasco before necking them. Last time when visiting the UK we dropped into the famous Sweeney & Todd pie shop, I tried the beef & smoked oyster pie and herself went for the wild game pie. The pies were excellent, I left them a good review.

That steak and Stilton cheese pie was phenomenal. I'd bet a beef and oyster pie would be tasty, too. Scots and their crusts, eh!

 

[superx]

I have never sampled crane breast or grouse nor seen them. I bet the juices make an incredible stock.. Rich and full of depth and flavor. With baking and pastry i find there's a certain level of science required and the same with patience, most pastry chefs I know or either single/divorced and drunk 5 nights a week. Usually the first one in and last one out lol

Sounds like you guys have it worked out nicely
The village not far from us does a really nice chowder, usually smoked coley/salmon/prawns/mussels and calamari no cream or white wine, its prepared the same way as making a vegetable broth combined with fish broth and when served up resembles vegetable soup, you can get the hints of fennel and mint..
They sell a lot, the farmers love it, different from the cream based one or the tomato Mediterranean one.
I was thinking King crab might of made its way on to your festive menu, maybe the new year...

 

[armedoldhippy]

raw, or battered and deep-fried, I can inflict some damage on a bunch of oysters.

i haven't found a way that i didn't love them. oysters rockefeller were near top of the list, right behind slurping them straight out of the shell. lol.

 

[moose eater]

i haven't found a way that i didn't love them. oysters rockefeller were near top of the list, right behind slurping them straight out of the shell. lol.

I haven't tried oyster stew in many years (decades, even), so maybe I'd change my mind. But my memories of it were not great. Who knows, though?

Otherwise, seafood, in general, is in grave danger once it enters my door.

 

[armedoldhippy]

I was thinking King crab might of made its way on to your festive menu

this is something lacking in my diet. i loved snow crab, blue crab, stone crab claws. can't find snow crab after population collapsed.

 

[moose eater]

I have never sampled crane breast or grouse nor seen them. I bet the juices make an incredible stock.. Rich and full of depth and flavor. With baking and pastry i find there's a certain level of science required and the same with patience, most pastry chefs I know or either single/divorced and drunk 5 nights a week. Usually the first one in and last one out lol

Sounds like you guys have it worked out nicely
The village not far from us does a really nice chowder, usually smoked coley/salmon/prawns/mussels and calamari no cream or white wine, its prepared the same way as making a vegetable broth combined with fish broth and when served up resembles vegetable soup, you can get the hints of fennel and mint..
They sell a lot, the farmers love it, different from the cream based one or the tomato Mediterranean one.
I was thinking King crab might of made its way on to your festive menu, maybe the new year...

I had a Dungeness crab chowder at Pike Place Brewery many years ago that was IN-F-CKING-CREDIBLE!!

And neighbors in Homer, Alaska in the later 70's, maybe as late as 1980, were crab fishermen (some of them in that house, anyway) and they did a fresh (not brined and processed) crab feed one night, including a huge pot of crab fondue (the fondue was mostly Dungeness, but there were steamed fresh king crab legs from back when a king crab on the larger size could be up to or over 21 lbs.) Decadent, for sure.

I processed a LOT of crab in the later 1970s, before they 'shrank' in size due to over-fishing.

The king crab are 'butchered' with a stand with a crude giant arrowhead shaped blade pointing toward the abdomen of the butcher, and when the butcher thrusts forward, holding the king crab with its shell against his thick (think like Kevlar) apron, it bisects the king crab, and each half of the crab is then tossed to one side or the other of the gilling and processing table. The shell is discarded into the grind bin.

The gillers take the whole section of king crab and run it gently under a motorized drum with dull block-like blades on it that runs in a horizontal plane and removes the gills. It's an art to get enough contact to remove the gills and not harm the structure of the section the gills sit on top of.

Then two cooking cages about the size of a bale of BX Pro-Mix are joined to a hanging inverted T shaped item on a chain so that when the hoist picks them up, they more or less balance each other, and they're lowered gently into a cooker tank, with the chain pulling them along, and by the time they emerge at the other end, they're cooked.

(*That's the moment when, if you're going to pilfer a freshly cooked, unbrined set of legs, to grab such. Many a time we shoved what were truly giant whole upper leg pieces of freshly cooked, minimally processed legs into our mouths and hid behind one of the tanks to gobble while the cook folks looked at us with a wink and a nod). The crab tails we were allowed to keep for ourselves through the shift, then rinse and cook in a cage when we were done for the day(s)....

The phase after the cooker is what more or less ruins store-bought processed king crab. They take the cages that were paired and hanging, that have just been brought out of the cooker tank and run them into a brine tank that holds enough salt to still be liquid at -10 degrees Fahrenheit to quickly freeze the goods. After that, though still tasty, it'll never taste like truly fresh caught king crab again. Which is one of the biggest reasons why we rarely if ever buy store-bought king crab legs... or claws. Etc.

That, and the fact that on sale here we're paying all of about $25/lb. as a rule, and for premium processed frozen legs by the case, we're paying $35 to $40/lb. Out-fucking-landish.

Snow crabs (also known as Tanner crabs) are processed much like king crabs.

Dungeness crabs, however, are typically loaded live into those same cooking cages, typically on their backs, and stacked until the cage is full and ready for the cooking tank. You can hear them crunching each others' shells quite audibly.

All of these species are typically kept alive in what resemble crude concrete indoor swimming pools (we had 6 huge pools inside the work area back then, maybe 8, but I think it was 6), and no dead crabs could be processed.

If there was a question about a crab's vitality, you held it close to the concrete floor and gently dropped it on its back from an inch or so above the concrete. If the mandibles moved, it was good to process, if it didn't move in any way, it also went to the grinder bin.

King crabs are a deep-water crab, tanners can be deep or intermediate as a rule, sometimes shallower, and Dungies are a shallow water crab, similar to a Blue Bay crabs. They all tend to acclimate to the pressures they exist in, so deep-water crabs move VERY slowly at sea level, like they're on Quaaludes. Conversely, dungies act like they're on meth much of the time. wired and fast.

We used to tell people that if you were processing king crabs and one got you, you were truly not paying attention. They're -incredibly- SLOW. But the king crabs also tend to be the stronger grip of the three. OUCH!!!!!

The indoor concrete holding tanks we had were quite sizable, and one night while doing some decent acid/LSD at work, we crawled into a tank that was stacked about 3-4 ft. deep with Dungies once the water was drained. Wall to wall lively crabs, and us on acid!!!!

It was like what I suspect being at the Alamo might've been like. First thing was to work a spot until you were standing on concrete with some room to move. Throwing live crabs up into the troughs that had water current in them, delivering them up to the next room where the processors were working. Talk about a 'hostile work environment'!!

In retrospect, though fun to talk about now, if someone inquired, I'd advise against such antics while on acid.

 

[moose eater]

My wife is a bit Norwegian, and she's my finish carpenter, thus I refer to her when speaking to others as my Norwegian finish carpenter.

She's currently making her Thanksgiving batch of Norwegian lefse (potato flat bread) on her lefse griddle (which doubles wonderfully as a pancake griddle or grilled cheese sandwich griddle as well) and simultaneously decanting a couple of 1-gallon and 1/2-gallon growlers of her homemade blueberry-watermelon wine into bottles, and then corking them...

I'm just now getting my outdoor chores done as the Sun sets, including torquing the alloy rims I put onto one of the vehicles Friday, for which the shop that dismounted the tires and swapped rims obviously had an airhead newbie doing the work, as noted by the fact that, despite my leaving a quart zip-lock bag of dedicated alloy rim lug nuts in plain view on the front seat, they used the inappropriate steel wheel lug nuts they'd just taken off.

Idjits abound these days. Another moment of paying someone to do a job, only to have to do their job for them after the fact. Fuckers.

So, after the glass of test wine, it's out into the relatively warm +14-degree f. air to dig out a torque wrench and a 21mm deep-well socket, and make sure they didn't over-torque, or miss something else... With idiots there needn't be any actual malice involved. They can kill you just as easily with things they didn't even know they did.

I'd have not noted the use of the inapplicable steel wheel lug nuts but for my honed sense of distrust for the average human, resulting from many years of dealing with people who collect a paycheck, but can't be paid enough to actually pay fucking attention.

"Humans; can't eat 'em, can't live with 'em...."

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Bunny boiler ! How would you otherwise process them? Furry slippers? Lop eared ones would make a good hat.

That's a very long and involved question. lol Interestingly enough, I spent a lot of time attempting to sell rabbit meat at $8/lb, and nobody in my area wanted it. I've since done a ton of research the last few years, and it turns out these little buggers are very valuable. Very unique in many ways vs. other domesticated animals. Look for my book in 3-5 years titled something like "Making $erious Money With Rabbit$."
lol, tried to sell rabbits for $24 when their profit is over $200 with minimal effort. lol What a world.

All that aside, I'm now simmering the bones and bits that would not come off or will not eat well. I'll strain the bones and gristle out, and then use it as the broth to make rabbit noodle soup. (Did you know that chicken naturally increases insulin resistance, regardless of the 'quality' of the bird?) Rabbit noodle soup is much healthier for 7 of the 8 blood types when you're sick. Each blood type has two main subtypes.

 

[armedoldhippy]

make sure they didn't over-torque, or miss something else

got a tire shop here where their "mechanics" all use air wrenches on lug nuts. all well and good "if" they turn air pressure down & finish up with a torque wrench. but no...

 

[moose eater]

got a tire shop here where their "mechanics" all use air wrenches on lug nuts. all well and good "if" they turn air pressure down & finish up with a torque wrench. but no...

I retorqued mine. The majority were WELL over the specced 82-ft-lbs. for this vehicle.

Guess who buys the rotors and drums when they fuck up.

Just had oven fried chicken thighs and steamed broccoli for late dinner.

Pin on the chute lever of the snowblower fell out, so I'll be outside shortly, trying to make various bolts and screws work, and having to get up at 2 AM to get showered and shaved to catch a flight for a medical appt in Los Anchorage.

I really HADN'T planned on doing snowblower repairs in a snowstorm at 10:30 PM when I have to be up in less than 4 hours.

I'd damned near had the entire driveway and parking areas done, came in to rest my aching back, and when I went out there was over 2" of fresh white shit on the ground I'd just cleared. The driveway's 230 ft. long, with a huge trailer parking area, vehicle parking area and a massive turn-around. I suspect it'll be a bit of a late night.

It's times like this I look at my dwindling supply of Provigil and think, "Yes, this is the kind of situation this is made for", but they're testing various nerve centers tomorrow and I don't want to skew the tests.

 

[armedoldhippy]

i'm eating a healthy platter of crow right now. i put off getting my flu shot and am now paying the price for procrastination. crow tastes worse than you are imagining it to... even with barbecue sauce.

 

[superx]

i'm eating a healthy platter of crow right now. i put off getting my flu shot and am now paying the price for procrastination. crow tastes worse than you are imagining it to... even with barbecue sauce.

Are you referring to humble pie armedoldhippie? Is it really that repulsive to eat crow.

Mrs superx baked a lovely toad in the hole using walnut and herb sausages last night.
The walnut certainly added texture, much prefer Cumberland sausages myself. The left over walnuts will be used for the stuffing of a bird over the weekend, who knows maybe a crow.

 

[superx]

How did thanksgiving go for you guys, any pecan pie left over?

 

[armedoldhippy]

Are you referring to humble pie armedoldhippie? Is it really that repulsive to eat crow.

"humble pie", yes. another good term for being ignorant and putting shit off until it has bitten you on the ass. self-inflicted pain is by far the worst...

 

[moose eater]

How did thanksgiving go for you guys, any pecan pie left over?

Just cooking the bird now; let my wife have the bird's cavity for her standard bread stuffing, though she flinched when I mentioned adding a decent breakfast sausage to the bread stuffing.

Deluxe mashed potatoes are in a bread pan, covered in foil and waiting for the time to put them into the oven covered.

The wild rice and oyster dressing with water chestnuts, mushrooms, celery and onion is waiting for the wild rice to finish cooking; that stuff takes a long time and more water per measured rice than standard rice.

Plenty of pecan pie left, though I sampled it when it was too warm last night, and this recipe is just barely sweet enough that if it's warm the taste of the pie's sweetness is less perceivable. Had a micro-sliver of it chilled this morning and it was much better.

Brussels sprouts are still waiting for their time in the skillet and under the broiler; they'll get a minor touch of vinegar, salt and pepper, butter, and some crumbled uncured crispy-fried, hard-wood-smoked bacon.

Other than for that, it's still -35 f on the front porch mercury and glass thermometer. The digital sensor in the barn becomes far less accurate the colder it gets. But the digital read-out is in the kitchen, so you don't have to freeze your nards off to find out what temperature it is outside, and if you want to read the digital kitchen unit during extreme cold, the lying it does is somewhat optimistic and (falsely) relieving. Right now, the kitchen (the lying kitchen reading) claims it's only -26 f in the open-walled pole barn where the senor's located, whereas the far more accurate (much cheaper) mercury and glass on the front porch state's it's the previously reported -35 f.

It's mostly about perception and acclimation anyway, and we've got a bit over 30 pallets, mostly size large, to burn on the bonfire pit today to make it feel cozy outside. Just means that come later Spring, if I try to salvage wood ash from the fire pit, I'll need to use 1/4-inch hardware cloth in a wooden frame we built to fit over the wheelbarrow to screen out screws and nails. Tilling them into the gardens or field is a no-no.

Hope you're well today SX.

 

[moose eater]

I'm off for a joint of either Soul Mate or Ghost Train Haze #1 from the stash, and to bed to lay down with the 13-month+ old German shepherd. Her left hind leg or paw is bothering her for the last day and a half, and my ankles and legs were killing me off and on last night with MAJOR fucking cramps, waking me up numerous times from what was already a questionable sleep.

The oysters in the stuffing are wafting through the air, and it's going into the oven right now in a Pyrex baking dish, covered in foil, so I'll likely need to get up very shortly for a 'quality control tasting'. Just wish wild rice didn't have the carbohydrate count and heavy metals it does.

 

[armedoldhippy]

How did thanksgiving go for you guys, any pecan pie left over?

the meal went as well as it could have under the circumstances; those being my wife and i were both still too ill to deal with a turkey. we had the blandest tasting ham i've ever gnawed on. but, in truth, NOTHING tastes right when your nose/taste buds are out of whack. the sweet potato casserole was excellent though, as was the pumpkin pie. haven't cut the pecan pie...yet.

 

[armedoldhippy]

though I sampled it when it was too warm last night

??? is that even possible? and, may i have her recipe for that dressing? i'll try that at Christmas for myself. my wife won't even look at an oyster...

 

[moose eater]

??? is that even possible? and, may i have her recipe for that dressing? i'll try that at Christmas for myself. my wife won't even look at an oyster...

Yeah, with minimally sweet items, heat often cuts down a bit on the perception of the sweetness. And the pie recipe is a convoluted Keto thing, with a special recipe for the crust and another for the pecan filling.

Most of the off-hand recipes are mine, in my head, such as the oyster dressing.

Boil up your wild rice with slightly less water or broth than the recipe would call for, so the rice isn't QUITE done when the rice finishes boiling. (I add a bit of chicken base to the water the rice boils in).

Sauté' finely chopped sweet onions, slightly coarser celery, and mushrooms, and when done, add them to the finished rice mix. add chopped up water chestnuts to the mix, and when relatively cool, add the juice form the raw oysters (as well as the moderately finely chopped raw oysters) to the mix, and I add a minor touch of sage, some black pepper, white pepper, and sea salt to the thing, to taste, and either stuff the bird or spread evenly into a baking dish/pan, then, if in the baking dish or pan, place in the oven at the bird's temperature (325 f for most folks) and bake for about 45 minutes, maybe longer if a huge batch.

If stuffing the bird, then it bakes the same/similar amount of time as any stuffed turkey with a more conventional bread-based stuffing. Thigh meat at the thickest to 180 f. and breast to about 165 f.

 

[moose eater]

**Note, the reasons for reducing the amount of broth or water when boiling the wild rice includes the fact that the oyster juices are used in their entirety, adding a good amount of both flavor and liquid, the veggies used after sauteing them includes a good amount of added moisture, and the turkey will add a certain amount of fat/oil into the cavity as the bird cooks.