Lard Fried Onion Strings

There are onion rings (in my opinion) that aren’t even worth eating. These are most definitely, not those onion rings.

If the batter to onion ratio is too high it feels like “what’s the point”? The secret is to get the right ratio of batter to onion. Which I think can only be achieved with a beer batter.

Here’s some tips for the perfect onion strings

-Pre-slice your onions and soak them in cold water for a few minutes. This will mellow out the “bite” of the onion. But if you stick to vidalia sweet onions (especially fresh, not cured) you can probably skip this part. Be sure to dry them off on a towel before battering them up.

-Thin sliced onions. The thicker the onion, the thicker the batter and it just gets too bulky and messy. A mandolin slicer is perfect for this job.

-Oil temperature. 375 degrees fahrenheit is perfect to get nice, crispy onion rings that don’t feel too greasy or heavy. The perfect temperature also helps the batter cling to the onion instead of sliding off while cooking.

-Do not, I repeat, do not overcrowd the pot. Good things come to those who wait. Work in small batches for ultimate crispyness.

-Set up a tray with a cookie cooling rack. I know placing them on paper towels is a popular choice to soak up the oil. But you are just going to make them soggy faster. Keep the finished onion rings suspended on a cookie cooling rack so the excess oil can drip off and the strings stay nice and crisp. I like to put my oven on “keep warm” and put the finished strings in there on a cookie sheet with a cooling rack for optimum crispiness until the whole bunch is finished.

And the most secret ingredient of a good onion ring…

-The oil you fry them in. The answer? Lard. It’s simply lard. All natural fat rendered down from the back of a hog. Pork fat is your best friend with all things fried. We love raising our own pigs to get the most wholesome, antibiotic free, pasture raised pork lard avaiable.

We made this recipe for our monthly farm to table dinner we lovingly call Supper Club. And my goodness, you would think these people have never had an onion ring before!

THE PERFECT ONION STRING

• 1 large Vidalia onion (thinly sliced)

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

• 6 ounces beer (1/2 can)

• 1 large egg

  Use 1 quart of lard to make sure the onions can float on top of the oil. If there is too little in the pan they will burn on the bottom. Once I’m finished I will let the oil cool slightly. Then strain it and put it in the fridge to use again another time (just don’t go grabbing this lard for your pie crust. Unless of course, its a pot pie).

If the batter runs off of the onions while frying check your oil temp. Remember, 375 degrees. If that still doesn’t work you may need to adjust your batter. Add a bit more flour until the consistency clings to the onions but it still thin enough to dredge them through easily.

A zesty dipping sauce is hard to beat. But if your onion rings are ACTUALLY done right, I think they stand alone without a sauce.

Sweet & Tangy KC style BBQ Sauce

As a producer of pastured pork it would be a crying shame not to have our own BBQ sauce recipe. And this one is a fan favorite. The sweet and smokiness is balanced so well with the tangy vinegar to leave you coming back for more. I make this in a pretty large batch so I can have some stocked up. If you are a canner it works great to process it in a water bath for shelf stable storage. I like to follow ballmasonjars.com guidelines for food safe canning.

Now, in typical Lacy fashion, this recipe calls for ketchup. And yes, yes you can just go buy ketchup from the store to make the process easier. But that defeats the homemade, know whats in it, mindset I am so stubbornly for. I suppose I’m gonna die on this hill, ladle in one hand, BBQ sauce splattered all over my face, determined to do every last thing from scratch. But as I am getting wiser (lets face it, just older) I recognize that there are some things that I just need to let go of. So, for this recipe it will call for ketchup. But if you want to be EXTRA, here is a link to the ketchup recipe I use by my good friend Ruthann (definitely check out her website and Youtube for all things from scratch). Then you’ll have BOTH condiments stocked up. Its a win/win. But enough about ketchup, here’s the BBQ sauce recipe you’ve been patiently waiting for…

SWEET & TANGY KANSAS CITY STYLE BARBECUE SAUCE

Makes 1 gallon

Ingredients

• 2 quarts (8 cups) tomato ketchup

• 3 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1 cup Worcestershire sauce

• 4 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

• 3/4 cup yellow mustard

• 1/4 cup paprika or to taste

• 1/4 cup onion powder

• 2 TBS ground black pepper, or to taste

• 16 garlic cloves, minced

• 3 cup water

• Dash of liquid smoke

Combine all ingredients in a saucepot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour to allow sauce to thicken. Add more sugar or seasonings to taste.

Cool to room temperature to allow flavors to meld. Ideally this would sit overnight but no less than one hour before using.

Keep in refrigerator and use within a month (but I should probably tell you 10 days to be PC). Or follow the Ball canning guidelines to water bath can it for shelf stable BBQ whenever you need it.

This sauce is great for basting meat on the grill, dipping sauce, or slathering your pork sandwich.

I hope you enjoy!

Homestead for the Holidays

As the holiday season approaches I always have the best intentions to shop local, seasonal, from small businesses, makers, and farms in my area. But as the season draws on it becomes harder and harder to do that in a timely manner.

This holiday season some of our CO-OP makers and I want to help make that transition easier for you as well!

We will be offering a small number of curated goods available for online purchase. Deliveries will be accumulated and all orders will be shipped out (or delivered if local) Thursday, November 30th or Thursday December 14.

Be sure to check out the “holiday shop” tab on our online store.

These items are carefully and thoughtfully crafted using as local of ingredients as possible. Wholesome goods we want to see in our homes as well as yours. A few of these might be available this winter as we begin a new subscription service (details coming soon). But most of them are made in small batches so get them while they last.

Happy holidays! We hope you’ll make an effort to shop small and shop local this holiday season.

Creamy Pork Chops & Potatoes

I’m not a great recipe writer. I cook how the spirit leads. And I can make no guarantees for the amounts of anything added. Just do what feels right. My cooking style is mostly influenced by what I have on hand. I make ZERO trips to the grocery store to get an ingredient for a recipe. If I don’t have something, I find a substitute or leave it out. Hopefully this flexibility helps empower you to get in there and get creative with your dish as well!

For my family of 6 (2 good eaters, 2 toddlers) I double most of this.

Ingredients:

1 package of 2 pork chops (1 inch thick)

Potatoes 4 I prefer red and leave the skin on Thinly sliced

Capers maybe 1/2 a jar

Red onion 1 large sliced

Garlic 2 cloves minced

Mushrooms 4 large shitake

Full fat Milk

Butter 3 tablespoons

2 tablespoons of flour

Salt and Pepper

Nutmeg

Olive Oil

DIRECTIONS

-Preheat oven to 400.

-Sautee onions and mushrooms in olive oil. Once the onions are almost transluscent add the garlic and capers until fragrant and remove from heat. Set aside.

-Remove Pork chops from package, pat dry, season with salt and pepper, and quickly sear in skillet over medium high heat. (very quickly as not to cook it through. You just want the fat cap on the edge to carmalize a bit). If your pork chops are thinner than 1” I would suggest skipping this step. Set aside

-Add butter to skillet. When melted add flour and cook until brown

-Add Milk to create a thin gravy. Add salt and pepper to taste

-Once slightly thickened remove from heat, add onions and mushrooms mixture

-Pour mushroom gravy over potatoes and toss

-Place potatoes in 8”x8” baking dish. Place pork chops on top. Finish with a small grate of fresh nutmeg.

-Cover with foil. Bake in preheated oven for 30 ish minutes (possibly longer if batch is doubled).

Iron Packed Bolognese Sauce

There are few things better than a nice hearty bowl of pasta full of all the farm’s bounty. This bolognese sauce is exactly that.

Sometimes a big bowl of pasta can be perceived as a guilty pleasure food. But all of these goodies make it a bowl full of nutrition; especially the liver!

Which typically gets a bad wrap in our western culture. But I argue that our pallets have just become dead to the rich flavor of liver. Our ancestors craved it in fact when certain minerals and nutrients were depleted from their bodies. All over the world this is still a staple. But the CAFO system in America is more about efficiency than nutrition. So much of an animals health can be determined by dissecting their liver.

Is the liver fatty? The animal probably had an unhealthy (or unnatural) diet.

Is the liver pale? This could mean the animal had improper nutrition, lack of living plant matter in their diet, or disease.

Does the liver have white spots? This most commonly is associated with disease or a precurser for an illness the animal is fighting on a low level.

Does the liver have holes? Parasites will burrow tunnels in the liver. Some level of parasites is normal (even in humans). But a significant amount indicates unhealthy animals and living conditions where they were housed without enough room for the feces to be somewhere other than where they eat.

I love having the knowledge to assess the health and quality of what we eat. It makes a conscious consumer who is in control of, and has the tools to better their own health.

Okay, now back to the bolognese, which is a very common dish throughout Europe.

Bolognese Sauce Recipe

1 onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 carrot finely chopped

2 medium tomatoes coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons Olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground liver

Fine ground Sea salt

1 cup white wine

1 small can tomato paste

1 bay leaf

small amount fresh grated nutmeg

1 cup milk

2 cups broth

1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan

1. Add oil to skillet and vegetables (except tomatoes and garlic). Saute veggies until soft 5ish minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

2. Combine ground beef and ground liver in skillet and cook on medium/low heat until just browned (some pink is ok). Crumbling into small pieces as it cooks. And season liberally with sea salt.

3. Reduce heat to low and add wine. Reduce wine until all liquid is evaporated. Continuing to crumble meat as it cooks. No large pieces should remain.

4. Add vegetables, bay leaf, nutmeg, chopped tomatoes, and tomato paste and stir constantly until tomato paste begins to brown.

5. Add broth, milk, garlic, and more salt. Stir well.

6. Put heat on lowest setting and simmer for up to 3 hours uncovered. No less than 45 minutes here. Until the sauce begins to thicken. Ideally it should be a very thick sauce but sometimes the stomach just can’t wait that long.

7. Cook pasta of choice (in broth if you have it) and add pasta to sauce with parmesan and stir.

8. Top with additional parmesan and enjoy!

Elderberry Syrup

The time has come to bring in the elderberry harvest!

Elderberry Syrup is the quickest, easiest way to get the best bang for your buck with elderberries. Not to mention its delicious! When I first started making it I savored it so much I would ONLY use it when we were sick as an immune booster. But its just too tasty for that. We love adding it to a glass of soda water for a refreshing fizzy drink. It’s also become a favorite on pancakes or in hot tea. There are so many herbs and spices you can add depending on how you want to use it. So use this as you rbase recipe and tweak it as you go making each batch different!

Elderberry Syrup

Makes 2 cups

Ingredients:

3-4 cups water

2/3 cup dried elderberries or 1 1/3 cup fresh/frozen

2 TBSP fresh grated ginger

1 tsp cinnamon (or 1 cinnamon stick)

1 tsp ground clove (or 4 whole)

1 cup raw honey

1 vanilla bean (optional)

1. Pour all ingredients (except honey) into a sauce pan. Bring to a boil.

2. Cover and reduce heat to a strong simmer for 1 hour.

3. Remove lid, lower heat, and continue to simmer until liquid is reduced by half.

4. Remove from heat and allow to cool until warm.

5. Use back of spoon to smash berries.

6. Strain liquid and mash solids in strainer to release the last bit of goodness.

7. Discard solids. If liquid is lukewarm add honey. Adding honey before liquid is cool will kill the beneficial properties of raw honey.

8. Store refrigerated in glass bottle.

Lard Chocolate Chip Cookies

Is there anything better than a chocolate chip cookie? I think not. You would think the same ole same ole would just get boring. But chocolate chip cookies are just in a league of their own.

There’s nothing ground breaking about this recipe. I mean, it’s hard to mess up a classic. But in the spirit of using our food responsibly its hard to go buy pounds and pounds of butter from the store when the freezer is stocked with pork lard.

When rendered correctly this fantastic animal by-product is snow white and doesn’t have any of that “pork flavor”

It really makes baked goods so light and fluffy.

So without further ado, my recipe…

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 generous teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup lard

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs (maybe a third depending on the size of egg and how chalky the dough is)

1 bag chocolate chips (I prefer a mix of milk and dark chocolate)

DIRECTIONS

-Cream the butter: mix butter, lard, and sugars in stand mixer and cream together for much longer than you think you should.

-In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients

-Add vanilla and two eggs to stand mixer and mix until just combined

-Slowly add dry ingredients to mixer

(If your dough looks too chalky whisk one egg by hand and add to mixer. This will require mixing, stopping to scrape paddle and bowl, and then mixing again.)

-Mix in chocolate chips

-Now for the most important part… do not bake right away! You must chill the dough for AT LEAST 30 minutes. Two hours would be ideal. It really allows the butter and sugar to meld together and the fats can firm up which means they melt slower in the oven resulting in taller cookies that don’t smoosh like pancakes.

When you’re ready to bake preheat oven to 375. Bake for 11-15 minutes. But this really depends on the size of your cookie and no two ovens are calibrated the same so just keep an eye on it. Take them out when the middle still looks gooey and allow to cool on baking sheet for a minute or two which will continue to cook the center a bit. Okay, this is the second most important part… while they cool, sprinkle with course sea salt.

Then remove to cooling rack. And feel no shame for the lack of self control. You’re welcome.

Spring Pork Chops with ChimmiChurri

These are a real staple in the spring for our family. Basically anything slathered in ChimmiChurri is a staple for us. But cast iron seared pork chops are just next level once you heap it up with a big spoon of this fresh herby sauce.

I’ve spent many years eating dry, “white meat” pork chops. It was never a cut I looked forward to. But once we started raising pigs and I understood the cuts of meat and the deep red rich meat of the pork chop it became a favorite.

First of all the thickness is key. Our pork chops are 1 1/2” thick for a beautiful, crispy on the outside, moist on the inside pork chop. Think of it as a steak when deciding how to prepare it. My go-to (and for good reason) is to leave it room temp for about 20 minutes. Pat it dry, season generously with good salt and pepper and then pan sear it in a cast iron skillet with a few tablespoons of butter. Even better if you spoon the melted butter and melted lard up over the top to baste the meat as it cooks. Only flipping once and adding a bit more butter will achieve that crispy, fried, outer pork lard. Be sure to turn it up on the end to sear the fat cap. I dare say thats the best part.

While this is cooking toss a big handfull of parsley, cilantro, and oregano in a food processor with a clove of garlic, salt & pepper, a few glugs of red wine vinegar, and about a 1/4 cup of olive oil for the most spring time sauce of all. After a long winter this is exactly what my body craves.

I like to eat this atop a mountain of crisp lettuce and a bit of feta or goat cheese is just the icing on the cake.