I believe every real german my age knows the clay pot “Römertopf” from the seventies and early eighties – if not from his Mom, then at least from his Grandma. It was very widespread then and everyone I know can remember that thing. Nowadays it became somewhat forgotten compared to it’s former popularity, but it’s still present enough that I got one for a reasonable price these days and of course had to give it a try.
Slow Cooker Garlic and Herbs Beef Shanks
Muaaaahhhh… delicious! I could literally bathe in that stuff 😀 . As with most slow cooker dishes, this is a very low stress and very high reward endeavour. The image looks shit but the meal was great. Here’s how:
Ingredients (for 2):
2 large beef shanks
2 cups beef broth
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
2 tbsp. dried herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano… whatever)
liberal amount of salt and pepper (to taste)
Pantry Raid Pork Belly and Mushroom Lunch
Ahhh… digging through the fridge and finding yummy things to throw together and grub on. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all and I used only a few ingredients:
My standard meat curing formula
Edit: Now with an image, because I made some bacon today 🙂
So here’s my standard recipe for curing meat that I mostly use. It can be adjusted to personal needs in terms of herbs and spices, but I strongly recommend to stick to the directions concerning the curing salt.
Recipe (per kg of meat):
30-40 g curing salt (NOT pink salt, see below)
10 g brown sugar
1 tsp. freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried rosemary
Pig’s Trotters and Tails
I’ve got an eMail Request from far abroad, that’s great! Someone from the U.S. wanted to know how we made the pig’s trotters and tails several years ago, so here’s the recipe. Thanks Alan for your request!
Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs with Red Wine Sauce
Slow braised short ribs – a delight to me. Although a very cheap cut they come out delicious when done with a little attention, time and some patience.
There’s no magic to it – on the contrary, you’ll have about half an hour of work and will then be able to laze around for 2 1/2 hours! Here’s my recipe:
Home Made Pork Rinds
I also bought skin-on pork belly for bacon curing this time and made pork rinds from the cut-offs. Nothing simpler than that: Heat your oven on “broil” to about 250 – 280 °C. Put your pork skin pieces onto a rack and salt them “as you would salt a roast” (statement of the sales lady at the butcher shop). Leave in the oven for about 15 minutes, turn over and grill for another 10 – 15 minutes more – until they’re crisp and blistered. Delicious.
New Batch of Bacon
A new batch of (hopefully) delicious, yummy and scrumptious bacon is on it’s way! They’re four pieces of about 750 g each, salted with my standard meat curing formula and vacuumed tightly. They’re now resting in the fridge to cure for about eight days. My mouth is already watering…
Biggest Batch of Sausages so far
Yesterday I made the biggest batch of “Bratwurscht” ever since I’m doing this. It took me a whole afternoon, to grind meat, season, knead and fill into casings. Now I’ve got 2 types of sausages, ending up with 4,5 kg in total:
Six Hours Rib Smoking Session
I tried smoking pork short ribs using the “professional” 3-2-1 Hours Method yesterday and they really came out outstandingly great! So what does that mean? It means you have three stages of cooking:
