The end of growing season - How we kill a bird

With the mornings getting colder and growing season coming to an end it came time to cull our meat birds.  Over Spring and Summer the birds put on muscle and a good amount of fat reasonably fast - but in the cold winter months they stay skiny and weedy from spending their energy trying to keep warm.  With the help of Poppa and Uncle Bears we killed, plucked and gutted 5 birds in about an hour at the weekend - we're getting very effient.  If you don't want to know how to kill a bird don't read the italic below:

If you're wondering how we kill our birds, here goes:  To process our birds we quickly and quietly take one out of sight of the other birds, they are then hung upside down where for some reason they go limp and very relaxed. With a hand closed over their head they are lowered into a dust bin with a clean liner.  With a razor sharp knife, a lot of pressure and a swift cut the head is removed, starting at the back of the neck (boney side) all the way through to the front (arteries and wind pipe).  After killing quite a few birds this is the quickest method we have found, the neck is broken and nerves severed instantly.  Hold the bird in the bin while it flaps around for about a minute then slide neck first into a flax bush (or hang over a bucket).  They need to bleed out for 15-30 minutes.  After bleeding they are plunged into nearly boiling water for about 8 seconds, until the breast feathers are pulled very easily from the carcass.  Hang the bird over a bucket and get plucking, pulling the large wing and tail feathers out one a time so the skin is not torn.  Have a hose or bucket of clean water near by to get feathers off your hands every now and then to make the job easier.  Rinse the bird with the hose and get ready to get a bit smelly.  Remove the feet and then you want to remove the gizzard (the food sack at the bottom of the neck).  Do this by removing the skin up to 2cm from the base of the neck.  Next feel which side the gizzard is sitting and gently work the skin away from down the neck and over the top of the gizzard.  Then work your finger around the bottom of the gizzard.  Once separated gently pull the gizzard up out of the bird until you can see the tube that feeds the stomach, cut gizzard away from the bird.  Pull wind pipe out of the neck too, you don't need to cut this, just give it a good tug.  Next pinch the skin over the stomach of the bird (vertically) then with a sharp knife cut along the natural seam in the skin to 1cm above the vent - you may need to do this a few times to get the depth of the cut right - to get through the abdomen lining, but not so far that you cut the innards.  Continue this cut to the tip of the bone on each side the the vent (the Pubis) making sure you don't cut the intestines.  You you can now reach inside the bird and pull out the innards.  After practice I have learnt to slip my fingers under the liver and then pull, the liver comes out cleanly and intact this way, so it can be easily cut it away (I'm keeping mine to make pate).  Reach back in and make sure everything is removed, you will probably have to scrape the lungs away from the rib cage, they never come away first time.  With everything removed you can cut the rest of the way around the vent and you're done.  Give the bird one final rinse inside and out. Double bag and rest in the fridge for 2 days before cooking or freezing.

Our meat birds were 18 weeks old with full long legs, meaty breasts and thin to medium layer of fat.  Well, mostly, the one hen out of the bunch was considerably fatter compared to the others.  I guess it was because she was due to start developing her very hard working reproductive system to make eggs everyday and had built up extra fat stores to help her through the transformation.

After resting in the fridge for 2 days the four roosters were packed away in the freezer for winter meals, the hen was skinned and butchered into 6 large pieces (2 breast, 2 thigh and 2 leg fillets) and 2 lions.  I will post our lemon chicken recipe soon.

Roasted Rooster

Our first rooster was somewhat of a success - slow cooked coconut curry.  It tasted amazing and fell of the bone, but it still had a slight stringiness to it which was a bit disappointing and left Pappa Bear unconvinced of all our efforts to raise our own chickens for the table.  I was determined to make the next rooster a success, and boy was it!

After finding out the stringiness is due to cooking our bird while in early stages of Rigor Mortis I read up on resting and hanging birds after slaughter.  For home-kill chickens it's recommended you hang the carcass for 1 to 4 days in a cool place (cool being 10-12 Celsius).  Yeah right!  Like I'm going to find somewhere that cool in February.  With hanging our rooster out of the question I investigated other ways of resting a chicken after slaughter.  Another method I found was resting the chicken in the fridge for 48 hours, easy enough, so we gave it a try.

After killing, plucking and dressing our noisiest crowing rooster I tucked it into plastic tray, wrapped it in a plastic bag and let it sit on the top shelve in our fridge for 2 days.  On the first day the muscles still felt a little on the stiff side, but by day 2 the rooster was soft and floppy like you find it at the supermarket.  Apples and lemon on hand from the garden I went in search of herbs that matched the scent of the fruit.  Tarragon and sage came back inside with me.  After 2 hours of slow roasting (supermarket chicken may only take an hour and a half) the rooster turned out beautifully and we all gave a big sigh of relief - home kill rooster is a wonderfully tender and tasty meal and has been worth the effort.  One more success as we learn to live the Good Life.

The leg bone looks massive, and it is - this is what chicken looks like when it's not
killed as a baby (5-7 weeks) like they are commercially.

Slow Roasted Rooster

1 Rooster (or free range chicken)
1 Apple, washed
1 Lemon, washed
1T Butter
Tarragon and Sage, a few sprigs of each
Salt

1/2 C White Wine
1T Butter

Heat over to 150C.  Cut apple and lemon into wedges, removed seeds and stuff into cavity.  Chop up herbs and mix with the butter, push and massage butter under the breast skin.  Sprinkle a little salt over the bird and tuck into an oven bag (or covered roasting dish).  Bake for 1.5-2 hours till juices run clear and meat is falling off the bone.

Put chicken aside, cover and rest while you make the sauce.  Strain roasting juices into a pan and add the wine and butter.  Bring to a simmer and reduce by half.  We had a ours with left over cucumber mango salsa and creamy mash.

Tofu Chocolate Brownies

I love tofu.  When I was in Auckland a couple of months ago I brought masses of the stuff to bring home and freeze.  What I didn't count on was the change in texture.  Fresh tofu is velvety smooth and has a delicate taste but defrosted tofu is chewy and pretty much tasteless.  I've tried adding it to stirfries and other things but it always get left to the side of our plates.  Very dissapointing.

The other day I popped into the library and found a book on tofu, Tofu Cookery by Louise Hagler.  It has loads of recipes for frozen tofu, pretty much treating it like mince.  While I was flicking through the book I found a chocolate brownie recipe.  The recipe called for fresh tofu but I had to give it a try.  It worked really well.  The kids and I enjoyed soft, fudgey choclate brownie for afternoon tea, I'm sure if I didn't tell anyone they'd have no idea this is was a vegan recipe.

Tofu Chocolate Brownies

225g Soft Regular Tofu
2/3C Water
1/3C Plain Flour
2C Sugar
1t Salt
1t Vanilla Extract
3/4C Cocoa Powder
1/2C Canola Oil
1 1/2C Plain Flour
3/4t Baking Powder

Heat oven to 180C Bake.  Break tofu into small pieces into the the bowl of a food processor.  Add in water and first measure of flour.  Process until it's smooth and creamy.  Put tofu mixture into a medium sized pot and cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until thickened.  Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (I put my pot in some cold water in the sink to speed this up).  Beat in sugar, salt and vanilla.  In a small bowl combine cocoa powder and oil, mix into tofu batter.  Add in flour and baking powder and mix until just combined.  Pour and spread evenly into a greased 25cm square brownie tin, or a loaf tin for thicker brownies.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Allow to cool for half an hour to set.

Simple Vege and Lentil Curry

I have made Dahl on quite a few occasions and the kids have never really taken to it.  Last night with less than an hour till dinner time and loads of legumes I played around with crossing a Dahl type curry with our favourite  Curried Sausage recipe.  My experiment resulted in a success so it will be added to my repertoire for cheap, fast and meat free meals.  This meal cost about $4 for 4, for two nights (based on my bulk Indian food buys, powdered milk, a green grocer onion and pretty much free garden veges and coriander).  I can imagine needing to add cubed potatoes or kumera to this to bulk it out for big eaters - like growing teenagers.



Vege and Lentil Curry
Serves 6 (or 2 kids and 2 Adults for 2 nights)


2T Butter or Oil
1 Large Onion, Diced
2T Curry Powder
3-4 Cups Veges, Diced (I used beans, carrots and zucchini from the garden)
1C Split Red Lentils, washed until water runs clean
Salt and Pepper
1T Mango Powder (optional)
1 1/2 C Milk
2t Cornflour, Heaped

Heat oil over a medium-low heat and add in onion and curry powder.  Cook until onion is transparent.  Add in diced veges and toss to coat in curry mixture.  Add lentils, a pinch of salt and pepper (Mango Powder if using) and add enough water just to cover (this is a good time to put on the rice cooker).  Increase temperature to bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally and topping up with a little water as needed.  When veges and lentils are tender combine milk and cornflour, stir into curry.  Continue stirring until curry is just about to return to the simmer and thickened, then remove from heat.  Serve with rice (we had half white, half brown - a happy compromise at our house), a sprinkle of coriander and poppadoms.

Summer at The Good Life

This summer has gone so quickly, I barely recall there being a January and we're already half way through February.

Mr 1 is looking like a toddler now, not the little baby we moved to the Waikato with.  Mr 3 is making friends and has settled into his new life in a new house, a new daycare and playgroup.  My garden has been left to do it's own thing with only a good soak every 3 days to keep it happy - no weeding at all really due to the lack of space to get in between the giant brassicas and beans that are breaking out of the 3x4m central vege patch.

A vege wilderness

The garden is providing enough vegetables so that I only need to buy onions and potatoes at the green grocer each week along with fruit.  The house is constantly filled with the aroma of sweet peas.  The tomatoes have improved slightly with addition of tomato food (applied only once after Christmas and the dreaded blossom rot was discovered).  I really should feed the tomatoes every few days but my boys are my biggest priority at the moment so feeding and weeding can wait till next season when the boys are bigger and can even give Mumma a hand.

There has been a time a sadness, I've shed more than a few tears over the loss of my lovely mother hen Emmy Lou.  After a nasty illness she now rests under a lime tree in our garden.  She was a beautiful girl, she would happily sit in my arms cooing and clucking and she was a delite to watch raising her babies and just going about her everyday hen business.  I miss her, rest in peace my girl.

We have had some new additions to our laying flock.  Our original 6 never seemed to lay enough eggs for our demand - and even less when they went clucky or started malting - so we've increased our flock to 8.  After we lost Emmy Lou we brought 2 more shavers that will start laying the the next couple of weeks.  The 8th hen was picked from the 8 chicks Emmy Lou raised, so in a small (adopted) way a bit of Emmy Lou remains.  The new hens are Penny, Bernadette and Amy (we watch a lot of The Big Bang Theory).

Bernadette, Amy and Penny.

Peggy is also a proud new mum.  Her and I have had a few choice words over the last few months about her going broody all the time, but I gave in and delivered her a clutch of 12 eggs to raise.  Unfortunately the new arrival Amy took to climbing into the nest with her a night and crushing eggs.  Only 4 survived the 21 day incubation period and then only 2 hatched.  Peggy doesn't seem to mind, I have never heard any of my hens purr so much.  Did you know hens purr when they are happy?

Over all it has been an amazing first summer in our new home.  Highlights have been watching my sons delite in the big hay tractors in the paddock over our back fence, sampling our first home raised roster, Christmas holidays with family at the beach and more recently a entire week at the beach with Pappa Bear and my Baby Bears.  Very simple pleasures for a simple life.  Bliss.

Boston Baked Beans

This recipe is one of my favourites for beans.  The original recipe called for loads of brown sugar and molasses which we found too sweet, so half halved the sugar and use golden syrup (my reason being that golden syrup his half way between molasses and brown sugar, I know it's not though).  When I made this the other day it disappeared in a flash, Mr 1 and Mr 3 devoured it, it blows anything you get in a can completely out of the water!

I have made it without bacon and it's still really good if you want to go vegetarian, try adding 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika to get that smokey flavour.

Boston Baked Beans
Serves 6


2 Cups Haricot or Pinto Beans
1T Oil
1 Large Onion, Diced
250g Bacon, Diced (or 1/2t Smoked Paprika)
1/2t Salt
1/2t Pepper
1/4t Mustard Powder
1/2C Tomato Sauce
1T Worcestershire Sauce
3T Golden Syrup

 Soak beans over night.  The next day rinse and drain well, cover with 2cm of water and gently simmer for 1 to 2 hours until the beans are tender.  They should hold their shape but should easily be able to squish one with your fingers, I find tasting one is the the easiest way to check. Strain the beans but don't throw away the cooking liquid!

Heat oven to 160C bake.  In an oven proof pan heat the oil over a medium heat.  Gently cook onion and bacon until onion is transparent.  Add in the salt, pepper, mustard, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, golden syrup and the drained beans.  Add in enough of the bean cooking liquid to cover, if there's no enough liquid then add some water or stock.  Cover pan and bake for 3-4 hours.  Serve with toast, rice or mash with vege or salad, maybe even a sprinkle of cheese.

Busy Busy Busy: Coconut Chicken Curry

My poor blog has been a bit neglected lately. If I haven't been away with family I have been busy.  We acquired 9 more roosters recently from one of my blog readers who lives in the city (Thank you), my garden is producing loads of veges and some serious weeding has been done.  I've also been laying mock paths around our garden with all the loose bricks we have around here.  We are in serious need of paths to and from the house, vege garden, chicken runs and under the washing line, I have run patches of the grass bare, it's not pretty.

 Last weekend we dispatched one of our 12 week old roosters.  I will spare the queasy details for my 'townie' friends but I can assure you it was a quick end.  Once dispatched the bird was swirled around in 80C water to loosen the feathers, plucked, gutted and quatered ready for the pot.  You'll have to forgive me forgetting to take an after shot, the curry was so good it was gobbled up before I even had a chance to think of getting the camera.

Coconut Chicken Curry

1 Rooster, quartered (or free range chicken)
2T Oil
1 Onion, cut into Wedges
4 Cloves Garlic, crushed
3T Curry Powder
Pinch Cayenne Pepper (optional)
1 Tin diced tomatoes
1 Tin Coconut Cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

Set oven to 140C Bake.  Heat oil on stove top in oven proof dish over med-high heat.  Brown the rooster quarters and then put to the side.  Turn heat down a little and begin to brown onions, adding a little more oil if you need to.  Once onions are nearly done add in the garlic, curry power and cayenne.  When fragrant put the rooster back in along with the tin of tomatoes, coconut cream and a couple of pinches of salt and pepper.  Add a little water to make sure the meat is covered.  Cover your pan to transfer to the oven, cook for 4-6 hours, checking the liquid level and turning the meat every hour or so.  Serve with rotis, rice and veges.