Sweet Torture

Water-boarding is nothing. If you really want to torture someone put them through my past three days and not let them eat anything.

Yesterday I had a big stock pot sitting on a back burner filled with roasted lamb bones, onions, carrots, and celery. I gently simmered the mixture for about 4 hours, then removed the solids, strained it, and returned it to the heat to reduce, ending up with about two and half quarts of savory essence of lamb.

The stock got its start the day before yesterday when I cut up a bunch of lamb my friend Tim Clark of Locust Grove Farm gave me to make sausage with. It’s a great deal, Tim provides the lamb, I provide the culinary expertise, and we share the results.

The house was filled with the sparkling brown odor of roasting meat

Anyway, the day before yesterday the house was filled with the sparkling brown odor of roasting meat. And, before that as I worked on carving flesh from the odd parts Tim had given me, the smell of fresh lamb meat — a uniquely mineral scent. Once trimmed, I cut the meat up and seasoned it for the sausage (recipe to come in a day or two).

Yesterday, though, smelled of lamb stock… and duck confit.

As the bones simmered on the stove top, I made a second batch of duck confit in the oven. I haven’t tasted it yet (I’m afraid if I do I’ll end up eating the whole leg as I did the first one, and I have other plans for my five remaining legs), but I’m completely confident it will be excellent. Because the flavors from the cure were mild (and the meat wasn’t excessively salty) I again gave it 36 or so hours to cure before cooking the confit. Duck poaching in it’s own fat smells like heaven. Add simmering lamb stock to that…

Today, the stock became Scotch Broth and in addition to lamb I’ve been exposed to the smells of root vegetables like onions, carrots, and parsnips simmering. I have been eating, albeit not what I’ve been cooking (until today). But imagine how horrible these past few days would have been if I had had nothing to eat?

Imagine dragging this scenario out over a couple of weeks while offering the most flavorless (albeit nutritive) food you can imagine — tofu comes to mind. Perhaps because my “cause” is food I over-estimate the suasion of wonderful smells with no relief. But isn’t the idea of promising a terrorist a good meal as an inducement to tell his secrets an appealing idea?

Scotch Broth

Broth:
5 lbs lamb bones
2 onions — quartered
2 carrots — cut into fourths
2 celery stalks — cut into fourths
1 small bunch parsley
1 tbsp pepper corns
water
Soup:
1 1/2 lb lamb
1 1/2 onion — 1/2″ dice
2 8″ carrots — 1/2″ dice
2 8″ parsnips — 1/2″ dice
1 3″ turnip — 1/2″ dice
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 c red wine
salt and pepper

Broth:
Roast lamb bones on a baking sheet at 350F until dark brown — 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Place bones and other stock ingredients (except pepper corns) in a stock pot and add enough water to equal 10 quarts. (If you don’t have a pot this big, you need one.)

Bring almost to boil and reduce temperature. Continue reducing temperature until you have a slow simmer. Skim foam from to of mix as is appears. When foam quits appearing, add peppercorns.

Cook for 4 hours, remove solids with a skimmer, slotted spoon, or tongs and discard. Strain remaining liquid through a sieve into a 6 quart pot. Return to a medium-low burner and reduce to 2.5 quarts.

Cool overnight in the fridge then remove solid fat.

Soup:
Cut lamb into 1/2″ chunks.

Add lamb and all other soup ingredients to broth. Again, bring almost to a boil and reduce temperature steadily to maintain a simmer. Cook for 1 1/2 hours. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve.

Stay tuned for the other results of this week’s culinary tribute to de Sade.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | soup | lamb | scotch broth

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