Making of ... meat products

Ok, I know the slaughter part was brutal, but I had to post it in order you know the whole story...
This part is much nicer. It is about preparing all that yummy meat products. Basically, you need the meat, lot of garlic, paprika and different seasonings. Plus you need cleaned intestines to make sausages and headcheese.

And you need some machines like a meat grinder and a sausage machine of course...


I told you, lot of paprika...


You have to make a knot at one side of the intestine so the filling stays in.


You can wrap the meat with some fat parts to give it better taste while roasting.


This is how you fill the intestine with the mixture.


You put the sausages in hot water (not a boiling one) for like 7 minutes and they are ready for a future preparation.



It begins with cooking not so atractive parts of pig´s meat, and ends with a headcheese.


And here are the happy boys cheering to a good work:

Chestnuts

I know the season for these is over, but it is such a big part of my fall, that I have to make a post about them. We have a huge chestnut tree next to our house, actually is like a half tree, because it´s next to the wall so it is growing on one side only. Every single year it produces a pretty big ammount of chestnuts, which we are not able to consume ourselves. So we distribute them to our friends and family, but still eat baked chestnuts almost every night. I cut them and put in the cold water for some time. them I preheat oven for 180 ° C and let it bake for 40 minutes. Then we just peel them and eat them :-). My mom used to make a chestnut purée, but it it so much work I gave up for now. Maybe when I become more skillful cook...

Plum dumplings

I have a sweeth tooth and plum dumplings (not sure it is the right word for it, in slovak it is slivkove gule) are my all time favourite. My mom used to make them for me, and now it is my close friend living in the village who is ready to make me happy serving them. I know, I should not be so lazy and make them myself, but it just tastes better in the countryside :-).

Usually I am also trying to help, so I know the process pretty well. Last time we were making also the unsweet version with "bryndza cheese" (this is slovak speciality, unpasterized sheep cheese) and bacon. The dough is the same, so you can do both at the same time. all you need is boiled potatoes, water, flour, salt and an egg.

First you blend potatoes, flour, salt, egg and water...


...and knead until the dough is smooth. Shape it into a ball and cut in 2 parts.

Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough.

Cut into small squares.

Add the cheese (or different filling) and make small pockets. Be sure that you close all sides, so the filling will not fall out while cooking.

For the plum version, wash the plums. You can remove the pits, but then you are not able to control how many plum dumplings you ate... Which can be dangerous :-)


Place the plums on the squres and shape them into small balls. I also make these small "dough worms" - have no idea how to call it in english.

When you used all the dough, it´s done.


Put them in the boiling water - separately the plum ones and the cheese ones, and wait until they swim up on the top.


For the cheese version, put the bacon and onion in the pan and roast it for a while.

These are the plum dumplings almost ready to serve. You can top them with cocoa, grounded poppy seed, sweetened bread crumbs or sweet cheese.


The salty version, you mix the dumplings with bacon and onion and top it with sour cream.


And here are both versions ready to eat. Very yummy.