Hooray, it rained on Saturday!
That meant Small Man’s sporting commitments were cancelled (don’t all parents cheer when sport is off?), which in turn meant that Carol and I were able to race out to Haverick Meats at 8am. If you’ve ever wondered if it’s really worthwhile buying meat from a specialist wholesaler, let me give you a breakdown of my purchases from last weekend:
- 1.45kg free range pork mince $13 – enough to make filling for 175 dumplings (three dinners)
- 3 x 1.75kg pork necks $57.50 – we’ll bake these in the Römertopf to make pulled pork, and they should provide enough meat for six dinners (at least).
- 6 x grassfed beef burgers $10 – these were marked $11.90, but reduced on the day.
- Free range bacon $11 – I divided the packet into three bags and froze two of them. Each will be used for a pasta dinner.
- 2kg free range chicken wings $8
- 2.5kg free range chicken drums $11.50 – the wings and drums combined will be enough for three large pots of curry.
- 1.75kg free range pork loin chops (rind off) $14 – these were an amazing buy at just $7.90/kg, and they’ll provide us with two easy meals.
In total, I spent $125, and came home with enough great quality higher welfare meat for eighteen family dinners. That works out at under $7 a meal, or just $1.75 per person. And I was being conservative – I suspect the pork necks will provide us with more than two dinners per piece.
We don’t eat meat at every meal, so this quantity should last us a month. I bought mostly pork and chicken, but on my previous visit, most of my purchases were grassfed beef. We still have eye fillet and mince in the freezer, so I didn’t buy any more this time.
. . . . .
The big find this weekend were these dry aged grassfed MBS2+ (that’s the marbling score) beef burgers. I’ve never seen all those words on the one label before…
They were marked $11.90 but reduced to $9.90 on special…
I baked a batch of Dan Lepard semolina buns to go with them…
The burgers were fantastic – pure, tender meat with very little (if any) filler. We cooked them to medium in the cafe press, and served them with mustard, pickles, cheese and chilli sauce.
. . . . .
On our way to Haverick’s, Carol commented on how much she liked my amaretti, so I offered to bake a batch for her when I got home. I’ve discovered that if I pipe the cookies with a large round nozzle (the one that usually makes everything look like poop), then flatten the top gently with a wet pastry brush, I get far more “authentic” looking amaretti.
Of course, once I started making these, my tribe wanted more as well, so I ended up baking two batches…
. . . . .
As the amaretti were cooling in the oven, I used 900g of the pork mince to make dumpling filling. I thought I’d have a go at wontons…
I made 45 wontons and 70 dumplings while watching the Winter Olympics (it was very therapeutic)…
Most of these went into the freezer (apparently they defrost perfectly, but I’m yet to try)…
I left a few out and deep-fried them as a pre-dinner nibble – the boys devoured them…
. . . . .
I love having time on the weekend to get ahead – we now have a couple of dumpling dinners stashed in the freezer, plenty of amaretti for the boys to snack on, and enough meat for the next month.
I hope you all had a great weekend too!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Those are perfectly shaped wontons! Well done.
Thank you! They were fun to make, it’s like origami with food.. :)
:) Indeed.
I always find putting the right pleats in the wontons is incredibly difficult! Well done.
Your prices for meat sound good ~ once I stopped assuming $1 = £1.
£1 is almost $2. :-)
It’s a big difference, Pat! :)
I love being this organized, you’ve inspired me to do a meat run here. I have the vacuum sealer, so it’s time to get that all organized. I think it is so much less expensive to do things this way! Love your wontons, I don’t think there’d be a wonton left in sight in this kitchen!!
Barb, I don’t do the maths often, but I’m always astonished when I do. And those prices are for super high end meat, not cheap cuts. It definitely makes the monthly/six-weekly half hour drive to the wholesalers worthwhile! :)
Celia, it would take me a week to do all what you have done in one day. :(
No it wouldn’t, love. :)
You’re purchases sound fantastic! I would love to have a local butcher to visit. We fortunately have a nice quantity of deer and moose meat in the freezer which is naturally organic.
Laila, you have wild meat! I can’t imagine better than that! :)
Although I don’t eat meat I completely “get” why you are buying free range over supermarket. No comparison really and what cost your health? :) You are a maestro when it comes to making dumplings. Mine always look like I should go back to dumpling preschool ;) I start out making them and several hours later when Steve is starving they are almost ready to be cooked. I reckon I might just have to start a bit earlier. Those semolina buns looks spectacular. Are they somewhat like U.K. baps, those flat buns that they use for burgers over there? And your biscuits are just plain YUM :)
I’m getting better at the dumplings, but I have now made about 200 of them. :) I tend to go in manic spurts when I’m trying to master a new skill. The buns are soft – a nice change from our usual hard crusty sourdoughs! :)
I can roll a mean spring roll but dumplings…not so good ;)
I visited nieces and a nephew who had brand new babies to show off. I thought I was exhausted till I read your post.
That sounds like the best way ever to spend a weekend! :)
Having a freezer stash is Real Life insurance as far as I’m concerned. When we returned from holidays I immediately made a couple of dozen meatballs-rissoles for the freezer, which will take us months, probably, to get through if life is steady-steady but I know they are there, and that’s where the true value lays.
ED, I think you’re right. There are times when I know we’re going to be shattered, and we’ll be able to pull out a ready meal from the freezer without having to go out or order takeaway!
I love the way you “get ahead” – we do that in Spain for practical reasons (distance to supermarket) and also because we can buy a whole local free range lamb or goat or our own chickens and then stock up the freezer. And you know don’t you that I need to make those semolina buns now!
Chica, the buns are an absolute winner and very easy – my friend Joanna made them too! Here’s here post: http://zebbakes.com/2010/07/24/dan-lepards-barbecue-buns/
That meat buy is fantastic! I spend about $70 a fortnight on our meat, sometimes we eat it all, sometimes we don’t. But I’d love to have a stock in the freezer! I love how beautiful and neat your dumplings are.
Thanks Clare! I’ve been practicing madly, although I do think we’re a bit dumplinged out now.. :D
Filling the freezer this way is great, Celia… and it all looks sooooooo good. Your dumplings look good too, I want to try making them too someday! Have a happy week love.
Lizzy, filling the freezer is our modern day equivalent of stocking the larder – and I’m much happier with a freezer full of packaged and ready to eat meat than a larder full of carcasses! :)
Great reward for effort Celia! I always feel like a self satisfied hunter gatherer after stocking up with high quality food at low prices, but time is the vital ingredient and not always freely available!
Indeed! I wrote a post just about that more than four years ago! :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/01/24/frugal-living-3-time-money/
Your wontons look fabulous, it’s always so satisfying to fill the freezer with really good quality food. GG
Thanks GG! It’s very therapeutic folding dumplings, but I’ve had to stop, as the freezer is getting full! :)
Sounds like a great Saturday Celia, so productive! x
Jane, it really was! I forgot to mention that we went to a birthday party mid-afternoon as well (I took birthday custard!) ;-)
It’s such a fantastic feeling knowing you have dinner in the freezer should you need it isn’t it.
I have successfully made potstickers straight from frozen. Just put them straight into the hot pan with a tiny bit of oil. They just take a little longer to cook is all.
Thanks for the tip Tania, we’ll give it a go!
G’day and great shopping Celia, true!
Seems like a lot of dumplings going on lately and love your pleating too!
Well done! Cheers! Joanne
Joanne, I’ve had a little manic dumpling making episode – when I’m trying to learn something new, I like to keep practicing until I think I’ve got it right! :D
Wow, wow, wow, what a food weekend at your house! All looked especially good and those homemade wontons and dumplings, very impressive! Will you please clarify for me what cut is the ‘neck pork roast’ you refer to? My butcher tells me it is the same as the shoulder, is that your understanding? Got my Romertopf and am gearing up to try it as soon as our weather is cooler. Thank you for sharing, very inspiring.
Ardys, I asked the butcher this question on Saturday. He said the pork neck is a section cut from the pork shoulder – so the “neck” portion is about 1.8kg, whereas the whole shoulder would be 4kg or so. Hope this helps!
YES! Thank you so much. My butcher was a young fellow and he said he’d have to ask the more experienced butchers, but I wanted to get your input too. Excellent. My husband will be in heaven if this works…xx
Ardys, I’ve made the pork again last night, and it worked even better. I only put it on 200C with fan for the first 35 minutes, then reduced it to 150C with fan for the next 2.5 hours. I added a lot more water this time (say maybe two cups) and the meat was ridiculously tender! I’m going to amend the recipe!
The Olympics is the perfect thing to watch while folding dumplings. I pretend that I’m in the dumpling Olympics! :D
You’d probably win at those too! :)
Wow! What a treasure trove in this week/post!! Love it all.
Thanks Kathryn! :)
The meat was a bargain Celia! Enjoy your week :)
Crazy good prices, Tandy! It makes the 30 minute drive so worth it!
Rain! I’d take it just in its own right – I think it was October when I last experienced rain! I’m glad it gave you extra time, though, and the opportunity to find these bargains :)
Kari, that’s a long time to be dry! I hope it rains soon.. xx
Hi Celia, when we want to eat dumplings/wontons that I have frozen I put them straight from the freezer into boiling water then we have them in a soup which I think is quite forgiving for frozen dumplings. Please let us know how yours turn out if you defrost then fry them. The deep fried dumpling look so moorish, I wish I could get deep fry but I’m just terrified!
Stefanie, I’ve tried boiled dumplings, and they were fantastic! Deep frying is ok, but I’m not sure I’d put frozen dumplings in the hot oil!
Awesome! Great deals and wonderful meals too.
Have a super week ahead and it would be wonderful to get some rain here too.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, I hope you get some rain soon. Have a great week! xx
Jeepers you are amazing Celia. You could cook for Australia and we’d all be shouting “Gold Gold Gold”. There’s just so much of your heart in all of that.
Jan, I find cooking very soothing. A friend came over recently, and she doesn’t like cooking at all – when she saw me running around the kitchen, all she saw was hard work, but it really isn’t to me! :)
You inspire me to do better with every visit. Those dumplings and wontons look fantastic!
You’re very kind, hon, thank you! xx
Every week I say “I’m going to cook ahead this weekend,” and then the weekend gets here and I get distracted. You’ve inspired me to make it happen for real.
Sometimes our weekdays get hectic – I love having a chance to get ahead! :)
Fantastic output – you are set for weeks! I can’t wait to try your semolina buns and the amaretti biscuits.
Thank you! Both the semolina buns and the amaretti are very popular here! :)
You got ypurself very busy I see! You are very practical when it is raining ! ;) Thise home-made semolina buns look outrageously tasty too! x
Sophie, we were lucky – it was raining enough for sport to be cancelled, but not enough to make driving too difficult! :)
😉😉 hahaha.
You sure had a busy, or rather hectic, day. Shopping, putting up in the freezer, making wontons and dumplings and cookies all in one day. I got tired just reading about what you did.
Pork neck must be an Australian cut as I have not seen it in any of my food markets.
Norma, pork neck is a fillet cut from the pork shoulder. So a pork neck is about 1.75kg, whereas a whole shoulder is about 4kg.
You certainly did very well on that shopping trip! It must also be a great feeling to know that you have so much on hand. I have to laugh at the grass fed beef. You see a few weeks ago my daughter made her boyfriend a veal dish – believe it or not, he’d never tried veal before and he hesitates to try anything new. So she told him it was beef (true enough), but he said “we’ll it really tastes different and I’m not sure that I like it”. So she told him, oh that’s because it’s grass fed beef. Then they were at the supermarket and she picked up some beef that had grass fed on the label and he wanted to put it back because he didn’t like “that grass fed” stuff. Funny how you make up a tiny little lie then get all tangled up in it.
That’s a shame, because all the stuff on grassfed beef says it’s so much better for us! I hope she can talk him around.. ;-) Here’s a post I wrote on grassfed beef a few years ago..
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/08/29/grass-fed-beef/
Well she finally admitted that she’d lied to him and had fed him veal so he was ok with the grass fed beef after all. Oh what a tangled web we weave….I’m not sure if you have the same situation as we do in the States here but what I really, really am against are the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in feed they give to the animals that are all penned up. They pen them so they’re more likely to get diseased, so they just dump antibiotics into their feed whether they need it or not. I read a very scary book on why we are having so many people infections that are antibiotic resistant & what they’ve found is that although the animal antibiotics are different from people’s, they are in the same class so by eating that meat we are constantly getting a supply ourselves. Duh…does that make sense to you? Let the animals roam, keep them healthy & stop dumping crap into our food supply to earn an extra buck. At least now markets are becoming much more aware of what they’re putting on the helves and highlighting those that aren’t pumped with chemicals. You pay a little more but after my daughter got an antibiotic resistant pneumonia I’m willing to pay extra.
I finally got to Havericks for the first time on Saturday but, me being me, I got there at ten. Thank you SO MUCH for posting about them Celia; it’s my new favourite supplier!
Jacqueline, hooray! I’m so glad to hear that, thanks for letting me know! :)
Fantastic bargains and gorgeous goodies indeed Celia! Doesn’t it make you feel rich to have a full freezer and pantry? I love it! xox
Becca, absolutely! I love that you understand that! :)
I cook my dumplings straight from the freezer and into hot stock and they work out just fine. Rainy days are the best for getting organised.
Thanks Nancy, that’s good to know! :)
I love a weekend like that too – when there are no commitments! It’s such rare thing. I really must get out to Haverick’s Meats – not only good prices but great quality too. I must buy a slow-cooker and cook pork necks for pulled pork. I love the look of everything you made while watching the Olympics xx
Charlie, you’d love Havericks! Definitely worth a trek on a Saturday!
My February’s In My Kitchen is up!
http://blissfulyogajourney.blogspot.com/2014/02/in-my-kitchen-february.html
Sorry for the delay!
Jennifer, I’m sorry, but the IMK posts for February are closed – the cut-off date is the 10th (as it says in our post and on the sidebar).
Would you like me to keep your post and put it up on the March list? Please let me know, thanks.
How I’d love to be able to buy meat from a place like Haverick’s. Those are great prices for good quality meats. And did you ever put them to good use. Those dumplings look remind me of tortelini and I bet they were delicious deep-fried. I just remembered to take my sourdough starter out of the fridge. That is the liveliest starter I’ve ever used. It revives very quickly and the bread is delicious. Thanks again for “Bart”. :)