Don't chuck that, I'll have it!

I have always lived a fairly simple life and since having kids, that has meant being even more clever with how I do things. For example, the other day I was at my favourite butcher. I had been thinking of pork crackling as a snack for some time after reading about it on a number of paleo food blogs and I asked him if he had any spare pork skin. As it happened, he was skinning some pork belly so was more than happy to give - yes GIVE - me a big handful. Oh happy days! 

So with that in my reusable shopping bag, along with the giant cattle bone (chopped into pieces including exposing the bone marrow) and chicken frames, I was super happy. That particular day I felt like I was getting all the stuff destined for the rubbish bin, but I was pleased.  I spent a big $8 that day at the butcher!

What did I do with all of these scraps, seemingly rubbish? We had a feast that week:

•  pork skin turned into pork crackling, or pork chippies as I named them for the kids
• cattle bone marrow roasted and had as a side with dinner. That night it happened to end up in some miso salmon wraps
• the rest of the bones and the old bone marrow bones chucked into the crock pot for 24 hours with a bunch of veges and turned into bone broth. The broth, or soup as I like to call it, was drunken as is and also used for my homemade wonton soup.
• the chicken frames turned into stock for the freezer 

 From $8 at the butcher, I made a big batch of pork crackling and bone broth, a tasty treat of bone marrow and stock for the freezer. I'm pretty happy with that! Next week I'll probably get some organic scotch fillet and gourmet sausages and end up spending around $40, but that's ok by me. 😊

So D'lish pork chippies

Get the best quality pork skin that you can. I was happy that the skin that my butcher gave me was nice and dry and not much fat. This will mean that you'll get a better crackle! 

1.  Preheat oven to 200c on fan bake
2. Cut into strips the size of your liking - I did about 3x10 cm strips
3. If necessary, dry the skin with paper towels
4. With a sharp knife, cut parallel lines down the skin, about 1cm apart and score the underside if it's fatty
5. Rub in a bit of salt into each strip, on the skin side. I used maybe 1/2tsp per strip
6. Lay the strips in a single layer, skin side up on a baking tray
7. Cook until all crackled up - around 10-15 mins

Next on my scraps hit-list: chicken skin!