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In praise of my christmas present.

Because I haven't given it enough praise as yet.

When the delightful Mrs Coastaltown bought a great big meat grinder for christmas I was, indeed, delighted, but divined an ulterior moptive on her part. Mrs C doesn't eat red meat, and a big culinary sticking point in our house has been my point blank refusal to use chicken or turkey mince in anything (on the thoroughly reasonable grounds that as far as I'm concerned it's not actually food). However, with this grinder I could get prime chicken breasts and make ethically okay mince with them, yes?

Well, I suppose so, and in fact I have done so, for some frankly awesome chicken crocquettes I whacked up on New Year's day. But this still doesn't get to the heart of our disagreement, the fact that I won't make any tomatoey pasta sauces or chilli with the aforementioned white meats on account of it's JUST PLAIN WRONG.

The solution? oh my dear sweet Lord. Chilli con Carne. Made with Duck. Using my sharpest, smallest knife I managed to get enough meat of the legs (the meat being fairly rich you only want to leave a bit of fat on, to render down and cook the onion off in), through the grinder it went and presto, duck mince. After that just make chilli the same way you normally would (I may have added a little butter to emulsify the sauce, but don't tell anyone). The results were gratifying, to say the least.

So yes, the grinder, all hail.

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